\\m

FIRST COURT-HOUSE OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
(From plans and specifications on file in the archives of the county.)

HISTORY

OP

MONTGOMERY COUNTY,

TOGETHER WITH

HISTORIC NOTES ON THE WABASH YALLEY,

GLEANED FROM EARLY AUTHORS, OLD MAPS AND MANUSCRIPTS,

PRIVATE AND OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE, AND OTHER

AUTHENTIC, THOUGH, FOR THE MOST PART,

OUT-OF-THE-WAY SOURCES.

By H. W. BECKWITH,

h

Op the Danville Bar; Corresponding Member op the Historical Societies op

Wisconsin and Chicago.

WITH MAP AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

CHICAGO:

H. H. HILL AND N. IDDINGS, PUBLISHERS.

1881.

COPTKIGHT, 1881,

By H. W. BECKWITH AND SON.

XIIIGHT S. LEO HARD ."I

PREFACE.

In presenting this History to the public the editors and publishers
have had in view the preservation of certain valuable historical
facts and information which without concentrated effort would not
have been obtained, but with the passing away of the old pioneers,
the failure of memory, and the loss of public records and private
diaries, would soon have been lost. This locality being compara-
tively new, we flatter ourselves that, with the zeal and industry
displayed by our general and local historians, we have succeeded
in rescuing from the fading years almost every scrap of history
worthy of preservation. Doubtless the work is, in some respects,
imperfect; — we do not present it as a model literary effort, but, in
that which goes to make up a valuable book of reference for the
present reader and the future historian, we assure our patrons that
neither money nor time has been spared in the accomplishment of
the work. Perhaps some errors will be found. With treacherous
memories, personal, political and sectarian prejudices and prefer-
ences to contend against, it would be almost a miracle if no mistakes
were made. We hope that even these defects which may be found
^ to exist may be made available in so far as they may provoke dis-
cussion and call attention to corrections and additions necessary to
perfect history.

The "History of the Wabash Valley" — necessarily the founda-
tion for the history of this part of the country, by H. W. Beckwith,
of Danville — has already received the hearty endorsement of the
press, of the historical societies of the northwestern states, and of
the most accurate historians in the country. Mr. Beckwith has in
his possession perhaps the most extensive private library of rare
historical works bearing on the territory under consideration in the
world, and from them he has drawn as occasion demanded.

b PREFACE.

The general county history, written by P. S. Kennedy, will
be found by our readers to be in a bold, fearless style, dealing in
facts as so many causes, and pursuing effects to the end without
turning to the right or left to accommodate the opinions or prefer-
ences of friend, party or sect.

The war record, which is as complete as can possibly be obtained,
it is believed will give eminent satisfaction to the many brave boys
who still survive and who took their lives in their hands and went
forth to battle for the Union, and who have liberally patronized us
in this work.

The township histories, by Messrs. Cowan, Cochran, Raymond,
Hyde and Turner, will be found full of valuable recollections, which,
but for their patient research, must soon have been lost forever,
but which are now happily preserved for all ages to come. These
gentlemen have placed upon the county and the adjacent country
a mark which will not be obliterated, but which will grow brighter
and broader as the years go by.

The biographical department contains the names and private
sketches of nearly every person of importance in each township.
A few persons, whose sketches we should be pleased to have pre-
sented, for various reasons refused or delayed furnishing us with
the desired information, and in this matter only we feel that our
work is incomplete. However, in most of such cases we have
obtained, in regard to the most important persons, some items,
and have woven them into the county or township sketches, so
that, as we believe, we cannot be accused of either partiality or
prejudice.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

PART I.

CHAPTER I.

Topography — The drainage of the Lakes and the Mississippi, and the Indian and
French names by which they were severally called 11

CHAPTER II.

Drainage of the Illinois and Wabash — Their tributary streams — The portages
connecting the drainage to the Atlantic with that of the Gulf 17

CHAPTER III.

The ancient Maumee Valley — Geological features — The portage of the Wabash
and the Kankakee 21

CHAPTER IV.

The rainfall — Cultivation of the soil tends to equalize rainfall, and prevent the

recurrence of drouths and floods 26

CHAPTER V.

Origin of the prairies — Their former extent — Gradual encroachment of the
forest — Prairie fires — Aboriginal names of the prairies, and the Indians
who lived exclusively upon them 29

CHAPTER VI.

Early French discoveries — Jaques Cartier ascends the St. Lawrence in 1535 —
Samuel Cham plain founds Quebec in 1608 — In 1642 Montreal is established —
Influence of Quebec and Montreal upon the Northwest continues until subse-
quent to the war of 1812 — Spanish discoveries of the lower Mississippi in 1525, 37

CHAPTER VII.

Joliet and Marquette's Voyage — Father Marquette's Journal, descriptive of the
journey and the country through which they traveled — Biographical sketches
of Marquette and Joliet 43

CHAPTER VIII.

La Salle's Voyage — Biographical sketch of La Salle — Sketch of Father Hennepin
and the merit of his writings 54

CHAPTER IX.
La Salle's Voyage continued — He erects Fort Miamis 63

CHAPTER X.

The several rivers called the Miamis — La Salle's route down the Illinois — The
Kankakee Marshes — The French and Indian names of the Kankakee and
Des Plaines — The Illinois — "Fort Crevecoeur " — The whole valley of the
great river taken possession of in the name of the King of France 72

8 TABLE OF CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XI.

Death of La Salle, in attempting to establish a colony near the mouth of the
Mississippi — Chicago Creek— The origin of the name — La Salle assassinated
and his colony destroyed — Second attempt of France, under Mons. Iberville,
in 1699, to establish settlements on the Gulf — The Western Company —
Law's scheme of inflation and its consequences 87

CHAPTER XII.

Surrender of Louisiana to the French Crown in 1731 — Early routes by way of the
Kankakee, Chicago Creek, the Ohio, the Maumee and Wabash described —
The Maumee and Wabash, and the number and origin of their several names
— Indian villages 9&

CHAPTER XIII.

Aboriginal inhabitants — The several Illinois tribes — Of the name Illinois, and its
origin — The Kaskaskias, Cahokias, Tamaroas, Peorias and Metchigamis, sub-
divisions of the Illinois Confederacy — The tradition concerning the Iroquois
River — Their decline and removal westward of the Missouri 105

CHAPTER XIV.

TheMiamis — The Miami, Piankeshaw and Wea bands — Their superiority and
their military disposition — Their trade and difficulties with the French and
the English — They are upon the Maumee and Wabash — Their Villages —
They defeat the Iroquois — They trade with the English, and incur the anger
of the French — Their bravery — Their decline — Destructive effects of intem-
perance — Cession of their lands in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio — Their re-
moval westward and present condition 119

CHAPTER XV.

The Pottawatomies — Originally from the north and east of Lake Huron — Their
migrations by way of Mackinaw to the country west of Lake Michigan, and
thence south and eastward — Their games — Origin of the name Pottawato-
mie— Occupy a portion of the country of the Miamis along the Wabash —
Their villages — At peace with the United States after the war of 1812 — Cede
their lands — Their exodus from the Wabash, the Kankakee and Wabash . . . 137

CHAPTER XVI.

The Kickapoos and Mascoutins reside about Saginaw Bay in 1612 ; on Fox River,
Wisconsin, in 1670 — Their reception of the Catholic fathers— On the Maumee
in 1712 — In southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois — Migrate to the
Wabash — Dwellers of the prairie — Their destruction at the siege of De-
troit — Nearly destroy the Illinois and Piankeshaws, and occupy their country

— Join Tecumseh in a body — They, with the Winnebagoes, attack Fort
Harrison — Their country between the Illinois and Wabash — Their resem-
blance to the Sac and Fox Indians 153

CHAPTER XVII.

The Shawnees and Delawares — Originally east of the Alleghany Mountains —
Are subdued and driven out by the Iroquois — They war on the American
settlements — Their villages on the Big and Little Miamis, the St. Mary's,
the Au Glaize, Maumee and Wabash — The Delawares — Made women of by
the Iroquois — Their country on White River, Indiana, and eastward defined

— They, with the Shawnees, sent west of the Mississippi 170

CHAPTER XVIII.

The Indians — Their implements, utensils, fortifications, mounds, manners and

customs 180

TABLE OF CONTENTS. 9

CHAPTER XIX.

Stone implements used by the Indians before they came in contact with the Euro-
peans — Illustrations of various kinds of stone implements, and suggestions
as to their probable uses 195

CHAPTER XX.

The war for the fur trade — Former abundance of wild animals and water-fowl in
the Northwest — The buffalo; their range, their numbers, and final disap-
pearance — Value of the fur trade ; its importance to Canada 208

CHAPTER XXI.

The war for the empire — English claims to the Northwest — Deeds from the Iro-
quois to a large part of the country 224

CHAPTER XXII.

Pontiac's war to recover the country from the English — Pontiac's confederacy

falls to pieces — The country turned over to the English — Pontiac's death. . . 234

CHAPTER XXIII.

Gen. Clark's conquest of the " Illinois " — The Revolutionary war — Sketch of
Gen. Clark — His manuscript memoir of his march to the Illinois — He cap-
tures Kaskaskia — The surrender of Vincennes — Capt. Helm surprises a
convoy of English boats at the mouth of the Vermilion River — Organization
of the northwest territory into Illinois county of Virginia 245

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

Topography and geology 1

Early history 9

A noted criminal trial 28

Montgomery County in the war of the rebellion 31

Roll of officers in the civil war .... 33

Soldiers of the war for the Union 44

The honored dead 102

Railroads of Montgomery County Ill

County officers 114

Union Township .... 116

Crawfordsville 116

Organization of city 132

Additions 137

Benevolent Orders 142

Fire Department 147

Trades and professions 149

Wabash College 153

Biographical 159

Brown Township . .'. 319

Lake Harney 322

Public improvements 324

Early history 325

Organization 327

Towns and villages 329

Secret Orders 333

Churches 336

Brown's Valley 345

New market ... 346

Biographical 349

Walnut Township 362

Towns 368

Schools and churches 370

Lodges 371

Biographical 374

10 TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Scott. Township 406

Biographical 414

Madison Township 431

Lodges 433

Churches 434

Biographical 435

Clark Township 443

Biographical 452

Coal ( !reek Township 476

Schools 484

Churches 485

Meharry Grove 488

Biographical 488

Franklin Township 521

< Irganization 525

Early history 526

First land sales 527

Early improvements 528

Biographical 540

Sugar Creek Township 562

Biographical 570

Riplev Township 583

Biographical 587

Wayne Township 590

Biographical 592

THE WABASH VALLEY.

CHAPTER I.

TOPOGRAPHY.

The reader will have a better understanding of the manner in
which the territory, herein treated of, was discovered and subse-
quently occupied, if reference is made, in the outset, to some of its
more important topographical features.

Indeed, it would be an unsatisfactory task to try to follow the routes
of early travel, or to undertake to pursue the devious wanderings of
the aboriginal tribes, or trace the advance of civilized society into a
country, without some preliminary knowledge of its topography.

Looking upon a map of North America, it is observed that west-
ward of the Alleghany Mountains the waters are divided into two
great masses ; the one, composed of waters flowing into the great
northern lakes, is, by the river St. Lawrence, carried into the Atlantic
Ocean ; the other, collected by a multitude of streams spread out like
a vast net over the surface of more than twenty states and several ter-
ritories, is gathered at last into the Mississippi River, and thence dis-
charged into the Gulf of Mexico.

As it was by the St. Lawrence River, and the great lakes connected
with it, that the Northwest Territory was discovered, and for many
years its trade mainly carried on, a more minute notice of this remark-
able water communication will not be out of place. Jacques Cartier,
a French navigator, having sailed from St. Malo, entered, on the 10th
of August, 1535, the Gulf, which he had explored the year before, and
named it the St. Lawrence, in memory of the holy martyr whose feast
is celebrated on that day. This name was subsequently extended to
the river. Previous to this it was called the River of Canada, the
name given by the Indians to the whole country.* The drainage of
the St. Lawrence and the lakes extends through 14 degrees of longi-
tude, and covers a distance of over two thousand miles. Ascending

* Father Charlevoix' "History and General Description of New France;" Dr.
John G. Shea's translation ; vol. 1, pp. 37, 115.

n

12 HISTORIC NOTES OF THE NORTHWEST.

this river, we behold it flanked with bold crags and sloping hillsides ;
its current beset with rapids and studded with a thousand islands;
combining scenery of marvelous beauty and grandeur. Seven hundred
and fifty miles above its mouth, the channel deepens and the shores
recede into an expanse of water known as Lake Ontario.*

Passing westward on Lake Ontario one hundred and eighty miles
a second river is reached. A few miles above its entry into the lake,
the river is thrown over a ledge of rock into a yawning chasm, one
hundred and fifty feet below; and, amid the deafening noise and clouds
of vapor escaping from the agitated waters is seen the great Falls of
Niagara. At Buffalo, twenty-two miles above the falls, the shores of
Niagara River recede and a second great inland sea is formed, having
an average breadth of 40 miles and a length of 240 miles. This is
Lake Erie. The name has been variously spelt, — Earie, Ilerie, Erige
and Erike. It has also born the name of Conti.f Father Hennepin
says : " The Tlurons call it Lake Erige, or Erike, that is to say, the Lake
of the Cat, and the inhabitants of Canada have softened the word to
Erie ;" vide "A New Discovery of a Vast Country in America," p. 77;
London edition, 1698.

