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HISTORIC NOTES
THE NOETHWEST
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. BECK WITH,
Of the Danyille Bar ; Corresponding Member of the Historical Societies of
Wisconsin and Chicago.
WITH MAP AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
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CHICAGO:
H. H. HILL AND COMPANY, PUBLISHERS.
1879.
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Copyright, 1879.
By II. W. BECKWITII AND SON.
KNIGHT S-. LEONARD . I
PREFACE.
In the following pajyes the writer has hmited himself, for the most part, to the ter-
ritorj' watered by the Illinois, the St. Joseph of Lake Michigan, the Mauniee and the
Wabash rivers. He has chosen to do so to the end that the early history of the country
treated of might be the more fully considered. The topographical features of, and the
military and civil events occurring in, localities beyond these limits have been noticed
only in so far as they are directly connected with, or tend to illustrate the field occu-
pied.
It has been an aim of the writer to.perpetuate the history of the relations which the
discovery and early commerce of the northwdfet has sustained to its peculiar topograph-
ical features. Nature made the routes and pointed out the means of our inland com-
munication. The first explorations of the northwest were made by way of the lakes,
the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers, the St. Josephs of Lake Michigan, the Illinois River
and Chicago Creek, the Maumee and' the Wabash and their connecting portages.
These were also the routes by which the first commerce was carried on. Formerly the
country was a wilderness of forests and praii'ies, and the abode of wild animals and the
wild men who hunted them for their furs and skins, which were the only commodities
for export. In the progress of time the fur-bearing animals and the Indians have dis-
appeared. The wilderness has been subdued, and the products of its cultivated fields
now find their way to the marts of Europe. The canoe which carried the furs and pel-
tries to tide water gave way to the canal boat, and the canal boat has been supplanted
by the steamer and the railway car. The routes have ahrnj/s remained essentiaUi/ the
same. They have merely been enlarged and perfected from time to time, to meet the
ever-increasing demands of the west in the successive stages of its development.
The country drained by the rivers we have named is x-ich in the poesy and romance
of history, reaching back nearly two centuries in the past, where the outlines of
written records fade away in the twilight and charm tradition. By the routes we have
named came the Jesuit Fathers, with crucifix and altar, bearing the truths of Chris-
tianity to distant and savage tribes. Along these routes passed the Coureurs-de-hois
and the VoyageHrs, — gay and happy sons of France — with knives, guns, blankets and
trinkets to exchange with the Indians for products of the chase. Following the
traders came French colonists, who, on their way from Canada to Louisiana, passed
up the Maumee and down the Wabash, nearly three-quarters of a century before the
Declaration of Independence was proclaimed.
Along these streams were the villages of the most powerful Lidian confederacies.
It was but natural that they should defend their country against the encroachment of
another race; and the strife between the two for its possession furnishes material for
many thrilling events in its history. In treating of the Indians, the writer has had no
theories to advocate or morbid sentiments to gratify; he has only quoted what he has
found in volumes regarded as standard authorities, without prejudice in favor or
against this people. They have given away before an inexorable law, the severity of
which could have been only modified at best. The writer believes the dominant race,
out of their love for truth, will accord the Indian that even-handed justice to which he
4 PREFACE.
is liistoriciilly entitled. Our knowledge of this people is fragmentary at best. They
kept no records, and have no historians. All we know of them is to be found in the
writings of persons who, if not their open enemies, at least had little interest in doing
them justice. As a rule, early travelers have only alluded in an incidental way to the
aboriginal inhabitants, or their manners and customs. We know, at best, but very
little of the Indians who formerly occupied the country east of the Mississippi. They
have passed away, and the information that has been preserved concerning them is so
scattered through the volumes of authors who have written from other motives, and at
different dates or of different nations, without taking thought to discriminate, that
anything like a satisfactory account of a particular tribe is not attainable. However,
the writer has in the following pages given the result of his gleanings over a wide
field of authors, — French, English and American, — so far as they relate to the several
tribes who formerly occupied that portion of the Northwest to which the attention of
the reader has been called. The writer has preserved the aboriginal, as well as the
French and early English names of the lakes, rivers, Indian villages and other locali-
ties possessing historical interest, whenever attainable from books, maps or manu-
scripts to which he has had access.
Commercial enterprise led to the exploration of the northwest. It was competition
for the fur trade between rival races, the French and the Anglo-Saxon, that produced
the collision between the subjects of the two colonies in America, that finally cul-
minated in a war between France and England, aided by their respective colonies,
that resulted in the loss of the whole Mississippi valley to its first discoverers. It was
a desire to retain control of the fur trade that contributed largely to the bitterness of
the Indian border wars that commenced as soon as emigration began to extend itself
west of the AUeganies; and the same cause prolonged the Indian ti-oubles for years
after the country had ceased to be a part of the dominion of either France or Great
Britain.
Beginning with the mission work of the Jesuit Fathers on the southern shore of
Lake Superior, in 1660, and extending down to 1800, but little is known of the country
lying north and west of the Ohio river; and the meagre material is only to be found in
antiquated books and maps long out of print, or in manuscript correspondence of
a private or official character, none of which is accessible to the general reader. It is
chiefly from these sources that most of the matter contained in the present volume has
been collated. As far as practicable the writer has preferred to introduce his author-
ities upon the stand and let them tell their stories in their own language, leaving the
readers to draw their own conclusions from what the witnesses have stated. Wherever
attainable, original sources of information are given.
Besides such authors as Hennepin, Charlevoix and the invaluable translations and
contributions of Dr. John G. Shea, the writer has availed himself freely of the Jesuit
Relations and the publications of the historical societies of Louisiana, Pennsylvania,
Massachusetts, New York and Wisconsin.
The writer is conscious that his task, voluntarily assumed, has been but indifterently
performed. H. W. B.
Danvillk, Ii.i,., Nov. 5, 1879.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Topography — The drainage of the Lakes and the Mississippi, and the Indian and
French names by which they were severally called 10
CHAPTER n.
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 — Formerly Lakes Michigan and
Superior drained into the Illinois, and Lakes Huron and Erie into the Wa-
bash — The portage of the Wabash and the Kankakee 21
CHAPTER IV.
The rainfall — It has increased, although the rivers seem to have diminished, since
the settlement of the Northwest — Cultivation of the soil tends to equalize rain-
fall, and prevent the recurrence of drouths and floods 26
CHAPTER V.
Origin of the prairies — Their former extent — Gradual encroachment of the for-
est — 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 Champlain 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 — Early explorations of the French missionaries along
the shore of Lake Superior — They first learn of the Mississippi — Father Mar-
quette desires to explore it — The French government determine on its explora-
tion — Theories as to whether the Mississippi emptied into the Sea of Califor-
nia, the Gulf of Mexico, or the Atlantic — Joliet and Marquette selected to
solve the problem — Spanish discoveries of the lower Mississippi in 1525 37
CHAPTER VII.
Joliet and Marquette's Voyage— They leave Mackinaw May 17, 1673 — They pro-
ceed, by way of Green Bay and the Wisconsin, as far as the mouth of the
Arkansas — Return by way of the Illinois and Chicago Creek — Father Mar-
quette's Journal, descriptive of the journey and the country through which they
traveled — Biographical sketches of Marquette and Joliet. 43
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VIII.
La Salle's Voyage — Biographical sketch of La Salle — His noncessions and titles
of nobility — Preparations for his explorations — Sketch of Father Hennepin
and the merit of his writings — La Salle reaches the Niagara River in Decem-
ber, 1C78, builds the ship Griffin and proceeds up Lake Erie, and reaches
Mackinaw in August, 1679 54
CHAPTER IX.
La Salle's Voyage continued — Mackinaw the headquarters of the Indian trade —
The Griffin starts back to Niagara River with a cargo of furs, and is lost upon
the lake — La Salle resumes his voyage in birch canoes, south along the west
shore of Lake Michigan, and around its southern extremity to the mouth of
the St. Joseph, where he erects Fort Miamis 68
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 " — La Salle goes back to
Canada — Destruction of his forts by deserters — His return to Fort Miamis,
and the successful prosecution of his exploration to the mouth of the Missis-
sippi — The whole valley of the great river taken possession of in the name of
the King of France 73
CHAPTER XI.
Death of La Salle, in attempting to establish a colony near the mouth of the
MissLssippi — Chicago Creek — The origin of the name — Fort St. Louis built
by Tonti at Starved Rock — La Salle assassinated and his colony destroyed —
Joutel, with other survivors, return by way of the Illinois — Second attempt
of France, under Mons. Iberville, in 1699, to establish settlements on the
Gulf — Cession of all Louisiana to M. Crozat^Crozat's deed from the King —
The Western Company — Law's scheme of inflation and its consequences —
New Orleans founded in 1718 — Fort Chartes erected, and its appearance 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 96
CHAPTER XIII.
Aboriginal inhabitants — The several Illinois tribes — "Of the name Illinois, andist
origin — The Kaskaskias, Cahokias, Taniaroas, Peorias and Metchigamis, sub-
divisions of the Illinois Confederacy — First mentioned by the Jesuit mission-
aries in 1655 — Tlieir habits and morals — Their country and villages — Their
wars with the Iroquois and othi'r tribes — The tradition concerning the Iro-
quois River — Their decline and removal westward of the Missouri 105
TARLE OF CONTKNTS.
CHAPTER XIV.
The Mianiis — The Miami, Piankeshaw and Wea bands— Tliey are kindred to the
Illinois, originally from the west of the Mississippi — Their superiority and
their military disposition — Their subdivisions and various names — Their trade
and difficulties with the French and the English' — Their migrations — They
are upon the Maumee and Wabash — Their Villages — From their position
between the French and English they suffer at the hands of both — They defeat
the Iroquois — They trade with the English, and incur the anger of the French
— Their braverj- — Their decline — Destructive effects of intemperance — Cession
of their lands in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. — Their removal westward and
present condition 119
CHAPTER XV.
The Pottawatomies — They and the Ottawas and Ojibbewaj's one people — Origi-
nally 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 east-
ward — Their games — Origin of the name Pottawatomie — Allies of the French
— 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 — Their
condition in Kansas — Their progress toward civilization 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 — Not inclined
to their teachings — They kill one missionary and retain another in captiv-
ity — On the Maumee in 1712 — In southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois
— Migrate to the Wabash — Derivation of the name Mascoutin — Dwellers
of the prairie — Identity of the Kickapoos with the Mascoutins — Their
destruction at the siege of Detroit — They were always enemies of the
French, English and Americans — Nearly destroy the Illinois and Pianke-
shaws, and occupy their country — Join Tecumseh in a body — They, with
the Winnebagoes, attack Fort Harrison — Pa-koi-shee-cnu'' s account of the
engagement — Ka-en-ne-kuck becomes a religious teacher — The wild bands
make trouble on the Texas border — Their country between the Illinois and
Wabash — Their resemblance to the Sac and Fox Indians 153
CHAPTER XVII.
The Shawnees and Delawares — Originally east of the Alleghany Mountains —
Are sybdued aud driven out by the Iroquois — Marquette finds the Shawnees
on the Tennessee in 1673 — At one time in Florida — In 1744 they are in Ohio
— 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
The Delawares — Made women of by the Iroquois — Their country on White
River, Indiana, and eastward defined — Become friendly to the United States
after Wayne's victory at Maumee Rapids, in 1794 — They, with the Shawnees,
sent west of the Mississippi — They furnish soldiers in the war for the Union
— Adopting ways of the white people l'<^0
8 TABLE OP CONTEXTS.
CHAPTER XVIII.
The Indians — Their implements, utensils, fortifications, mounds, manners and
customs 1^0
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 disappear-
ance — Value of the fur trade; its importance to Canada — The conreurs de
bois; their food and peculiai'ities — Goods for Indian trade — The distant parts
to which the fur trade was carried, and the manner in which it was conducted —
Competition between French and English for control of the fur trade — It
results in broils — French traders killed on the Vermilion — The French and
• Indians attack Fort Pickawillany — War 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 — Military expeditions of Major Grant,
Mons. Aubrj' and M. de Ligneris — Aubry attempts to retake Fort Du Quesne
— His expedition up the Wabash — Goes to the relief of Fort Niagara — Is de-
feated by Sir William Johnson — The, fall of Quebec and Montreal — Surrender
of the Northwest to Great Britain — The territory west of the Mississippi ceded
to Spain 224
CHAPTER XXII.
Pontiac's war to recover the country from the English — The siege of Detroit — The
fall of Mackinaw, Saint Joseph, Miamis and Ouiatanon — Relief of Detroit —
Pontiac's confederacy falls to pieces — Croghan sent west to recover possession
of the country from the Indians — Is captured and carried to Fort Ouiatanon —
The country turned over to the English — Pontiac's death 234
CHAPTER XXIII.
Gen. Clark's conquest of the "lUinois" — The Revolutionary war — Indian depre-
dations upon the settlements of Kentucky — The savages are supplied with
ai'ms and ammunition from the English posts at Detroit, Vincennes and Kas-
kaskia — Gen. Clark applies to Gov. Henry, of Virginia, for aid in an enter-
prise to capture Kaskaskia and Vincennes — Sketch of Gen. Clark — His
manuscript memoir of his march to the Illinois — He captures Kaskaskia —
The surrender of Vincennes — He treats with the Indians, who agree to quit
their warfare on the Big Knife — Gov. Hamilton, of Detroit, re-captures Vin-
cennes — Clark's march to Vincennes — He re-takes Vincennes, and makes the
English forces prisoners of war — Capt. Helm surpi'ises a convoy of English
boats at the mouth of the Vermilion River — Organization of the northwest
territory into Illinois county of Virginia — Clark holds the Northwest until the
conclusion of the revolutionary war. For this reason only it became a part of
the United States 246
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XXIV.
Illinois county established — The northwest territory — The ordinance of 1787 —
A bill of rights — Free-school system — Provisions for states — Old boundaries
between Canada and Louisiana — Indian wars — The Indian country on the
Wabash and Maumee ravaged — England refuses to surrender military posts
within the northwest territory — The first treaty between the United States
and the Wabash tribes, at Vincennes. in 1792 — The great white wampum
belt of peace, with medal suspended, delivered by Gen. Putnam — The medal,
and where afterward found — The British medal — St. Clair's defeat — Futile
efforts ta obtain peace — Wayne marches from Greenville to the Maumee and
gains a great victory over the confederated tribes — Treaty of Greenville —
Wayne's death 260
CHAPTER XXV.
The northwest territory divided — Wm. H. Harrison appointed governor of the
Indiana territory — Its subdivision into counties — Biographical sketch of Gov. >
Harrison — Tecumseh and his brother, the Prophet — They organize a scheme
to drive the white settlers beyond the Ohio — Illinois Territory formed — Its
subdivision into the counties of Randolph and St. Clair — DeTelopment of
Tecumseh 's plans — The Tippecanoe campaign — Lme of Harrison's march —
Official account of the battle — Incidents — War of 1812 — A large part of the
Northwest in the hands of the English and Indians — Fall of Fort Dearborn —
Siege of Forts Wayne and Harrison — Gen. Taylor's report of the attack on
Fort Harrison — The naval engagement on Lake Erie — The battle of the
Thames — Tecumseh had "fought it out" with Gen. Harrison — The north
recovered by Gen. Harrison — The old boundaries restored — Peace concluded —
Advance of population — Conclusion .* . . v. 278
HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
CHAPTER I.
TOPOGRAPHY.
The reader will have a better understanding of the manner in
wliich 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
conntry, without some preliminary knowledge of its topograph3\
Looking upon a map of Xorth America, it is observed that west-
ward of tlie Alleghany Mountains the waters are divided into two
gi-eat masses ; the one, composed of waters floM'ing into the great
northern lakes, is, by. the river St. Lawrence, carried into the xVtlantic
Ocean ; the other, collected by a multitude of streams spread out like
a vast net over the surface of more tlum 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, whicli he had explored the year before, and
named it the St. Lawrence, in memory of the holy martyr wliose 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 iriven l)v the Indians to the whole countrv.* Tlie drainage of
the St. Lawrence and the lakes extends through 11 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.
11
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 Bufflilo, 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 Hurons call it Lake Erige, or Erike, that is to say, the Lake
of the Cat, and the inhabitants of Canada have softened the M'ord to
Erie ; " vide " A New Discovery of a Vast Countr}^ 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.
Champlain's map, 1633, 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 Onfra, a lake, and io,
beautiful, the compound word meanmg a beautiful lake ; vide Letter of I>ul5ois
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; ride
" New \'oyages 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 Count Frontenac, Governor-General of Canada.
t Narrative of Father Zenolna Membre, who accompanied Sieur La Salle in the
voyage westward on tliis 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."
t 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
swift, 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.:}: Recently 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, ' Angnst 4,
1663 : Paris Documents, vol. 9. p. 16.
1 Charlevoix' " History of New France, " voi. 3, p. 110; also note.
14 HISTOKIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
poetically iind 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 xihove 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 hei-eafter 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 jierpetuated 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 athis.
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,t 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
Hurons, christianized and dwelling eastward of Lake Huron, had been
driven from their towns and cultivated fields by the L-oquois, and scat-
tered about Mackinaw and the desolate coast of Lake Superior beyond,
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 Miarais, " Mischigonong, that is, the
great lake." * Father Marest, in a letter dated at Kaskaskia, Illinois,
November 9, 1712, so often referred to on account of the valuable his-
torical matter it contains, contracts the aboi'iginal name to Michigan,
and is, .perhaps, the first author who ever spelt it in the way that has
become universal. He naively says, "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 (raishi 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 Eaxly 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 Lidiana. 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 boundarv-
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 River, 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 " (razetteers " 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
An 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. Tlie 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 discover}' 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 infrecpicntly issue from the same lake, pond or marsh situated
on the sunnnit 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.
coinniunication was coin])lete. At otlier seasons of the year it was
interrupted, when transfers In* land were required for a short distance.
Tlie phices where these ti'ansfcrs were made are known by the French
term poi'ttuje^ wliicli. 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 l)e 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 ns, 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 emptier into
Lake Michigan at Chicago, and the Desplaines of the Illinois Tiiver.
The third is tlie 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 ])ortage
of the Wal)ash at Ft. Wayne. Lidiana, between the Maumee and the
Wabash, by way of Little River.
Though al)andoned 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 Ijetween their possessions in Canada and along the Mississippi.
Formei'ly 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 Fi'ench, who were the iirst explorers, at an earl}^ day, as we sliall
hereafter see, established posts at Detroit, at the mouth of the Kiagara
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 liome government, held the whole Mississippi
Valle}' 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 I'ORTAGE. 19
licciiiTing 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 Rivers 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 arc [)lainly indicated in the ridges, trending westward several
miles away from the present \vater line. The old state road, from
Yincennes 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 ])ortage 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 becti 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^Tth 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 l)y the Canadian voy-
agers under the name of 'Ze 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 2^htd Lake.
20 HISTORIC NOTES OF THE NOKTHWEST.
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 tirst 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. IJobson, 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 da^wof 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 ma}' 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 Y, 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
AVilliams 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 purallcl, 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, Avithout meeting the underlying limestone. Most of the inter-
val from Ft. Wayne to Huntington is occupied l)y 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 Hui-on, 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 scientiflc observer.
The portage, or carrying place, of the Wabash,* as known to the
early explorers and traders, between the Maumee and Wabash, or rather
t)ie 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 were united l)y 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. Schoolcrart made an examination of the locality,
with a view to furnish the pulilic information on the practicability of a canal to unite
the waters of the Maumee and the Wabash. It was at a time when oreat interest
existed through all parts of the country on all subjects of internal navigation.
FOKTAGE OF THE WABASH. 23
of ground or marsh (an ami or bay of what is now called Bear Lake),
where the two streams flow within one hundred and fifty yards of each
otlier and admitted of tlie passage of light canoes from the one to the
otlier.
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 Xew 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 canning canoes, furs and merchandise
around the portage, for which they charged a connnission. At the
great treaty of Greenville, 171*5, where General Anthony Wayne met
the several Wabash tribes, he insisted, as one of tlie 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
Wavne 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,
an(.l 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 ns they wished to
purchase our lands from us. The next place you pointed out was the
Little Biver, and said you wanted two miles square of that place. This
is a re(piest 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 sul)sistence of your brothers. That place has l)rought
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
Blind, Indiana, — the city deriving its name from ihehend 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 hike. AVest of the city is Lake Kankakee, from
whicli 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 1S32 a Mr. Alexander Croquillard dug a race, and secured
a tlow of water from the lake to the St. Joseph, of sufficient power to
run a grist and saw mill." *
This is tlie 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 daj- 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 onl}' 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. I\I. Levette's Kepoit 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 month of the St.
Joseph), letters hanging down from the trees, containing M. La Salle's
instructions to our pilot, and the other iive-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 Hiver (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 IV.
RAINFALL.
An interesting topic connected with our rivers is the question of
rainfall. Tlie 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 carr}- a less
volume of water than formerly. Indeed, the water-courses seem to be
gradually diwing up, and the whole surface of the country drained l)y
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 Yin-
cennes. In the months of February, March and A]iril 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 w^ere large
side-wheel steamers, built for navigating the Ohio and Mississippi, and
known as New Orleajis 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 w-hen swollen
with freshets, M-hich 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 \he 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 184u, when the people of
these two states were crazed over the (juestion of internal navigation,
providing enactments and chartei's for the slack-water improvement of
* Tanner's View of the Mississippi, published in 1832, p. 154.
26 V
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 sucli
legislation and invested with the promise of bearing upon their bosoms
a portion of the fnture 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
i^ 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 JSIebraska. 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 alarmii:^g;
* 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 })utrid. It may be remarked, however, that such seasons
rarely occur; but on account of its being washed by rivers of such
immense lengtii this section of the country is peculiarly liable to sutler
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 liow of water, and fed it out graduall}^ 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 witli 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 well
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 oft' with increased velocit}-. Formerly the
streams would sustain their volume continuousl}- 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 iloes 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 specuhition. 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, II. M. Braekenridge 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 w^ere caused by fire. The prairies are covered Avith
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 caiise. They are very different from the Savannahs on the
seaboard and the innnense 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 Magor Amos Stoddard, p. 213.
t Brackenridge's Views of Louisiana, p. 108.
29
30 HISTORIC NOTES ON TH li NORTHWEST.
Governor Reynolds, who came to Illinois at the age of thirteen, in
the year ISOO, 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 afiairs 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 tlie 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 ablj' 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 M'ell 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 vai'ious
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, exce])t 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 far 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 ])rairie, it is always in or near the humid portions of it, — as
along the nuirgins 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 XOTKS ON THE XOUTUWEST.
example I may refer to that great chain of groves extending from and
including the An Sable Grove on the east and llolderman's Grove on
the west, in Kendall county, occupying the liigli 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
M'here 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 niost 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 loest., and these give direction to the prairie fires. Conse-
quently, the lands on the westerl}' 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
oljservation of more than thirty-five years, during which 1 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 vears au'o I heard the observation made bv intellii^ent
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
neous extension of the natnral 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 lire 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 Eiver, 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 county, and going northward, nearly on an air-line, keeping on the
divide between the Kaskaskia and Little Wabash, the Sangamon and
the Yermillion, the Iroquois and the Vermillion of the Illinois, cross-
ing the latter stream between the mouths of the Fox and Du Page and
travel through to the state of AVisconsin, 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, fiiil to give an ade-
quate idea of its magnitude.