Hennepin's derivation is substantially followed by the more accurate
and accomplished historian, Father Charlevoix, who at a later period,
in 1721, in writing of this lake uses the following words: "The name
it bears is that of an Indian nation of the Huron language, which was
formerly settled on its banks and who have been entirely destroyed by
the Iroquois. Erie in that language signifies cat, and in some accounts
this nation is called the cat nation." He adds : " Some modern maps
have given Lake Erie the name of Conti, but with no better success
than the names of Conde, Tracy and Orleans which have been given
to Lakes Huron, Superior and Michigan.";}:

At the upper end of Lake Erie, to the southward, is Maumee Bay,
of which more hereafter ; to the northward the shores of the lake again

* Ontario has been favored with several names by early authors and map makers.
Champhtin's map, 1632, lays it down as Lac St. Louis. The map prefixed to Colden's
"History of the Five Nations" designates it as Cata-ra-qui, or Ontario Lake. The
word is Huron- Iroquois, and is derived, in their language, from Ontra, a lake, and io,
beautiful, the compound word meaning a beautiful lake ; vide Letter of DuBois
D'Avaugour, August 16, 1663, to the Minister: Paris Documents, vol. 9, p. 16. Baron
LaHontan, in his work and on the accompanying map, calls it Lake Frontenac; vide
"New Voyages to North America," vol. 1, p. 219. And Frontenac, the name by which
this lake was most generally designated by the early French writers, was given to it in
honor of the great i'ount Frontenac. < lovernor-General of Canada.

t Narrative of Father Zenohia Membre, who accompanied Sjeur La Salle in the
voyage westward on this lake in 1679 ; vide " Discovery and Exploration of the
Mississippi," by Dr. John G. Shea, p. 90. Barou La Hontan's "Voyages to North
America," vol. 1, p. 217, also map prefixed ; London edition, 1703. Cadwalder Col-
den's map, referred to in a previous note, designates it as "Lake Erie, or Okswego."

X Journal of a Voyage to North America, vol. 2, p. 2 ; London Edition, 1761.

THE LAKES. 13

approach each other and form a channel known as the River Detroit, a
French word signifying a strait or narrow passage. Northward some
twenty miles, and above the city of Detroit, the river widens into a
small body of water called Lake St. Clair. The name as now written
is incorrect : " we should either retain the French form, Claire, or take
the English Clare. It received its name in honor of the founder of the
Franciscan nuns, from the fact that La Salle reached it on the day con-
secrated to her."* Northward some twelve miles across this lake the
land again encroaches upon and contracts the waters within another
narrow bound known as the Strait of St. Clair. Passing up this strait,
northward about forty miles, Lake Huron is reached. It is 250 miles
long and 190 miles wide, including Georgian Bay on the east, and its
whole area is computed to be about 21,000 square miles. Its magnitude
fully justified its early name, La Mer-douce, the Fresh Sea, on account
of its extreme vastness.f The more popular name of Huron, which
has survived all others, was given to it from the great Huron nation of
Indians who formerly inhabited the country lying to the eastward of
it. Indeed, many of the early French writers call it Lac des Hurons,
that is, Lake of the Hurons. It is so laid down on the maps of Hen-
nepin, La Hontan, Charlevoix and Colden in the volumes before quoted.

Going northward, leaving the Straits of Mackinaw, through which
Lake Michigan discharges itself from the west, and the chain of
Manitoulin Islands to the eastward, yet another river, the connecting
link between Lake Huron and Superior, is reached. Its current is
ewift, and a mile below Lake Superior are the Falls, where the water
leaps and tumbles down a channel obstructed by boulders and shoals,
where, from time immemorial, the Indians of various tribes have
resorted on account of the abundance of fish and the ease with which
they are taken. Previous to the year 1670 the river was called the
Sault, that is, the rapids, or falls. In this year Fathers Marquette and
Dablon founded here the mission of " St. Marie du Sault" (St. Mary
of the Falls), from which the modern name of the river, St. Mary's, is
derived.;}: Recentl}'' the United States have perfected the ship canal
cut in solid rock, around the falls, through which the largest vessels
can now pass, from the one lake to the other.

Lake Superior, in its greatest length, is 360 miles, with a maximum
breadth of 140, the largest of the five great American lakes, and the
most extensive body of fresh water on the globe. Its form has been

*Note by Dr. Shea, " Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi," p. 143.
tChamplain's map, 1632. Also "Memoir on the Colony of Quebec, " August 4,
1663 : Paris Documents, vol. 9, p. 16.

1 Charlevoix' "History of New France," vol. 2, p. 113; also note.

14: HISTORIC NOTES ON THK NORTHWEST.

poetically and not inaccurately described by a Jesuit Father, whose
account of it is preserved in the Relations for the years 1669 and 1670 :
" This lake has almost the form of a bended bow, and in length is more
than 180 leagues. The southern shore is as it were the cord, the arrow
being a long strip of land [Keweenaw Point] issuing from the south-
ern coast and running more than 80 leagues to the middle of the
lake." A glance on the map will show the aptness of the comparison.
The name Superior was given to it by the Jesuit Fathers, "in conse-
quence of its being above that of Lake Huron.* It was also called
Lake Tracy, after Marquis De Tracy, who was governor-general of
Canada from 1663 to 1665. Father Claude Allouez, in his " Journal
of Travels to the Country of the Ottawas," preserved in the Relations
for the years 1666, 1667, says : " After passing through the St.
Mary's River we entered the upper lake, which will hereafter bear
the name of Monsieur Tracy, an acknowledgment of the obligation
under which the people of this country are to him." The good father,
however, was mistaken ; the name Tracy only appears on a few ancient
maps, or is perpetuated in rare volumes that record the almost for-
gotten labors of the zealous Catholic missionaries; while the earlier
name of Lake "Superior" is familiar to every school-boy who has
thumbed an atlas.

At the western extremity of Lake Superior enter the Rivers Bois-
Brule and St. Louis, the upper tributaries of which have their sources
on the northeasterly slope of a water-shed, and approximate very near
the head-waters of the St. Croix, Prairie and Savannah Rivers, which,
issuing from the opposite side of this same ridge, flow into the upper
Mississippi.

The upper portions of Lakes Huron, Michigan, Green Bay, with
their indentations, and the entire coast line, with the islands eastward
and westward of the Straits of Mackinaw, are all laid down with quite
a degree of accuracy on a map attached to the Relations of the Jesuits
for the years 1670 and 1671, a copy of which is contained in Bancroft's
History of the United States, f showing that the reverend fathers were
industrious in mastering and preserving the geographical features of
the wilderness they traversed in their holy calling.

Lake Michigan is the only one of the five great lakes that lays
wholly within the United States, — the other four, with their connect-
ing rivers and straits, mark the boundary between the Dominion of
Canada and the United States. Its length is 320 miles ; its average
breadth 70, with a mean depth of over 1,000 feet. Its area is some

* Relations of 1660 and 1669. f Vol. 3, p. 152; fourth edition.

LAKE MICHIGAN. 15

22,000 square miles, being considerably more than that of Lake Huron
and less than that of Lake Superior.

Michigan was the last of the lakes in order of discovery. The
Huron s, christianized and dwelling eastward of Lake Huron, had been
driven from their towns and cultivated fields by the Iroquois, and scat-
tered about Mackinaw and the desolate coast of Lake Superi^** Kc vyond,
whither they were followed by their faithful pastors, the Jesuits, who
erected new altars and gathered the remnants of their stricken follow-
ers about them ; all this occurred before the fathers had acquired any
definite knowledge of Lake Michigan. In their mission work for the
year 1666, it is referred to " as the Lake Illinouek, a great lake adjoin-
ing, or between, the lake of the Hurons and that of Green Bay, that
had not [as then] come to their knowledge." In the Relation for the
same year, it is referred to as "Lake Illeaouers," and " Lake Illinioues,
as yet unexplored, though much smaller than Lake Huron, and that the
Outagamies [the Fox Indians] call it Machi-hi-gan-ing." Father Hen-
nepin says: " The lake is called by the Indians, 'Illinouek,' and by the
French, ' Illinois,' " and that the " Lake Illinois, in the native lan-
guage, signifies the ' Lake of Men.' ' He also adds in the same para-
graph, that it is called by the Miamis, " Mischigonong, that is, the <
great lake." * Father Marest, in a letter dated at Ivaskaskia, Illinois,
November 9, 1712, so often referred to on account of the valuable his-
torical matter it contains, contracts the aboriginal name to Michigan,
and is, perhaps, the first author who ever spelt it in the way that has
become universal. He naively saj^s, " that on the maps this lake has
the name, without any authority, of the ' Lake of the Illinois] since
the Illinois do not dwell in its neighborhood." f

* Hennepin's " New Discovery of a Vast Country in America," vol. 1, p. 35. The
name is derived from the two Algonquin words, Michi (mishi or missi), which signifies
great, as it does, also, several or many, and Sagayigan, a lake; vide Henry's Travels,
p. 37, and Alexander Mackenzie's Vocabulary of Algonquin Words.

t Kip's Early Jesuit Missions, p. 222.

CHAPTER II.

DRAINAGE OF THE ILLINOIS AND WABASH.

The reader's attention will now be directed to the drainage of the
Illinois and Wabash Rivers to the Mississippi, and that of the Maumee
River into Lake Erie. The Illinois River proper is formed in Grundy
county, Illinois, below the city of Joliet, by the union of the Kanka-
kee and Desplaines Rivers. The latter rises in southeastern Wisconsin ;
and its course is almost south, through the counties of Cook and Will.
The Kankakee has its source in the vicinity of South Bend, Indiana.
It pursues a devious way, through marshes and low grounds, a south-
westerly course, forming the boundary-line between the counties of
Laporte, Porter and Lake on the north, and Stark, Jasper and Newton
on the south ; thence across the dividing line of the two states of Indi-
ana and Illinois, and some fifteen miles into the county of Kankakee,
at the confluence of the Iroquois River, where its direction is changed
northwest to its junction with the Desplaines. The Illinois passes
westerly into the county of Putnam, where it again turns and pursues
a generally southwest course to its confluence with the Mississippi,
twenty miles above the mouth of the Missouri. It is about five hun-
dred miles long ; is deep and broad, and in several places expands into
basins, which may be denominated lakes. Steamers ascend the river, in
high water, to La Salle ; from whence to Chicago navigation is contin-
ued by means of the Illinois and Michigan Canal. The principal trib-
utaries of the Illinois, from the north and right bank, are the Au Sable,
Fox River, Little Vermillion, Bureau Creek, Kickapoo Creek (which
empties in just below Peoria), Spoon River, Sugar Creek, and finally
Crooked Creek. From the south or left bank are successively the Iro-
quois (into the Kankakee), Mazon Creek, Vermillion, Crow Meadow,
Mackinaw, Sangamon, and Macoupin.

The Wabash issues out of a small lake, in Mercer county, Ohio, and
runs a westerly course through the counties of Adams, Wells and
Huntington in the state of Indiana. It receives Little River, just
below the city of Huntington, and continues a westwardly course
through the counties of Wabash, Miami and Cass. Here it turns
more to the south, flowing through the counties of Carroll and Tippe-
canoe, and marking the boundary -line between the counties of Warren

16

THE MAUMEE AND PORTAGES. 17

and Vermillion on the west, and Fountain and Park on the east. At
Covington, the county seat of Fountain county, the river runs more
directly south, between the counties of Vermillion on the one side,
and Fountain and Parke on the other, and through the county of Vigo,
some miles below Terre Haute, from which place it forms the boundary-
line between the states of Indiana and Illinois to its confluence with
the Ohio.

Its principal tributaries from the north and west, or right bank of
the stream, are Little Kiver, Eel River, Tippecanoe, Pine Creek, Red
Wood, Big Vermillion, Little Vermillion, Bruletis, Sugar Creek, Em-
barras, and Little "Wabash. The streams flowing in from the south and
east, or left bank of the river, are the Salamonie, Mississinewa, Pipe
Creek, Deer Creek, Wildcat, Wea and Shawnee Creeks, Coal Creek,
Sugar Creek, Raccoon Creek, Otter Creek, Busseron Creek, and White
River.

There are several other, and smaller, streams not necessary here to
notice, although they are laid down on earlier maps, and mentioned in
old " Gazetteers" and "Emigrant's Guides."

The Maumee is formed by the St. Joseph and St. Mary's Rivers,
which unite their waters at Ft. Wayne, Indiana. The St. Joseph has
its source in Hillsdale county, Michigan, and runs southwesterly
through the northwest corner of Ohio, through the county of De Kalb,
and into the county of Allen, Indiana. The St. Mary's rises in
Au Glaize county, Ohio, very near the little lake at the head of the
Wabash, before referred to, and runs northwestwardly parallel with the
Wabash, through the counties of Mercer, Ohio, and Adams, Indiana,
and into Allen county to the place of its union with the St. Joseph,
at Ft. Wayne. The principal tributaries of the Maumee are the Au
Glaize from the south, Bear Creek, Turkey Foot Creek, Swan Creek
from the north. The length of the Maumee River, from Ft. Wayne
northeast to Maumee Bay at the west end of Lake Erie, is very little
over 100 miles.

A noticeable feature relative to the territory under consideration,
and having an important bearing on its discovery and settlement, is
the fact that many of the tributaries of the Mississippi have their
branches interwoven with numerous rivers draining into the lakes.
They not infrequently issue from the same lake, pond or marsh situated
on the summit level of the divide from which the waters from one end
of the common reservoir drain to the Atlantic Ocean and from the other
to the Gulf of Mexico. By this means nature herself provided navig-
able communication between the northern lakes and the Mississippi
Valley. It was, however, only at times of the vernal floods that the

18 HISTORIC NOTES OF THE NORTHWEST.

communication was complete. At other seasons of the year it was
interrupted, when transfers by laud were required for a short distance.
The places where these transfers were made are known by the French
term portage, which, like many other foreign derivatives, has become
anglicized, and means a carrying place ; because in low stages of water
the canoes and effects of the traveler had to be carried around the dry
marsh or pond from the head of one stream to the source of that beyond.

The first of these portages known to the Europeans, of which
accounts have come down to us, is the portage of the Wisconsin, in the
state of that name, connecting the Mississippi and Green Bay by means
of its situation between the Wisconsin and Fox Rivers. The next is
the portage of Chicago, uniting Chicago Creek, which empties into
Lake Michigan at Chicago, and the Desplaines of the Illinois River.
The third is the portage of the Kankakee, near the present city of
South Bend, Indiana, which connects the St. Joseph of Lake Michigan
with the upper waters of the Kankakee. And the fourth is the portage
of the Wabash at Ft. Wayne, Indiana, between the Maumee and the
Wabash, by way of Little River.

Though abandoned and their former uses forgotten in the advance
of permanent settlement and the progress of more efficient means of
commercial intercourse, these portages were the gateways of the
French between their possessions in Canada and along the Mississippi.

Formerly the Northwest was a wilderness of forest and prairie, with
only the paths of wild animals or the trails of roving Indians leading,
through tangled undergrowth and tall grasses. In its undeveloped
form it was without roads, incapable of land carriage and could not
be traveled by civilized man, even on foot, without the aid of a savage
guide and a permit from its native occupants which afforded little or no
security to life or property. For these reasons the lakes and rivers, with
their connecting portages, were the only highways, and they invited
exploration. They afforded ready means of opening up the interior.
The French, who were the first explorers, at an early day, as we shall
hereafter see, established posts at Detroit, at the mouth of the Niagara
River, at Mackinaw, Green Bay, on the Illinois River, the St. Joseph's
of Lake Michigan, on the Maumee, the Wabash, and at other places
on the route of inter-lake and river communication. By means of
having seized these strategical points, and their influence over the
Indian tribes, the French monopolized the fur trade, and although
feebly assisted by the home government, held the whole Mississippi
Valley and regions of the lakes, for near three quarters of a century,
against all efforts of the English colonies, eastward of the Alleghany
ridge, who, assisted by England, sought to wrest it from their grasp.

CHICAGO PORTAGE. 19

Recurring to the old portage at Chicago, it is evident that at a com-
paratively recent period, since the glacial epoch, a large part of Cook
county was under water. The waters of Lake Michigan, at that time,
found an outlet through the Desplaines and Illinois Eivers into the
Mississippi.* This assertion is confirmed from the appearance of the
whole channel of the Illinois River, which formerly contained a stream
of much greater magnitude than now. The old beaches of Lake
Michigan are plainly indicated in the ridges, trending westward several
miles away from the present water line. The old state road, from
Vincennes to Chicago, followed one of these ancient lake beaches from
Blue Island into the city.

The subsidence of the lake must have been gradual, requiring
many ages to accomplish the change of direction in the flow of its
waters from the Mississippi to the St. Lawrence.

The character of the portage has also undergone changes within
the memory of men still living. The excavation of the Illinois and
Michigan Canal, and the drainage of the adjacent land by artificial
ditches, has left little remaining from which its former appearance can
now be recognized. Major Stephen H. Long, of the U. S. Topo-
graphical Engineers, made an examination of this locality in the year
1823, before it had been changed by the hand of man, and says, con-
cerning it, as follows : " The south fork of Chicago River takes its rise
about six miles from the fort, in a swamp, which communicates also
with the Desplaines, one of the head branches of the Illinois. Hav-
ing been informed that this route was frequently used by traders, and
that it had been traversed by one of the officers of the garrison, — who
returned with provisions from St. Louis a few days before our arrival
at the fort, — we determined to ascend the Chicago River in order to
observe this interesting division of waters. We accordingly left the
fort on the 7th day of June, in a boat which, after having ascended
the river four miles, we exchanged for a narrow pirogue that drew
less water, — the stream we were ascending was very narrow, rapid and
crooked, presenting a great fall. It so continued for about three miles,
when we reached a sort of a swamp, designated by the Canadian voy-
agers under the name of l Le Petit Lac.'' f Our course through this
swamp, which extended three miles, was very much impeded by the
high grass, weeds, etc., through which our pirogue passed with diffi-
culty. Observing that our progress through the fen was slow, and the
day being considerably advanced, we landed on the north bank, and
continued our course along the edge of the swamp for about three

* Geological Survey of Illinois, vol. 3, p. 240.

t What remains of this lake is now known by the name of Mud Lake.

20 HISTORIC NOTES OF THE NORTHWEST.

miles, until we reached the place where the old portage road meets the
current, which was here very distinct toward the south. "We were
delighted at beholding, for the first time, a feature so interesting in
itself, but which we had afterward an opportunity of observing fre-
quently on the route, viz, the division of waters starting from the same
source, and running in two different directions, so as to become feed-
ers of streams that discharge themselves into the ocean at immense dis-
tances apart. Lieut. Hobson, who accompanied us to the Desplaines,
told us that he had traveled it with ease, in a boat loaded with lead
and flour. The distance from the fort to the intersection of the port-
age road is about twelve or thirteen miles, and the portage road is
about eleven miles long ; the usual distance traveled by land seldom
exceeds from four to nine miles ; however, in very dry seasons it is
said to amount to thirty miles, as the portage then extends to Mount
Juliet, near the confluence of the Kankakee. Although at the time
we visited it there was scarcely water enough to permit our pirogue
to pass, we could not doubt that in the spring of the year the route
must be a very eligible one. It is equally apparent that an expendi-
ture, trifling when compared to the importance of the object, would
again render Lake Michigan a tributary of the Gulf of Mexico." *

* Long's Expedition to the Source of the St. Peter's River, vol. 1, pp. 165, 166,
167. The State of Illinois begun work on the construction of a canal on this old
portage on the 4th day of July, 1836, with great ceremony. Col. Guerdon S. Hubbard,
still living, cast the first shovelful of earth out of it on this occasion. The work was
completed in 1848. The canal was fed with water elevated by a pumping apparatus
at Bridgeport. Recently the city of Chicago, at enormous expense sunk the bed
of the canal to a depth that secures a flow of water directly from the lake, by means
of which, the navigation is improved, and sewerage is obtained into the Illinois River.

CHAPTER III.

ANCIENT MAUMEE VALLEY.

What has been said of the changes in the surface geology of Lake
Michigan and the Illinois River may also be affirmed with respect to
Lake Erie and the Maumee and Wabash Rivers. There are peculiari-
ties which will arrest the attention, from a mere examination of the
course of the Maumee and of the St. Joseph and St. Mary's Rivers, as
they appear on the map of that part of Ohio and Indiana. The St.
Joseph, after running southwest to its union with the St. Mary's at
Ft. Wayne, as it were almost doubles back upon its former course,
taking a northeast direction, forming the shape of a letter V, and after
having flowed over two hundred miles is discharged at a point within
less than fifty miles east of its source. It is evident, from an exami-
nation of that part of the country, that, at one time, the St. Joseph
ran wholly to the southwest, and that the Maumee River itself,
instead of flowing northeast into Lake Erie, as now, drained this lake
southwest through the present valley of the Wabash. Then Lake
Erie extended very nearly to Ft. Wayne, and its ancient shores are
still plainly marked. The line of the old beach is preserved in the
ridges running nearly parallel with, and not a great distance from, the
St. Joseph and the St. Mary's Rivers. Professor G. K. Gilbert, in his
report of the " Surface Geology of the Maumee Yalley," gives the
result of his examination of these interesting features, from which we
take the following valuable extract.*

"The upper (lake) beach consists, in this region, of a single bold
ridge of sand, pursuing a remarkably straight course in a northeast and
southwest direction, and crossing portions of Defiance, Williams and
Fulton counties. It passes just west of Hicksville and Bryan ; while
Williams Center, West Unity and Fayette are built on it. When
Lake Erie stood at this level, it was merged- at the north with Lake
Huron. Its southwest shore crossed Hancock, Putnam, Allen and
Van Wert counties, and stretched northwest in Indiana, nearly to Ft.
Wayne. The northwestern shore line, leaving Ohio near the south
line of Defiance county, is likewise continued in Indiana, and the two
converge at New Haven, six miles east of Ft. Wayne. They do not,

* Geological Survey of Ohio, vol. 1, p. 550.

21

22 HISTORIC NOTES OF THE NORTHWEST.

however, unite, but, instead, become parallel, and are continued as the
sides of a broad watercourse, through which the great lake basin then
discharged its surplus waters, southwestwardly, into the valley of the
Wabash River, and thence to the Mississippi. At New Haven, this
channel is not less than a mile and a half broad, and has an average
depth of twenty feet, with sides and bottom of drift. For twenty-five
miles this character continues, and there is no notable fall. Three
miles above Huntington, Indiana, however, the drift bottom is replaced
by a floor of Niagara limestone, and the descent becomes comparatively
quite rapid. At Huntington, the valley is walled, on one side at least,
by rock in situ. In the eastern portion of this ancient river-bed, the
Maumee and its branches have cut channels fifteen to twenty-five feet
deep, without meeting the underlying limestone. Most of the inter-
val from Ft. Wayne to Huntington is occupied by a marsh, over which
meanders Little River, an insignificant stream whose only claim to the
title of river seems to lie in the magnitude of the deserted channel of
which it is sole occupant. At Huntington, the Wabash emerges from
a narrow cleft, of its own carving, and takes possession of the broad
trough to which it was once an humble tributary."

Within the personal knowledge of men, the Wabash River has been,
and is, only a rivulet, a shriveled, dried up representative in comparison
with its greatness in pre-historic times, when it bore in a broader
channel the waters of Lakes Erie and Huron, a mighty flood, south-
ward to the Ohio. Whether the change in the direction of the flow of
Lakes Erie, Huron and Michigan toward the River St. Lawrence, instead
of through the Wabash and Illinois Rivers respectively, is because
hemispheric depression has taken place more rapidly in the vicinity of
the lakes than farther southward, or that the earth's crust south of the
lakes has been arched upward by subterraneous influences, and thus
caused the lakes to recede, or if the change has been produced by
depression in one direction and elevation in the other, combined, is not
our province to discuss. The fact, however, is well established by the
most abundant and conclusive evidence to the scientific observer.

The portage, or carrying place, of the Wabash,* as known to the
early explorers and traders, between the Maumee and Wabash, or rather
the head of Little River, called by the French " La Petit Riviere,"
commenced directly at Ft. Wayne ; although, in certain seasons of the
year, the waters approach much nearer and w r ere united by a low piece

* Schoolcraft's Travels in the Central Portions of the Mississippi Valley, " in the year
1821, pp. 90, 91. In this year, Mr. Schoolcraft made an examination of the locality,
with a view to furnish the public information on the practicability of a canal to unite
the waters of the Maumee and the Wabash. It was at a time when great interest
existed through all parts of the country on all subjects of internal navigation.

PORTAGE OF THE WABASH. 23

of ground or marsh (an arm or bay of what is now called Bear Lake),
where the two streams flow within one hundred and fifty yards of each
other and admitted of the passage of light canoes from the one to the
other. ,

The Miami Indians knew the value of this portage, and it was a
source of revenue to them, aside from its advantages in enabling them
to exercise an influence over adjacent tribes. The French, in passing
from Canada to New Orleans, and Indian traders going from Montreal
and Detroit, to the Indians south and westward, went and returned by
way of Ft. Wayne, where the Miamis, kept carts and pack-horses, with
a corps of Indians to assist in carrying canoes, furs and merchandise
around the portage, for which they charged a commission. At the
great treaty of Greenville, 1795, where General Anthony Wayne met
the several Wabash tribes, he insisted, as one of the fruits of his victory
over them, at the Fallen Timbers, on the Maumee, the year before, that
they should cede to the United States a piece of ground six miles
square, where the fort, named in honor of General Wayne, had been
erected after the battle named, and on the site of the present city of
Ft. Wayne ; and, also, a piece of territory two miles square at the
carrying place. The distinguished warrior and statesman, " Mishe-
kun-nogh-quah" (as he signs his name at this treaty), or the Little Turtle
on behalf of his tribe, objected to a relinquishment of their right to
their ancient village and its portage, and in his speech to General
Wayne said: "Elder Brother, — When our forefathers saw the French
and English at the Miami village — that ' glorious gate ' which your
younger brothers [meaning the Miamis] had the happiness to own,
and through which all the good words of our chiefs had to pass [that
is, messages between the several tribes] from north to south and from
east to west, the French and English never told us they wished to
purchase our lands from us. The next place you pointed out was the
Little River, and said you wanted two miles square of that place. This
is a request that our fathers the French or British never made of us ;
it was always ours. This carrying place has heretofore proved, in a
great degree, the subsistence of your brothers. That place has brought
to us, in the course of one day, the amount of one hundred dollars.
Let us both own this place and enjoy in common the advantages it
affords." The Little Turtle's speech availed nothing.*

The St. Joseph of Lake Michigan, a fine stream of uniform, rapid
current, reaches its most southerly position near the city of South
Bend, Indiana, — the city deriving its name from the bend of the river ;

* Minutes of the Treaty of Greenville: American State Papers on Indian Affairs,
vol. 1, pp. 576, 578.