Let the reader, in fancy, go back fifty or sixty 3'ears, when there
were no farms between the settlement on the Xorth 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 ; wlien 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 diiference 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 ra})idly 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 the
vegetation of our prairies, including Fathers Hennepin, St. Cosme,
Charlevoix and others, who recorded their personal observations nearly
two hundred years ago, as well as later English and American travel-
ers, bear uniform testimony to the fact of an unusually luxuriant
growth of grasses.
Earl}' 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 1S23, —
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
Georiietown, the i>:rass o-rew so hi^h that it Avas 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 heii::ht beiuijj 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 lunnan life, or animals, may have sometimes occurred.
The advance of the lire 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 sufiered
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 ofi" 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.f 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 Yincennes, 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 HISTOUIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
prairie, — always excepting the tliin curtain of timber draping tlie
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 ai-e 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
fires 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 them. 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 VL
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 our 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. J.acques 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 undertool^ 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 1(507 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-
37
38 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
where. However, Mr. Samuel Champlain, 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
Hover 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 Renty, 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,
1640 ; 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 forty 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. de Maisonneuve embarked
M'ith his colony on three vessels, which sailed from Rochelle and
Dieppe, in the summer of 1641. The colon}^ wintered in Quebec,
spending their time in building boats and preparing timber for their
houses ; and on the Stli 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.
fFroiu "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 IGll, and chose it as a place for a
settlement he designed to establish, but which he did not begin, as he was oljliged to
return to France; ride 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 1686, had increased to 12,373 souls. 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 j^laced
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, 1665. Here he found ten or twelve fragments of
Algonquin tribes assembled and about to hang the war kettle over the
tire 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 curiosity, — 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 Manpiette 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 THK NORTHWEST.
his Reverend Father Superior, preserved in the Relations for 1669 and
1670, he says: "When the Illinois come to the point the}' 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 (Shawnecs) 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 connnunication 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 M'ho 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 Yiiginia; 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 afl:brd 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, Avhen informed
by the latter that he was to be Joliet's companion, ''1 am ready to <^'o
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 differs 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 Xarvaez, 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 Eui'opeans 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 inflictina: 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 15G5, Spain, filling 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 tlie 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 where we turned aside
to notice the movements of the Spanish toward the Gulf, we now pro-
ceed witli 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 nuike this discovery with rae. 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 countr3^"
" 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 mornino; to niffht. 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 wliich we
were to pass, the course of the Great Kiver, 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, hut 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.
4.3
44 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
and that I would also give that name to the first mission I should
estal)lish 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 word, 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, Miarais, Maskoutens and Kikabous.* As bark for cabins, in tliis
country, is rare, they use rushes, which serve them for walls and roofs,
but which aftbrd 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 everj^ 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 [is 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 live 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 tact one of our ]:)arty 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
Avith a joy that I cannot express."t
* 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 Indiaus 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 wei-e, 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 sepc, a river. The
former is variously pronounced »iissil or michil, as in Michilimakinac ; »tichi, 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 (freat, 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, uoiissci/ and nosha mean father, and neebi, nij>i or iicpee 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 liave 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 accordingh^
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 w^ere. 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 THK CALUMKT. 47
through liis fingers to liis tace. When we came near him he ])aid us
tliis compliment: 'How beautiful is the sun, O Frenchman, when
thou comest to visit us I All our town awaits thee, and thou slialt
enter all our cabins in peace/ lie then took us into his, where there
was a crowd of people, who devoured us with tlieir 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 wdiich 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 w^as for them to acknowledge and obey him ; b}' 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, Frenclnnan,' addressing
M. Jollyet, 'for taking so much ])ains 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 onr 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 ns his esteem for our
governor, after the account we had given of him. By the tliird 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. Tlie fii-st course was a great 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 bjown upon it to cool it,
put it in my mouth as we 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,
still, 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 I\Iarest, in his letter referred to in a previous note. The present naine. Mis-
souri, according to Le Page du Pratz, vol. 2. p. 157, was derived from the trilje, 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 niuddiness 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."
PLOr 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 barbarity of the Iroquois,
who burn them cruelly.'
Having- arrived about half a league from Akansea (Arkansas
River), we saw two canoes coming 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.
AVe 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 Indian^ 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 oft"; that the Mississippi undonbtedlj' 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 tliat we were not in a condition to resist Indians allied to
Europeans, numerous and expert in the use of ftre-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 tlie fertility of the land, its
prairies, woods, wild cattle, stag, deer, M'ild-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
BIOGKAPHY OF JOLIET. 51
me, oil 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 soul."
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 Jollyet, 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 faitiiful 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 1697, 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 Eed
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-
inof tlie difl^erent Indian dialects under Father Gabriel Druillentes.
At the end of that period he received ordei-s 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
founded 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 reuiained
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 conipelled 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." 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 Saturda}^, Marquette and
liis 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
Marcpiette 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 1671 ; 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 ma 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 accomj^lished
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 the}' 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 3'et assured, we can safely promise that the others will take up arms
whenever we please." " Tlie principal result," says La Salle, i-n his
memoir at a later day, '* expected from the great perils and labors which
I underwent in the discovery of the Mississippi was to satisfy the wish
expressed to me by the late Monsieur Colbert, of finding a port where
the P'rench might establish themselves and harass the Spaniards in
those regions from whence they derive all their wealth. The place I
propose to fortify lies sixty leagues above the mouth of the river Col-
bert (^. e. Mississippi) in the Gulf of Mexico, and possesses all the
advantages for such a purpose which can be wished for, both on account
54
EARLY LIFE OF LA SALLE. 55
of its excellent position and the favorable disposition of the savages who
live in that part of the country."* It is not our province to indulf/e
in conjectures as to how lar these daring purposes of Talon and Col-
bert would have succeeded had not the latter died, and their active
assistant, Robert La Salle, have lost his life, at the hands of an assassin,
when in the act of executing the preliminary part of the enterprise.
We turn, rather, to matters of historical record, and proceed with a
condensed sketch of the life and voyages of La Salle, as it was his dis-
coveries that led to the colonization of the Mississippi Valley by the
French.
La Salle was born, of a distinguished family, at Rouen, France.
He was consecrated to the service of God in early life, and entered the
Society of Jesus, in which he remained ten years, laying the foundation
of moral principles, regular habits and elements of science that served
him so well in his future arduous undertakings. Like many other
young men having plans of useful life, he thought Canada would offer
better facilities to develop them than the cramped and fixed society
of France. He accordingly left his home, and reached Montreal in
1666. Being of a resolute and venturesome disposition, he found
employment in making explorations of the country about the lakes.
He soon became a favorite of Talon, the intendant, and of Frontenac,
the governor, at Quebec. He was selected by the latter to take com-
mand of Fort Frontenac, near the present city of Kingston, on the St.
Lawrence River, and at that time a dilapidated, wooden structure on
the frontier of Canada. He remained in Canada about nine years,
acquiring a knowledge of the country and particularly of the Indian
tribes, their manners, habits and customs, and winning the confidence
of the French authorities. He returned to France and presented a
memoir to the king, in which he urged the necessity of maintaining
Fort Frontenac, which he offered to restore with a structure of
stone ; to keep there a garrison equal to the one at Montreal ; to em-
ploy as many as fifteen laborers during the first year; to clear and till
the land, and to supply the surrounding Indian villages with Recollect
missionaries in furtherance of the cause of religion, all at his own ex-
j^ense, on condition that the king would grant him the right of seigniory
and a monopoly of the trade incident to it. He further petitioned for
title of nobility in consideration of voyages he had already made in
Canada at his own expense, and which had resulted in the great bene-
fit to the king's colony. The king heard the petition graciously, and
* Talon's letter to the kin^: Paris Documents, vol. 9, p. 73. La Salle's Memoir to
the kinor, on the necessity of fitting out an expedition to take possession of Louisiana:
Historical Collections of Louisiana, part 1, p. 5.
56 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
on the 13th May, 1675, granted La Salle and his heirs Fort Frontenac,
with four leagues of the adjacent country along the lakes and rivers
above and helow the fort and a half a league inward, and the adjacent
islands, with the right of hunting and fishing on Lake Ontario and
the circumjacent rivers. On the same day, the king issued to La Salle
letters patent of nobility, having, as the king declares, been informed
of the worthy deeds performed by the people, either in reducing or
civilizing the savages or in defending themselves against their frequent
insults, especially those of the Iroquois ; in despising the greatest dan-
gers in order to extend the king's name and empire to the extremit}-
of that new world ; and desiring to reward those who have thus ren-
dered themselves most eminent; and wishing to treat most favorably
Robert Cavalier Sieur de La Salle on account of the o^ood and laudable
report that has been rendered concerning his actions in Canada, the
king does ennoble and decorate with the title of nobility the said cav-
alier, together with his wife and children. He left France with these
precious documents, and repaired to Fort Frontenac, where he per-
formed the conditions imposed by the terms of his titles.
He sailed for France again in 1677, and in the following year after
he and Colbert had fully matured their plans, he again petitioned the
king for a license to prosecute further discoveries. The king granted
his request, giving him a permit, under date of May 12, 1678, to en-
deavor to discover the western part of New France ; the king avowing
in the letters patent that " he had nothing more at heart than the dis-
covery of that country where there is a prospect of iinding a way to
penetrate as far as Mexico," and authorizing La Salle to prosecute dis-
coveries, and construct forts in such places as he might think necessary,
and enjoy there the same monopoly as at Fort Frontenac, — all on con-
dition that the enterprise should be prosecuted at La Salle's expense,
and completed within five years; that he should not trade with the
savages, who carried their peltries and beavers to Montreal ; and that
the governor, intendant, justices, and other officers of the king in New
France, should aid La Salle in his enterprise.* Before leaving France,
La Salle, through the Prince de Conti, was introduced to one Henri
de Tonti, an Italian by birth, who for eight years had been in the
French service. Having had one of his hands shot off while in Sicily,
he repaired to France to seek other employment. It was a most for-
tunate meeting. Tonti — a name that should be prominently associ-
ated with discoveries in this part of America — became La Salle's
companion. Ever faithful and courageous, he ably and zealously fur-
* Vide the petitions of La Salle to, anil the grants from, the king, which are found
at length in the Paris Documents, vol. 9, pp. 122 to 127.
LOUIS HENNEPIN. 57
thered all of La Salle's plans, followed and defended him under the
most discouraging trials, with an unselfish fidelity that has feM- paral-
lels in any age.
Supplied with this new grant of enlarged powers, La Salle, in com-
pany with Tonti, — or Tonty, as Dr. Sparks says he has seen the name
written in an autograph letter, — and thirty men, comprising pilots,
sailors, carpenters and other mechanics, with a supply of material
necessary for the intended exploration, left France for Quebec. Here
the party were joined by some Canadians, and the whole force was
sent forward to Fort Frontenac, at the outlet of Lake Ontario, since
this fort had been granted to La Salle. He had, in conformity to the
terms of his letters patent, greatly enlarged and strengthened its de-
fenses. Here he met Louis Hennepin, a Franciscan Friar, whom it
seems had been sent thither along M'ith Father Gabriel de la Ribourde
and Zenobius Membre, all of the same religions order, to accompany
La Salle's expedition. Li the meantime, Hennepin was occupied in
pastoral labors among the soldiers of the garrison, and the inhabitants
of a little hamlet of peasants near by, and proselyting the Lidians of
the neighboring country. Hennepin, from his own account, had not
only traveled over several parts of Europe before coming to Canada,
but since his arrival in America, had spent much time in roaming
about among the savages, to gi-atify his love of adventure and acquire
knowledge.
Hennepin's name and writings are so prominently connected with
the early history of the Mississippi Yalley, and, withal, his contradic-
tory statements, made at a later day of his life, as to the extent of his
own travels, have so clouded his reputation with grave doubt as to his
regard for truth, that we will turn aside and give the reader a sketch
of this most singular man and his claims as a discoverer. He was
bold, courageous, patient and hopeful under the most trying fatigues ;
and had a taste for the privations and dangers of a life among the
savages, whose ways and caprices he well understood, and knew how
to turn them to insure his own safety. He was a shrewd observer and
possessed a faculty for that detail and little minutio?, which make a
narrative racy and valuable. He M-as vain and much given to self-
glorification. He accompanied La Salle, in the first voyage, as far as
Peoria Lake, and he and Father Zenobe Membre are the historians of
that expedition. From Peoria Lake he went down the Illinois, under
orders from La Salle, and up the Mississippi beyond St. Anthony's
Falls, giving this name to the falls. This interesting voyage was not
prosecuted voluntarily ; for Llennepin and his two companions were
captured by the Sioux and taken up the river as prisoners, often in
58 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
great peril of their lives. He saw La Salle no more, after parting with
him at Peoria Lake. He was released from caj^tivity through the
intervention of IMons. Duhith, a French Courenr de I>ois, who had
previously estal)lished a trade with the Sioux, on the upper Mississippi,
by way of Lake Sujierior. After liis escape, Hennepin descended the
Mississippi to the mouth of the Wisconsin, which he ascended, made
the portage at the head of Fox River, thence to Green Bay and Mack-
inaw, hy the route pursued by Joliet and Marquette on their way to
the Mississippi, seven years before. From Mackinaw he proceeded to
France, where, in 1683, he puldished, under royal authority, an account
of his travels. For refusing to obe}^ an order of his superiors, to return
to America, he was banished from Fi-ance. He went to Holland and
obtained the favor and patronage of William III, king of England, to
whose service, as he himself says, " he entirely devoted himself."' Li
Llolland, he received money and sustenance from Mi-. Blathwait, King
William's secretary of war, while engaged in preparing a new volume
of his voyages, which was published at Utrecht, in 1697, and dedicated
"To His Most Excellent Majesty William the Third." The revised
edition contains substantially all of the first, and a great deal l)esides;
for in this last work Hennepin lays claim, for the first time, to having
gone doion the Mississippi to its mouth, thus seeking to deprive La
Salle of the glorj^ attaching to his name, on account of this very dis-
covery. La Salle had now been dead about fourteen years, and from
the time he went down the Mississippi, in 1682, to the hour of his
death, although his discovery was well known, especially to Hennepin,
the latter never laid any claim to having anticipated him in the discov-
ery. Besides, Hennepin's own account, after so long a silence, of his
pretended voyage down the river is so utterly inconsistent with itself,
especially with respect to'dates and the impossibility of his traveling
the distances M-ithin the time he alleges, that the story carries its own
refutation. For this mendacious act. Father Hennepin has merited the
severest censures of Charlevoix, Jared Sparks, Francis Parkman, Dr.
Shea and other historical critics.
His first work is generally regarded as authority. That he did go
up the Mississippi river there seems to be no controversy, while grave
doubts prevail as to many statements in his last publication, which
would otherwise pass without suspicion were they not found in com-
pany with statements known to be untrue.
Li the preface to his last work, issued in 1607, P^ather Hennepin
assigns as a reason why he did not publish his descent of the Missis-
sippi in his volume issued in 1683, "that I was obliged to say nothing
of the course of the Mississippi, from the mouth (»f the Illinois down
HENNEPIN AND LA SALLE. 59
to the sea, for fear of disobliging M. La Salle, with whom I began my
discovery. This gentleman, alone, would have the glory of having dis-
covered the course of that river. But when he heard that I had done
it two years before him he could never forgive me, though, as I have
said, I was so modest as to publish nothing of it. This was the true
cause of his malice against me, and of the barbarous usage I met with
in France."
Still, his description of places he did visit; the aboriginal names
and geographical features of localities ; his observations, especially upon
the manners and customs of the Indians, and other facts which he had
no motive to misrepresent, are generally regarded as true in his last as
well as in his first publication. His works, indeed, are the only repos-
itories of many interesting particulars relating to the northwest, and
authors quote from him, some indiscriminately and others with more
caution, while all criticise him without measure,
Hennepin was born in Belgium in 1640, as is supposed, and died
at Utrecht, Holland, within a few years after issuing his last book. This
was republished in London in 1698, the translation into English being
wretchedly executed. The book, aside from its historical value and the
notoriety attaching to it because of the new claims Hennepin makes,
is quite a curiosity. It is made up of Hennepin's own travels, blended
with his fictitious discoveries, scraps and odd ends taken from the
writings of other travelers without giving credit ; the whole embellished
with plates and a map inserted by the bookseller, and the text empha-
sized with italics and displayed type; all designed to render it a speci-
men, as it probably was in its day, of the highest skill attained in the
art of book-making.
La Salle brought up the St. Lawrence to Fort Frontenac the
anchors, cordage and other material to be used in the vessel which he
designed to construct above the Falls of Niagara for navigating the
western lakes. He already had three small vessels on Lake Ontario,
which he had made use of in a coasting trade with the Indians. One
of these, a brigantine of ten tons, was loaded with his effects; his men,
including Fathers Gabriel, Zenobius Membre and Hennepin, who were,
as Father Zenobia declares, commissioned with care of the spiritual
direction of the expedition, were placed aboard, and on the 18th of
November the vessel sailed westward for the Niagara River. They
kept the northern shore, and run into land and bartered for corn with
the Iroquois at one of their villages, situated where Toronto, Canada,
is located, and for fear of being frozen up in the river, which here
empties into the lake, had to cut the ice from about their ship. Detained
by adverse winds, they remained here until the wind was favorable,
60 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. '
when they sailed across the end of the lake and found an ?lnchorage in
the month of Niagara River on the 6th of Deceniher. The season M-as
far advanced, and the ground covered with snow a foot deep. Large
masses of ice were floating down the river endangering the vessel, and
it was necessary to take measures to give it security. Accordingly the
vessel was hauled with cables u]) against the strong current. One of
the cables broke, and the vessel itself caine very near being broken to
pieces or carried away by the ice, which was grinding its way to the
open lake. Finally, by sheer force of human strength, the vessel was
dragged to the shore, and moored with a strong hawser under a protect-
ing clift'out of danger from the floating ice. A cabin, protected with
palisades, for shelter and to serve as a magazine to store the supplies,
was also constructed. The ground was frozen so hard that it had to be
thawed out with boiling water before the men could drive stakes into it.
The movements of La Salle excited, flrst the curiosity of the Iro-
quois Indians, in whose countrj' he was an intruder, and then their jeal-
ousy became aroused as they began to fear he intended the erection of a
fort. The Sieur de La Salle, says the frank and modest-minded Father
Zenobe Membre, " with his usual address met the principal Iroc[Uois
chiefs in conference, and gained them so completely that they not only
afirreed, but oflfered, to contribute with all their means to the execu-
tion of his designs. The conference lasted for some time. La Salle
also sent many canoes to trade north and south of the lake among
these tribes." Meanwhile La Salle's enemies were busy in thwarting
his plans. They insinuated themselves among the Indians in the
vicinity of Niagara, and filled their ears with all sorts of stories to La
Salle's discredit, and aroused feelings of such distrust that work on the
fort, or depot for supplies, had to be suspended, and La Salle content
himself with a house surrounded by palisades.
A place was selected above the falls,* on the eastern side of the
river, for the construction of the new vessel.
The ground was cleared away, trees Avere felled, and the carpen-
ters set to work. The keel of the vessel was laid on the 20th of Jan-
uarv, and some of the plank being ready to fasten on. La Salle drove
the first spike. As the work progressed. La Salle made several trips, over
ice and snow, and later in the spriiig with vessels, to Fort Frontenac, to
hurry forward provisions and material. One of his vessels was lost on
Lake Ontario, heavily laden with a cargo of valuable supplies, through
the fault or willful perversity of her pilots. The disappointment over this
calamity, says Hennepin, would have dissuaded any other person than
♦Francis Parkman, in his valuable work, "The Discovery of the Great West,"
p. 133, locates the spot at the mouth of Cayuga Creek on the American shore.
THE FIRST SAIL ON LAKE ERIE. 61
La Salle from the further prosecution of the enterprise. The men
worked industriously on the ship. The most of the Iroquois having
gone to war with a nation on the northern side of Lake Erie, the few
remaining behind were become less insolent than before. Still they
lingered about where the work was going on, and continued expres-
sions of discontent at what the French were doing. One of them let
on to be drunk and attempted to kill the blacksmith, but the latter
repulsed the Lidian with a piece of iron red-hot from the forge. The
Indians threatened to burn the vessel on the stocks, and might have
done so were it not constantly guarded. Much of the time the only
food of the men was Indian corn and tish ; the distance to Fort Fron-
tenac and the inclemency of the winter rendering it out of power to
procure a supply of other or better provisions.
The frequent alarms from the Indians, a want of wholesome food,
the loss of the vessel with its promised supplies, and a refusal of the
neighboring tribes to sell any more of their corn, reduced the party to
such extremities that the ship-carpenters tried to run away. They
were, however, persuaded to remain and prosecute their work. Two
Mohegan Indians, successful hunters in La Salle's service, were fortu-
nate enough to bring in some wild goats and other game they had
killed, which e^reatlv encourao;ed the workmen to go on with their task
more briskly than before. The vessel was completed within six months
from the time its keel was laid. The ship was gotten afloat before en-
tirely finished, to prevent the designs of the natives to burn it. She
was sixty tons burthen, and called the " Griflin," a name given it by
La Salle by way of a compliment to Count Frontenac, whose armorial
bearings were supported by two griffins. Three guns were lired, and
"7e Deums''^ chanted at the christening, and prayers offered up for a
prosperous voyage. The air in the wild forest rung with shouts of
joy ; even the Iroquois, looking suspiciously on, were seduced with
alluring draughts of brandy to lend their deep-mouthed voices to the
happy occasion. The men left their cabins of bark and swung their
hammocks under the deck of the ship, where they could rest with
greater security from the savages than on the shore.
The Griffin, under press of a favorable breeze, and with the help
of twelve men on the shore pulling at tow-ropes, was forced up against
the strong current of the Niagara River to calmer waters at the en-
trance of the lake. On the 7th of August, 1679, her canvas was spread,
and the pilot steering by the compass, the vessel, with La Salle and his
thirty odd companions and their effects aboard, sailed out westward
upon the unknown, silent waters of Lake Erie. In three daj'S they
reached the mouth of Detroit Kiver. Father Hennepin was fairly
62 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
delighted with the country along this river — it was " so well situated
and the soil so fertile. Vast meadows extending back from the strait
and terminating at the uplands, which were clad with vineyards, and
])lum and pear and other fruit-bearing trees of nature's own planting, all
so well arranged that one would think they could not have been so dis-
posed without the help of art. The country was also well stocked
with deer, bear, wild goats, turkeys, and other animals and birds, that
supplied a most relishing food. The forest comprised walnut and
other timber in abundance suitable for building purposes. So charmed
was he with the prospect that he " endeavored to persuade La Salle to
settle at the ' De Troit,' " it being in the midst of so man}' savage na-
tions among whom a good trade could be estabMshed. La Salle would
not listen to this proposal. He said he would make no settlement
within one hundred leagues of Frontenac, lest other Europeans would
be before them in the new country they were going to discover. This,
says Hennepin, was the pretense of La Salle and the adventurers who
were with him ; for I soon discovered that their intention was to buy all
the furs and skins of the remotest savages M'ho, as they thought, did
not know their value, and thus enrich themselves in one single voyage.
On Lake Huron the Griffin encountered a storm. The main-yards
and topmast were blown away, giving the ship over to the mercy of
the winds. There was no harbor to run into for shelter. La Salle,
although a courageous man, gave way to his fears, and said they all
were undone. Everyone thereupon fell upon their knees to say pray-
ers and prepare for death, except the pilot, \vlio cursed and swore all
the while at La Salle for bringing him there to perish in a nasty lake,
after he had acquired so much renown in a long and successful naviga-
tion on the ocean. The storm abated, and on the 27th of August, the
Griffin resumed her course northwest, and was carried on the evening
of the same day beyond the island of Mackinaw to point St. Ignace,
and safely anchored in a bay that is sheltered, except from the south,
by the projecting mainland.