24 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

here the river turns northward, reenters the State of Michigan and dis-
charges into the lake. West of the city is Lake Kankakee, from
which the Kankakee River takes its rise. The distance intervening: be-
tween the head of this little lake and»the St. Joseph is about two miles,
over a piece of marshy ground, where the elevation is so slight " that
in the year 1832 a Mr. Alexander Croquillard dug a race, and secured
a flow of water from the lake to the St. Joseph, of sufficient power to
run a grist and saw mill." *

This is the portage of the Kankakee, a place conspicuous for its
historical reminiscences. It was much used, and offered a choice of
routes to the Illinois River, and also to the Wabash, by a longer land-
carriage to the upper waters of the Tippecanoe. A memoir on the
Indians of Canada, etc., prepared in the year 1718 (Paris Documents,
vol. 1, p. 889), says : " The river St. Joseph is south of Lake Michi-
gan, formerly the Lake of the Illinois ; many take this river to pass to
the Rocks [as Fort St. Louis, situated on ' Starved Rock ' in La Salle
county, Illinois, was sometimes called], because it is convenient, and
they thereby avoid the portages ' des Chaines ' and 'des Perches] " —
two long, difficult carrying places on the Desplaines, which had to
be encountered in dry seasons, on the route by the way of Chicago
Creek.

The following description of the Kankakee portage, and its adjacent
surroundings, is as that locality appeared to Father Hennepin, when he
was there with La Salle's party of voyagers two hundred years ago the
coming December : " The next morning (December 5, 1679) we joined
our men at the portage, where Father Gabriel had made the day before
several crosses upon the trees, that we might not miss it another time."
The voyagers had passed above the portage without being aware of it,
as the country was all strange to them. We found here a great quan-
tity of horns and bones of wild oxen, buffalo, and also some canoes
the savages had made with the skins of beasts, to cross the river with
their provisions. This portage lies at the farther end of a champaign ;
and at the other end to the west lies a village of savages, — Miamis,
Mascoutines and Oiatinons (Weas), who live together. " The river of
the Illinois has its source near that village, and springs out of some
marshy lands that are so quaking that one can scarcely walk over them.
The head of the river is only a league and a half from that of the Mi-
amis (the St. Joseph), and so our portage was not long. We marked
the way from place to place, with some trees, for the convenience of
those we expected after us ; and left at the portage as well as at Fort

* Prof. G. M. Levette's Report on the Geology of St. Joseph County: Geological
Survey of Indiana for the year 1873, p. 459.

THE KANKAKEE. 25

Miamis (which they had previously erected at the mouth of the St.
Joseph), letters hanging down from the trees, containing M. La Salle's
instructions to our pilot, and the other five-and-twenty men who were
to come with him." The pilot had been sent back from Mackinaw
with La Salle's ship, the Griffin, loaded with furs ; was to discharge
the cargo at the fort below the mouth of Niagara River, and then
bring the ship with all dispatch to the St. Joseph.

" The Illinois River (continues Hennepin's account) is navigable
within a hundred paces from its source, — I mean for canoes of barks of
trees, and not for others, — but increases so much a little way from
thence, that it is as deep and broad as the Meuse and the Sambre joined
together. It runs through vast marshes, and although it be rapid
enough, it makes so many turnings and windings, that after a whole
day's journey we found that we were hardly two leagues from the place
we left in the morning. That country is nothing but marshes, full of
alder trees and bushes ; and we could have hardly found, for forty
leagues together, any place to plant our cabins, had it not been for the
frost, which made the earth more firm and consistent."

CHAPTER TV.

RAINFALL.

An interesting topic connected with our rivers is the question of
rainfall. The streams of the west, unlike those of mountainous dis-
tricts, which are fed largely by springs and brooks issuing from the
rocks, are supplied mostly from the clouds. It is within the observa-
tion of persons who lived long in the valleys of the Wabash and Illinois,
or along their tributaries, that these streams apparently carry a less
volume of water than formerly. Indeed, the water-courses seem to be
gradually drying up, and the whole surface of the country drained by
them has undergone the same change. In early days almost every
land-owner on the prairies had upon his farm a pond that furnished
an unfailing supply of water for his live stock the year around. These
never went dry, even in the driest seasons.

Formerly the Wabash afforded reliable steamboat navigation as
high up as La Fayette. In 1831, between the 5th of March and the
16th of April, fifty-four steamboats arrived and departed from Vin-
cennes. In the months of February, March and April of the same year,
there were sixty arrivals and departures from La Fayette, then a village
of only three or four hundred houses ; many of these boats were large
side-wheel steamers, built for navigating the Ohio and Mississippi, and
known as New Orleans or lower river boats."- The writer has the
concurrent evidence of scores of early settlers with whom he has con-
versed that formerly the Vermilion, at Danville, had to be ferried on
an average six months during the year, and the river was considered
low when it could be forded at this place without water running into
the wagon bed. Now it is fordable at all times, except when swollen
with freshets, which now subside in a very few days, and often within
as many hours. Doubtless, the same facts can be affirmed of the many
other tributaries of the Illinois and Wabash whose names have been
already given. ,

The early statutes of Illinois and Indiana are replete with special
laws, passed between the years 1825 and 1840, when the people of
these two states were crazed over the question of internal navigation,
providing enactments and charters for the slack-water improvement of

* Tanner's View of the Mississippi, published in 1832. p. 154.

26

RAINFALL. 27

hundreds of streams whose insignificance have* now only a dry bed,
most of the year, to indicate that they were ever dignified with such
legislation and invested with the promise of bearing upon their bosoms
a portion of the future internal commerce of the country.

It will not do to assume that the seeming decrease of water in the
streams is caused by a diminution of rain. The probabilities are that
the annual rainfall is greater in Indiana and Illinois than before their
settlement with a permanent population. The "settling up" of a
country, tilling its soil, planting trees, constructing railroads, and erect-
ing telegraph lines, all tend to induce moisture and produce changes
in the electric and atmospheric currents that invite the clouds to pre-
cipitate their showers. Such has been the effect produced by the hand
of man upon the hitherto arid plains of Kansas and Nebraska. Indeed,
at an early day some portions of Illinois were considered as uninhab-
itable as western Kansas and Nebraska were supposed, a few years ago,
to be on account of the prevailing drouths. That part of the state
lying between the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers, south of a line run-
ning from the Mississippi, between Rock Island and Mercer counties,
east to the Illinois, set off for the benefit of the soldiers of the War
of 1812, and for that reason called the " Military Tract," except that
part of it lying more immediately near the rivers named, was laid under
the bane of a drouth-stricken region. Mr. Lewis A. Beck, a shrewd
and impartial observer, and a gentleman of great scientific attainments,*
was through the " military tract " shortly after it had been run out into
sections and townships by the government, and says concerning it,
" The northern part of the tract is not so favorable for settlement.
The prairies become very extensive and are badly watered. In fact,
this last is an objection to the whole tract. In dry seasons it is not
unusual to walk through beds of the largest streams without finding a
drop of water. It is not surprising that a country so far distant from
the sea and drained by such large rivers, which have a course of several
thousand miles before they reach the great reservoir, should not be well
watered. This, we observe, is the case with all fine-flowing streams of
the highlands, whereas those of the Champaign and prairies settle in
the form of ponds, which stagnate and putrify. Besides, on the same
account there are very few heavy rains in the summer ; and hence
during that season water is exceedingly scarce. The Indians, in their
journeys, pass by places where they know there are ponds, but gener-
ally they are under the necessity of carrying water in bladders. This
drouth is not confined to the ' military tract,' but in some seasons is
very general. During the summer of 1820 it was truly alarming ;

* Beck's Illinois and Missouri Gazetteer, published in 1823, pp. 79, 80.

28 HISTORIC NOTES ON" THE NORTHWEST.

travelers, in many instances, were obliged to pass whole days, in the
warmest weather, without being able to procure a cupful of water for
themselves or their horses, and that which they occasionally did find
was almost putrid. It may be remarked, however, that such seasons
rarely occur; but on account of its being washed by rivers of such
immense length this section of the country is peculiarly liable to suffer
from excessive drouth." The millions of bushels of grain annually
raised in, and the vast herds of cattle and other live stock that are fat-
tened on, the rich pastures of Bureau, Henry, Stark, Peoria, Knox,
Warren, and other counties lying wholly or partially within the "mili-
tary tract," illustrate an increase and uniformity of rainfall since the
time Professor Beck recorded his observations. In no part of Illinois
are the crops more abundant and certain, and less liable to suffer from
excessive drouth, than in the " military tract." The apparent decrease in
the volume of water carried by the "Wabash and its tributaries is easily
reconciled with the theory of an increased rainfall since the settlement
of the country. These streams for the most part have their sources in
ponds, marshes and low grounds. These basins, covering a great extent
of the surface of the country, served as reservoirs ; the earth was cov-
ered with a thick turf that prevented the water penetrating the ground ;
tall grasses in the valleys and about the margin of the ponds impeded
the flow of water, and fed it out gradually to the rivers. In the tim-
ber the marshes were likewise protected from a rapid discharge of their
contents by the trunks of fallen trees, limbs and leaves.

Since the lands have been reduced to cultivation, millions of acres
of sod have been broken by the plow, a spongy surface has been turned
to the heavens and much of the rainfall is at once soaked into the
ground. The ponds and low grounds have been drained. The tall
grasses with their mat of penetrating roots have disappeared from the
swales. The brooks and drains, from causes partially natural, or artifi-
cially aided by man, have cut through the ancient turf and made w r ell
defined ditches. The rivers themselves have worn a deeper passage in
their beds. By these means the water is now soon collected from the
earth's surface and carried off with increased velocity. Formerly the
streams would sustain their volume continuously for weeks. Hence
much of the rainfall is directly taken into the ground, and only a por-
tion of it now finds its way to the rivers, and that which does has a
speedier exit. Besides this, settlement of and particularly the growing
of trees on the prairies and the clearing out of the excess of forests in the
timbered districts, tends to distribute the rainfall more evenly through-
out the year, and in a large degree prevents the recurrence of those ex-
tremes of drouth and flood with which this country was formerly visited.

CHAPTER V.

ORIGIN OF THE PRAIRIES.

The prairies have ever been a wonder, and their origin the theme of
much curious speculation. The vast extent of these natural meadows
would naturally excite curiosity, and invite the many theories which,
from time to time, have been advanced by writers holding conflicting
opinions as to the manner in which they were formed. Major Stod-
dard, H. M. Brackenridge and Governor Reynolds, whose personal
acquaintance with the prairies, eastward of the Mississippi, extended
back prior to the year 1800, and whose observations were supported
by the experience of other contemporaneous residents of the west, held
that the prairies were caused by fire. The prairies are covered with
grass, and were probably occasioned by the ravages of fire ; because
wherever copses of trees were found on them, the grounds about them
are low and too moist to admit the fire to pass over it ; and because it is
a common practice among the Indians and other hunters to set the
woods and prairies on fire, by means of which they are able to kill an
abundance of game. They take secure stations to the leeward, and
the fire drives the game to them.*

The plains of Indiana and Illinois have been mostly produced by
the same cause. They are very different from the Savannahs on the
seaboard and the immense plains of the upper Missouri. In the
prairies of Indiana I have been assured that the woods in places have
been known to recede, and in others to increase, within the recollection
of the old inhabitants. In moist places, the woods are still standing,
the fire meeting here with obstruction. Trees, if planted in these
prairies, would doubtless grow. In the islands, preserved by accidental
causes, the progress of the fire can be traced ; the first burning would
only scorch the outer bark of the tree; this would render it more
susceptible to the next, the third would completely kill. I have seen
in places, at present completely prairie, pieces of burnt trees, proving
that the prairie had been caused by fire. The grass is generally very
luxuriant, which is not the case in the plains of the Missouri. There
may, doubtless, be spots where the proportion of salts or other bodies
may be such as to favor the growth of grass only.f

* Sketches of Louisiana, by Major Amos Stoddard, p. 213.
t Brackenridge's Views of Louisiana, p. 108.

29

30 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

Governor Reynolds, who came to Illinois at the age of thirteen, in
the year 1800, and lived here for over sixty years, the greater portion
of his time employed in a public capacity, roving over the prairies
in the Indian border wars or overseeing the affairs of a public and busy
life, in his interesting autobiography, published in 1855, says: "Many
learned essays are written on the origin of the prairies, but any atten-
tive observer will come to the conclusion that it is fire burning the
strong, high grass that caused the prairies. I have witnessed the
growth of the forest in these southern counties of Illinois, and know
there is more timber in them now than there was forty or fifty years
before. The obvious reason is, the fire is kept out. This is likewise
the reason the prairies are generally the most fertile soil. The vegeta-
tion in them was the strongest and the fires there burnt with the most
power. The timber was destroyed more rapidly in the fertile soil than
in the barren lands. It will be seen that the timber in the north of
the state, is found only on the margins of streams and other places
where the prairie fires could not reach it."

The later and more satisfactory theory is, that the prairies were
formed by the action of water instead of fire. This position was taken
and very ably discussed by that able and learned writer, Judge James
Hall, as early as 1836. More recently, Prof. Lesquereux prepared an
article on the origin and formation of the prairies, published at length
in vol. 1, Geological Survey of Illinois, pp. 238 to 254, inclusive ; and Dr.
Worthen, the head of the Illinois Geological Department, referring to
this article and its author, gives to both a most flattering indorsement.
Declining to discuss the comparative merits of the various theories as
to the formation of the prairies, the doctor " refers the reader to the
very able chapter on the subject by Prof. Lesquereux, whose thorough
acquaintance, both with fossil and recent botany, and the general laws
which govern the distribution of the ancient as well as the recent flora,
entitles his opinion to our most profound consideration." *

Prof. Lesquereux' article is exhaustive, and his conclusions are
summed up in the declaration " that all the prairies of the Mississippi
Valley have been formed by the slow recessions of waters of various
extent ; first transformed into swamps, and in the process of time
drained and dried; and that the high rolling prairies, and those of
these bottoms along the rivers as well, are all the result of the same
cause, and form one whole, indivisible system."