CHAPTER IX.
LA SALLE'S VOYAGE CONTINUED.
St. Ignace, or Mackiiuiw, as previously stated, had become a princi-
pal center of the Jesuit missions, and it had also grown into a head-
quarters for an extensive Indian trade. Duly licensed traders, as well
as the Coureurs de Bois, — men who had run wild, as it were, and by
their intercourse with the nations had thrown off all restraints of
civilized life, — resorted to this vicinity in considerable numbers. These,
lost to all sense of national pride, instead of sustaining took every
measure to thwart La Salle's plans. They, with some of the dissatis-
fied crew, represented to the Indians that La Salle and his associates
were a set of dangerous and ambitious adventurers, who meant to
engross all the trade in furs and skins and invade their liberties. These
jealous and meddlesome busy bodies had alread}', before the arrival of
the Griffin, succeeded in seducing fifteen men from La Salle's service,
whom with others, he had sent forward the previous spring, under
command of Tonty, with a stock of merchandise ; and, instead of
going to the tribes beyond and preparing the Avay for a friendly recep-
tion of La Salle, as they were ordered to do, they loitered about
Mackinaw the whole summer and squandered the goods, in spite of
Tonty's persistent efforts to urge them forward in the performance of
their duty. La Salle sent out other parties to trade with the natives,
and these went so far, and were so busy in bartering for and collect-
ing furs, that they did not return to Mackinaw until November. It
was now getting late and La Salle was warned of the dangerous storms
that sweep the lakes at the beginning of winter ; he resolved, therefore,
to continue his voyage without waiting the return of his men. He
weighed anchor and sailed westward into Lake Michigan as far as the
islands at the entrance of Green Bay, then called the Pottawatomie
Islands, for the reason that they were then occupied by bands of that
tribe. On one of these islands La Salle found some of the men
belonging to his advance party of traders, and who, having secured a
large quantity of valuable furs, had long and impatiently waited his
coming.
La Salle, as is already apparent, determined to engage in a fur trade
that already and legitimately belonged to merchants operating at
63
64 HISTORIC NOTES OX THE NORTHWEST.
Montreal, and with wliich tlie terms of his own license prohibited his
interfering. Without asking- anv one's advice lie resolved to load his
ship with furs and send it back to Niagara, and the furs to Quebec, and
out of the proceeds of the sale to discharge some very pressing debts.
The pilot with tive men to man the vessel were ordered to proceed with
the Griffin to Niagara, and return with all imaginable speed and join La
Salle at the mouth of the St. Joseph River, near the southern shore of
Lake Michigan. The Griffin did not go to Green Ba_Y City, as many
writers have assumed in hasty perusals of the original authorities, or
even penetrate the body of water known as Green Bay beyond the
chain of islands at its mouth.
The resolution of La Salle, taken, it seems, on the spur of the
moment, to send his ship back down the lakes, and prosecute his
voyage the I'est of the way to the head of Lake Michigan in frail
birchen canoes, was a most unfortunate measure. It delayed his
discoveries two years, brought severe hardships upon himself and
greatly embarrassed all his future plans. The Griffin itself was lost,
with all her cargo, valued at sixty thousand livres. She, nor her crew,
was ever heard of after leaving the Pottawatomie Lslands. What
became of the ship and men in charge remains to this day a mystery,
or veiled in a cloud of conjecture. La Salle himself, says Francis
Parkman, "grew into a settled conviction that the Griffin had been
treacherously sunk by the pilot and sailors to whom he had intrusted
her; and he thought he had, in after-years, found evidence that the
authors of the crime, laden with the merchandise they had taken from
her, had reached the Mississippi and ascended it, hoping to join Du
Shut, the famous chief of the Conreurs de Bois, and enrich them-
selves by traffic with the northern tribes.*
The following is, substantially, Hennepin's account of La Salle's
canoe voyage from the mouth of Green Bay south, along the shore of
Lake Michigan, past Milwaukee and Chicago, and around the southern
end of the lake ; thence north along the eastern shore to the mouth ot
the St. Joseph River ; thence up the St. Joseph to South Bend, mak-
ing the portage here to the head-waters of the Kankakee ; thence down
the Kankakee and Illinois through Peoria Lake, with an account of
the buildmg of Fort Crevecceur. Hennepin's narrative is full of in-
teresting detail, and contains many interesting observations upon the
condition of the country, the native inhabitants as they appeared nearly
two hundred 3'ears ago. The privation and suffering to which La Salle
and his party were exposed in navigating Lake Michigan at that early
day, and late in the fall of the year, when the waters were vexed with
* Discovery of the Great West, p. 169.
FIRST VOYAGE ON LAKE MICHIGAN, 65
tempestuous storms, illustrate the courage and daring of the under-
taking.
Their suft'ering did not terminate with their voyage uj)on the lake.
Difficulties of another kind were experienced on the St. Joseph, Kan-
kakee anil Illinois Rivers. Hennepin's is, perhaps, the first detailed
account we have of this part of the "Great West,'' and is therefore of
ffi'eat interest and value on this account.
"We left the Pottawatomies to continue our voyage, being fourteen
men in all, in four canoes. I had charge of the smallest, which carried
five hundredweight and two men. My companions being recently
from Europe, and for that reason being unskilled in the management
of these kind of boats, its whole charge fell upon me in stormy
weather.
" The canoes were laden with a smith's forge, utensils, tools for car-
penters, joiners and sawyers, besides our goods and arms. We steered
to the south tow^ard the mainland, from which the Pottawatomie
Islands are distant some forty leagues ; but about midway, and in the
night time, w-e were greatly endangered by a sudden storm. The
waves dashed into our canoes, and the night was so dark we had great
difficulty in keeping our canoes together. The daylight coming on,
we reached the shore, where we remained for four days, waiting for the
lake to grow calm. In the meantime our Indian hunter went in quest
of game, but killed nothing other than a porcupine ; this, however,
made our Indian corn more relishing. The weather beeoming fair, we
resumed our voyage, rowing all day and well into the night, along the
western coast of the Lake of the Illinois. The wind again grew to fresh,
and we landed upon a rocky beach where we had nothing to protect
ourselves against a storm of snow and rain except the clothing on our
persons. We remained here two days for the sea to go down, hav-
ing made a little fire from wood cast ashore by the waves. We pro-
ceeded on our voyage, and toward evening the winds again forced us
to a beach covered with rushes, where we remained three days ; and in
the meantime our provisions, consisting only of pumpkins and Indian
corn purchased from the Pottawatomies, entirely gave out. Our
canoes w^ere so heavily laden that we could not carry provisions with
us, and we were compelled to rely on bartering for such supplies on
our way. We left this dismal place, and after twelve leagues rowing
came to another Pottawatomie village, whose inhabitants stood upon
the beach to receive us. But M. La Salle refused to let anyone land,
notwithstanding the severity of the weather, fearing some of his men
might run away. We were in such great peril that La Salle flung
himself into the water, after we had gone some three leagues farther,
5
G6 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
and with tlie aid of his three men carried the canoe of wliicli he had
charge to the shore, u})on their shoulders, otherwise it would have l)een
broken to pieces by the waves. We were obliged to do the same with
the other canoes. I, myself, carried good Father Gabriel upon my
back, his age being so well advanced as not to admit of his ventur-
ing in the water. "We took ourselves to a piece of rising ground to
avoid surprise, as we had no manner of acquaintance with the great
number of savages whose village was near at hand. "We sent three
men into the village to buy provisions, under protection of the calu-
met or pipe of peace, which the Indians at Pottawatomie Islands had
presented us as a means of introduction to, and a measure of safety
against, other tribes that we might meet on our way."
The calumet has always been a symbol of amity among all the In-
dian tribes of North America, and so uniformly used by them in all
their negotiations with their own race, and Eui'opeans as well ; and
Father Hennepin's description of it, and the respect that is accorded to
its presence, are so truthful that we here insert his account of it at
length :
" This calumet," says Father Hennepin, " is the most mysterious
thing among the savages, for it is used in all important transactions.
It is nothing else, however, than a large tobacco pipe, made of red,
black, or white stone. The head is highly polished, and the quill or
stem is usually about two feet in length, made of a pretty strong reed
or cane, decorated with highly colored feathers interlaced with locks of
women's hair. Wings of gaudily plumaged birds are tied to it, mak-
ing the calumet look like the wand of Mercury, or staff which ambas-
sadors of state formerly carried when they went to conduct treaties of
peace. The stem is sheathed in the skin of the neck of birds called
'■ Hilars'' (probably the loon), which are as large as our geese, and
spotted with white and black ; or else with those of a duck (the little
wood duck whose neck presents a beautiful contrast of colors) that
make their nests upon trees, although the water is their ordinary ele-
ment, and whose feathers are of many different colors. However,
eveiy tribe ornament their calumets according to their own fancy, with
the feathers of such birds as they may have in their own country.
"A pipe, such as 1 have described, is a pass of safe conduct among all
the allies of the tribe which has given it ; and in all embassies it is car-
ried as a symbol of peace, and is always respected as such, for the sav-
ages believe some great misfortune would speedily befall them if they
violated the public faith of the calumet. All their enterprises, declara-
tions of war, treaties of peace, as M-ell as all of the rest of their cere-
monies, are sealed with the calumet. The pipe is filled with the best
CANOE VOYAGE ON LAKE MICHIGAN. 67
tobacco they have, and then it is presented to those with wliom they
are about to conduct an important atl'air; and after they liave smoked
out of it, the one offerinu' it does the same. I would have perished,"
concludes Hennepin, " had it not been for the calumet. Our three
men, carrying the calumet and being well armed, went to the little
village about three leagues from the place where we landed ; they
found no one at home, for the inhabitants, having heard that we refused
to land at the other village, supposed we were enemies, and had aban-
doned their habitations. In their absence our men took some of their
corn, and left instead, some goods, to let them know we were neither
their enemies nor robbers. Twenty of the inhabitants of this village
came to our encampment on the beach, armed with axes, small guns,
bows, and a sort of club, which, in their language, means a head-
breaker. La Salle, with four well-armed men, advanced toward them
for the purpose of opening a conversation. He requested them to come
near to us, saying he had a party of hunters out who might come
across them and take their lives. They came forward and took seats
at the foot of an eminence, where we were encamped ; and La Salle
amused them with the relation of his voyage, which he informed them
he had undertaken for their advantage ; and thus occupied their time
until the arrival of the three men who had been sent out with the
calumet; on seeing which the savages gave a great shout, arose to their
feet and danced about. We excused our men from having taken some
of their corn, and informed them that we had left its true value in
goods ; they were so well pleased with this that they immediately sent
for more corn, and on the next day they made us a gift of as much as
we could conveniently find room for in our canoes.
'• The next day morning the old men of the tribe came to us with
their calumet of peace, and entertained us with a free offering of wild
goats, which their own hunters had taken. In return, we presented
them our thanks, accompanied with some axes, knives, and several little
toys for their wives, with all which they were very much pleased.
" We left this place and continued our voyage along the coast of
the lake, which, in places, is so steep that we often found it difficult to
obtain a landing; and the wind was so violent as to oblige us to carry
our canoes sometimes upon top of the bluff, to prevent their being-
dashed in pieces. The stormy weather lasted four days, causing us
much suffering ; for every time we made the shore we had to wade
in the water, carrying our effects and canoes upon our shoulders. The
water being very cold, most of us were taken sick. Our provisions
again failed us, which, with the fatigues of rowing, made old Father
Gabriel faint away in such a manner that we despaired of his life.
G8 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
With a use of a decoction of hyacinth I liad with nie, and which I
found of great service on onr voyage, lie was restored to his senses.
We had no other subsistence but a handful of corn per man every
twenty-four hours, which w^e parched or boiled ; and, although reduced
to such scanty diet, we rowed our canoes almost daily, from morning
to night. Our men found some hawthorns and other wild berries,
of which they ate so freely that most of them were taken sick, and we
imagined that they were poisoned.
" Yet the more we suffered, the more, bj' God's grace, did I become
stronger, so that 1 could oiitrow the other canoes. Being in great dis-
tress, He, who takes care of his meanest creatures, provided us with
an unexpected relief. We saw over the land a great many ravens
and eagles circling in mid-air; from whence we conjectured there was
prey near by. We landed, and, upon search, found the half of a wild
goat which the wolves had strangled. This provision was very ac-
cei)table, and the rudest of our men could not but praise a kind Provi-
dence, who took such particular care of us.
" Having thus refreshed ourselves, we continued our voyage directly
to the southern part of the lake, every day the country becoming liner
and the climate more temperate. On the 16th of October we fell in
with abundance of game. Our Indian hunter killed several deer and
wild goats, and our men a great many big fat turkey-cocks, with
which we regaled ourselves for several days. On the 18th we came to
the farther end of the lake.* Here we landed, and our men were sent
out to prospect the locality, and found great quantities of ripe grapes,
the fruit of which were as large as damask plums. We cut down the
trees to gather the grapes, out of which we made pretty good wine,
which we put into gourds, used as flasks, and buried them in the sand
to keep the contents from turning sour. Many of the trees here are
loaded witli vines, which, if cultivated, would make as good wine as
any in Europe. The fruit w'as all the more relishing to us, because we
wanted bread."
Other travelers besides Hennepin, passing this locality at an early
day, also mention the same .fact. It would seem, therefore, that Lake
Michigan had the same modifying influence upon, and equalized the
temperature of, its eastern shore, rendering it as famous for its wild
fruits and grapes, two hundred years ago, as it has since become noted
for the abundance and perfection of its cultivated varieties.
" Our men discovered prints of men's feet. The men were ordered
* From the description given of the country, the time occupied, and forest growth,
the voyagers must now be eastward of Michigan City, and where the lake shore trends
more rapidly to the north.
SAVAGES PLUNDER LA SALLE. 69
to he upon guard and make no noise. In spite of this precaution, one
of our men, finding a hear ujjon a tree, shot him dead and dragged
him into camp. La Salle was very angry at this indiscretion, and, to
avoid surprise, placed sentinels at the canoes, under which our effects
had been put for protection against the rain. There was a hunting
party of Fox Indians from the vicinity of Green Bay, about one hun-
dred and twenty in number, encamped near to us, who, having heard
the noise of the gun of the man who shot the bear, became alarmed,
and sent out some of their men to discover who we were. These
spies, creeping upon their bellies, and observing great silence, came
in the night-time and stole the coat of La Salle's footman and some
goods secreted under the canoes. The sentinel, hearing a noise, gave the
alarm, and we all ran to our arms. On being discovered, and thinking
our numbers were greater than we really were, they cried out, in
the dark, that they were friends. We answered, friends did not visit
at such unseasonable hours, and that their actions were more like
those of robbers, who designed to plunder and kill us. Their headsman
replied that they heard the noise of our gun, and, as they knew that
none of the neighboring tribes possessed firearms, they supposed we
were a war party of Iroquois, come with the design of murdering
them ; but now that they learned we were Frenchmen from Canada,
whom they loved as their own brethren, they would anxiously wait
until daylight, so that they could smoke out of our calumet. This is a
compliment among the savages, and the highest mark they can give of
their affection.
" We appeared satisfied with their reasons, and gave leave to four of
their old men, only, to come into our camp, telling thera we would not
permit a greater number, as their young men were much given to
stealing, and that we would not suffer such indignities. Accordingly,
four of their old men came among us ; we entertained them until
morning, when they departed. After they were gone, we found out
about the robbery of the canoes, and La Salle, well knowing the genius
of the savages, saw, if he allowed this affront to pass without resenting
it, that we would be constantly exposed to a renewal of like indigni-
ties. Therefore, it was resolved to exact prompt satisfaction. La
Salle, with four of his men, went out and captured two of the Indian
hunters. One of the prisoners confessed the robbery, with the cir-
cumstances connected with it. The thief M-as detained, and his comrade
was released and sent to his band to tell their headsman that the cap-
tive in custody would be ])ut to death unless the stolen propertj' were
returned.
" The savages were greatly perplexed at La Salle's peremptory mes-
70 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
sage. They could not comply, for they had cut up the goods and coat
and divided among themselves the pieces and the buttons; they there-
fore resolved to rescue their man by force. The next day, October
30, they advanced to attack us. The peninsula we were encamped
on was separated from the forest where the savages lay by a little sandy
plain, on which and near the wood were two or three eminences. La
Salle determined to take possession of the most prominent of these
elevations, and detached five of his men to occupy it, following him-
self, at a short distance, with all of his force, every one having rolled
their coats about the left arm, which was held up as a protection
against the arrows of the savages. Only eight of the enemy had iire-
arms. The savages were frightened at our advance, and their young
men took behind the trees, but their captains stood their ground, while
we moved forward and seized the knoll. I left the two other Francis-
cans reading the usual prayers, and went about among the men ex-
horting them to their duty ; I had been in some battles and sieges in
Europe, and was not afraid of these savages, and La Salle was highly
pleased with my exhortations, and their influence upon his men. When
I considered what might be the result of the quarrel, and how much
more Christian-like it would be to prevent the effusion of blood, and
end the difficulty in a friendly manner, I went toward the oldest
savage, who, seeing me unarmed, supposed I came with designs of a
mediator, and received me with civility. In the meantime one of our
men observed that one of the savages had a piece of the stolen cloth
wrapped about his head, and he went up to the savage and snatched
the cloth away. This vigorous action so much terrified the savages that,
although they were near six score against eleven, they presented me
with the pipe of peace, which I received. M. La Salle gave his word
that they might come to him in security. Two of their old men came
forward, and in a speech disapproved the conduct of their young men ;
that they could not restore the goods taken, but that, having been cut
to pieces, they could only return the articles which were not spoiled,
and pay for the rest. The orators presented, with their speeches, some
garments made of beaver skins, to appease the wrath of M. La Salle,
who, frowning a little, informed them that while he designed to wrong
no one, he did not intend others should affront or injure him ; but, inas-
much as they did not approve what their young men had done, and were
willing to make restitution for the same, he would accept their gifts and
become their friend. The conditions were fully complied with, and
peace happily concluded without farther hostility.
" The day was spent in dancing, feasting and speech-making. The
chief of the band had taken particular notice of the behavior of the
INDIAN SPEECH TO THE GRAY-COATS. 71
Franciscans. ' These gray-coats,'* said the cliief of the Foxes, ' we
value very much. They go barefooted as well as we. They scorn our
beaver gowns, and decline all other presents. They do not carry arms
to kill us. They flatter and make much of our children, and give them
knives and other toys without expecting any reward. Those of our
tribe who have been to Canada tell us that Onnotio (so they call the
Governor) loves them very much, and that the Fathers of the Gown
have given up all to come and see us. Therefore, you who are captain
over all these men, be pleased to leave with us one of these gray-coats,
whom we will conduct to our village when we shall have killed what
we design of the buffaloes. Thou art also master of these warriors ;
remain with us, instead of going among the Illinois, who, already
advised of your coming, are resolved to kill you and all of your
soldiers. And how can you resist so powerful nation ? '
" The day November 1st we again embarked on the lake, and came
to the mouth of the river of the Miamis, which comes from the south-
east and falls into the lake."
* While the Jesuit Fathers wore black gowns as a distinctive mark of their sect, the
Recollects, or Franciscan missionaries, wore coats of gray.
CHAPTER X.
THE SEVERAL MTAMIS-LA SALLE'S VOYAGE DOWN THE ILLINOIS.
Much confusion has ai'isen because, at different periods, the name
of " Miami" has been applied to no less than five different rivers, viz. :
The St. Joseph, of Lake Michigan ; the Maumee, often designated as
the Miami of the Lakes, to distinguish it from the Miami which falls
into the Ohio River below Cincinnati ; then there is the Little Miami
of the Ohio emptying in above its greater namesake; and finally
the "Wabash, which with more propriety bore the name of the
"Kiver of the Miamis." The French, it is assumed, gave the name
" Miami " to the river emptying into Lake Michigan, for the reason that
there was a village of that tribe on its banks before and at the time of La
Salle's first visit, as already noted on page 24. The name was not of
long duration, for it was soon exchanged for that of St. Joseph, b}^ which
it has ever since been known. La Llontan is the last authority who
refers to it by the name of Miami. Shortly after the year named, the
date being now nnknown, a Catholic mission was established up the
river, and, Charlevoix says, about six leagues below the portage, at
South Bend, and called the Mission of St. Joseph ; and from this cir-
cumstance, we may safely infer, the river acquired the same name. It
is not known, either, by whom the Mission of St, Joseph was organ-
ized ; very probably, however, by Father Claude Allouez. This good
man, and to whose writings the people of the west are so largely
indebted for many valuable historical reminiscences, seems to have been
forgotten in the respect that is showered upon other more conspicuous
though less meritorious characters. The Mission of the Immaculate
Conception, after Manpiette's death, remained unoccupied for the space
of two years, then Claude Jean Allouez received orders to proceed
thither from the Mission of St, James, at the town of Maskoutens, on
Fox River, Wisconsin. Leaving in October, IGTG, on account of an
exceptionally early winter, he was compelled to delay his journey nntil
the following February, when he again started ; reaching Lake Mich-
igan on the eve of St. Joseph, he called the lake after this saint.
Embarking on the lake on the 23d of March, and coasting along the
western shore, after numerous delays occasioned by ice and storm, he
arrived at Chicago River. He then made the portage and entered the
72
LA SALLE REACHES THE ST. JOSEPH. 73
Kaskaskia village, M'hicli was probably near Peoria Lake, on the 8th of
April, 1077. The Indians gave him a very cordial reception, and
flocked from all directions to the town to hear the "Black Gown"
relate the truths of Christianity. For the glorification of God and the
Blessed Virgin Immaculate, Allouez " erected, in the midst of the
village, a cross twenty-five feet high, chanting the Vexilla Regis in the
presence of an admiring and respectful throng of Indians ; he covered
it with garlands of beautiful flowers."* Father Allouez did not remain
but a short time at the mission ; leaving it that spring he returned in
1078, and continued there until La Salle's arrival in the winter of
1079-80. The next succeeding decade Allouez passed either at this
mission or at the one on St. Joseph's River, on the eastern side of Lake
Michigan, where he died in 1090. Bancroft says: '^Allouez has
imperishably connected his name with the progress of discovery in the
West ; unhonorcd among us now, he was not inferior in zeal and ability
to any of the great missionaries of his time."
We resume Hennepin's narrative:
"We had appointed this place (the mouth of the St. Joseph) for our
rendezvous before leaving the outlet of Green Bay, and expected to
meet the twenty men we had left at Mackinaw, who, being ordered to
come by the eastern coast of the lake, had a much shorter cut than we,
who came by the western side ; besides this, their canoes were not so
heavily laden as ours. Still, we found no one here, nor any signs that
they had been here before us.f
"It was resolved to advise M. La Salle that it was imprudent to
remain here any longer for the absent naen, and expose ourselves to
the hardships of winter, when it would be doubtful if we could find
the Illinois in their villages, as then they would be divided into fami-
lies, and scattered over the country to subsist more conveniently. We
further represented that the game might fail us, in which event we
must certainly perish with hunger ; whei'eas, if we went forward, we
would find enough corn among the Illinois, who would rather suppl}-
* " Allouez' Journal," published in Shea's " Discoveiy on Exploration of the Missis-
sippi Valley . "
fin some works, the Geological Surveys of Indiana for 1873, p. 458, among others,
it is erroneously assumed that La Salle was the discoverer of the St. Joseph River.
While Fathers Hennepin and Zenobe Membre, who were with La Salle, may be the only
accessible authors who have described it, the stream and its location was well known
to La Salle and to them, as appears from their own account of it before they had ever
seen it. Before leaving Mackinaw, Tonti was ordered to hunt up the deserters from,
and to bring in the tardy traders belonging to. La Salle's party, and conduct them to
the mouth of the St. Joseph. The pilot of the Griffin was under instruction to bring
her there. Indeed, the conduct of the whole expedition leaves no room to doubt that
the whole route to the Illinois River, by way of the St. Joseph and the Kankakee port-
age, was well known at Mackinaw, and definitely fixed upon by La Salle, at least be-
fore leaving the latter place.
74 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NOUTinVEST.
fourteen men than thirty-two with provisions. We said further that
it would be quite impossible, if we delayed longer, to continue the
voyage until the winter was over, because the rivers would be frozen
over and we could not make use of our canoes. Notwithstanding
these reasons, M. La Salle thought it necessary to remain for the rest
of the men, as we would be in no condition to appear before the Illi-
nois and treat with them with our present small force, whom they
would meet with scorn. That it would be better to delay our entry
into their country, and in the meantime tiy to meet with some of their
nation, learn their language, and gain their good will by presents.
La Salle concluded his discourse with the declaration that, although all
of his men might run away, as for himself, he would remain alone with
his Indian hunter, and find means to nuiintain tlio three missionaries —
meaning me and my two clerical brethren. Having come to this con-
clusion, La Salle called his men together, and advised them that he
expected each one to do his duty ; that he pro})osed to build a fort
here for the security of the ship and the safety of our goods, and our-
selves, too, in case of any disaster. ISTone of us, at this time, knew
that our ship had been lost. The men were quite dissatisfied at La-
Salle's course, but his reasons therefor were so many that they yielded,
and agreed to entirely follow his directions.
" Just at the mouth of the river was an eminence M'ith a kind of
plateau, naturally fortified. It was quite steep, of a triangular shape,
defended on two sides by the river, and on the other by a deep ravine
which the water had washed out. We felled the trees that grew on
this hill, and cleared from it the bushes for the distance of two musket
shot. We began to build a redoubt about forty feet long by eighty
broad, with great square pieces of timber laid one upon the other, and
then cut a great number of stakes, some twenty feet long, to drive into
the ground on the river side, to make the fort inaccessible in that direc-
tion. We were employed the whole of the month of Koveml)er in
this work, which was very fatiguing, — having no other food than the
beai's our savage killed. These animals are here very abundant, be-
cause of tlie great quantity of grai)es they tind in this vicinity. Their
flesh was so fat and luscious that our men grew weary of it, and desired
to go themselves and hunt for wild goats. La Salle denied them that
liberty, which made some murmurs among the men, and they went
unwillingly to their work. These annoyances, with the near approach
of winter, together with the apprehension that his ship was lost, gave
La Salle a melancholy which he resolutely tried to but could not con-
ceal.
'*We made a hut wherein we performed divine service every Sun-
FORT MI A. MIS. 75
day ; and Father Gabriel and myself, who preached alternately, care-
fully selected such texts as were suitable to our situation, and fit to
inspire us w^ith courage, concord, and brotherly love. Our exhorta-
tions produced good results, and deterred our men from their meditated
desertion. We sounded the mouth of the river and found a sand-bar,
on which we feared our expected ship might strike ; we marked out a
channel through which the vessel might safely enter by attaching
buoys, made of inflated bear-skins, fostened to long poles driven into
the bed of the lake. Two men were also sent back to Mackinac to
await there the return of the ship, and serve as ]3ilots.*
" M. Tonti arrived on the 20tli of l^oveinber with two canoes, laden
with stags and deer, which were a welcome refreshment to our men.
lie did not bring more than about one-half of his men, having left
the rest on the opposite side of the lake, within three days' journey of
the fort. La Salle was angry with him on this account, because he
was afraid the men would run away. Tonti's party informed us that
the Griffin had not put into Mackinaw, according to orders, and that
they had heard nothing of her since our departure, although they had
made inquiries of the savages living on the coast of the lake. This
confirmed the suspicion, or rather the belief, that the vessel had been
cast away. However, M. La Salle continued work on the building of
the fort, which was at last completed and called Fort Miamis.
" The winter was drawing nigh, and La Salle, fearful that the ice
would interrupt his voyage, sent M. Tonti back to hurry forward the
men he had left, and to command them to come to him immediately ;
but, meeting with a violent storm, their canoes were driven against
the beach and broken to pieces, and Tonti's men lost their guns and
equipage, and were obliged to return to us overland. A few days,
after this all our men arrived except two, w'ho had deserted. We pre-
pared at once to resume our voyage ; rains having fallen that melted
the ice and made the rivers navigable.
" On the 3d of December, 1679, we embarked, being in all thirt}--
three men, in eight canoes. We left the lake of the Illinois and
went up the river of the Miamis, in which we had previously made
soundings. We made about five-and-twenty leagues southward, but
failed to discover the place where we were to land, and carry our canoes
and efl'ects into the river of the Illinois, which falls into that of the
Meschasipi, that is, in the language of the Illinois, the great river.
We had already gone beyond the place of the portage, and, not know-
ing where we were, we thought proper to remain there, as we were
expecting M. La Salle, who had taken to the land to view the country.
*This is the beginning, at what is now known as Benton Harbor, Michigan.
76 HISTOUIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
We staid here quite a while, and, La Salle failing to appear, I went a
distance into the woods with two men, who fired off their guns to
notify him of the place where we were. In the meantime two other
men went higher up the river, in canoes, in search of him. We all
returned toward evening, having vainly endeavored to find him. The
next day I went up the river myself, hut, hearing nothing of him, I
came back, and found our men very much perplexed, fearing he was
lost. However, about four o'clock in the afternoon M. La Salle returned
to us, having his face and hands as black as pitch. He carried two
beasts, as big as muskrats, whose skin was very fine, and like ermine.
He had killed them with a stick, as they hung by their tails to the
branches of the trees.
" He told us that the marshes he had met on his way had compelled
him to bring a large compass ; and that, being nnich delayed by the
snow, which fell very fast, it was past midnight before he arrived upon
the banks of the river, where he fired his gun twice, and, hearing no
answer, he concluded that we had gone higher up the river, and had,
therefore, marched that way. He added that, after three hours' march,
he saw a fire upon a little hill, whither he went directly and hailed us
several times ; but, hearing no reply, he approached and found no per-
son near the fire, but only some dry grass, upon which a man had laid
a little while before, as he conjectured, because the bed was still warm.
He supposed that a savage had been occupying it, who fied upon his
approach, and was now hid in ambuscade near by. La Salle called out
loudly to him in two or three languages, saying that he need not be afraid
of him, and that he was agoing to lie in his bed. La Salle received
no answer. To guard against surprise, La Salle cut bushes and placed
them to obstruct the way, and sat down by the fire, the smoke of
which blackened his hands and face, as I have already observed. Hav-
ing warmed and rested himself, he laid down under the tree upon the
dry grass the savage had gathered and slept well, notwithstanding the
frost and snow. Father Gabriel and I desired him to keep with his
men, and not to expose himself in the future, as the success of our
enterprise depended solely on him, and he promised to follow our
advice. Our savage, who remained behind to hunt, finding none of
us at the portage, came higher n\) the river, to where we were, and
told us we had missed the place. We sent all the canoes back under
his charge except one, which I retained for M. La Salle, who was so
weary that he was obliged to remain there that night. I made a little
hut with mats, constructed with marsh rushes, in which we laid down
together for the night. By an unha])py accident our cabin took fire,
and we were very near being burned alive after we had gone to
sleep."
ABORIGINAL NAME OF "KANKAKEE." 77
Here follows Hennepin's description of the Kankakee portage, and
of the marshy grounds about the headwaters of this stream, as already
quoted on page 2-i.
" Having passed through the marshes, we came to a vast prairie, in
which nothing grows but grasses, which were at this time dry and
burnt, because the Miamis set the grasses on fire every year, in hunt-
ing for wild oxen (buftalo), as I shall mention farther on. We found
no game, which was a disappointment to us, as our provisions had
begun to fail. Our men traveled about sixty miles without killing
anj'thing other than a lean stag, a small wild goat, a few swan and
two bustards, which were but a scanty subsistence for two and thirty
men. Most of the men were become so weary of this laborious life
that, were it practicable, they would have run away and joined the
savages, who, as we inferred by the great fires which we saw on the
prairies, were not very far from us. There nmst be an innumerable
quantity of wild cattle in this country, since the ground here is every-
where covered with their horns. Ths Miamis hunt them toward the
latter end of autunm.'-*
That part of the Illinois River above the Desplaines is called the
Kankakee, which is a corruption of its original Indian name. St.
Cosme, the narrative of whose voj^age down the Illinois Kiver, by
way of Chicago, in 1699, and found in Dr. Shea's work of "Early
Voyages Up and Down the Mississippi," refers to it as the The-a-li-ke,
" which is the real river of the Illinois, and ^says) that which we de-
scended (the Desplaines) was only a branch." Father Marest, in his
letter of November 9, 1712, narrating a journey he had previously
made from Kaskaskia up to the Mission of St. Joseph, says of the Illi-
nois River : " We transported all there w^as in the canoe toward the
source of the Illinois (Indian), which they call Hau-ki-ki." Father
Charlevoix, who descended the Kankakee from the portage, in his let-
ter, dated at the source of the river Theakiki, September 17, 1721,
says : " This morning I walked a league farther in the meadow, having
my feet almost always in the water ; afterward I met with a kind of a
pool or marsh, which had a comnmnication with several others of dif-
ferent sizes, but the largest was about a hundred paces in circuit ; these
are the sources of the river The-a-ki-ki, wh'ich, by a corrupted pronun-
ciation, our Indians call Ki-a-ki-ki. Theak signifies a wolf, in what
language I do not remember, but the river bears that name because the
Mahingan§ (Mohicans), who were likewise called wolves, had formerl}'
* Hennepin and his party were not aware of the migratory habits of the buffiilo ;
and that their scarcity on the Kankakee in the winter months was because the herds
had gone southward to warmer latitude and better pasturage.
78 HISTORIC NOTES ON TIIR XORTIIWEST.
taken refuge on its banks." * The Mohicans were of the Algonquin
stock, anciently living east of the Hudson River, where they had been
so persecuted and nearly destroyed b}- the implacable Iroquois that
their tribal integrity was lost, and they were dispersed in small fami-
lies over the west, seeking protection in isolated places, or living at
sufferance among their Algonquin kindred. They were brave, faithful
to the extreme, famous scouts, and successful hunters. -La Salle, ap-
preciating these valuable traits, usually kept a few of them in his em-
ploy. The "savage," or "hunter," so often referred to by Hennepin,
in the extracts we have taken from his journal, was a Mohican.
In a report made to the late Governor Xinian Edwards, in 1812,
by John Hays, interpreter and Coureur de Bois of the routes, rivers
and Indian villages in the then Illinois Territory, Mr. Hays calls the
Kankakee the Quin-que-que, which was probably its French-Indian
name.f Col. Guerdon S. Hubbard, who for many years, dating back
as early as 1819, was a trader, and commanded great influence with
the bands of Pottawatomies, claiming the Kankakee as their countr}',
informs the writer that the Pottawatomie name of the Kankakee is
Kj'-an-ke-a-kee, meaning " the river of the wonderful or beautiful
land, — as it really is, westward of the marshes. "A-kee," "Ah-ke" and
"Aki," in the Algonquin dialect, signifies earth or land.
The name Desplaines, like that of the Kankakee, has undergone
changes in the progress of time. On a French map of Louisiana, in
1717, the Desplaines is laid down as the Chicago River. Just after
Great Britain had secured the possessions of the French east of the
Mississippi, by conquest and treaty, and when the British authorities
were keenly alive to everything pertaining to their newly acquired
possessions, an elaborate map, collated from the most authentic sources
by Eman Bowen, geographer to His Majesty- King George the Third,
was issued, and on this map the Desplaines is laid down as the Illinois,
or Chicago River. Many early French writers speak of it, as they
do of the Kankakee above the confluence, as the " River of the Illi-
nois." Its French Canadian name is An J^lem, now changed to Des-
plaines, or Riviei'e An Plein, or Despleines, from a variety of hard
maple, — that is to say, sugar tree. The Pottawatomies called it She-
shik-mao-shi-ke Se-pe, signifying the river of the tree from which a
great quantity of sa]) flows in the spring.;}: It has also been sanctified
by Father Zenobe Membre with the name Divine River, and by authors
* Charlevoix' "Journal of a Voyage to America," vol. 2, p. 184. London edition,
1761.
t " History of Illinois and Life of Governor Edwards," by his son Ninian W.
Edwards, p. 98.
X Long's Second Expedition, vol. 1, p. 178.
NAMES OF THE ILLINOIS. 79
of early western gazetteers, vulgarized In- the appellation of KkT^ujjoo
Creek.
Below the confluence of the Desplaines, the Illinois River was, by
La Salle, named the Seignelay, as a mark of his esteem for the brilliant
young Colbert, who succeeded his lather as Minister of the Marine.
On the great map, prepared by the engineer Franquelin in 1684, it
is called River Des Illinois, or Macoupins. The name Illinois, which,
fortunately, it will always bear, was derived from the name of the con-
federated tribes who anciently dwelt upon its banks.
"We continued our course," says Hennepin, '• upon this river (the
Kankakee and Illinois) very near the whole month of December, at
the latter end of which we arrived at a village of the Illinois, which
lies near a hundred and thirty leagues from Fort Miamis, on the Lake
of the Illinois. We suffered greatly on the passage, for the savages
liaving set fire to the grass on the prairie, the wild cattle had fled, and
we did not kill one. Some wild turkeys were the only game we
secured. God's providence supjDorted us all the while, and as we
meditated upon the extremities to which we were reduced, regarding
ourselves without hope of relief, we found a very large wild ox stick-
ing fast in the mud of the river. We killed him, and with much diffi-
culty dragged him out of the mud. This was a great refreshment to
our men ; it revived their courage, — being so timely and unexpectedly
relieved, they concluded that God approved our undertaking.
The great village of the Illinois, where La Salle's part}' had now
arrived, has been located with such certainty by Francis Parkman, the
learned historical writer, as to leave no doubt of its identity. It
was on the north side of the Illinois River, above the mouth of the
Vermillion and below Starved Rock, near the little village of Utica,
in La Salle county, Illinois.*
" We found," continues Father Hennepin, " no one in the village,
as we had foreseen, for the Illinois, according to their custom, had di-
vided themselves into small hunting parties. Their absence caused
great perplexity amongst us, for we wanted provisions, and yet did
not dare to meddle with the Indian corn the savages had laid under
ground for their subsistence and for seed. However, our necessity be-
ing ver}' great, and it being impossible to continue our voyage without
any provisions, M. La Salle resolved to take about forty bushels of
corn, and hoped to appease the savages with presents. We embarked
again, with these fresh provisions, and continued to fall down the river,
* Mr. Parkman gives an interesting account of his recent visit to. and the identifi-
cation of, the locality, in an elaborate note in his " Discovery of the Great West," pp.
221, 222.
80 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
which runs directly toward the south. On the 1st of January we went
through a lake (Peoria Lake) formed by the river, about seven leagues'
long and one broad. The savages call that place Pimeteoui, that is, in
their tongue, ' a place where there is an abundance of fat animals. ' *
Resuming Hennepin's narrative : "The current brought us, in the
meantime, to the Indian camp, and M. La Salle was the first one
to land, followed closely by his men, which increased the consterna-
tion of the savages, whom we easily might have defeated. As it was
not our design, we made a halt to give them time to recover them-
selves and to see that we were not enemies. Most of the savages who
had run away upon our landing, understanding that we were friends,
returned ; but some others did not come back for three or four days,
and after they had learned that we had smoked the calumet.
" I must observe here, that the hardest winter does not last longer
than two months in this charming country, so that on the 15th of Jan-
uary there came a sudden thaw, which made the rivers navigable, and
the weather as mild as it is in France in the middle of the spring.
M. La Salle, improving this fair season, desired me to go down the
river with him to choose a place proper to build a fort. We selected
an eminence on the bank of the river, defended on that side by the
river, and on two others by deep ravines, so that it was accessible only
on one side. We cast a trench to join the two ravines, and made the
eminence steep on that side, supporting the earth with great pieces of
timber. We made a rough palisade to defend ourselves in case the
Indians should attack us while we were engaged in building the fort ;
but no one offering to disturb us, we went on diligently with our work.
* Louis Beck, in his " Gazetteer of Illinois and Missouri," p. 119, says: "The Indi-
ans call the lake Pin-a-tah-wee, on account of its being frequently covered with a
scum which has a greasy appearance." Owing to the rank growth of aquatic plants
in the Illinois River before they were disturbed by the frequent passage of boats, and to
the grasses on the borders of the stream and the adjacent marshes, and the decay
taking place in both under the scorchmg rays of the summer's sun, the surface of the
river and lake were frequently coated with this vegetable decomposition. Prof. School-
craft ascended the Illinois River, and was at Fort Clark on the 19th of August, 1821.
Under this date is the following extract from his "Narrative Journal": "About 9
o'clock in the morning we came to a part of the river which was covered for several
hundred yards with a scum or froth of the most intense green color, and emitting a
nauseous exhalation that was almost insupportal)le. We were compelled to pass
through it. The fine green color of this somewhat compact scum, resembling that of
verdegris, led us at the moment to conjecture that it might derive this character from
some mineral spring or vein in the bed of the river, but we had reasons afterward
to regret this opinion. I directed one of the canoe men to collect a bottle of this
mother of miasmata for preservation, but its fermenting nature baffled repeated at-
tempts to keep it corked. We had daily seen instances of the powerful tendency of
these waters to facilitate the decomposition of floating vegetation, but had not before
obsei-ved any in so mature and complete a state of putrefaction. It might certainly
justifv an observer less given to fiction than the ancient poets, to people this stream
"with^lie Hydra, as were the pestilential-breeding marshes of Italy."— Schoolcraft's
"Central Mississippi Valley," p. 305.
FORT CKEVECOEUR AXD ITS LOCATIOX. 81
When tlie fort was half finished, M. La Salle lodged himself, with M.
Tonti, in the middle of the fortification, and every one took his post.
We placed the forge on the curtain on the side of the Avood, and laid
in a great rpiantity of coal for that })urpose. But our greatest difH-
culty was to hnild a boat, — our carpenters having deserted us, we did
not know what to do. However, as timber was abundant and near at
hand, we told our men that if any of them M-ould undertake to saw
boards for l)uilding the bark, we might surmonnt all other difficulties.
Two of the men undertook the task, and succeeded so well that we
began to build a bark, the keel whereof was forty-two feet long. Our
men went on so briskly with the work, that on the 1st of March our
boat was half built, and all the timber ready prepared for furnishing it.
Our fort M-as also very near finished, and we named it ' Fort Creve-
coHir, ' because the desertion of our men, and other difficulties we
had labored under, had almost ' broken our hearts. ' "
" M. La Salle," says Hennepin, " no longer doubted that the Griffin
was lost; but neither this nor other difficulties dejected him. His
great courage buoyed him up, and he resolved to return to Fort Fron-
tenac by land, notwithstanding the snow, and the great dangers attend-
ing so long a journey. We had many private conferences, wherein it
was decided that he should return to Fort Frontenac with three men,
to bring with him the necessar}^ articles to proceed with the discov-
ery, while I, with tv»-o men, should go in a canoe to the Eiver Me-
schasipi, and endeavor to obtain the friendship of the nations who
inhabited its bardss.
" M. La Salle left M. Tonti to command in Fort Creveco^ur, and
ordered our carpenter to prepare some thick boards to plank the deck
of our ship, in the nature of a parapet, to cover it against the arrows
of the savages in case they should shoot at us from the shore. Then,
calling his men together. La Salle requested them to obey M. Tonti's
orders in his absence, to live in Christian union and charity ; to be
courageous and firm in their designs ; and above all not to give credit
to false reports the savages might make, either of him or of their com-
rades who accompanied Father Hennepin.''
Hennepin and his two companions, with a supply of trinkets suitable
* ■• Fort Crevecoeur, " or the Broken Heart, was built on the east side of the Illi-
nois River, a short distance below the outlet of Peoria Lake. It is so located on the
great map of Franquelin, made at Quebec in 1684. There are many indications on
this map, going to show that it was constructed largely under the supervision of La-
Salle. The fact mentioned by Hennepin, that they went down the river, and that coal
was gathered for the supply of the i'ort, would confirm this theory as to its location;
for the outcrop of coal is abundant in the blutfs on the east side of the river below
Peoria. There is also a spot in this immediate vicinity that answers well to the site
of the fort as described by Fathers Hennepin and Memlore.
6
82 niSTORIC NOTES ox THK XORTHWKST.
for the Indian trade, left l"'uit Crevecceur for the Mississippi, on the
29th of February, 1680, and were captured by the Sioux, as ah-eady
stated. From this time to tlie ultimate discovery and taking possession
of the Mississip})! and the valleys by La Salle, Father Zcnobe Membre
was the historian of the expedition.
La Salle started across the country, going u]) the Illinois and Kan-
kakee, and 'througli the southci-n part of the present State of Michigan.
He reached the Detroit River, ferrying the stream with a i-aft ; he at
length stood on Canadian soil. Striking a direct line across the wilder-
ness, he arrived at Lake Erie, near Point Pelee. By this time only
one man remained in health, and with his assistance La Salle made a
canoe. Embarking in it the party came to Niagara on Easter Monday.
Leaving his comrades, who were completely exhausted, La Salle on the
6tli of May reached Fort Frontenac, making a journey of over a thou-
sand miles in sixty-five days, " the greatest feat ever performed by a
Frenchman in America."'*
La Salle found his affairs in great confusion. His creditors had
seized upon his estate, including Fort Frontenac. Undaunted by this
new misfortune, he confronted his creditors and enemies, pacifying the
former and awing the latter into silence. He gathered the fragments
of his scattered property and in a short time started M'est with ^com-
pany of twenty-five men, whom he had recruited to assist in the prose-
cution of his discoveries. He reached Lake Huron by the way of Lake
Simcoe, and shortly afterward arrived at Mackinaw. Here he found
that his enemies had been very busy, and had poisoned the minds of
the Indians against his designs.
We leave La Salle at Mackinaw to notice some of the occurrences
that took place on the Illinois and St. Joseph after he had departed for
Fort Frontenac. On this journey, as La Salle passed up the Illinois,
he was favorably impressed with Starved Rock as a place presenting
strong defenses naturally. He sent word back to Tonti, below Peoria
Lake, to take possession of " The Rock " and erect a fortification on its
sunnnit. Tonti accordingly came up the river with a ])art of his avail-
able force and began to work upon the new fort. While engaged in
this enterprise the principal part of the men remaining at Fort Creve-
cftiur mutinied. They destroyed the vessel on tlie stocks, plundered
the storehouse, escaped up the Illinois River and ap|)eared before Fort
Miami. These deserters demolished Fort Miami and robbed it of goods
and furs of La Salle, on deposit there, and then fled out of the country.
These misfortunes were soon followed by an incursion of the Irocpiois,
* Parknian's " Discovery of the Great West."