Still later, another eminent writer, Hon. John D. Caton, late Judge
of the Supreme Court of Illinois, has given the result of his observa-

* Chap. 1, p. 10, Geology of Illinois, by Dr. Worthen; vol. 1, Illinois Geological
Survey.

THE PRAIRIES. 31

tions. While assenting to the received conclusion that the prairies —
the land itself — have been formed under water, except the decomposed
animal and vegetable matter that has been added to the surface of the
lands since their emergence, the judge dissents from Prof. Lesquereux,
in so for as the latter holds that the presence of ulmic acid and other
unfavorable chemicals in the soil of the prairies, rendered them unfit
for the growth of trees ; and in extending his theory to the prairies on
the uplands, as well as in their more level and marshy portions. The
learned judge holds to the popular theory that the most potent cause
in keeping the prairies as such, and retarding and often destroying
forest growth on them, is the agency of fire. "Whatever may have
been the condition of the ground when the prairie lands first emerged
from the waters, or the chemical changes they may have since under-
gone, how many years the process of vegetable growth and decay may
have gone on, adding their deposits of rich loam to the original sur-
face, making the soil the most fertile in the world, is a matter of mere
speculation ; certain it is, however, that ever within the knowledge of
man the prairies have possessed every element of soil necessary to in-
sure a rapid and vigorous growth of forest trees, wherever the germ
could find a lodgment and their tender years be protected against the
one formidable enemy, fire. Judge Caton gives the experience of old
settlers in the northern part of the state, similar to that of Bracken-
ridge and Reynolds, already quoted, where, on the Vermillion River
of the Illinois, and also in the neighborhood of Ottawa many years
ago, fires occurred under the observation of the narrators, which
utterly destroyed, root and branch, an entire hardwood forest, the
prairie taking immediate possession of the burnt district, clothing it
with grasses of its own ; and in a few years this forest land, reclaimed
to prairie, could not be distinguished from the prairie itself, except
from its greater luxuriance.

Judge Caton's illustration of how the forests obtain a foot-hold in
the prairies is so aptly expressed, and in such harmony with the ex-
perience of every old settler on the prairies of eastern Illinois and
western Indiana, that we quote it.

" The cause of the absence of trees on the upland prairies is the
problem most important to the agricultural -interests of our state, and
it is the inquiry which alone I propose to consider, but cannot resist
the remark that wherever we do find timber throughout this broad
field of prairie, it is always in or near the humid portions of it, — as
along the margins of streams, or upon or near the springy uplands.
Many most luxuriant groves are found on the highest portions of the
uplands, but always in the neighborhood of water. For a remarkable

32 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

example I may refer to that great chain of groves extending from and
including the An Sable Grove on the east and Ilolderman's Grove on
the west, in Kendall county, occupying the high divide between the
waters of the Illinois and the Fox Rivers. In and around all the
groves flowing springs abound, and some of them are separated by
marshes, to the very borders of which the great trees approach, as if
the forest were ready to seize upon each yard of ground as soon as it is
elevated above the swamps. Indeed, all our groves seem to be located
where water is so disposed as to protect them, to a great or less extent,
from the prairie fire, although not so situated as to irrigate them. If
the head-waters of the streams on the prairies are most frequently with-
out timber, so soon as they have attained sufficient volume to impede
the progress of the fires, with very few exceptions we find forests on
their borders, becoming broader and more vigorous as the magnitude
of the streams increase. It is manifest that land located on the borders
of streams which the fire cannot pass are only exposed to one-half the
fires to which they would be exposed but for such protection. This
tends to show, at least, that if but one-half the fires that have occurred
had been kindled, the arboraceous growth could have withstood their
destructive influences, and the whole surface of what is now prairie
would be forest. Another confirmatory fact, patent to all observers, is,
that the prevailing winds upon the prairies, especially in the autumn,
are from the west, and these give direction to the prairie fires. Conse-
quently, the lands on the westerly sides of the streams are the most
exposed to the fires, and, as might be expected, we find much the most
timber on the easterly sides of the streams."

"Another fact, always a subject of remark among the dwellers on
the prairies, I regard as conclusive proof that the prairie soils are pecu-
liarly adapted to the growth of trees is, that wherever the fires have
been kept from the groves by the settlers, they have rapidly encroached
upon the prairies, unless closely depastured by the farmers' stock, or
prevented by cultivation. This fact I regard as established by careful
observation of more than thirty-five years, during which I have been
an interested witness of the settlement of this country, — from the time
when a few log cabins, many miles apart, built in the borders of the
groves, alone were met with, till now nearly the whole of the great
prairies in our state, at least, are brought under cultivation by the in-
dustry of the husbandman. Indeed, this is a fact as well recognized
by the settlers as that corn will grow upon the prairies when properly
cultivated. Ten years ago I heard the observation made by intelligent
men, that within the preceding twenty-five years the area of the timber
in the prairie portions of the state had actually doubled by the sponta-

FOREST ENCROACHMENT. 33

neons extension of the natural groves. However this may be, certain
it is that the encroachments of the timber upon the prairies have been
universal and rapid, wherever not impeded by fire or other physical
causes."

"When Europeans first landed in America, as they left the dense
forests east of the Alleghanies and went west over the mountains into
the valleys beyond, anywhere between Lake Erie and the fortieth
degree of latitude, approaching the Scioto River, they would have seen
small patches of country destitute of timber. These were called open-
ings. As they proceeded farther toward the Wabash the number and
area of these openings or barrens would increase. These last were called
by the English savannahs or meadows, and by the French, prairies.
Westward of the Wabash, except occasional tracts of timbered lands
in northern Indiana, and fringes of forest growth along the inter-
vening water-courses, the prairies stretch westward continuously across
a part of Indiana and the whole of Illinois to the Mississippi. Taking
the line of the Wabash railway, which crosses Illinois in its Greatest
breadth, and beginning in Indiana, where the railway leaves the tim-
ber, west of the Wabash nearMarshfield, the prairie extends to Quincy,
a distance of more than two hundred and fifty miles, and its contin-
uity the entire way is only broken by four strips of timber along four
streams running at right angles with the route of the railway, namely
the timber on the Vermillion River, between Danville and the Indiana
state-line, the Sangamon, seventy miles west of Danville near Decatur,
the Sangamon again a few miles east of Springfield, and the Illinois
River at Meredosia ; and all of the timber at the crossing of these
several streams, if put together, would not aggregate fifteen miles
against the two hundred and fifty miles of prairie. Taking a north
and south direction and parallel with the drainage of the rivers, one
could start near Ashley, on the Illinois Central railway, in Washing-
ton count}*, and going northward, nearly on an air-line, keeping on the
divide between the Ivaskaskia and Little Wabash, the Sangamon and
the Vermillion, the Iroquois and the Vermillion of the Illinois, cross-
ing the latter stream between the mouths of the Fox and Dn Page and
travel through to the state of Wisconsin, a distance of nearly three
hundred miles, without encountering five miles of timber during the
whole journey. Mere figures of distances across the '- Grand Prairie,"
as this vast meadow was called by the old settlers, fail to give an ade-
quate idea of its magnitude.

Let the reader, in fancy, go back fifty or sixty years, when there
were no farms between the settlement on the jSTorth Arm Prairie, in
Edgar county, and Ft. Clark, now Peoria, on the Illinois River, or
3

34 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

between the Salt Works, west of Danville, and Ft. Dearborn, where
Chicago now is, or when there was not a house between the "Wabash
and Illinois Rivers in the direction of La Fayette and Ottawa; when
there was not a solitary road to mark the way ; when Indian trails alone
led to unknown places, where no animals except the wild deer and
slinking wolf would stare, the one with timid wonder, the other with
treacherous leer, upon the ventursome traveler; when the gentle winds
moved the supple grasses like waves of a green sea under the sum-
mer's sky ; — the beauty, the grandeur and solitude of the prairies may
be Imagined as they were a reality to the pioneer when he first beheld
them.

There is an essential difference between the prairies eastward of the
Mississippi and the great, plains westward necessary to be borne in
mind. The western plains, while they present a seeming level appear-
ance to the eye, rise rapidly to the westward. From Kansas City to
Pueblo the ascent is continuous; beyond Ft. Dodge, the plains, owing
to their elevation and consequent dryness of the atmosphere and
absence of rainfall, produce a thin and stunted vegetation. The prai-
ries of Illinois and Indiana, on the contrary, are much nearer the sea-
level, where the moisture is greater. There were many ponds and
sloughs which aided in producing a humid atmosphere, all which
induced a rank growth of grasses. All early writers, referring to tlie>
vegetation of our prairies, including Fathers Hennepin, St. Cosme,
Charlevoix and others, who recorded their personal observations nearly
two hundred years aijo, as well as later English and American travel-
ers, bear uniform testimony to the fact of an unusually luxuriant
growth of grasses.

Early settlers, in the neighborhood of the author, all bear witness
to the rank growth of vegetation on the prairies before it was grazed
by live stock, and supplanted with shorter grasses, that set in as the
country improved. Since the organization of Edgar county in 1823, —
of which, all the territory north to the Wisconsin line was then a
part, — on the level prairie between the present sites of Danville and
Georgetown, the grass grew so high that it was a source of amusement
to tie the tops over the withers of a horse, and in places the height of
the grass would nearly obscure both horse and rider from view. This
was not a slough, but on arable land, where some of the first farms in
Vermillion county were broken out. On the high rolling prairies the
vegetation was very much shorter, though thick and compact ; its aver-
age height being about two feet.

The prairie fires have been represented in exaggerated pictures of
men and wild animals retreating at full speed, with every mark of ter-

PRAIRIE FIRES. 35

ror, before the devouring element. Such pictures are overdrawn. In-
stances of loss of human life, or animals, may have sometimes occurred.
The advance of the fire is rapid or slow, as the wind may be strong or
light ; the flames leaping high in the air in their progress over level
ground, or burning lower over the uplands. When a fire starts under
favorable causes, the horizon gleams brighter and brighter until a fiery
redness rises above its dark outline, while heavy, slow-moving masses
of dark clouds curve upward above it. In another moment the blaze
itself shoots up, first at one spot then at another, advancing until the
whole horizon extending across a wide prairie is clothed with flames,
that roll and curve and dash onward and upward like waves of a burn-
ing ocean, lighting up the landscape with the brilliancy of noon-day.
A roaring, crackling sound is heard like the rushing of a hurricane.
The flame, which in general rises to the height of twenty feet, is seen
rolling its waves against each other as the liquid, fiery mass moves for-
ward, leaving behind it a blackened surface on the ground, and long
trails of murky smoke floating above. A more terrific sight than the
burning prairies in early days can scarcely be conceived. Woe to the
farmer whose fields extended into the prairie, and who had suffered
the tall grass to grow near his fences ; the labor of the year would be
swept away in a few hours. Such accidents occasionally occurred,
although the preventive was simple. The usual remedy was to set
fire against fire, or to burn off a strip of grass in the vicinity of the
improved ground, a beaten road, the treading of domestic animals
about the inclosure of the farmer, would generally afford protection.
In other cases a few furrows would be plowed around the field, or the
grass closely mowed between the outside of the fence and the open
prairie.*

No wonder that the Indians, noted for their naming a place or
thing from some of its distinctive peculiarities, should have called
the prairies Mas-ko-tia, or the place of fire. In the ancient Algon-
quin tongue, as well as in its more modern form of the Ojibbeway (or
Chippeway, as this people are improperly designated), the word scoutay
means fire ; and in the Illinois and Pottowatamie, kindred dialects, it
is scotte and scutay, respectively-^ It is also eminently characteristic
that the Indians, who lived and hunted exclusively upon the prairies,
were known among their red brethren as " Maskoutes," rendered by
the French writers, Maskoutines, or People of the Fire or Prairie
Country.

North of a line drawn west from Vincennes, Illinois is wholly

* Judge James Hall: Tales of the Border, p. 244; Statistics of the West, p. 82.
t Gallatin's Synopsis of the Indian Tribes, etc.

36 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

prairie, — always excepting the thin curtain of timber draping the
water-courses ; and all that part of Indiana lying north and west of
the Wabash, embracing fully one-third of the area of the state, is
essentially so.

Of the twenty-seven counties in Indiana, lying wholly or partially
west and north of the Wabash, twelve of them are prairie ; seven are
mixed prairies, barrens and timber, the barrens and prairie predomi-
nating. In five, the barrens, with the prairies, are nearly equal to the
timber, while only three of the counties can be characterized as heavily
timbered. And wherever timber does occur in these twenty-seven
counties, it is found in localities favorable to its protection against the
ravages of fire, by the proximity of intervening lakes, marshes or
water-courses. We cannot know how long it took the forest to ad-
vance from the Scioto ; how often capes and points of trees, like skir-
mishers of an army, secured a foothold to the eastward of the lakes and
rivers of Ohio and Indiana, only to be driven back again by the prairie
tires advancing from the opposite direction ; or conceive how many
generations of forest growth were consumed by the prairie fires before
the timber-line was pushed westward across the state of Ohio, and
through Indiana to the banks of the Wabash.

The prairies of Illinois and Indiana were born of water and pre-
served by fire for the children of civilized men, who have come and
taken possession of tliem. The manner of their coming, and the diffi-
culties that befell them on the way, will hereafter be considered. The
white man, like the forests, advanced from the east. The red man,
like the prairie fires, as we shall hereafter see, came from the west.