DEATH OF FATHER GABRIEL. 83
who attacked the Illinois in their village near the Starved Rock. Tonti,
acting as mediator, came near losing his life at the hand of an infuriated
Iroquois warrior, who drove a knife into his ribs. Constantly an object
of distrust to the Illinois, who feared he was a spy and friend of tlie
Iroquois, in turn exposed to the jealousy of the Iroqnois, who imag-
ined he and his French friends were allies of the Illinois, Tonti
remained faithful to his trust until he saw that he could not avert the
blow meditated by the Iroquois. Then, with Fathers Zenobe Membre
and Gabriel Rel)0urde, and a few Frenchmen who had remained faith-
ful, he escaped from the enraged Indians and made his way, in a leaky
, canoe, up the Illinois River. Father Gabriel one fine day left his com-
panions on the river to enjoy a walk in the beautiful groves near by,
and while thus engaged, and as he was meditating upon his holy call-
ing, fell into an ambuscade of Kickapoo Indians. The good old man,
unconscious of his danger, was instantly knocked down, the scalp torn
from his venerable head, and his gray hairs afterward exhibited in tri-
umph In' his young murderers as a trophy taken from the crown of an
Iroquois warrior. Tonti, with those in his company, pursued his course,
passing by Chicago, and thence up the west shore of Lake Michigan.
Subsisting on berries, and often on acorns and roots which they dug
from the ground, they finally arrived at the Pottawatomie towns. Pre-
vious to this they abandoned their canoe and started on foot for the
Mission of Green Bay, where they wintered.
La Salle, when he arrived at St. Joseph, found Fort Miamis plun-
dered and demolished. He also learned that the Iroquois had attacked
the Illinois. Fearing for the safety of Tonti, he pushed on rapidly,
onlv to find, at Starved Rock, the unmistakable signs of an Indian
slaughter. The report was true. The Iroquois had defeated the Illi-
nois and driven them west of the Mississippi. La Salle viewed the
wreck of his cherished project, the demolition of the fort, the loss of
his peltries, and especially the destruction of his vessel, in that usual
calm way peculiar to him ; and, although he must have suffered the
most intense anguish, no trace of sorrow or indecision appeared on his
inflexible countenance. Shortly afterward he returned to Fort Miamis.
La Salle occupied his time, until spring, in rebuilding Fort Miamis,
holding conferences with the surrounding Indian tribes, and confeder-
ating them against future attacks of the Iroquois. He now abandoned
the purpose of descending the Mississippi in a sailing vessel, and de-
termined to prosecute his voyage in the ordinary wooden pirogues or
canoes.
Tonti M'as sent forward to Chicago Creek, where he constructed a
number of sledges. After other preparations had been made. La Salle
84 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NOUTHWEST.
and his party left St. Joseph and came around the southern extremity
of the lake. The goods and effects were placed on the sledges pre-
pared by Tonti. La Salle's party consisted of twenty-three French-
men and eighteen Indians. The savages took witli them ten squaws
and three children, so that tlic party numbered in all fifty-four persons.
They had to make the portage of the Chicago River. After dragging
their canoes, sledges, baggage and provisions about eighty leagues
over the ice, on the Desplaines and Illinois Rivers, they came to the
great Indian town. It was deserted, the savages having gone down
the river to Lake Peoria. From Peoria Lake the navigation was open,
and embarking, on the 6tli of February, they soon arrived at the Mis-
sissippi. Here, owing to floating ice, they were delayed till the 13th
of the same month. Membre describes the Missouri as follows: "It is
full as large as the Mississippi, into which it empties, troubling it so
that, from tlie mouth of the Ozage (Missouri), the water is hardly
drinkable. The Indians assured us that this river is formed by many
others, and that they ascend it for ten or twelve days to a mountain
where it rises ; that beyond this mountain is the sea, where they see
great ships ; that on the river are a great number of large villages.
Although this river is very large, the Mississippi does not seem aug-
mented by it, but it pours in so much mud that, from its mouth, the
water of the great river, whose bed is also slimy, is more like clear
mud than river watev, without changing at all till it reaches the sea, a
distance of inore than three hundred leagues, although it receives seven
large rivers, the water of which is very beautiful, and which are almost
as large as the Mississippi." From this time, until they neared the
mouths of the Mississippi, nothing especially worthy of note occurred.
On the Gth of April they came to the place where the river divides
itself into three channels. M. La Salle took the western, the Sieur
Dautray the southern, and Tonti, accompanied by Membre, followed
the middle channel. The three channels were beautiful and deep.
The water became brackish, and two leagues farther it became perfectly
salt, and advancing on they at last beheld the Gulf of Mexico. La
Salle, in a canoe, coasted the borders of the sea, and then the parties
assembled on a dry spot of ground not far from the mouth of the river.
On the 9th of April, with all the ]K)mp and ceremony of the Holy
Catholic Church, La Salle, in the name of the French King, took pos-
session of the Mississippi and all its tributaries. First they chanted
the "'Yexilla Regis" and " Te Deum," and then, wiiile the assembled
voyageurs and tlieir savage attendants fired their muskets and shouted
" Vive le Roi," La Salle planted the column, at the same time pro-
claiming, in a loud voice, " In the name of the Most Pligli, Mighty,
TAKING POSSESSION OF LOUISIANA. 85
Invincible, and A'ietorioiis Prince, Louis tlie Great, by the Grace of
God King of France and of Navarre, Fourteenth of tliat name, I, this
9th da}' of A])ri], one thousand six hundred and eighty-two, in virtue
of the commission of His Majesty, whicli I liold in my hand, and
which may be seen by all whom it may concern, have taken, and do now
take, in the name of His Majesty and his successors to the crown, posses-
sion of this country of Louisiana, the seas, harbors, ports, bays, adjacent
straits, and all the people, nations, provinces, cities, towns, villages,
mines, minerals, fisheries, streams and rivers within the extent of the
said Louisiana, from the mouth of the great river St. Louis, otherwise
called Ohio, as also along the river Colbert, or Mississippi, and the
rivers which discharge themselves therein, from its source beyond the
country of the Nadonessious (Sioux), as far as its mouth at the sea,
and also to the mouth of the river of Palms, upon the assurance we
liave had from the natives of these countries that we were the first
Europeans who have descended or ascended the river Colbert (Missis-
sippi) ; hereby protesting against all who may hereafter undertake to
invade any or all of these aforesaid countries, peoples or lands, to the
prejudice of His Majesty, acquired by the consent of the nations
dwelling herein. Of which, and of all else that is needful, I hereby
take to witness those who hear me. and demand an act of the notary
here present."
At the foot of the tree to whieli the cross was attached La Salle
caused to be buried a leaden plate, on one side of which were engraven
the arms of France, and on the opposite, the following Latin inscription:
LVDOVICUS MAGNUS REGNAT.
NONO APRILIS CIO IOC LXXXII.
ROBERTVS CAVALIER, CVM DOMINO DETONTI LEGATO, R. P. ZEXOBIO
MEMBRE, RECCOLLECTO, ET VIGINTI GALLIS PRIMYS HOC FLVMEN,
INDE AB ILINEORVM PAGO ENAVAGAVIT, EZVQUE OSTIVM FECIT
PERVIVM, NONO APRILIS ANNI.
CIO IOC LXXXL
Note. — The following is a translation of the inscription on the leaden plate:
" Louis the Great reigns.
"Robert Cavalier, with Lord Tonti as Lieutenant, R. P. Zenobe Merabre, Recollect,
and twenty Frenchmen, first navigated this stream from the country of the Illinois,
and also passed through its mouth, on the 9th of April, 1682."
After which. La Salle remarked that Llis Majesty, who was the
eldest son of the Holy Catholic Church, would not annex any country
to his dominion without giving especial attention to establish the
86 HISTOKIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
Christian religion therein, lie then proceeded at once to erect a cross,
before which the "Vexilla" and "Domino Salvum fac Regeni'' were
snng. The ceremony was conclnded by shouting "Vive le Roi ! "'
Tims was completed the discovery and taking possession of the
Mississippi valle}'. By that indisputable title, the right of discovery,
attested by all those fcn-malities recognized as essential by the laws of
nations, the manuscript evidence of which was duly certified by a no-
tary public brought along for that purpose, and witnessed by the sig-
natures of La Salle and a number of other persons ])resent on the occa-
sion, France became the owner of all that vast country drained by the
Mississippi and its tributaries. Bounded Ijy the Alleghanies on the
east, and the Rocky Mountains on the west, and extending from an
imdefined limit on the north to the burning sands of the Gulf on the
south. Embracing within its area every variety of climate, watered
with a thousand beautiful streams, containing vast prairies and exten-
sive forests, with a rich and fertile soil that only awaited the husband-
man's skill to yield bountiful harvests, rich in vast beds of bituminous
coal and deposits of iron, copper and other .ores, this magnificent
domain was not to become the seat of a religious dogma, enforced by
the power of state, but was designed under the hand of God to become
the center of civilization, — the heart of the American republic, — where
the right of conscience was to be free, without interference of law, and
where universal liberty should only be restrained in so far as its unre-
strained exercise might conflict witli its equal enjoyment by all.
Had France, with the same energy she displayed in discovering
Louisiana, retained her grasj) upon this territory, the dominant race in
the valley of the Mississippi would have been Gallic instead of Anglo-
Saxon.
The manner in which France lost this possession in America will
be referred to in a subsequent chapter.
CHAPTER XL
LA SALLE'S RETURN, AND HIS DEATH IN ATTEMPTING A
SETTLEMENT ON THE GULF.
La Salle and liis party returned up the Mississippi. Before tliej
reached Chickasaw Blntfs, La Salle was taken dangerouslv ill.
Dispatchini; Tonti ahead to Mackinaw, he remained there under
the care of Father Afenibre. About the end of July he was enabled to
proceed, and joined Tonti at Mackinaw, in September. Owing to the
threatened invasion of the Iroquois, La Salle postponed his projected
trip to France, and passed the winter at Fort St. Louis. From Fort
St. Louis, it would seem, La Salle directed a letter to Count Frontenac,
giving an account of his voyage to the Mississippi. It is short and his-
torically interesting, and was first published in that rare little volume,
Thevenofs "Collection of Voyages," published at Paris in 1687. This
letter contains, perhaps, the first description of Chicago Creek and the
liarbor, and as everything pertaining to Chicago of a historical charac-
ter is a matter of public interest, we insert La Salle's account. It
seems that, even at that early day, almost two centui-ies ago, the idea
of a canal connecting Lake Michigan and the Illinois was a subject of
consideration :
'• The creek (Chicago Creek) through which we went, from the lake
of the Illinois into the Divine Piver (the An Plein, or Des Plaines) is
so shallow and so greatly exposed to storms that no ship can venture
in except in a great calm. Neither is the country between the creek
and the Diviiie River suitable for a canal ; for the prairies between
them ai-e submerged after heavy rains, and a canal would be immedi-
ately filled u}) with sand. Besides this, it is not possible to dig into
the ground on account of the water, that country being nothing but a
marsh. Supposing it were possible, however, to cut a canal, it would
l)e useless, as the Divine River is not navigable for forty leagues
together ; that is to say, from that place (the portage) to the village of
the Illinois, except for canoes, and these have scarcely water enough in
summer time.'"
The identity of the " River Chicago," of early explorers, with the
modern stream of the same name, is clearly established by the map of
Franquelin of 1684, as well, also, as by the Memoir of Sieur de Tonti.
87
88 HISTORIC NOTES OX THE NORTHWEST.
The latter had ocrasioii to pass through the Chicago River more fre-
quently than any other person of his time, and his intimate acquaint-
ance with the Indians in the vicinity would necessarily place his decla-
rations beyond the suspicion of a mistake. Referring- to his being sent
in the fall of 1G87, by La Salle, from Fort Miamis, at the mouth of the
St. Joseph, to Chicago, already alluded to, he says: "We went in
canoes to the ' River Chicago,' where there is a portage which joins that
of the Illinois.'" "
The name of this river is variously spelled by early writers, " Chi-
eagon,"f " Che-ka-kou," :}; " Chikgoua."§ In the prevailing Algonquin
language the word signifies a polecat or skunk. The Aborigines, also,
called garlic by nearly the same word, from which many authors liave
inferred that Chicago means "wild onion." ||
While La Salle was in the west, Count Frontenac was removed,
and M. La Barrc appointed Governor of Canada. The latter was the
avowed enemy of La Salle. He injured La Salle in every possible
* Tonti's Memoir, published in the Historical Collections of Louisiana, vol. 1, p. 59.
t Joutel's .Journal.
i La Hontan .
§ Father Gravier's Narrative Journal, published in Dr. Shea's "Voyages Up and
Down the Mississippi."
II A writer of a historical sketch, published m a late number of "Potter's Monthly,"
on the isolated statement of an old resident of western Michioran, says that the Indi-
ans living- thereabouts subsequent to the advent of the early settlers called Chicago
"Tuck-Chicago," the meaning of which was, "a place without wood," and thus in-
vesting a mere fancy with the dignity of truth. The great city of the west has taken
its na-me from the stream along whose margin it was first laid out, and it becomes im-
portant to preserve the origin of its name with whatever certainty a research of all
accessil)le authorities may furnish. In the first place, Chicago was not a place "with-
out wood." or trees; on the contrary, it is the only locality where timber was anything
like abundant for the distance of miles around. The north and south branches west-
ward, and the lake on the east, afforded ample protection against prairie fires; and Dr.
John M. Peck, in his early Gazetteer of the state, besides other authorities, especially
mention the fact that there was a good quality of timber in the vicinity of Chicago,
particularly on the north branch. There is nowhere to be found in the several Indian
vocabularies of Sir Alexander Mackenzie. Dr. Edwin James, and the late Albert Gal-
latin, m their e.xtensive collections of Algonquin words, any expressions like those used
by the writer in Potter's Monthly, bearing the signification which he attaches to them.
In Mackenzie's Vocabulary, the Algonquin word for pol(>cat is ''SJii-kak.''' In Dr.
James' Vocabulary, the word for skunk is ''SJic-gaJK/ (shegag): and Shifi-tjaK-ga-irln-
zhei'f/ is the plural for onion or garlic, literally, in the Indian dialect, "skunk-weeds."
Dr. James, in a foot-note, says that from this word in the singular number, some have
derived the name Chi-ka-(/n, wliieh is commonly pronounced among the Indians, Shig-
gau-fjo, and Shi-gau-go-on'; " post on the Wabash "; and on the authority of this letter
alone, and although Father Marest only followed the jirevailing style in calling the
lower Ohio the Wabash, some writers, tlie late Judge John Law being the first, have
contended that this post was on the \\'abash and at Vincennes. Charlevoix says "it
was at the mouth of the Wabash which discharges itself into the Mississippi." La
Ilarpe, and also Le Suere, whose personal knowledge of the post was contemporaneous
with its existence, definitely fix its position near the mouth of the Ohio. The latter
gives the date of its beginning, and the former narrates an account of its trade and
final abandonment. In this way an antiquity has been claimed for Vincennes to which
it is not historically entitled.
EARLY ACCOUNT OF THE MAUMEE. 103
"We now give a description of the Maumee and Wabash, the location
of the several Indian villages, and the manners of their inhabitants,
taken from a memoir prepared in 1718 by a French officer in Canada,
and sent to the minister at Paris.*
" I return to the Miamis River. Its entrance from Lake Erie is
very wide, and its banks on both sides, for a distance of ten leagues
np, ai-e nothing but continued swamps, abounding at all times, espe-
cially in the spring, with game without end, swans, geese, ducks, cranes,
etc., which drive sleep away by the noise of their cries. This river is
sixty leagues in length, very embarrassing in summer in consequence
of the lowness of the water. Thirty leagues up the river is a place
called La Glahe^\ where buffalo are always to be found; they eat the
clay and wallow in it. The Miamis are sixty leagues from Lake Erie,
and number four hundred, all well formed men, and well tattooed \X
the women are numerous. They are hard working, and raise a species
of maize unlike that of our Indians at Detroit. It is white, of the
same size as the other, the skin much finer, and the meal much whiter.
This nation is clad in deer skin, and when a woman goes with another
man her husband cuts off her nose and does not see her any more.
They have plays and dances, wherefore they have more occupation.
The women are well clothed ; but the men use scarcely any covering,
and are tattooed all over the body.
" From this Miami village there is a ])ortage of three leagues to a
little and very narrow stream,§ that falls, after a course of twent}'
leagues, into the Ohio or Beautiful River, which discharges into the
Ouabache, a fine river that tails into the Mississippi forty leagues from
the Cascachias. Into the Ouabache falls also the Casquinampo, | which
communicates with Carolina; but this is far off, and is always up
stream.
"The River Ouabache is the one on which the Ouyatanons*[[ are
settled.
"They consist of five villages, which are contiguous the one to the
other. One is called Oujatanon, the other Peanguichias,** and another
*The document is quite lengthy, covering all the principal places and Indian tribes
east of the Mississippi, and showing the compiler possessed a very thorough acquaint-
ance with the whole subject. It is given entire in the Paris Documents, vol. 9; that
relating to the Maumee and Wabash on pages 886 to 891.
t Defiance. Ohio.
X These villages were near the confluence of the St. Mary's and St. Joseph, and
this is the first account we have of the present site of Fort Wayne.
§ Little Kiver, that empties into the Wabash just below Huntington.
li The Tennessee River.
"[The " Weas," whose pnncipal villages were near the mouth of Eel River, near
Logansport, and on the Wea prairie, between Attica and La Fayette.
**The ancient Piankashaw town was on the Vermilion of the Wabash, and the
Miami name of the Vermilion was Piankashaw.
104 HI8T0KIC XOTES ON THE XOKTHWEST.
Petitscotias, and a fourth Le Gros. Tlie name of the last I do not
recollect, but they are all Oujatanons, having the same language as the
Mianiis, whose brothers they are, and properly all Miamis, having the
same customs and dress.* The men are very numerous; fully a
thousand or twelve hundred.
"They liave a custom different from all other nations, which is to
keep their fort extremely clean, not allowing a blade of grass to remain
within it. The \vhole of the fort is sanded like the Tuilleries. The
village is situated on a high hill, and they have over two leagues of
improvement where they raise their Indian corn, pumpkins and
melons. From the summit of this elevation nothing is visible to the
eye but prairies full of buffaloes. Their play and dancing are inces-
sant.f
"All of these tribes use a vast quantit}' of vermilion. The women
wear clothing, the men very little. The River Ohio, or Beautiful river,
is the route which the Iroquois take. It would be of importance that
they should not have such intercourse, as it is very dangerous. Atten-
tion has been called to this matter long since, but no notice has been
taken of it."
*The "Le Gros," that is, The Great (village), was probably "Chip-pe-co-ke," or
the town of "Brush-wood," the name of the old village at Vincennes, which was the
principal citj' of the Piankashaws.
tThe village here described is Ouatanon, which was situated a few miles below
La Fayette, near which, though on the opposite or north bank of the Wabash, the
Stockade Fort of "Ouatanon" was established by the French.
CHAPTER XIII.
ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS— THE SEVERAL ILLINOIS TRIBES.
The Indians who lived in and claimed the territory to which our
attention is directed were the several ti'ibes of the Illinois and Miami
confederacies, — the Pottawatomies, the Kickapoos and scattered bands
of Shawnees and Delawares. Their t itle to the so il had to be extin-
guished by conquest or treatise of purchase before the country could
be settled by a higher civilization ; for the habits of the two races, red
and white, were so radically different that there could be no fusion, and
they could not, or rather did not, live either happily or at peace
together.
Wc proceed to treat of these several tribes, observing the order in
which their names have been mentioned; and we do so in this con-
nection for the reason that it will aid toward a more ready under-
standing of the subjects which are to follow.
The Illinois were a subdivision of the great Algonquin family.
Their language and manners differed somewhat from other surround-
ing tribes, and resembled most the Miamis, with whom they originally
bore a very close affinity! Before Joliet and Marquette's voyage to the
Mississippi, all of the Indians who came from the south to the mission
at La Pointe, on Lake Superior, for the purposes of barter, were by the
French called Illinois, for the reason that the first Indians who came
to La Pointe from the south " called themselves Illinois^ *
In the Jesuit Relations the name Illinois appears as " Illi-mouek,"
"Illinoues," " Ill-i-ne-wek," " Allin-i-wek " and " Lin-i-wek."' By
Father Marquette it is " Ilinois," and Hennepin has it the same as it
is at the present day. The ois was pronounced like our way^ so that
ouai,, ois^ vjek and ouek were almost identical in ])ronunciation.t
"Willinis" is Lewis Evans' orthography. Major Thomas Forsyth,
who for many years was a trader and Indian agent in the territory, and
8ubse(|uently the state, of Illinois, says the Confederation of Illinois
* As we have given the name of Ottawas to all the savages ^f these countries, al-
tlioiigh of different nations, because the first who have appeared among the French
have been Ottawas; so also it is witn the name of the Illinois, very numerous, and
dwelling toward the south, because the first who have come to the " point of the Holy
Ghost for commerce called themselves Illinois." — Father Claude Dablon. in the Jesuit
Relations for 1670, 1G71.
t Note by Dr. Shea in the article entitled "The Indian Tribes of Wisconsin," fur-
nished by him for the Historical Society of Wisconsm, and published in Vol. Ill oi'
their collections, p. 128.
106 HISTORIC NOTES ON" THE NORTHWEST.
" called themselves Linnewaij,''' — wliicli is ulmost identical with the
Lin-i-ioek of the Jesuits, having a re,/ \ The Eries, or Cats, were entirely destroyed by the Iroquois.
112 HISTOKIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
killed forty of their people who were on tlieir way to hunt beaver in
the Illinois country. To obtain satisfaction, the Iroquois resolved to
make war upon them. Their true motive, however, was to gratify the
English at Manatte * and Orange, f of whom they are too near neigh-
bors, and who, hy means of presents, engaged the Iroquois in this ex-
pedition, the object of which was to force the Illinois to bring their
beaver to them, so that they may go and trade it afterward to the
English ; also, to intimidate the other Indians, and constrain them to
' to do the same thing.
" The improper conduct of Sieur de la Salle, :j; governor of Fort
Frontenac, has contributed considerably to cause the latter to adopt
this proceeding ; for after he had obtained permission to discover the
Great River Mississippi, and had, as he alleged, the grant of the
Illinois, he no longer observed any terms with the Iroquois. He ill-
treated tliemj and avowed that he would convey arms and ammunition
\to the Illinois, and would die assisting them. .^
"The Iroquois dispatched in the month of April of last year, 1680,^
an army, consisting of between five and six hundred men, who ap- \
proached an Illinois village where S ieur Tont y, one of Sieur de la '
Salle's men happened to be with some Frenchmen and two Recollect
fathers, whom the Iroquois left unharmed. One of these, a most holy
man,§ has since been killed by the Indians. But they would listen •
to no terms of peace proposed to them by Sieur de Tonty, M'ho was
slightly wounded at the beginning of the attack ; the Illinois having
fled a hundred leagues thence, were pursued by the Iroquois, who /
killed and captured as many as twelve hundred of them, including/
women and children, having lost only thirt}^ men. ^
" The victor}^ achieved by the Iroquois 2-endered them so insolent that
they have continued ever since that time to send out divers war parties.
The success of these is not yet known, but it is not doubted that they
have been successful, because those tribes are very warlike and the Illi-
nois are but indifferently so. Indeed, there is no doubt, and it is the
universal opinion, that if the Iroquois are allowed to proceed they will
subdue the Illinois, and in a short time render themselves masters of
all the Outawa tribes and divert the trade to the English, so that it is
absolutely essential to make them our friends or to destroy them.'"
» * New York.
y t Albany, New York.
t It must be remembered that La Salle was not exempt from the jealousy and envy
which is inspired in souls of little men toward those engag-ed in great undertakings ;
and we see this spirit manifested here. La Salle could not have done otherwise than
supply fire-arms to the Illinois, who were his friends and the owners of the country, the
trade of which he had opened up at great hardship and expense to himself.
§ Gabriel Ribourde.
DEFEAT OF THE IKOQUOIS. 113
The Iroquois were no t always s uccessful in tlieir western forays.
Tr:i(lition records t wo instance s in which they were sadly discomlited.
The lirst was an encounter with the Sioux, on an island in the Missis-
sippi, at the mouth of the Des Moines. The tradition of this engage-
ment is preserved in the curious volumes of L a Hon ta n, and is as fol-
lows : "■ ^rar ch 2nd , 1689, 1 arrived in the Mississippi. To save the labor
of rowing we left our boats to the current, and arrived on the tenth in
the island of Rencontres, which took its name from the defeat of four
hundred L'oquois accomplished there bj three hundred Xadouessis
(Sioux). The story of the encounter is briefly this : A party of
four hundred Iroquois having a mind to surprise a certain people in
the neighborhood of the Otentas (of whom more anon), marched to
the country of the Illinois, where they built canoes and were furnished
with provisions. After that they embarked upon the river Mississippi,
and were discovered by another little fleet that was sailing down the
other side of the same river. The Iroquois crossed over immediately
to that island wliich is since called Aux Rencontres. The Nadouessis,
i. y//c>/.s-, indeed, attempted to make their escape after the action
* On La Hontan's map the place marked is designated by an island in the Missis-
sippi, immediately at the mouth of the Des Moines.
114 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE XOKTIIWEST.
was over ; l)ut the victorious general sent ten or twelve of bis men to
pursue them in one of the canoes that he had taken, and accordingly
they were all overtaken and drowned. The Xadouessis having ob-
tained this victory, cut off the noses and ears of two of the cleverest
prisoners, and supplying them with fusees, powder and ball, gave them
the liberty of returning to their own country, in order to tell their
countrymen that they ought not to employ women to hunt after 7nen
any longer.'"*
The second tradition is that of a defeat of a war party of Irotpiois
upon the banks of the stream that now bears the name of " Iroquois
River.'''' Father Charlevoix, in his Narrative Journal, referring to his
passage down the Kankakee, in September, 1721, a lludes to this defeat
of the Iroquois in the following language : " I was not a little sur-
prised at seeing so little ^tater in the The-a-ki-ki, notwithstanding it
receives a good many pretty large rivers, one of which is more than a
hundred and twenty feet in breadth at its mouth, and has been called
the River of the Iroquois, because some of that nation were surprised
on its banks by the Illinois who killed a great many of them. This
check mortified them so much the more, as they held the Illinois in
great contempt, who, indeed, for the most part are not able to stand
before them.'' f
The tradition has been given with fuller particulars to the author,
by Colonel Guerdon S. Hubbard, as it was related by the Indians to
him. It has not as yet appeared in print, and is valuable as well as
interesting, inasmuch as it explains why the Iroquois River has been
so called for a period of nearly two centuries, and also because it gives
the origin of the name ^yatsel'a.
The tradition is substantially as follows: Many years ago the Iro-
quois attacked an Indian village situated on the banks of the river a
few miles below the old county seat, — Middleport, — and drove out
the occupants with great slaughter. The fugitives were collected in
the night time some distance away, lamenting their disaster. A wo-
man, possessing great courage, urged the men to return and attack the
Iroquois, saying the latter w-ere then rioting in the spoils of the village
and exulting over their victory ; that they would not expect danger
from their defeated enemy, and that the darkness of the night would
prevent their knowing the advance upon them. The warriors refused
to go. The woman then said that she would raise a party of squaws
and return to the village and fight the Iroquois ; adding that death or
captivity would be the fate of the women and children on the morrow,
*La Hontan's Now Voyages to America, vol. 1, pp. 138, 129.
t Charlevoix' Narrative Journal, vol. 2, p. 199.
INDIAN LEGEND. 115
and that they might as well die in an effort to regain their village and
property as to submit to a more dreadful late. She called for volun-
teers and the women came forward in large numbers. Seeing the
bravery of their wives and daughters the men were ashamed of their
cowardice and became inspired with a desperate courage. A plan of
attack was speedily formed and successfully executed. The Iroquois,
taken en ti relj,^ una wares, were su rprised and utterly defeated.
The name of the heroine who suggested and took an active part in
this act of bold retaliation, bore the name of W atch-e-l:. ee. In honor
of her bravery and to perpetuate the story of the engagement, a coun-
cil of tlie tribe was convened which ordained that when Watcli-e-kee
died her name should be bestowed upon the most accomplished maiden
of the tribe, and in this way be handed down from one generation to
another. By such means have the name and the tradition been pre-
served.
The last person who bore this name was the daughter of a Potta-
watomie chief, with whose band Col. Plubbard was intimately associ-
ated as a trader for many years. She was well known to many of the
old settlers in Danville and upon the Kankakee. She was a person of
great beauty, becoming modesty, and possessed of superior intelligence.
She had great influence among her own people and was highly re-
spected by the whites. She accompanied her tribe to the westM'ard of
the Mississippi, on their removal from the state. The present county
seat of Iroquois c ounty is named after her, and Col. Hubbard advises
the author that Watseka, as tlie name is generally spelled, is incorrect,
and that the orthography for its true pronunciation should be Watch-e-
kee.*
We resume the narration of the decline of the Illinois : La Salle's
fortiflcation at Starved Rock gathered about it populous villages of
Illinois, Shawnees, Weas, Piankeshavys and other kindred tribes, shown
on Franquelin's map as the Colonic Du Sr. de la Salle.f The Iroquois
were ba rred out of th e country of the Illinois tribes, and the latter
enjoyed security from their old enemies. La Salle himself, speaking
of his success in establishing a colony at the Rock, says : " There would
be nothing to fear from the Iroquois when the nations of the south,
*The Iroquois also boiv the name of Can-o-\va-ga, doubtless an Inriian name. It
had another aboriginal name, MucabeUa t which was, probably, a French-Canadian cor-
ruption of the Kickapoo word Mo-qua), signifying: a bear. Beck's Illinois and Mis-
souri Gazetteer, p. 90. The joint commission appointed by the legislatures of Indiana
and Illinois to run the boundary line between the two states, in their report in 1821,
and upon their map deposited in the archives at Indianapolis, designate the Iroquois
by the name of Pick-a-mink River. They also named Sugar Creek after Mr. McDon-
ald, of Vincennes, Indiana, who conducted the surveys for the commi.ssion.
fThis part of Franquelin's map appears in the well executed frontispiece of Park-
insons Discovery of the Great West.
llf) HISTORIC NOTES OJs THE NORTHWEST.
strengtliened tlirougli their iDterconrse with the Frciicli, sliall stop
their conquest, and jirevent tlieir heing ])0\vorful by cai'rying off a great
niniil)er of their women and children, whicli they can easily do from
the inferiority of the weapons of their enemies. As respects com-
merce, that post will probahly increase our traffic still more than lias
been done by the establishment of Fort Fi-ontenac, which was built
with success for that purpose; for if the Illinois and their allies were
to catch the beavers which the Ii'oquois now kill in the neighborhood
in order to carry them to the English, the latter not being any longer
able to get them from tlieir own colonies would be obliged to buy from
us, to the great benefit of those who have the privilege of this traffic.
These were the views which the Sieur de la Salle had in placing the
settleuient where it is. The colony has alread}' felt its effects, as all
our allies, who had fled after the departure of M. de Frontenac, have
returned to their ancient dwellings, in consequence of the confidence
caused by the fort, near which they have defeated a party of Iroquois,
and have built four forts to protect themselves from hostile incursions.
The Governor, M. de la Bai-re, and the intendant, M. de Muelles, have
told Sieur de la Salle that they would write to Monseigneur to inform
him of the importance of that fort in order to keep the Iroquois in
check, and that M. de Sagny had proposed its establishment in 1078.
Monsiegneur Colbert permitted Sieur de la Salle to build it, and
granted it to him as a property." *
The fort at Ze Roclier (the rock) was constructed on its summit in
1G82, and enclosed with a palisade. It was subsequently granted to
Tonti and Forest.f It was abandoned as a military post in the year
1702; and when Charlevoix went down the Illinois in 1721 he passed
the Rock, and said of it: "This is the point of a very high terrace
stretching the space of two hundred paces, and bending or winding
with the course of the tiver. This rock is steep on all sides, and at a
distance one would take it for a fortress. Some remains of a palisado
are still to be seen on it, the Illinois having formerly cast up an en-
trenchment here, which might be easily repaired in case of any inter-
ruption of the enemy.'':}: /
The abandonment of Fort St. Louis in 1702 M-as followed soon after
by a dispersion of the tribes and remnants of tribes that La Salle and
Tonti had gathered about i t, except the straggling village of the
Illinois.
* Memoir of the Sieur de la Salle, reporting to Monseigneur de Seingelay the dis-
coveries made by him under the order of His Majesty. Historical Collections of
Louisiana, Part 1, p. 42.
t Paris Documents, vol. 9, p. 494.
t Charlevoix' Narrative Journal, vol. 2, p. 200.
DECLIN'E OF THE ILLINOIS. 117
The Iroquois eaiiie no m ore'^ sub sequent to 1721, having war enough
on their hands nearer liome ; but the Illinois were constantly harassed
by other enemies ; the Sacs, Foxes, Kickapoos and Pottawatoniies.
In 172 2 the ir villages at the Rock and on Peoria Lake were besieged
by the Foxes, and a detachment of a liundred men under Chevalier de
Artaguette and Sieur de Tisne were sent to tlieir assistance. Forty of
these Freneli soldiers, with four hundred Indians, marched by land to
Peoria Lake. However, before the reinforcements reached their des-
tination they learned that the Foxes had retreated with a loss of more
than a hundred and twenty of their men. "This success did not,
however, prevent the Illinois, although they had only lost twenty men,
with some women and children, from leaving the Rock and Pimiteony,
where they were kept in constant alarm, and proceeding to unite with
those of their brethren who had settl ed on the Mississippi ; this was a
stroke of grace for most of them, the small number of missionaries
preventing their supplying so many towns scattered far apart ; but on
the other side, as there was nothing to check the raids of the Foxes
along the Illinois River, communication between Louisiana and New
France became muclwess practicable.''*
The fatal dissolution of the Illinois still proceeded, and their
ancient homes and hunting grounds were appropriated by the more
vigorous Sacs, Foxes, Pottawatoniies and Kickapoos. The killing of
Pontiac at Cahokia, whither he had retired after the failure of his
etfort to rescue the country from the English, was laid upon the
Illinois, a charge which, whether true or false, hastened the climax of
their destruction.
General Harrison stated that " the Illinois confederacy was com-
posed of five tribes: the Kaskaskias, Cahokias, Peoriaus, Michiganians
and the Temarois, speaking the jVI iami language, and no doubt
branches of that nation. When I was lirst appointed Governor of the
Indiana Territory (Ma}', 1800), these once powerful tribes were re-
duced to about thirty warriors, of whom twenty-five were Kaskaskias,
four Peorians, and a single Michiganian. There w^as an individual
lately alive at St. Louis who saw the enumeration made of them by
the Jesuits in 1745, making the number of their warriors four thou-
sand. A furious war between them and the Sacs and Kickapoos
reduced them to that miserable remnant which had taken refuge
amongst the white people in the towns of Kaskaskia and St. Genieve."f
* History of New France, vol. 6, p. 71.
t Otficial letter of Gen. Harrison to Hon. John Armstrong, Secretary of War,
dated at Cincinnati, March 22. 1814: contained in Captain M'Afee's " History of the
Late War in the Western Country."
118 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NOUTHWEST.
By successive treaties their lands in Illinois were ceded to the
United States, and they were removed west of the Missouri. In 1872
they had dwindled to forty souls — men, women and children all told.
Thus have wasted away the original occupants of the larger part of
Illinois and portions of Iowa and Missouri. In 1684 their single vil-
lage at La Salle's colony, could muster twelve hundred warriors. In the
daj's of their strength they nearly exterminated the Winnebagoes, and
their war parties penetrated the towns of the Iroquois in the valle3^s of
^ the Mohawk and Genesee. They took the Metchig amis under their
protection, giving them security against enemies with whom the latter
could not contend. This people who had dominated over the surround-
ing tribes, claiming for themselves the name Illini or Linneway, to rep-
resent their superior manhood, have disappeared from the earth ; anotlier
race, representing a higher civilization, occupy their ancient domains,
and already, even the origin of their name and the location of their
cities have become the subjects of speculation.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE MIAMIS — THE MIAMI, PIANKESHAW, AND WEA BANDS.
The people known to us as the Miamis formerly dwelt beyond the
Mississippi, and, according to their own traditions, came originally
from the Pacific. '' If what I have heard asserted in several places be
true, the Illinois and Miamis came from the banks of a very distant sea
to the westward. It would seem that their first stand, after they made
their first descent into this country, was at Moingoxa.'-^ At least it is
certain that one of their tribes bears that name. The rest are known
under the name of Peorias, Tamaroas, Caoqnias and Kaskaskias."
The migration of the Miamis from the west of the Mississippi,
eastward through Wisconsin and northern Illinois, iTound the south-
ern end of Lake Michigan to Detroit, and thence up the Maumee and
down the Wabash, and eastward through Indiana into Ohio as far as
the Great Miami, can be follow-ed through the mass of records handed
down to us from the missionaries, travelers and officers connected with
the French. Speaking of the mixe d village of Ma skoutens, situated on
Fox River, Wisconsin, at the time of his visit there in 1G70, Father
Claude Dablon says the village of the Fire-nation "is joined in the
circle of the same barriers to another people, named Oumia mi, which
is one of the Illinois nations, which is, as it were, dismembered from
the others, in order to dwell in these cj[uarters.t It is beyond this
great river :{: that are placed thejllinois of whom we speak, and from
whom are detached those who dwell here with the Fire-nation to form
here a transplanted colony."
From the quotations made there remains little doubt that the Mi-
amis were origi nally a branch of the gr eat Illi nois nation . This theory
is confirmed by writers of our own time, among whom we may men-
tion General Wijliam I T. Ha rrison, whose long acquaintance and official
connection with the several bands of the Miamis and Illinois gave him
* Charlevoix' Narrative Journal, vol. 2, p. 227. Moingona. from undoubted
authorities, was a name given to the Des Moine s Ri ver; and we find on the original
map. drawn by Marquette, the village of the Moingona placed on the Des Moines
above a village of the Peorias on the same stream.
t Father IXal)lon is here describing the same village referred to by Father Mar-
quette in that part of his .Journal which we have copied on page 44.
tThe Mississippi, of which the missionary had been speaking in the paragraph
preceding t hat which w e quote.
119
120 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
.the opportunities, of wliicli lie availed himself, to acquire an intimate
knowled^c^ ctmcerning them. "Although the language, manners
and customs of the Kaskaskias make it sufhciently certain that they
derived their origin from the same source with tlic Miami s, the
connection liad been dissolved before the French liad penetrated
from Canada to the Mississippi. ""■'■ The assertion of General Har-
rison that the tribal relation between the Illinois and Miamis had
been_broken at the time of the discovery of the r[)])er ^fississippi
valley bv the French is sustained with great unanimity by all other
autliorities. In the long and disastrous wars waged upon the Illinois
j by the Iroquois, Sacs and Foxes, Kickapoos and other eiiemies, we
' have no instance given where the Miamis ever offered assistance to
! tliejr ancient kinsmen. (l\fter the separation, on the contrary, they
' often lifted the bloody hatchet against them^
■ Father Dablon, in the narrative from wliich we have (jUoted,t
gives a detailed account of the civi lity o f the Miamis at Mas coute n,
and the formality and court routine with which their great chief was
surrounded. ''The chief of the Miamis, whose name was Tetin-
choua, was surrounded by the most notable people of the village,
who, assuming the r.'H
"The confederacy which obtained the general appellation of
Miamis, from the superior numbers of the individual tribe to whom
that name more properly belonged," were subdivided into three
principal tribes or bandj, njimely, the Miamis proper, Weas and
Piankeshaws. French writers have given names to two or three
other subdivisions or femilies of the three jjrincipal bands, whose
identity has nev er been clearly traced, and who figure so little in
the accounts which we have of the Miamis, that it is not necessary
here to specify their obsolete names. The different ways of writing
* History of New France, vol. 3, pp. 166, 167. Father Charlevoix improperly
locates this villajje, where Perrot was received, at " Chicag'O, at the lower end of Lake
^Iichipran, wli^re the Miamis then were," page 166, above quoted. The Miamis were
/no^tlii'ii at < hicatj-Q. The reception of Perrot was at the mixed village on i'ox Hiyer,
vVisconsin, as stated in the text. The error of Charlevoix, as to the location of this
village, has been pointed out by Dr. Shea, in a note on page 166, in the "Hi.story of
New France," and also by Francis Parknian, in a note on page 40 of his " Discovery
of the Great West."
t Hennepin, p. 187.
122 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
Miamis are: Oumianiwek,''^ Oumaniis,f Mauinees,:}: Au-Miami §
(contracted to Au■^^i and Omee) and Mine-ami. j|
The French calU'd the Weas Ouiaten ons, Syatanons, Ouyatanons
and Ouias ; the English and Colonial traders spelled the word,
Ouicatanon,*j "Way-ongh-ta nies,*""' Wawiachtens,+t and Wehahs.:{::|:
For the Piankeshaws, or Pou-an-ke-ki-as^ as they were called irT
the earliest accounts, we have Peanguichias, Piangui-shaws, Pyan-
ke-shas and Pianqnishas. /
j The Miami tribes w^ere known to the Trcxjuois, or Five Nations
I of New York, as the Twight-wees^ a name generally adopted by the
! Br itish, as well as by the American colonists. Of this name there
are various corruptions in pronunciation and spelling, examples of
whicli we have in ''Twich-twichs," " Twick-twicks, " " Twis-t wicks,"
''Twio^h-twees,'' and "Twick-tovies." The insertion of these manv
names. ai)pl ied to one pe ople, would seem a tedious superfluity, were
it otherwise possible to retain the identity of the tribes to which
these different appellations have been given by the French, British
and American officers, traders and writers. It wdll save the reader
much perplexity in pursuing a history of the Miamis if it is borne in
mind that all these several names refer to the Miami nation or to
one or the other of its respective bands.
Besides the colony mentioned by Dablon and Charlevoix, on the
Fox Piver of Wisconsin, Hennepin informs us of a village of
Miamis south and west of jPeona Lake at the time he was at the
latter place in 1679, and it was probably this village whose inhabit-
ants the Sioux were seeking. St. Cosmie, in 1699, mentions the
"village of the ' Peanzichias-Miamis, who formerly dwelt on the
of the Mississippi, and who had come some years previous
and settled ' on the Illinois Piver, a few miles below the confluence
of the Des Plaines." ^§
The Miamis were within the territory of La Salle's colony, of
which Starved Pock was the center, and counted thirteen hundred
warriors. The Weas and Piankeshaws were also there, the former
having five^ hundred wari'iors and the Piankeshaw band one hundred
and fifty. This was ])rior to 1687. |||| At a later day the Weas "were
at Chicago, but being afraid of the canoe people, left it."**^ Sieur
de Courtmanche, sent westward ^n 1701 to negotiate with the tribes
in tliat_part of New France, vfslk at '■ ^ Chi cago, wdiere he found some
* Marquette. fLaHontan. :}: Gen. Harrison. § Gen. Harmar. | Lewis Evans.
IT Georg-e Croghan's Narrative Journal. ** Croghan's List of Indian Tribes.
;tt John Heckwelder, a Moravian Missionary. }]: *-'atlin's Indian Tribes.
SS St. Cosmie's Journal in " Early Voyages Up and Down the Mississippi," p. 58.
Ill Parkman's Discovery of the Great West, note on p. 290.
^[•[Memoir on the Indian tribes, prepared in 1718: Paris Documents, vol. 9, p. 890.
A
AT WAR WITH THE SIOUX. 123
Weas (Ouiatanons), a Miam i tribe, who had sung the war-song
against the ! Sioux and the Iroquois. He obliged them to lay down
their arms and extorted from them a promise to send deputies to
Montreal."'"
In a letter dated in 1T21, p ublished in his "Narrative Journal,"
Father Charlevoix, speaking of the Mianiis about the head of Lake
Michiga n, says: " Fifty years ago the Miamis were settled on the
southern extremity of Lake Michigan, in a place called Ohicagou,
from the name of a small river which runs into the lake, the source
of whicli is not far distant from that of the river of the Illinois;
they are at present divided into three villages, one of which stands
on the river St. Jo seph, the second on another river which bears
th eir na me and runs into Lake Erie, and the third upon the river
O uabach e, which empties Tts^vaters into the Mississippi. These last
are better known by the appellation of Ouyatanons. " f
In 1694, Count Frontenac, in a conference with the Western In-
dians, requested the Miainis of the Pepikokia band who resided on
the Maramek,:}; to remove, and join the tribe which was located on
the Saint Josephj^qf Lake Michigan. The reason for this request,
as stated by Frontenac himself, was, that he wished the different
bands of the Miami confederacy to unite, "so as to be able to exe-
cute with greater facility the commands which he might issue." At
that time the Iroq uois were at w ar with Canada, and the French
were endeavoring to persuade the western tribes to take up the tom-
ahawk in their behalf. The Miamis promised to observe the Gov-
ernor's wishes and began to make preparations for the removal. §
" Late in August, 1G96, they started to join their brethren settled
on the St. Joseph. On their way they were attacked by the Sioux,
who killed several. The Miamis of the St. Joseph, learning this
hostility, resolved to avenge their slaughter. They pursued the
Sioux to their own country, and found them entrenched in their fort
with some Frenchmen of the class known as coureurs des bois (bush-
lope rsV They nevertheless attacked them repeatedly with great res-
olution, but were repulsed, and at last comp elled to retire, after
losing several of their braves. On their way home, meeting other
Frenchmen carrying arms and ammunition to the Sioux, they seized
all they had, but did them no harm." •
The Miamis were very much enrage d at the Fren ch for supplying
J^History of New France, vol. 5, p. 142.
n/T Charlevoix' Narrative Journal, vol. 1, p. 287.
± The Kalamazoo, of Michigan.
yS Paris Documents, vol. 9. pp. 624, 635.
v/ 1 Charlevoix" History of New Fi-auce, vol. 5, p. 65.
124 HISTORIC NOTKS ON' THK NORTHWEST.
their enemies, tlie Sionx, witli guns and aniiuunition. It took all
the address of Count Frontenac to ])revent them from joining the
v^ Ircxjuois : iiKU-cd. tliry seized u])on tlie French agent and trader,
Xichi)las Pcn-ot, wlio liad been coiuiiiissioued to lead the Maramek
* band to the St. .losephs, and would have burnt liini alive had it not
been for tlie Foxes, who intei-posed in his behalf" This was the
comnu'iiccnu'iit of the bitter feeling of hostilit\' with which, from
that time, a ] )art of the Miamis always regarded the French. From
this period the movements of the tribe were observed by the French
with jealous sus[)icion. ^
We have already shown that in 1699 the Miamis were at Fort
Wayne, engaged in transferring across their portage emigrants from
Canada to liOiiisiana, and that, within a few years after, the Weas
are described as having their fort and several miles of cultivated
"fields on the Wea plains below La Fayette. f From the extent and
charactei- of these iiii])rovements, it may be safelj'^ assumed that the
Weas had been established here some years prior to 1718, the date
of the Memoir.