CHAPTER VI.

EARLY DISCOVERIES.

Having given a description of the lakes and rivers, and noticed
some of the more prominent features that characterize the physical
geography of the territory within the scope of onr inquiry, and the
parts necessarily connected with it, forming, as it were, the outlines or
ground plan of its history, we will now proceed to fill in the frame-
work, with a narration of its discovery. Jacques Cartier, as already
intimated in a note on a preceding page, ascended the St. Lawrence
River in 1535. He sailed up the stream as far as the great Indian vil-
lage of Hoc Lelaga, situated on an island at the foot of the mountain,
styled by him Mont Royal, now called Montreal, a name since extend-
ed to the whole island. The country thus discovered was called New
France. Later, and in the year 1598, France, after fifty years of
domestic troubles, recovered her tranquillity, and, finding herself once
more equal to great enterprises, acquired a taste for colonization. Her
attention was directed to her possessions, by right of discovery, in the
new world, where she now wished to establish colonies and extend the
faith of the Catholic religion. Commissions or grants were accordingly
issued to companies of merchants, and others organized for this pur-
pose, who undertook to make settlements in Acadia, as Nova Scotia
was then called, and elsewhere along the lower waters of the St. Law-
rence; and, at a later day, like efforts were made higher up the river.
In 1607 Mr. De Monts, having failed in a former enterprise, was
deprived of his commission, which was restored to him on the condition
that he would make a settlement on the St. Lawrence. The company
he represented seems to have had the fur trade only in view, and this
object caused it to change its plans and avoid Acadia altogether. De
Monts' company increased in numbers and capital in proportion as the
fur trade developed expectations of profit, and many persons at St.
Malo, particularly, gave it their support. Feeling that his name
injured his associates, M. De Monts retired ; and when he ceased to be
its governing head, the company of merchants recovered the monopoly
with which the charter was endowed, for no other object than making
money out of the fur trade. They cared nothing whatever for the col-
ony in Acadia, which was dying out, and made no settlements else-

38 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

where. However, Mr. Samuel Champ] ain, who cared little for the fur
trade, and whose thoughts were those of a patriot, after maturely ex-
amining where the settlements directed by the court might be best
established, at last fixed on Quebec. He arrived there on the 3d of
July, 1608, put up some temporary buildings for himself and company,
and began to clear off the ground, which proved fertile.*

The colony at Quebec grew apace with emigrants from France;
and later, the establishment of a settlement at the island of Montreal
was undertaken. Two religious enthusiasts, the one named Jerome le
Royer de la Dauversiere, of Anjou, and the other John James Olier,
assumed the undertaking in 1636. The next who joined in the move-
ment was Peter Chevirer, Baron Fancamp, who in 1640 sent tools and
provisions for the use of the coming settlers. The projectors were
now aided by the celebrated Baron de Rent)', and two others. Father
Charles Lalemant induced John de Lauson, the proprietor of the island
of Montreal, to cede it to these gentlemen, which he did in August,
1610 ; and to remove all doubts as to the title, the associates obtained
a grant from the New France Company, in December of the same year,
which was subsequently ratified by the king himself. The associates
agreed to send out fort}' settlers, to clear and cultivate the ground ; to
increase the number annually ; to supply them with two sloops, cattle
and farm hands, and, after five years, to erect a seminary, maintain
ecclesiastics as missionaries and teachers, and also nuns as teachers and
hospitalers. On its part the New France Company agreed to trans-
port thirty settlers. The associates then contributed twenty-five thou-
sand crowns to begin the settlement, and Mr. deMaisonneuve embarked
with his colony on three vessels, which sailed from Rochelle and
Dieppe, in the summer of 1641. The colony wintered in Quebec,
spending their time in building boats and preparing timber for their
houses ; and on the 8th of May, 1642, embarked, and arrived nine
days after at the island of Montreal, and after saying mass began an
intrenchment around their tents.f

Notwithstanding the severity of the climate, the loss of life by dis-
eases incident to settling of new countries, and more especially the

* History of New France.

fFrom Dr. Shea's valuable note on Montreal, on pages 129 and 130, vol. 2, of
his translation of Father Charlevoix' History of New France. Mr. Albach, publisher
of "Annals of the West," Pittsburgh edition, 1857, p. 49, is in error in saying that
Montreal was founded in 1613, by Samuel Champlain. Champlain, in company with
a young Huron Indian, whom he had taken to and brought back from France on a
previous voyage, visited the island of Montreal in 1611, and chose it as a place for a
settlement he designed to establish, but which he did not begin, as he was obliged to
return to France; vide Charlevoix' " History of New France," vol. 2, p. 23. The Ameri-
can Clyclopedia, as well as other authorities, concur with Dr. Shea, that Montreal was
founded in 1642, seven years after Champlain's death.

QUEBEC FOUNDED. 39

destruction of its people from raids of the dreaded Iroquois Indians,
the French colonies grew until, according to a report of Governor
Mons. Denonville to the Minister at Paris, the population of Canada,
in 1GSG, had increased to 12,373 sonls. Quebec and Montreal became
the base of operations of the French in America; the places from
which missionaries, traders and explorers went out among the savages
into countries hitherto unknown, going northward and westward,
even beyond the extremity of Lake Superior to the upper waters of
the Mississippi, and southward to the Gulf of Mexico ; and it was
from these cities that the religious, military and commercial affairs of
this widely extended region were administered, and from which the
French settlements subsequently established in the northwest and at
New Orleans were principally recruited. The influence of Quebec and
Montreal did not end with the fall of French power in America. It
was from these cities that the English retained control of the fur trade
in, and exerted a power over the Indian tribes of, the northwest that
harassed and retarded the spread of the American settlements through
all the revolutionary war, and during the later contest between Great
Britain and the United States in the war of 1812. Indeed, it was
only until after the fur trade was exhausted and the Indians placed
beyond the Mississippi, subsequent to 1820, that Quebec and Montreal
ceased to exert an influence in that part of New France now known as
Illinois and Indiana.

Father Claude Allouez, coasting westward from Sault Ste. Marie,
reached Chegoimegon, as the Indians called the bay south of the Apos-
tle Islands and near La Pointe on the southwestern shore of Lake Supe-
rior, in October, 1G65. Here he found ten or twelve fragments of
Algonquin tribes assembled and about to hang the war kettle over the
Are preparatory for an incursion westward into the territory of the
Sioux. The good father persuaded them to give up their intended
hostile expedition. He set up in their midst a chapel, to which he gave
the name of the "Mission of the Holy Ghost," at the spot afterward
known as "Lapointe du Saint Esprit," and at once began his mission
work. His chapel was an object of wonder, and its establishment soon
spread among the wild children of the forest, and thither from great
distances came numbers all alive with curiosltv, — the roving Potta-
watomies, Sacs and Foxes, the Kickapoos, the Illinois and Miamis, —
to whom the truths of Christianity were announced.*

Three years later Father James Marquette took the place of Allouez,
and while here he seems to have been the first that learned of the Missis-
sippi. In a letter written from this mission by Father Marquette to

* Shea's History of Catholic Missions, 358.

40 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

his Reverend Father Superior, preserved in the Relations for 1669 and
1670, he says: "When the Illinois come to the point they pass a
great river, which is almost a league in width. It flows from north
to south, and to so great a distance that the Illinois, who know nothing
of the use of the canoe, have never as yet heard tell of the mouth ; they
only know that there are great nations below them, some of whom,
dwelling to the east-southeast of their country, gather their Indian-corn
twice a year. A nation that they call Chaouanon (Shawnees) came to
visit them during the past summer; the young man that has been
given to me to teach me the language has seen them ; they were loaded
with glass beads, which shows that they have communication with the
Europeans. They had to journey across the land for more than thirty
days before arriving at their country. It is hardly probable that this
great river discharges itself in Virginia. We are more inclined to
believe that it has its mouth in California. If the savages, who have
promised to make me a canoe, do not fail in their word, we will navi-
gate this river as far as is possible in company with a Frenchman and
this young man that they have given me, who understands several of
these languages and possesses great facility for acquiring others. We
shall visit the nations who dwell along its shores, in order to open the
way to many of our fathers who for a long time have awaited this
happiness. This discovery will give us a perfect knowledge of the sea
either to the south or to the west."

These reports concerning the great river came to the knowledge
of the authorities at Quebec and Paris, and naturally enough stimu-
lated further inquiry. There were three theories as to where the river
emptied ; one, that it discharged into the Atlantic south of the British
colony of Virginia ; second, that it flowed into the Gulf of Mexico;
and third, which was the more popular belief, that it emptied into the
Red Sea, as the Gulf of California was called ; and if the latter, that it
would afford a passage to China. To solve this important commercial
problem in geography, it was determined, as appears from a letter from
the Governor, Count Frontenac, at Quebec, to M. Colbert, Minister of
the navy at Paris, expedient "for the service to send Sieur Joliet to
the country of the Mascoutines, to discover the South Sea and the great
river — they call the Mississippi — which is supposed to discharge itself
into the Sea of California. Sieur Joliet is a man of great experience
in these sorts of discoveries, and has already been almost to that great
river, the mouth of which he promises to see. We shall have intelli-
gence of him, certainly, this summer.* Father Marquette was chosen
to accompany Joliet on account of the information he had already ob-

* Paris Documents, vol. 9, p. 92.

SPANISH EXPLORATIONS. 41

tained from the Indians relating to the countries to be explored, and
also because, as he wrote Father Dablon, his superior, when informed
by the latter that he was to be Joliet's companion, " I am ready to go
on your order to seek new nations toward the South Sea, and teach
them Of our great God whom they hitherto have not known."

The voyage of Joliet and Marquette is so interesting that we intro-
duce extracts from Father Marquette's journal. The version we adopt
is Father Marquette's original journal, prepared for publication by his
superior, Father Dablon, and which lay in manuscript at Quebec, among
the archives of the Jesuits, until 1852, when it, together with Father
Marquette's original map, were brought to light, translated into Eng-
lish, and published by Dr. John G. Shea, in his " Discovery and Explo-
ration of the Mississippi." The version commonly sanctioned was
Marquette's narrative sent to the French government, where it lay
unpublished until it came into the hands of M. Thevenot, who printed
it at Paris, in a book issued by him in 1681, called " Receuil de Voy-
ages." This account diners somewhat, though not essentially, from
the narrative as published by Dr. Shea.

Before proceeding farther, however, we will turn aside a moment
to note the fact that Spain had a prior right over France to the Missis-
sippi Valley by virtue of previous discovery. As early as the year
1525, Cortez had conquered Mexico, portioned out its rich mines
among his favorites and reduced the inoffensive inhabitants to the worst
of slavery, making them till the ground and toil in the mines for their
unfeeling masters. A few years following the conquest of Mexico, the
Spaniards, under Pamphilus de Narvaez, in 1528, undertook to conquer
and colonize Florida and the entire northern coast-line of the Gulf.
After long and fruitless wanderings in the interior, his party returned
to the sea-coast and endeavored to reach Tampico, in wretched boats.
Nearly all perished by storm, disease or famine. The survivors, with
one Cabeza de Vaca at their head, drifted to an island near the present
state of Mississippi; from which, after four years of slavery, De Vaca,
with four companions, escaped to the mainland and started westward,
going clear across the continent to the Gulf of California. The
natives took them for supernatural beings. They assumed the guise
of jugglers, and the Indian tribes, through which they passed, invested
them with the title of medicine-men, and their lives were thus guarded
with superstitious awe. They are, perhaps, the first Europeans who
ever went overland from the Atlantic to the Pacific. They must have
crossed the Great River somewhere on their route, and, says Dr.
Shea, " remain in history, in a distant twilight, as the first Europeans
known to have stood on the banks of the Mississippi." In 1539,

42 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

Hernando de Soto, with a party of cavaliers, most of them sons of
titled nobility, landed with their horses upon the coast of Florida.
During that and the following four years, these daring adventurers
wandered through the wilderness, traveling in portions of Florida,
Carolina, the northern parts of Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi,
crossing the Mississippi, as is supposed, as high up as White River,
and going still westward to the base of the Rocky Mountains, vainly
searching for the rich gold mines of which De Vaca had given marvel-
ous accounts. De Soto's party endured hardships that would depress
the stoutest heart, while, with fire and sword, they perpetrated atrocities
upon the Indian tribes through which they passed, burning their
villages and infiictins: cruelties which make us blush for the wicked-
ness of men claiming to be christians. De Soto died, in May or June,
1542, on the banks of the Mississippi, below the mouth of the
Washita, and his immediate attendants concealed his death from the
others and secretly, in the night, buried his body in the middle of the
stream. The remnant of his survivors went westward and then
returned back again to the river, passing the winter upon its banks.
The following spring they went down the river, in seven boats which
they had rudely constructed out of such scanty material and with the
few tools they could command. In these, after a three months' voyage,
they arrived at the Spanish town of Panuco, on the river of that name
in Mexico.

Later, in 1565, Spain, failing in previous attempts, effected a lodg-
ment in Florida, and for the protection of her colony built the fort at
St. Augustine, whose ancient ruin, still standing, is an object of curi-
osity to the health-seeker and a monument to the hundreds of native
Indians who, reduced to bondage by their Spanish conquerors, perished,
after years of unrequited labor, in erecting its frowning walls and
gloomy dungeons.