"When the French first discovered the Waba sh, the Piankeshaws
were found in possession of the laiul on either side of that stream,
from its mouth to the Vermilion liiv€i\ and n() claim had ever
been nuide to it by any other tribe nntil ISO-l, the period of a ces-
sion of a part of it to the United States by the Delawares, who had
obtain(Ml their title from the Piankeshaws themselves, i
I AVe liave already seen that at the time of the nrst accMDunt we
have i-elating to the Maumee and the Wabash, the Miamis had vil-
lages and extensive improvements near Fort Wayne, on the Wea
prairie- below La Fayette, on the Vermilion of the Wabash, and at
Y incenne s. At a later day they established villages at other places,
viz, near the forks of the Wabash at Huntington, on the Mississin-
ewa,sj on Eel Piver near Logansport, while near the source of this
river, and westward of Fort Wayne, was the village of the ''Little
Turtle." Xear the mouth of the Tippecanoe was a sixth village.
* Paris Documents, vol. 9, p. 072.
^Vhk\ p. 104.
v'^tMenioirs of General Harrison, pp. 61, 63. ^
■/§This stream empties into the Wabash near Pern, and on the opposite side of the
river from that city. The word is a compound oi un>^v>< great, and ass in, stone, signify-
ing the river of the great or much stone. "The Mississinewii, with its piHared rocks,
is full of geological as well as romantic interest. Some throe miles from Peru the
channel is cut through a solid wall of cherty silico-magnesian limestone. The action
of the river and unequal disintegration of the rocks has carved the precipitous wall,
which converts the river's course into a system of pillars, rounded buttresses, alcoves,
chambers and overhanging sides." Prof. Cojlett's Report on the Geology of .Miami
county, Indiana.
A WARLIKE PEOPLE. 125
Passing below the Yermilion , the Miamis liad other villages, one
on Sugar creek"" and another near Terre Haute, f
The country of the Miamis extended west to the watershed be-
tween the Illinois and AVabash rivers, which separated their posses-
sions from those of their brethren, the Illinois. On the north were
the Pottawatomies. who were slowly but steadily pushing their lines
southwai'd into tlie territory of the Miamis. The superior numbers
of the Miamis and their great valor enabled them to extend the
limit of their hunting grounds eastward into Ohio, and far within
the territory claimed by the Iroquois. " Thej were the undoubted
proprietors of all that beautiful country watered by the Wabash and
its tributaries, and there remains as little doubt that their claim ex-
tended as far east as the Scioto.'':!:
Unlike the Illinois, the Miamis held their own until they were
placed upon an equal footing with the tribes eastward by obtaining
possession of lire-arms. With these implements of civilized warfare
they were able to maintain the ir tribal integrity and the independ-
eiice they cherished. They were not to be control UmI by the French,
iior_did__they_suffer enemies from an y quar ter to impose upon Ihem
without in'ompt j*etaliation. They traded and fought with the
French, English and Americans as their interests or passions in-
clined. They made peace or declared war against other nations of
their own race as p olicy or caprice dictated. More than once they
compelled even the arrogant Iroquois to beg from the governors of
the American colonies that protection which they themselves had
failed to secure bj^ their own prowess. Bold, independent and
fl ushed w ith success, the Miamis afforded a poor field for missionary
work, an d th e Jesuit Pelations and pastoral letters of tiie French
priesthood have less to say of the Miami confederacy than any of the
other weste rn tribes, the Kickapoos alone excepted.
The country of the_Miamis was accessible, by way of the lakes,
to the fur trader of Canada, and from the eastward, to the adven-
turers engaged in the Indian trade from Pennsylvania, Xew York
and Virginia, either by way of the Ohio Piver or a commerce car-
ried on overland by means of pack-horses^ The English and the
French alike coveted their peltries and sought their ])o werful a lii-
^
This stream was at one time called Rocky River, vide Brown's Western Gazet-
teer. By the Wea Miamis it was called Pim-go-se-coii-e, "Sugar tree" (creek), vide
statement of Mary Ann Baptiste to the author.
fThe villages below the Vermilion and above Yincennes figure on some of the early
En glish map s and in accounts given by traders as tjiej^owej- or little Wea towns. Be-
sides these, which were the pr incipal o nes, the Mianns had a village at Thorn town^
and many others of lesser note on the \A'abash and its tributaries.
I Official Letter of General Harrison to the Secretary of War, before quoted.
w
126 HISTORIC NOTKS ON THE NORTHWEST.
ance, therefore the Miainis were harassed with the jeah^usies and
diplomacy of both, and if they or a part of their several tribes be-
came inveigled into an alliance with the one, it involved the host ility
of the other. The French government sought to use them to clu'ck
the westward advance of the British colonial influence, while the
latter de:sire(l their assistance to curb the French, whose ambitious
/ schemes inxolvcd nothing less than the exclusive subjugation of
the entire continent westward of the Alleghanies. In these wars
between the English and the French the Miamis were constantly
reduced in numbers, a nd whatever might have been the I'esult to
either of the former, it only ended in disaster to themselves. Some-
times they divided ; again they were enti rely devot ed to the interest
of the En glish a nd Iroquois. Then they j oined the French against
the British and Iroquois, and when_the British ultimately obtained
the mastery and secured the valley of the Mississippi, — the long
sought for prize, — the Miamis entered the confederacy of Pontiac
to drive them out of the country. They fought with the British,
— except the Piankeshaw band, — against the colonies during the
revolutionary war. After its close their young men were largely
occupied in the predatory_wai'fare waged by the several Maumee
and Wabash tribes upon the frontier settlements of Ohio, Pennsyl-
vania, Virginia and Kentucky. They likewise entered the con-
fede racy of Tec umseh, and, either openly or in secret sympathy,
they were the allies of the British in the war of 1812. Their history
occupies a conspicuous place in the iiiilitary annals of the west,
extending over a period of a century, during which time they main-
tained a manly struggle to retain p ossessi on of their homes J.n the
valleys- of the Wabash and Maumee.
The disadvantage under which the Miamis labored, in encounters
with their enemies, before they obtai ned fire-ar ms, was often over-
come by the exercise of their cunning and bravery. "In the year
1680 the Miamis and Illinois were hunting on the St. Joseph River.
A party of four hundred Iroquois surprised them and killed thirty
or forty of their hunters and captured three hundred of their women
and children. After the victors had rested awhile they prepared to
return to their homes by easy journeys, as they had reason to believe
that they could reach their own villages before the defeated enemy
would have time to rally and give notice of their disaster to those of
their nation who were hunting in remoter places. But they were
deceived ; for the Illinois and Miamis rallied to the nundjer of tw^o
hundred, and resolved to die fighting rather than suff'er their women
and cliildreiLto_be carried awav. In the meantime, because they
/ DEFEAT OF THE IROQUOIS. 127
were not e— io. They are then mentioned as
dwelling beyond the River St. Lawrence, and to the north of the
great lake of the Hurons. At this period it is very likely that the
Pottawatomies had their homes both north of Lake Huron and
south of it, in the northern part of the present State of Michigan.
Twenty-six or seven years after this date the country. of the Potta-
watomies is described as being "about the Lake of the Ilimouek.":{:
They w^ere mentioned as being ''■a warlike people, hunters and fish-
ers. Their country is very good for Lulian corn, of which they
plant fields, and to which they willingly retire to avoid the famine
that is too common in these quartai-e(l with other AlgoiKjuiu tribes. They were. not the civil,
modest i)eo])k', an exceptional and christianized baud of whom tlie
Jesuits before (juoted di-ew a tiattering description.
''It is a fact that for many years the current of emigration as to
the tribes east of the Mississippi has been from the north to tlie south.
This was owing to two causes: the diminution of those animals from
which the Indians derive tlieir support, and the pressure of the two
great tribes, — the Ojibbeways and the Sioux, — to the north and
west. So long ago as 1795, at the treaty of Greenville, the Potta-
watomies notitied the Miamis that they intended to settle upon the
Wabash. They made no pretensions to the country, and the only
excuse for the intended aggression was that tliey were tired of eating
fish and wanted meout.'''''^ And come they did. They bore down
upon their less populous neighbors, the Miamis, and occupied a large
portion of their territory, impudently and by sheer force of numbers,
rather than by force of arms. They established numerous villages
upon the north and west bank of the AV abash and its tributaries
ilowing in from that side of the stream above the Yermilion. They,
with the Sacs, Foxes and Xickapoos, drove the Illinois into the vil-
lages about Kaskaskia, and ])ortioned the con<|uested territory among
themselves. • By other tribes they were called squatters, who justly
claimed that the Pottawatomies never had any land of their own,
and were mere intruders upon the prior rights of others. They were
foremost at all treaties where lands were to be ceded, and were clam-
orous for a lion's share of presents and annuities, particularly where
these last were the price given for the sale of others' lands rather
than their own.f Between the years 1789 and 1S;>7 the Pottawato-
mies, by themselves, or in connection with other tribes, made no
less than thirty-eight treaties with the United States, all of which, —
excepting two or three which were treaties of peace only, — were for
cessions of lands claimed wholly by the Pottawatomies, or in com-
mon with other tribes. These cessions embraced territory extending
from the Mississippi eastward to Cleveland, Ohio, and reaching over
the entire valleys of the Illinois, the AVabash, the Maumee and their
tributaries. :{:
They also had villages upon the Kankakee and Illinois rivers.
Among them we name 2finemaung, or Yellow Head, situated a
* Official letter to the Secretary of War, dated March 22, 1814.
t Schoolcraft's Central Mississippi Valley, )). 358.
X Treaties between the United States and the several Indian tribes, from 1778 to
1837: Washington, D.C., 1837.
THEIR VILLAGES. 147
few miles north of Momence, at a point of timber still known as
Yellow Head Point; She-mar-gar ^ or the Soldier's Village, at the
mouth of Soldier Creek, that runs through Kankakee City, and the
village of " Little Rock " or Shaw-waw-nas-see, at the mouth of Rock
Creek, a few miles below Kankakee City.* Besides these, the Pot-
tawatomies had villages farther down the Illinois, particularly the
great town of Como, Gumo, or Gumbo as the pioneers called it, at the
upper end of Peoria Lake. They had other towns on the Milwaukee
River, Wisconsin. On the St. Joseph, near Niles, was the village of
To-pen-ne-hee^ the great hereditary chief of the Pottawatomie nation ;
higher up, near the present village of White Pigeon, was situated
Wajy-pe-me-me' Sy or White Pigeon's town. Westward of Fort Wayne,
Indiana, nine miles, was Mas-kvKi-wa-sejye-otan^ "the town of old
Red Wood creek," where resided the band of the distinguished war-
rior and orator of the Pottawatomies, Metea, whose name in their
language signifies kiss rae.
Finally, the renowned Kesis^ or the sun, the old friend of Gen-
eral Ilamtrauck and the Americans, in a speech to General AVayne
at the treaty of Greenville in 1795, said th.a.t his village '"was a day's
walk below the Wea towns on the Wabash," referring, doubtless, to
the mixed Pottawatomie and Kickapoo town which stood on the site
of the old Shelby farm, on the north bank of the Yermilion, a short
distance above its mouth. +
The positions of several of the principal Pottawatonlie villages
have been given for the purpose of showing the area of country
over which this people extended themselves. As late as 1823 their
hunting grounds appeared to have been "bounded on the north by
the St. Joseph (which on the east side of Lake Michigan separated
them from the Ottawas) and the Milwacke,:|: which, on the west side
of the lake, divided them from the Menomonees. They spread to the
south along tlie Illinois River about two hundred miles; to the west
* The location of these three villages of Pottawatomies is fixed by the surveys of
reservations to Mine-maung, Shemargar and Shaw-waw-nas-see respectively, secured
to them by the second article of a treaty concluded at Camp Tippecanoe, near Logans-
port, Indiana, on the 20th of October, 1832, between the United States and the chiefs
and head men of the Pottawatomie tribe of Indians of the prairie and of the Kanka-
kee. The reservations were surveyed in the presence of the Indians concerned and
General Tipton, agent on the part of the United States, in the month of May, 1834.
by Major Dan W. Beckwith, surveyor. The reservations were so surveyed as to include
the several villages we have named, as appears from the manuscript volumes of the
surveys in possession of the author.
t Journal of the Proceedings at the Treaty of Greenville: American State Papers
on Indian Affairs, vol. 1, p. 580. The author has authorities and manuscripts from
which the location of Kesis' band at the mouth of the Vermilion may be quite confi-
dently affirmed. ^
X Milwaukee.
148 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
their grounds extended as fur us Rock River, und the Mequin or
Spoon River of the Illinois ; to the eust tliey pi-obubly seldom ])ussed
beyond the Wubash."* After the Kickupoos und Rottuwutoniies
had established, themselves in the vulley of the Wubush, it wus
nuituully ugreed between them und the Miumis thut the river should
be the dividing line, — the Pottawutomies und Kickupoos to occupy
the west, and the Miamis to remain undisturbed on the east or south
side of the stream. It was u hard bargain for the Miumis, who were
unable to maintain their rights. f
The Pottawatomies were among the last to leave their possessions
in Illinois and Indiana, and it was the people of this tribe with
whom the first settlers came principally in contact. Their hostility
ceased at the close of the war of 1S12. After this their intercourse
with the whites was uniformly friendly, and they bore the many im-
positions and petty grievances which were put upon them by not a
few of their unprincipled and unfeeling white neighbors with a for-
bearance thut should huve excited public sympathy.
The Pottuwutomies owned extensive tracts of lund on the "Wubash,
between the mouth of Pine Creek, in Warren county, und the Fort
Wayne portage, which hud been reserved to them by the terms of
their several treaties with the United States. They held like cluims
upon the Tippecunoe and other westwurd tributuries of the Wubush,
and elsewhere in northwestern Indiana, eastern Illinois and southern
jVfichigan. These reservations are now covered by some of the
finest farms in the states named. The treaties by which such reser-
vations were granted generally contained a clause that debarred the.
owner from alienating them without having fii'st secured the sanction
of the President of the United States. This restriction was de-
signed to prevent unprincipled persons from oveiTeaching the Indian,
who, at best, had only a vague idea of the fee simple title to, und
value of, real estate. It afforded little security, however, against the
wiles of the unscrupulous, and whenever the Indian could be in-
duced by the urts of his " White Brother '' to put his nume to un
instrument, the purport of which, in muny instunces, he did not ut
ull understund us forever conveying uwuy his possessions, the rutify-
ing signuture of the President followed us u mutter of depurtment
routine. The greuter purt of the Pottuwutomie reservutions was
i-etroceded to the United States in exchange either for annuities or
for lands west of the Mississippi, and the title disposed of in this
way.
* Long's Second Expedition, vol. 1, p. 171.
t The writer was informed of this agreement by Mary Baptiste.
THE EXODUS. 149
The final emigration of the Pottawatomies from the Wabash,
undercharge of C'oL Pepper and Gen. Tipton, of Indiana, took place
in the summer of 1888. Many are yet living who witnessed the
sad exodus. The late Sanford Cox has recorded his impressions of
this event in the valuable little book which he published.* '"Hearing
that this large emigration, numbering nearly a thousand of all ages
and sexes, would pass within eight or nine miles west of La Fayette,
a few of us procured horses and rode over to see the retiring band,
as they reluctantly wended their way toward the setting sun. It
was, indeed, a mournful spectacle to see these children of the forest
slowly retiring from the homes of their childhood, where were not
only the graves of their loved ancestors but many endearing scenes
to which their memories would ever recur as sunny spots along their
pathway through the wilderness. They felt that they were bidding
a last farewell to the hills, the valleys and the streams of theii-
infancy : the more exciting hunting grounds of their advanced
youth ; the stern and bloody battle-fields on which, in riper man-
hood, they had received wounds, and where many of their friends
and loved relatives had fallen, covered with gore and with glory. All
these they were leaving behind, to be desecrated by the plowshare
of the white man. As they cast mouniful glances back toward these
loving scenes that were rapidly fading in the distance, tears fell from
the cheek of the downcast warrior, — old men trembled, matrons wept,
the swarthy maiden's cheek turned pale, and sighs and half-suppressed
sobs escaped from the motley groups, as they passed along, some on
foot, some on horseback, and others in wagons, sad as a funeral pro-
cession. I saw several of the aged warriors glancing upward to the sky
as if invoking aid from the spirits of their departed sires, who were
looking down upon them with pity from the clouds, or as if they were
calling upon the great spirit to redress the wrongs of the red man,
whose broken bow had fallen from his hand. Ever and anon one
of the throng would strike off from the procession into the woods
and retrace his steps back to the old encampments on the Waba-sh,
Ell Piver, or the Tippecanoe, declaring that he would die there
rather than be banished from his country. Thus would scores leave
the main party at different points on the journey and return to their
former homes ; and it was several years before they could be induced
to join their countrymen west of the Mississippi."
This body, on their westward journey, passed through Danville,
Illinois, where they halted several days, being in want of food. The
* Recollections of the Early Settlement of the Wabash Valley, La Fayette, Ind.,
1860, pp. 154, 155.
150 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST,
commissary department was wretchedly supplied. The Indians
beiTired for food at the houses of the citizens. Others, in their
extremity, killed rats at the old mill on the J^orth Fork and ate
them to appease their hunger. Without tents or other shelter,
many of them, with young babes in their arms, walked on foot, as
there was no adequate means of conveyance for the weak, the aged
or infirm. Thus the mournful procession passed across the state of
Illinois.
The St. Joseph band were removed westward the same year. So
strong was their attachment to southern Michigan and northern
Indiana, that the Federal government invoked the aid of troops to
coerce their removal. The soldiers surrounded them, and, as prison-
ers of war, compelled them to leave. At South Bend. Indiana, was
the village of CMchipe Oxdipe. The town was on a rising ground
near four small lakes, and contained ten or twelve hundred christian-
ized Pottawatomies. Benjamin M. Petit, the Catholic missionary in
charge at Po-ke-ganns village on the St. Joseph, asked Bishop Brute
for leave to accompany the Indians, but the prelate withheld his
consent, not deeming it proper to give even an implied indorsement
of the cruel act of the government. But being himself on tlieir
route, he afterward consented. The power of religion then appeared.
Amid tlieir sad march he confirmed several, while hymns and prayers,
chanted in Ottawa^ echoed for the last time around their lakes. Sick
and well were carried off alike. After giving all his Episcopal bless-
ing. Bishop Brute proceeded with Petit to the tents of the sick,
where they baptized one and confirmed another, both of whom ex-
j)ired soon after. The march was resumed. The men, women and
elder children, urged on by the soldiers in their I'ear, were followed
with the wagons bearing the sick and dying, the mothers, little chil-
dren and i)roperty. Thus they proceeded through the country, tur-
bulent at that time on account of the Mormon war, to the Osage
River, Missouri, where Mr. Petit confided the wretched exiles to the
care of the Jesuit Father J. Hoecken.*
In the year 1846 the difi:erent bands of Pottawatomies united on
the west side of the Mississippi. A general treaty was made, in
whicli tlie following clause occurs: "Whereas, the various bands of
tlie Pottawatomie Indians, known as the (^hippeways, Ottawas and
l^ottawatomies, the Pottawatomies of the Prairie, the Pottawatomies
of the Wabash, and the Pottawatomies of Indiana, have, subsecjuent
to the year 1820, entered into separate and distinct treaties with the
* Extract from Shea's Catholic Missions, p. 397.
THE POTTAWATOMIE NATION. 151
United States, by wliieh tliev liave been vseparated and located
in different countries, and ditticulties have arisen as to the proper
distributions of tlie stipulations under various treaties, and being
the same people bv kindred, by feeling and by hinguage, and
having in former periods lived on and owned their lands in com-
mon, and being desirous to unite in one common country and
again become one people and receive their annuities and other
benefits in common, and to abolish all mijior distinctions of bands
by which they have heretofore been divided, and are anxious to
be known as the Pottawatomie Xation, thereby reinstating tlie
national character ; and whereas, the United States are also anxious
to restore and concentrate said tribes to a state so desirable and
necessary for the happiness of their people, as well as to enable
the government to arrange and manage its intercourse with them ;
now, therefore, the United States and said Indians do hereby agree
that said people shall hereafter be known as a nation, to be called
the Pottawatomie Xatiox."*
Pursuant to the terms of this treaty, the Pottawatomies received
^850,000, in consideration of which they released all lands owned
by them within the limits of the territory of Iowa and on the Osage
River in Missouri, or in any state or place whatsoever. Eighty-
seven thousand dollars of the purchase money coining to them was
paid, by cession fnnn the United States, of 576,000 acres of land
Ivine: on both sides (jf the Kansas River. The tract embraces the
finest body of land within the present state of Kansas, and Topeka,
the state capital, has since been located nearly in the center of the
reservation. AVhile the territory was going through the process of
organization, adventurers trespassed upon the lands of the Potta-
watomies, sold them whisky, and spread demoralization among
them. The squatters who intruded upon the farmer-Indians killed
their stock and burned some of their habitations, all of which was
borne without retaliation. ^Notwithstanding the old hahendiLin clause
inserted in Indian treaties (as a mere matter of form, as may be in-
ferred from the little regard paid to it) that these lauds should inure
to Pottawatomies, ''their heirs and assigns forever,""' the squatter
sovereigns wanted them, and resorted to all the well-known methods
in vogue on the border to make it unpleasant for the Indians, who
were progressing with assured success from barbarism to the ways
of civilized society. The usual result of dismemberment of the re-
serve followed. The farmer-Indians, who so desired, had their por-
tions of the reserve set oft* in severalty; the uncivilized members ot
the tribe haos and Mascoutins, if there was more than a nominal
difference between the two tribes, are here treated of together, for
reasons explained farther on in the chapter. The name of the Kick-
apoos has been written by the Frencli, " Kicapoux,'- '' Kickapous,"
*• Kikapoux,"* " Quickapous/' " Kickapoos,"' ^'Kikabu.'" This
tribe has long been connected with the northwest, and have acquired
a notoriety for the wars in which thev were engaged with other tribes,
as well for their persistent hostility to the white race, which con-
tinued uninterru])ted for inore tlum one hundred and fifty years.
They were tirst noticed by Samuel Champlain, who, in 1612, dis-
covered the ""Mascoutins residing near the place called Sakinam,''
meaning the country of the Sacs, comprising that part of the state
of Michigan bordering (ui Lake Pluron, in the vicinity of Saginaw
Bay.-^^-
Father Claude Allouez visited the mixed village of Miamis, Ivick-
apoos and Mascoutins on Fox River, Wisconsin, in the winter of
1069-70. Leaving his canoe at the water's edge he walked a league
over beautiful prairies and perceived the fort. The savages, having
discovered him, raised the cry of alarm in their villages, and then
ran out to receive the nussionary with honor, and conducted him to
the lodge of the chief, where they regaled him with refreshments,
and fui'ther honored him by greasing his feet and legs. Every one
took their places, a dish was filled with powdered tobacco ; an old
man arose to his feet, and, tilling his two hands with tobacco from
the dish, addressed the nussionary thus :
••This is well. Black-robe, that thou hast come to visit us ; have
pity on us. Thou art a Manitou.f We give thee wherewith to
* Memoir of Louis XIV, and Cobert, Minister of France, on the French Limits in
North America: Paris Documents, voL 9, p. 378, and note by E. B. O'Callaghan, the
editor, on p. 293.
t Manitou, with very few changes in form of spelling or manner of pronunciation,
is the word used almost universally by the Algonquin tribes to express a spirit or God
having control of their destinies. Their Manitous were numerous. It was also an
expression sometimes applied to the white people, — particularly the missionaries. At
first they regarded the Europeans as spirits, or persons possessing superior intelligence
to themselves.