While Spain retained her hold upon Mexico and enlarged her posses-
sions, and continued, with feebler efforts, to keep possession of the
Floridas, she took no measures to establish settlements along the Mis-
sissippi or to avail herself of the advantage that might have resulted
from its discovery. The Great River excited no further notice after
De Soto's time. For the next hundred years it remained as it were
a sealed mystery until the French, approaching from the north by
way of the lakes, explored it in its entire length, and brought to
public light the vast extent and wonderful fertility of its valleys.
Resuming the thread of our history at the place wbere we turned aside
to notice the movements of the Spanish toward the Gulf, we now pro-
ceed with the extracts from Father Marquette's journal of the voyage
of discovery down the Mississippi.

CHAPTER VII.

JOLIET AND MARQUETTE'S VOYAGE.

The day of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin,
whom I had always invoked, since I have been in this Ottawa country,
to obtain of God the grace to be able to visit the nations on the River
Mississippi, was identically that on which M. Jollyet arrived with
orders of the Comte de Frontenac, our governor, and M. Talon, our
intendant, to make this discovery with me. I was the more enraptured
at this good news, as I saw my designs on the point of being accom-
plished, and myself in the happy necessity of exposing my life for the
salvation of all these nations, and particularly for the Illinois, who had,
when I was at Lapointe du Esprit, very earnestly entreated me to carry
the word of God to their country."

" We were not long in preparing our outfit, although we were
embarking on a voyage the duration of which we could not foresee.
Indian corn, with some dried meats, was our whole stock of provisions.
With this we set out in two bark canoes, M. Jollyet, myself and five
men, firmly resolved to do all and suffer all for so glorious an enterprise."

"It was on the 17th of May, 1673, that we started from the mission
of St. Ignatius, at Michilimakinac, where I then was."*

" Our joy at being chosen for this expedition roused our courage
and sweetened the labor of rowing from morning to night. As we
were going to seek unknown countries, we took all possible precau-
tions that, if our enterprise was hazardous, it should not be foolhardy ;
for this reason we gathered all possible information from the Indians
who had frequented those parts, and even from their accounts, traced
a map of all the new country, marking down the rivers on which we
were to sail, the names of the nations and places through which we
were to pass, the course of the Great River, and what direction we
should take when we got to it."

"Above all, I put our voyage under the protection of the Blessed
Virgin Immaculate, promising her that, if she did us the grace to dis-
cover the Great River, I would give it the name of the conception ;

* St. Ignatius was not on the Island of Mackinaw, but westward of it, on a point
of land extending into the strait, from the north shore, laid down on modern maps as
"Point St. Ignace." On this bleak, exposed and barren spot this mission was estab-
lished by Marquette himself in 1671. Shea's Catholic Missions, p. 364.

43

44 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

and that I would also give that name to the first mission I should
establish among these new nations, as I have actually done among the
Illinois."

After some days they reached an Indian village, and the journal
proceeds: "Here we are, then, at the Maskoutens. This won], in
Algonquin, may mean Fire Nation, and that is the name given to them.
This is the limit of discoveries made by the French, for they have not
yet passed beyond it. This town is made up of three nations gathered
here, Miamis, Maskoutens and Kikabous.* As bark for cabins, in this
country, is rare, they use rushes, which serve them for walls and roofs,
but which afford them no protection against the wind, and still less
against the rain when it falls in torrents. The advantage of this kind
of cabins is that they can roll them up and carry them easily where
they like in hunting time."

" I felt no little pleasure in beholding the position of this town. The
view is beautiful and very picturesque, for, from the eminence on which
it is perched, the eye discovers on every side prairies spreading away
beyond its reach interspersed with thickets or groves of trees. The
soil is very good, producing much corn. The Indians gather also
quantities of plums and grapes, from which good wine could be made
if they choose."

"No sooner had we arrived than M. Jollyet and I assembled the
Sachems. He told them that he was sent by our governor to discover
new countries, and I by the Almighty to illumine them with the light
of the gospel; that the Sovereign Master of our lives wished to be
known to all nations, and that to obey his will I did not fear death, to
which I exposed myself in such dangerous voyages; that we needed
two guides to put us on our way ; these, making them a present, we
begged them to grant us. This they did very civilly, and even pro-
ceeded to speak to us by a present, which was a mat to serve us on our
voyage."

"The next day, which was the 10th of June, two Miamis whom
they had given us as guides embarked with us in the sight of a great
crowd, who could not wonder enough to see seven Frenchmen, alone
in two canoes, dare to undertake so strange and so hazardous an expe-
dition."

" We knew that there was, three leagues from Maskoutens, a river
emptying into the Mississippi. We knew, too, that the point of the
compass we were to hold to reach it was the west-southwest, but the

*The village was near the mouth of Wolf River, which empties into Winnebago
Lake, Wisconsin. The stream was formerly called the Maskouten, and a tribe of this
name dwelt along its banks.

Marquette's voyage. 45

way is so cut up with marshes and little lakes that it is easy to go
astray, especially as the river leading to it is so covered with wild oats
that you can hardly discover the channel ; hence we had need of our
two guides, who led us safely to a portage of twenty-seven hundred
paces and helped us transport our canoes to enter this river, after
which they returned, leaving us alone in an unknown country in the
hands of Providence."*

"We now leave the waters which flow to Quebec, a distance of four
or five hundred leagues, to follow those which will henceforth lead us
into strange lands.

" Our route was southwest, and after sailing about thirty leagues we
perceived a place which had all the appearances of an iron mine, and
in fact one of our party who had seen some before averred that the one
we had found was very rich and very good. After forty leagues on
this same route we reached the mouth of our river, and finding our-
selves at 42^° N. we safely entered the Mississippi on the 17th of June
with a joy that I cannot express."f

* This portage has given the name to Portage City, Wisconsin, where the upper
waters of Fox River, emptying into Green Bay, approach the Wisconsin River, which,
coming from the northwest, here changes its course to the southwest. The distance
from the Wisconsin to the Fox River at this point is, according to Henry R. School-
craft, a mile and a half across a level prairie, and the level of the two streams is so nearly
the same that in high water loaded canoes formerly passed from the one to the other
across this low prairie. For many miles below the portage the channel of Fox River
was choked with a growth of tangled wild rice. The stream frequently expanding
into little lakes, and its winding, crooked course through the prairie, well justifies the
tradition of the Winnebago Indians concerning its origin. A vast serpent that lived
in the waters of the Mississippi took a freak to visit the great lakes ; he left his trail
where he crossed over the prairie, which, collecting the waters as they fell from the rains
of heaven, at length became Fox River. The little lakes along its course were, prob-
ably, the places where he flourished about in his uneasy slumbers at night. Mrs. John
H. Kinzie's Waubun, p. 80.

t Father Marquette, agreeably to his vow, named the river the Immaculate Concep-
tion. Nine years later, when Robert La Salle, having discovered the river in its entire
length, took possession at its mouth of the whole Mississippi Valley, he named the
river Colbert, in honor of the Minister of the' Navy, a man renowned alike for his
ability, at the head of the Department of the Marine, and for the encouragement he
gave to literature, science and art. Still later, in 1712, when the vast country drained by
its waters was farmed out to private enterprise, as appears from letters patent from the
King of France, conveying the whole to M. Crozat, the name of the river was changed
to St. Lewis. Fortunately the Mississippi retains its aboriginal name, which is a com-
pound from the two Algonquin words missi, signifying great, and sepe, a river. The
former is variously pronounced missil or michil, as in Michilimakinac ; michr, as in Mich-
igan ; missu, as in Missouri, and missi, as in the Mississeneway of the Wabash. The
variation in pronunciation is not greater than we might" expect in an unwritten lan-
guage. "The Western Indians," says Mr. Schoolcraft, " have no other word than missi
to express the highest degree of magnitude, either in a moral or in a physical sense, and
it may be considered as not only synonymous to our word great, but also magnificent,
supreme, stupendous, etc." Father Hennepin, who next to Marquette wrote concern-
ing the derivation of the name, says : "Mississippi, in the language of the Illinois,
means the great river." Some authors, perhaps with more regard for a pleasing fic-
tion than plain matter-of-fact, have rendered Mississippi "The Father of Waters;"
whereas, nos, noussei/ and nosha mean father, and neebi, nipi or ncpee mean water, as
universally in the dialect of Algonquin tribes, as does the word missi mean great and
sepi a river.

46 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

"Having descended as far as 41° 28', following the same direction,
we find that turkeys have taken the place, of game, and pisikious (buf-
falo) or wild cattle that of other beasts.

" At last, on the 25th of June, we perceived foot -prints of men by
the water-side and a beaten path entering a beautiful prairie. We
stopped to examine it, and concluding that it was a path leading to
some Indian village we resolved to go and reconnoitre ; we accordingly
left our two canoes in charge of our people, cautioning them to beware
of a surprise ; then M. Jollyet and I undertook this rather hazardous
discovery for two single men, who thus put themselves at the mercy of
an unknown and barbarous people. We followed the little path in
silence, and having advanced about two leagues we discovered a village
on the banks of the river, and two others on a hill half a league from
the former. Then, indeed, we recommended ourselves to God with all
our hearts, and having implored his help we passed on undiscovered,
and came so near that we even heard the Indians talking. We then
deemed it time to announce ourselves, as we did, by a cry which we
raised with all our strength, and then halted, without advancing any
farther. At this cry the Indians rushed out of their cabins, and hav-
ing probably recognized us as French, especially seeing a black gown,
or at least having no reason to distrust us, seeing we were but two and
had made known our coming, they deputed four old men to come and
speak to us. Two carried tobacco-pipes well adorned and trimmed
with many kinds of feathers. They marched slowly, lifting their pipes
toward the sun as if offering them to it to smoke, but yet without
uttering a single word. They were a long time coming the little way
from the village to us. Having reached us at last, they stopped to con-
sider us attentively.

" I now took courage, seeing these ceremonies, which are used by
them only with friends, and still more on seeing them covered with stuffs
which made me judge them to be allies. I, therefore, spoke to them
first, and asked them who they were. They answered that they were
Illinois, and in token of peace they presented their pipes to smoke.
They then invited us to their village, where all the tribe awaited us
with impatience. These pipes for smoking are all called in this country
calumets, a word that is so much in use that I shall be obliged to employ
it in order to be understood, as I shall have to speak of it frequently.

" At the door of the cabin in which we were to be received was an
old man awaiting us in a very remarkable posture, which is their usual
ceremony in receiving strangers. This man was standing perfectly
naked, with his hands stretched out and raised toward the sun, as if he
wished to screen himself from its rays, which, nevertheless, passed

PRESENTATION OF THE CALUMET. 47

through his fingers to his face. When we came near him he paid us
this compliment :„ ' How beautiful is the sun, O Frenchman, when
thou comest to visit us ! All our town awaits thee, and thou shalt
enter all our cabins in peace.' He then took us into his, where there
was a crowd of people, who devoured us with their eyes but kept a
profound silence. We heard, however, these words occasionally ad-
dressed to us : ' Well done, brothers, to visit us ! ' As soon as we had
taken our places they showed us the usual civility of the country,
which is to present the calumet. You must not refuse it unless you
would pass for an enemy, or at least for being very impolite. It is,
however, enough to pretend to smoke. While all the old men smoked
after us to honor us, some came to invite us, on behalf of the great
sachem of all the Illinois, to proceed to his town, where he wished to
hold a council with us. We went with a good retinue, for all the
people who had never seen a Frenchman among them could not tire
looking at us; they threw themselves on the grass by the wayside,
they ran ahead, then turned and walked back to see us again. All this
was done without noise, and with marks of a great respect entertained
for us.

" Having arrived at the great sachem's town, we espied him at his
cabin door between two old men ; all three standing naked, with their
calumet turned to the sun. He harangued us in a few words, to con-
gratulate us on our arrival, and then presented us his calumet and made
us smoke ; at the same time we entered his cabin, where we received
all their usual greetings. Seeing all assembled and in silence, I spoke
to them by four presents which I made. By the first, I said that we
marched in peace to visit the nations on the river to the sea ; by the
second, I declared to them that God, their creator, had pity on them,
since, after their having been so long ignorant of him, he wished to
become known to all nations ; that I was sent on his behalf with this
design ; that it was for them to acknowledge and obey him ; by the
third, that the great chief of the French informed them that he spread
peace everywhere, and had overcome the Iroquois ; lastly, by the fourth,
we begged them to give us all the information they had of the sea, and
of nations through which we should have to pass to reach it.

" When I had finished my speech, the sachem rose, and laying his
hand on the head of a little slave whom he was about to give us, spoke
thus : ' I thank thee, Black-gown, and thee, Frenchman,' addressing
M. Jollyet, ' for taking so much pains to come and visit us. Never has
the earth been so beautiful, nor the sun so bright, as to-day ; never has
our river been so calm, nor so free from rocks, which your canoes have
removed as they passed ; never has our tobacco had so fine a flavor,

48 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

nor our corn appeared so beautiful as we behold it to-day. Here is my
son that I give thee that thou mayest know my heart. I pray thee
take pity on me and all my nation. Thou knowest the Great Spirit
who has made us all ; thou speakest to him and hearest his word ; ask
him to give me life and health, and come and dwell with us that we
may know him.' Saying this, he placed the little slave near us and
made us a second present, an all mysterious calumet, which they value
more than a slave. By this present he showed us his esteem for our
governor, after the account we had given of him. By the third he
begged us, on behalf of his whole nation, not to proceed farther on
account of the great dangers to which we exposed ourselves.

"I replied that I did not fear death, and that I esteemed no happi-
ness greater than that of losing my life for the glory of him who made
us all. But this these poor people could not understand. The coun-
cil was followed by a great feast which consisted of four courses, which
we had to take with all their ways. The first course was a ereat wooden
dish full of sagamity, — that is to say, of Indian meal boiled in water
and seasoned with grease. The master of ceremonies, with a spoonful
of sagamity, presented it three or four times to my mouth, as we would
do with a little child ; he did the same to M. Jollyet. For the second
course, he brought in a second dish containing three fish ; he took
some pains to remove the bones, and having blown upon it to cool it,
put it in my mouth as w r e would food to a bird. For the third course
they produced a large dog which they had just killed, but, learning
that we did not eat it, withdrew it. Finally, the fourth course was a
piece of wild ox, the fattest portions of which were put into our
mouths.

" We took leave of our Illinois about the end of June, and em-
barked in sight of all the tribe, who admire our little canoes, having
never seen the like.

"As we were discoursing, while sailing gently down a beautiful,
stjll, clear water, we heard the noise of a rapid into which we were
about to fall. I have seen nothing more frightful ; a mass of large
trees, entire, with branches, — real floating islands, — came rushing from
the mouth of the river Pekitanoiii, so impetuously that we could not,
without great danger, expose ourselves to pass across. The agitation
was so great that the water was all muddy and could not get clear.*

* Pekitanoiii, with the aboriginals, signified " muddy water," on the authority of
Father Marest, in his letter referred to in a previous note. The present name, Mis-
souri, according to Le Page du Pratz, vol. 2, p. 157, was derived from the tribe, Mis-
souris, whose village was some forty leagues above its mouth, and who massacred a
French garrison situated in that part of the country. The late statesman and orator,
Thomas A. Benton, referring to the muddiness prevailing at all seasons of the year in
the Missouri River, said that its waters were "too thick to swim in and too thin to
walk on."

PLOT AGAINST MARQUETTE'S LIFE. 49

"After having made about twenty leagues due south, and a little
less to the southeast, we came to a river called Ouabouskigou, the mouth
of which is at 36° north.* This river comes from the country on the
east inhabited by the Chaouanons, in such numbers that they reckon
as many as twenty-three villages in one district, and fifteen in another,
lying quite near each other. They are by no means warlike, and are
the people the Iroquois go far to seek in order to wage an unprovoked
war upon them ; and as these poor people cannot defend themselves
they allow themselves to be taken and carried off like sheep, and, inno-
cent as they are, do not fail to experience the barbarit}' of the Iroquois,
who burn them cruelly.'

Having arrived about half a league from Akansea (Arkansas
River), we saw two canoes coining toward us. The commander was
standing up holding in his hand a calumet, with which he made signs
according to the custom of the country. He approached us, singing quite
agreeably, and invited us to smoke, after which he presented us some
sagamity and bread made of Indian corn, of which we ate a little.
We fortunately found among them a man who understood Illinois much
better than the man we brought from Mitchigameh. By means of
him, I first spoke to the assembly by ordinary presents. They admired
what I told them of God and the mysteries of our holy faith, and
showed a great desire to keep me with them to instruct them.

" We then asked them what they knew of the sea ; they replied
that we were only ten days' journey from it (we could have made the
distance in five days); that they did not know the nations who inhab-
ited it, because their enemies prevented their commerce with those
Europeans ; that the Indians with fire-arms whom we had met were
their enemies, who cut off the passage to the sea, and prevented their
making the acquaintance of the Europeans, or having any commerce
with them ; that besides we should expose ourselves greatly by passing
on, in consequence of the continual war parties that their enemies sent
out on the river; since, being armed and used to war, we could not,
without evident danger, advance on that river which they constantly
occupy.

" In the evening the sachems held a secret council on the design of
some to kill us for plunder, but the chief broke up all these schemes,
and sending for us, danced the calumet in our presence, and then, to
remove all fears, presented it to me.

"M. Jollyet and I held another council to deliberate on what we
should do, whether we should push on, or rest satisfied with the dis-

*The Wabash here appears, for the first time, by name. A more extended notice
of the various names by which this stream has been known will be given farther on.
4

50 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

covery that we had made. After having attentively considered that
we were not far from the Gulf of Mexico, the basin of which is 31°
40' north, and we at 33° 40'; so that we could not be more than two
or three days' journey off; that the Mississippi undoubtedly had its
mouth in Florida or the Gulf of Mexico, and not on the east in Vir-
ginia, whose sea-coast is at 34° north, which we had passed, without
having as yet reached the sea, nor on the western side in California,
because that would require a west, or west-southwest course, and we
had always been going south. We considered, moreover, that we
risked losing the fruit of this voyage, of which we could give no
information, if we should throw ourselves into the hands of the Span-
iards, who would undoubtedly at least hold us as prisoners. Besides
it was clear that we were not in a condition to resist Indians allied to
Europeans, numerous and expert in the use of fire-arms, who contin-
ually infested the lower part of the river. Lastly, we had gathered all
the information that could be desired from the expedition. All these
reasons induced us to return. This we announced to the Indians, and
after a day's rest prepared for it.

"After a month's navigation down the Mississippi, from the 42d to
below the 34th degree, and after having published the gospel as well
as I could to the nations I had met, we left the village of Akansea on
the 17th of July, to retrace our steps. "We accordingly ascended the
Mississippi, which gave us great trouble to stem its currents. We left
it, indeed, about the 38th degree, to enter another river (the Illinois),
which greatly shortened our way, and brought us, with little trouble,
to the lake of the Illinois.

" We had seen nothing like this river for the fertility of the land, its
prairies, woods, wild cattle, stag, deer, wild-cats, bustards, swans, ducks,
parrots, and even beaver; its many little lakes and rivers. That on
which we sailed is broad deep and gentle for sixty-five leagues.
During the spring and part of the summer, the only portage is half a
league.

" We found there an Illinois town called Kaskaskia, composed of
seventy-four cabins ; they received us well, and compelled me to promise
them to return and instruct them. One of the chiefs of this tribe, with
his young men, escorted us to the Illinois Lake, whence at last we
returned in the close of September to the Bay of the Fetid (Green Bay),
whence we had set out in the beginning of June. Had all this voyage
caused but the salvation of a single soul, I should deem all my fatigue
well repaid, and this I have reason to think, for, when I was returning,
I passed by the Indians of Peoria. I was three days announcing the
faith in their cabins, after which, as we were embarking, they brought

BIOGRAPHY OF JOLIET. * • 51

me, on the water's edge, a dying child, which I baptized a little before
it expired, by an admirable providence for the salvation of that inno-
cent sonl."

Count Frontenac, writing from Quebec to M. Colbert, Minister of
the Marine, at Paris, under date of November 14, 1674, announces that
"Sieur Joliet, whom Monsieur Talon advised me, on my arrival from
France, to dispatch for the discovery of the South Sea, has returned three
months ago. He has discovered some very fine countries, and a navi-
gation so easy through beautiful rivers he has found, that a person can
go from Lake Ontario in a bark to the Gulf of Mexico, there being
only one carrying place (around Niagara Falls), where Lake Ontario
communicates with Lake Erie. I send you, by my secretary, the map
which Sieur Joliet has made of the great river he has discovered, and
the observations he has been able to recollect, as he lost all his minutes
and journals in the shipwreck he suffered within sight of Montreal,
where, after having completed a voyage of twelve hundred leagues,
he was near being drowned, and lost all his papers and a little Indian
whom he brought from those countries. These accidents have caused
me great regret."*

Louis Joliet, or Jolliet, or Jolly et, as the name is variously spelled,
was the son of Jean Joliet, a wheelwright, and Mary d'Abancour; he
was born at Quebec in the year 1645. Having finished his studies at
the Jesuit college he determined to become a member of that order, and
with that purpose in view took some of the minor orders of the society
in August, 1662. He completed his studies in 1666, but during this
time his attention had become interested in Indian affairs, and he laid
aside all thoughts of assuming the " black gown." That he acquired
great ability and tact in managing the savages, is apparent from the
fact of his having been selected to discover the south sea by the way of
the Mississippi. The map which he drew from memory, and which
was forwarded by Count Frontenac to France, was afterward attached
to Marquette's Journal, and was published by Therenot, at Paris, in
1681. Sparks, in his " Life of Marquette," copies this map,- and ascribes
it to his hero. This must be a mistake, since it differs quite essentially
from Marquette's map, which has recently been brought to public notice
by Dr. Shea.

Joliet's account of the voyage, mentioned by Frontenac, is published
in Hennepin's " Discovery of a Vast Country in America." It is very
meagre, and does not present any facts not covered by Marquette's nar-
rative.

In 1680 Joliet was appointed hydrographer to the king, and many

* Paris Documents, vol. 9, p. 121.

52 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

well-drawn maps at Quebec show that his office was no sinecure. After-
ward, he made a voyage to Hudson's Bay in the interest of the king;
and as a reward for the faithful performance of his duty, he was granted
the island of Anticosti, which, on account of the fisheries and Indian
trade, was at that time very valuable. After this, he signed himself
Joliet d'Anticosty. In the year 1G97, he obtained the seignory of
Joliet on the river Etchemins, south of Quebec. M. Joliet died in
1701, leaving a wife and four children, the descendants of whom are
living in Canada still possessed of the seignory of Joliet, among whom
are Archbishop Taschereau of Quebec and Archbishop Tache of Red
River.

Mount Joliet, on the Desplaines River, above its confluence with the
Kankakee, and the city of Joliet, in the county of "Will, perpetuate
the name of Joliet in the state of Illinois.

Jacques Marquette was born in Laon, France, in 1637. His was
the oldest and one of the most respectable citizen families of the place.
At the age of seventeen he entered the Society of Jesus; received or-
ders in 1666 to embark for Canada, arriving at Quebec in September
of the same year. For two years he remained at Three Rivers, study-
ing the different Indian dialects under Father Gabriel Druillentes.
At the end of that period he received orders to repair to the upper
lakes, which he did, and established the Mission of Sault Ste. Marie.
The following year Dablon arrived, having been appointed Superior of
the Ottawa missions; Marquette then went to the " Mission of the Holy
Ghost" at the western extremity of Lake Superior; here he remained
for two years, and it was his accounts, forwarded from this place, that
caused Frontenac and Talon to send Joliet on his voyage to the Mis-
sissippi. The Sioux having dispersed the Algonquin tribes at Lapointe,
the latter retreated eastward to Mackinaw ; Marquette followed and
tbunded there the Mission of St. Ignatius. Here he remained until
Joliet came, in 1673, with orders to accompany him on his voyage of
discovery down the Mississippi. Upon his return, Marquette remained
at Mackinaw until October, 1674, when he received orders to carry out
his pet project of founding the " Mission of the Immaculate Concep-
tion of the Blessed Virgin " among the Illinois. He immediately set
out, but owing to a severe dysentery, contracted the year previous, he
made but slow progress. However, he reached Chicago Creek, De-
cember -4, where, growing rapidly worse, he was compelled to winter.
On the 29th of the following March he set out for the Illinois town,
on the river of that name. He succeeded in getting there on the 8th
of April. Being cordially received by the Indians, he was enabled to
realize his long deferred and much cherished project of establishing

DEATH OF MARQUETTE. 53

the " Mission of the Immaculate Conception.' 1 Believing that his life
was drawing to a close, he endeavored to reach Mackinaw before his
death should take place. But in this hope he was doomed to disap-
pointment ; by the time he reached Lake Michigan " he was so weak
that he had to be carried like a child." One Saturday, Marquette and
his two companions entered a small stream — which still bears his
name — on the eastern side of Lake Michigan, and in this desolate
spot, virtually alone, destitute of all the comforts of life, died James
Marquette. His life-long wish to die a martyr in the holy cause of
Jesus and the Blessed Virgin, was granted. Thus passed away one of
the purest and most sacrificing servants of God, — one of the bravest
and most heroic of men.

The biographical sketch of Joliet has been collated from a number
of reliable authorities, and is believed truthful. Our notice of Father
Marquette is condensed from his life as written by Dr. Shea, than
whom there is no one better qualified to perform the task.

CHAPTER VIII.

EXPLORATIONS BY LA SALLE.

The success of the French, in their plan of colonization, was so
great, and the trade with the savages, exchanging fineries, guns, knives,
and, more than all, spirituous liquors for valuable furs, yielded such
enormous profits, that impetus was given to still greater enterprises.
They involved no less than the hemming in of the British colonies
along the Atlantic coast and a conquest of the rich mines in Mexico,
from the Spanish. These purposes are boldly avowed in a letter of
M. Talon, the king's enterprising intendant at Quebec, in 1071 ; and
also in the declarations of the great Colbert, at Paris, "I am," says M.
Talon, in his letter to the king referred to, " no courtier, and assert,
not through a mere desire to please the king, nor without just reason,
that this portion of the French monarchy will become something
grand. What I discover around me makes me foresee this ; and those
colonies of foreign nations so long settled on the seaboard already
tremble with fright, in view of what his majesty has accomplished
here in the interior. The measures adopted to confine them within
narrow limits, by taking possession, which I have caused to be effected,
do not allow them to spread, without subjecting themselves, at the
same time, to be treated as usurpers, and have war waged against them.
This in truth is what by all their acts they seem to greatly fear. They
already know that your name is spread abroad among the savages
throughout all those countries, and that they regard your majesty alone
as the arbitrator of peace and war; they detach themselves insensibly
from other Europeans, and excepting the Iroquois, of whom I am not
as } 7 et assured, we can safely promise that the others will take up a.rms
whenever we please." " The principal result," says La Salle, in his
memoir at a later day, ( ' expected from the great perils and labors which
I underwent in the discovery of the Mississippi Mas to satisfy the wish
expressed to me by the late Monsieur Colbert, of finding a port where
the French might establish themselves and harass the Spaniards in
those regions from