154 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
smoke. The Nacloiiessious and the Iroquois eat us up ; have pity
on us. We often are sick, our chikiren die, we are hungry. Listen,
my Maiiitou, I give thee wherewith to smoke, that the earth may
yield us corn, that the rivers juay t'urnisli us with iisli, tliat sickness
no more shall kill us, that famine no longer shall so harshly treat
us." At each wish, the old men who were present answered by a
great " O-oh ! "" '"^
The good father was shocked at this ceremony, and rei)lied that
tliey should not address such re<|uests to him. Protesting that he
could afford them no relief other than offering prayers to Ilim wdio
was the only and true God, of whom he was only the servant and
messenger, f
Fatlier Allouez says in the same letter that four leagues from this
vilhige "are the K'tkahou and Kitchigamick, who speak the same
language with the Machkouteng.''
The Kickapoos were not inclined to receive religious impressions
from the early missionaries. In fact, they appear to liave acquired
their first notoriety in history by seizing Father Gabriel Ribourde,
whom they "carried away and broke his head," as Tonti quaintly
expresses it in referring to this ruthless murder. Again, in 1728,
as Father Ignatius Guignas, compelled to abandon his mission among
the Sioux, on account of the victory of the Foxes over the French,
was attempting to reach the Illinois, he, too, fell into the hands of
the Kickapoos and Mascoutins, and for five months was held a cap-
tive and constantly exposed to death. During this time he was con-
demned to be burnt, and was only saved through the friendly inter-
vention of an old num in the tribe, who adopted him as a son.
While held a prisoner, the missionaries from the Illinois relieved
his necessities by sending timely supplies, which Father Guignas
used to gain over the Indians. Having induced them to make
peace, he w^as taken to the Illinois missions, and suffered to remain
there on parole until November, 1729, when his old captors returned
and took him back to their own country \\ after which nothing
seems to have been known concerning the fate of this worthy mis-
sionary.
The Kickapoos early incurred the displeasure of the French by
*The o-oh of the Algonquin and the yo-hah of the Iroquois (Colden's History of
the Five Nations) is an expression of assent given by the hearers to the remarks of the
speaker who is addressing them, and is equivalent to good or brarn! The Indians
indulged in this kind of encouragement to their orators with great liberality, drawing
out their o-ohs in unison and with a prolonged cry, especially when the speaker's
utterances harmonized with their own sentiments.
f.Tesuit Relations, 1669-70.
i Shea's Catholic Missions, p. 379.
MIGRATIONS OF THE KICKAPOOS. 155
committing depredations scnitli of Detroit. A band living at tlie
mouth of the Maumee River in 1712, with thirty Mascoutins, were
about to make war upon the French. They took prisoner one
Langlois, a messenger, on his return from the Miami country,
wliither lie was bringing many letters from the Jesuit Fathers of the
Illinois villages, and also dispatches from Louisiana. The letters and
dispatches were destroyed, which gave much uneasiness to M. Du
Boisson, the commandant at Detroit. A canoe laden with Kicka-
poos, on their wav to the villages near Detroit, was cai)tured by the
Hurons and Ottawas residing at these villages, and who were the
allies of the French. Among the slain was the principal Kickapoo
chief, whose head, with those of three others of the same tribe,
were brought to De Boisson, who alleges that the Hurons and
Ottawas committed this act out of resentment, because the previous
winter the Kickapoos had taken some of the Hurons and Iroquois
prisoners, and also because they considered the Kickapoo chief to
be a ^Hrue Outtagamie''' : that is, they regarded him as one of the
Fox nation.*
From the village of Machkoutench, where first Father Claude
Allouez. and afterward Father Marquette, found the Kickapoos inhab-
iting the same village with the Muscotins and Miamis, the Kickapoos
and the Muscotins appear to have passed to the south, extending
their flanks to the right in the direction of Rockf River, and their
left to the southern trend of Lake Michigan. Referring to the
country on Fox River about Winnebago Lake, Father Charlevoix
says::}: "All this country is extremely beautiful, and that which
stretches to the southward as far as the river of the Illinois is still
more so. It is, however, inhabited by two small nations only, who
are the Kickapoos and the Mascoutins.*' Father Charlevoix,§
speaking of Fox River, says: ''The largest of these," referring to
the streams that empty into the Illinois, "is called Pisttcoui, and
proceeds from the fine country of the Mascoutins." |
* Extract from M. Du Boisson's official report to the Marquis De Vaudreuil, gov-
ernor-general of New France, of the siege of Detroit, dated June 15. 1712. This val-
uable paper is published entire in vol. 3 of Wm. R. Smith's History of Wisconsin,
a work that contains many important documents not otherwise accessible to the gen-
eral public. Indeed, the publications of the Historical Society of Wisconsin, of which
Judge Smith's two volumes are the beginning, are the repository of a fund of infor-
mation of great utility, not only to the people of that state, but to the entire North-
west.
tRock River — Assiv-Sejie — was also called Kickapoo River, and so laid down on a
map of La Salle's discoveries.
t Narrative Journal, vol. 1, p. 287.
SVol. 2, p. 199.
II "The Fox Rivpr of the Illinois is called by the Indians Pish-fa-ko. It is the
same mentioned by Charlevoix under the name of Pisticoui, and which flows as he,
156 HISTORIC NOTES OK THE NORTHWEST.
Prior to ITIS the Mascoiitiiis and Kickapoos had villages upon
the banks of Rock River, Illinois. " l)oth these tribes together do
not amount to two hundred men. They are a clever people and
brave warriors. Their language and manners strongly resemble
those of the Foxes. They are the same stocl'. They catch deer by
chasing them, and even at this day make considerable use of bows
and arn^ws.''* On a Frencli maj), issued in 1712, a village of Mas-
coutins is located near the forks of the north and .south branches of
Chicago River.
From references given, it is apparent that this people, like the
Miainis and Pottawatomies, were progressing south and eastward.
This. movement was ])robably on account of the fierce Sioux, whose
encroaching wars from the northwest were pressing them in this
direction. Even before this date the Foxes, with Mascoutins and
Kickapoos, wei*e meditating a migration to the Wabash as a place of
security from the Sioux. This threatened exodus alarmed the French,
who feared that the migrating tribes would be in a position on the
Wabash to effect a junction with the Ii-oquois and English, which
would be exceedingly detrimental to the French interests in the
northwest. From an official document relative to the "occurrences
in Canada, sent from Quebec to France in 1695, the Department at
Paris is informed that the Sioux, who have mustered some two or
three thousand warriors for the purpose, would come in large num-
bers to seize their village. This has caused the outagamies to quit
their country and disperse themselves for a season, and afterward
return and save their harvest. They are then to retire toward the
river Wabash to form a settlement, so mucli the more permanent, as
they will be removed from the incursions of the Sioux, and in a
position to effect a junction easily with the Iro(piois and the English
without the French being able to prevent it. Should this project be
realized, it is very apparent that the Mascoutins and Kickapcxjs will
be of the i),irty, and that the three tribes, forming a new village of
fourteen or fifteen hundred men, would experience no difiiculty in
considerably increasing it by attracting other nations thither, which
would be of most pernicious consequence. "+ That the Mascoutins,
at least, did go soon after this date toward the lower Wabash is con-
says, through the country of the Mascoutins." Long's Second Expedition, vol. 1, p.
17G. The Algonquin word Pish-tah-te-koosh, according to Edwin .James' vocabulary,
means an antelope. The Pottawatomies, from whom Major Long's party obtained the
word Pish-ta-ko, may have used it to designate the same animal, judging from the
similarity of the two words.
* Memoir prepared in 1718 on the Indians between Lake Erie and the Missis-
sippi: Paris Documents, vol. 9, p. 889.
t Paris Documents, vol. 9, p. 619.
OF THE NAMK M ASCOITIXS. 157
chisivelv shown by the fact of their presence about Juchereau's
trading post, wliich was erected neai- tlic inontli of the Oliio in tlie
year 1700.
It is doubtful if either the Foxes or the Kickapoos followed the
Mascoutins to the Wabash country, and it is evident that the Mas-
coutins who survived tlie epidemic that broke out among them at
Juchereau's post on the Ohio soon returned to the north. The
F'rench effected a conciliation with the Sioux, and for a number of
years subsecpient to 1 "<•.") we lind the Mascoutins back again among
the Foxes and Kickapoos upon their old hunting grounds in northern
Illinois and southern Wisconsin.
The Kicka})oos entered the plot of the Mascoutins to capture the
])ost of Detroit in ITli?, and the latter had repaired to the neighbor-
hood of Detroit, and were awaiting the arrival of the Kickapoos to
execute their purposes, when they were attacked by the confedera-
tion of Indians who were friendly toward the French and had hast-
ened to the relief of the garrison.*
The Mascoutins were called "Machkoutench,"t "Machkouteng,"
''Maskouteins " and "Masquitens," by French writers. The Eng-
lish called them ' * Masquattimes, " :}: " Musquitons," § "Mascou-
tins,"! and "Musquitos," a corruption used by the American colo-
nial traders, and "Meadows," the English synonym for the French
word " prairie."*
The derivation of the name has been a subject of discussion.
Father Marquette, with some others, following the example of the
Hurons, rendered it ''fit'e-natlon^''' while Fathers Allouez and Char-
levoix, wnth recent American authors, claim that the word sio-nilies
a prairie, or '*a land bare of trees," such as that which this people
inhabit.** The name is doubtless derived from mus-kor-tence^\^- or
mus-ko-tifiy a prairie, a derivative from skoutay or scote^ the word for
fire.:J::|: " The Mascos or Mascoutins were, by the French traders of a
more recent day, called gens des prairies, and lived and hunted on
the great prairies between the Wabash and Illinois Rivers. '"§«$ That
* History of New France, vol. 5, p. 257.
t Fathers Claude Allouez and Marquette.
X George Croghan's Narrative Journal.
S Minutes of the treaty at CTreenville in 1795.
II Samuel R. Brown's Western Gazetteer.
■fl It was some years after the conquest of the northwest from the French before
the name " prairie" became naturalized, as it were, into the English language.
** Charlevoix' Narrative Journal, vol. 1, p. 287. Father Allouez, in the Jesuit Re-
lations between the years 1670 and 1671.
ttNote of Callaghan: Paris Documents, vol. 10.
XX Tanner, (Tallatin, Mackenzie and .lohnson's vocabularies of Algonquin words.
S§ Manuscript account of this and other tribes, by Major Forsyth, quoted by Drake,
in his Life of Black Hawk.
158 HISTORIC NOTES OK THE NORTHWEST.
the word Miiskotia is syiionymoiis with, and has tlie same nieaniiiij
as, the word j)i-airie, is furtluT coiitiruu'd by the fact that the Indians
prefixed it to the names ot' those animals and phmts found exehi-
sively on the prairies. ■'■
Were the Kickapoos and Mascoutins separate tribes, or were they
one and tlie same i These queries have elicited the attention of
scholars well versed in the history of the North American Indians,
among whom might be named Schoolcraft, Gallatin and Shea.
Sufficient references have been given in this chapter to show that,
by the French, the Kickapoos and Mascoutins were regarded as dis-
tinct tribes. If necessary, additional extracts to the same purport
could be produced from numerous French documents down to the
close of the French colonial war, in 1703, all bearing uniform testi-
mony upon this point.
The theory has been advanced that the Mascoutins and Kickapoos
were bands of one tribe, first known to the French by the former
name, and subsequently to the English by the latter, under which
name alone they figure in our later annals. + This supposition is at
variance with English and American authorities. It was a war party
of Kickapoos and Mascoutins, from their contiguous villages near
Fort Ouitanon, on the Wabash, who captured George Croghan, the
English plenipotentiary, below the mouth of that river in IJCio.'!!^ Sir
William Johnson, the English colonial agent on Indian aftairs, in
the classified list of Indians within his department, prepared in 1763,
enumerates both the Kickapoos and Mascoutins, locating them ''in
the neighborhood of the fort at Wawiaghta, and about the Wabash
River."§ Captain Imlay, '•commissioner for laying out lands in the
back settlements," — as the territory west of the Alleghanies was
termed at that period, — in liis list of westward Indians, classifies the
Kickapoos (under the name of Vermilions) and the Muscatines, lo-
cating these two tribes between the Wabash and Illinois Rivers. This
was in 1792.1 The distinction between these two tribes was main-
tained still later, and down to a period subsequent to the year ISlfi.
At that time the Mascoutins were residing on tlie west bank of the
Wabash, between Yincennes and the Tippecanoe River, wliile their
old neighbors, the Kickapoos, were living a short distance above
*For example, miis-ko-fia-cliit-fa-ino, prairie squirrel; nnis-k'o-ti-pe-neeg, prairie
tatoes. Edwin James' Catalof^ue of Plants and Animals found in the country of
130.
potatoes. Edwin James' Catalogue of Plants and Animals found in the country
the Ojibbeways. See further references on page 35.
fThe Indian Tribes of Wisconsin: Historical Collections of that State, vol. 3, p.
± Vide his Narrative Journal.
S Colonial History of New York. vol. 7: London Documents, p. 583.
II Imlay's America, third edtion, London. 1797, p. 290.
KICKAP008 AND MASCOUTINS ONE PEOPLP:. 159
them ill several large villages. At this date the Kickapoos could
raise four hundred warrioi-s.* From the authors cited, — and other
references to the same effect would be produced but for want of space,
— it is evident that the English and the Americans, eqmilly with the
Frencli, regarded the Kickapoos and Mascoutins as separate bands
or subdivisions of a tribe.
While this was so, the language, manners and customs of the two
tribes were not only similar, but the two tribes were almost invaria-
bly found occupying continguous villages, and hunting in company
with each other over the same country. "The Kickapoos are neigh-
bors of the Mascoutins, and it seems that these two tribes have
always been united in interests."! There is no instance recorded
where they were ever arrayed against each other, nor of a time when
they took opposite sides in any alliance with other tribes. Another
noticeable fact is that, with but one exception, the Mascoutins were
never known as such in any treaty with the United States, while the
Kickapoos were parties to many. We have seen that the former
were occupying the Wabash country in common with the latter as
far back, at least, as 1765, when they captured Croghan, until 1816;
and in all of the treaties for the extinguishment of the title of the
several Indian tribes bordering on the Wabash and its tributaries,
the Mascoutins are nowhere alluded to, while the Kickapoos are
promiiu'iit parties to many treaties at which extensive tracts of coun-
try were ceded. No man living, in his time, was better informed
than Gen. Harrison, — who conducted these several treaties on behalf
of the United States, — of the relations and distinctions, however
trifling, that may have existed among the numerous Indian tribes
with whom, in a long course of official capacity, he came in contact,
either with the pen, around tlie friendly council-fire, or with the up-
lifted sword upon the field of hostile encounter. In all his volumi-
nous correspondence during the years when the northwest was com-
mitted to his charge the General makes no mention of the Mascoutins
* Western Gazetteer, by Samuel R. Brown, p. 71. This work of Mr. Brown's is
exceedingly valuable for the amount of reliable information it affords not obtainable
from any other source. He was with Gen. Harrison in the campaigns of the war of
1812. In the preface to his Gazetteer he says: "Business and curiosity have made the
writer acquainted with a large portion of the western country never before described.
Where personal knowledge was wanting I have availed myself of the correspondence of
many of the most intelligent gentlemen in the west." At the time Mr. Brown was compil-
ing material for his Gazetteer, "the Harrison Purchase was being run out into townships
and sections." and Mr. Brown came in contact with the surveyors doing the work, and
derived nmch information from them. The book is carefully prepared, covering a
topographical description of the country embraced, its towns, rivers, counties, popula-
tion, Indian tribes, etc., and altogether is one of the most authentic and useful books
relative to " the west," which was attracting the attention of emigrants at the time of
its publication.
t Charlevoix' Histoi-y of New France.
160 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
by that namt\ but often refers to ''the Kickapoos of tlie prairies,"
to (listiii^uisli them from other bauds of the same ti-ibe who occupied
viHaj^es in the timbered poi-tious of tlie Wabash and its tributaries.*
At a .subsequent treaty of peace and friendshi}), concluded on the
l2Tth of Se])tenibei". ISIT), between (jovernor Xinian Edwards, of
Illinois Territory, and tlie chiefs, warriors, etc., of the Kickapoo
nation, Was1i-e-ow)i, who at the treaty of Yincennes signed as a Mas-
coutin, was a party to it, and in this instance signed as a Kickaj)oo.
No Mascoutins by that name appear in tlie record of the treaty. f
The preceding facts, negative and direct, admit of the following
inferences : that there were two subdivisions of the same nation,
known first to the French, then to the English, and more recently
to the Americans, the one under the name of Kickapoos and the
other as Mascoutines ; that they spoke the same language and ob-
served the same customs ; that they were living near each other,
and always had a community of interest in their wars, alliances and
migrations ; and that since the United States have held dominion
over the territory of the northwest the Kickapoos and Mascoutines
have considered themselves as one and the same people, whose tri-
bal relations were so nearly identical that, in all official transactions
with the federal government, they were recognized only as Kicka-
p0 in goods and $200 per annum for ten years;
the compensation of the Delawares was an annuity of $300 for ten
years.
The Delawares continued to reside upon White River and its
branches until 1819, when most of them joined the band who had
emigrated to Missouri upon the tract of land granted jointly to them
and the Shawnees, in 1793, by the Sj^anish authorities. Others of
their number who remained scattered themselves among the Miamis,
Pottawatomies and Kickapoos ; while still others, including the Mo-
ravian converts, wentjto Canada, At that time, 1819, the total num-
ber of those residing in Indiana was computed to be eight hundred
souls.*
In 1829 the majority of the nation were settled on the Kansas
and Missouri rivers. They numbered about 1,000, were brave, en-
terprising hunters, cultivated lands and were friendly to the whites.
In 1853 they sold to the government all the lands granted them, ex-
cepting a reservation in Kansas. During the late Rebellion the}-
sent to the United States army one hundred and seventy out of their
two hundred able-bodied men. Like their ancestors they proved
valiant and trustworthy soldiers. Of late years they have almost
entirely lost their aboriginal customs and manners. They live in
houses, have schools and churches, cultivate farms, and, in fact, bid
fair to become useful and prominent citizens of the great Republic.
* Their principal towns were on the branches of White River, within the present
limits of Madison and Delaware counties, and the capital of the latter is named after
the "jW»;icv/" or " Mon-o-sia " band. Pijie Creek and Kill Buck Creek, branches of
White River, are also named after two distinguished Delaware chiefs.
CHAPTER XVTII
THE INDIANS: THEIR IMPLEMENTS, UTENSILS, FORTIFICATIONS,
MOUNDS, AND THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.
Before the arrival of the Eurojjeans the use of iron was but little
known to the North American Indians. Marquette, in speaking of
the Illinois, states that they were entirely ignorant of the use of iron
tools, their weapons being made of stone.* This was true of all the
Indians who made their homes north of the Ohio, but south of that
stream metal tools were occasionally met with. "When Hernando
De Soto, in 1539-43, was traversing the southern part of that terri-
tory, now known as the United States, in his vain search for. gold,
some of his followers found the natives on the Savanna River using
hatchets made of copper. + It is evident that these hatchets were of
native manulacture, for they were "said to have a mixture of gold,"
The southern Indians "had long bows, and their arrows were
made of certain canes like reeds, very heavy, and so strong that a
sharp cane passeth through a target. Some they arm in the point
with a sharp bone of a lish, like a chisel, and in others they fasten
certain stones like points of diamonds. ":|; Tliese bones or "scale
of the armed fish" were neatly fastened to the head of the arrows
with splits of cane and fish glue.§ The northern Indians used
arrows with stone points. Father Rasles thus describes them:
••Arrows are the principal arms which they use in war and in the
chase. They are pointed at the end with a stone, cut and sharpened
in the shape of a serpent's tongue ; and, if no knife is at hand, they
use them also to skin the animals they have killed." || "The bow-
strings were prepared from the entrails of a stag, or of a stag's skin,
which they know how to dress as well as any man in France, and
with as many diff'erent colors. They head their arrows with the teeth
of fishes and stone, which they work very finely and handsomely. "^
* Sparks' Life of Marquette, p. 281.
t A Narrative of the Expedition of Hernando De Soto, by a Gentleman of Elvas;
published at Evora in 1557, and afterward translated and published in the second
volume of the Historical Collections of Louisiana, p. 149. X Idem, p. 124.
§ Du Pratz' History of Louisiana: English translation, vol. 2, pp. 223, 224.
I Kip's Jesuit Missions, p. 39.
•[History of the First Attempt of the French to Colonize Florida, in 1562, by Ren<'*
Laudonnitre: published in Historical Collections of Louisiana and Florida, vol. 1, p. 170.
180
THEY USE STONE IMPLEMENTS. 181
Most of the hatchets and knives of the northern Indians were
likewise made of sharpened stones, ''which they fastened in a cleft
piece of wood with leathern thongs."'" Their tomahawks were con-
structed from stone, the horn of a stag, or ''from wood in the shape
of a cutlass, and terminated by a large ball." The tomahawk was
lield in one hand and a knife in the other. As soon as thev dealt a
blow on the head of an enemy, thev immediately cut it round with
the knife, and took off the scalp with extraordinary rapidity. +
Du Pratz thus describes their method of felling trees with stone
implements and with fire: "Cutting instruments are almost con-
tinually wanted ; but as they had no iron, which of all metals is the
most useful in human so(;iety, they were obliged, with infinite pains,
to form hatchets out of large flints, by sharpening their thin edge,
and making a lioh' through them for receiving the handle. To cut
down trees with these axes would have been almost an impracticable
work ; they were, therefore, obliged to light fires round the roots of
them, and to cut away the charcoal as the fire eat into the tree. ■"■:{:
Charlevoix makes a similar statement: "These people, before
we })rovided them with hatchets and other instruments, were very
much at a loss in felling their trees, and making them fit for such
uses as they intended them for. They burned them near the root,
and in order to split and cut them into proper lengths they made
use of hatchets made of flint, which never broke, but which required
a prodigious time to sharpen. In order to fix them in a shaft, they
cut oft' the toj) of a young tree, making a slit in it, as if they were
going to draft it, into which slit they inserted the head of the axe.
The tree, growing together again in length of time, held the head
of the hatchet so firm that it was impossible for it to get loose;
they then cut the tree at the length they deemed sufficient for the
liandle.^'^
When they were about to make wooden dishes, porringers or
spoons, they cut the blocks of wood to the required shape with
stone hatchets, hollowed them out with coals of fire, and polished
them with beaver teeth. !
Early settlers in the neighborhood of Thorntown, Indiana, no-
ticed that the Indians made their hominy-blocks in a sinular manner.
Hound stones were heated and placed upon the blocks which were
to be excavated. The charred wood was dug out with knives, and
* Hennepin, vol. 2, p. 103.
t Letter of Father Rasles in Kip's Jesuit Missions, p. 40.
t Volume 2, p. 223.
8 Narrative Journal, vol. 2, p. 126.
II Hennepin, vol. 2. p. 103.
182 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NOUTHWEST.
then the surface was polished with stone iiuplements. These round
stones were the common property of the tribe, and were used by
individual families as occasion required."
"They dug their ground with an instrument of w^ood, which was
fashioned like a broad mattock, wherewith they dig their vines as in
France ; they put two grains of nuiize together, "f
For boiling their victuals they made use oi earthen kettles.:}; The
kettle w-as held up by two crotches and a stick of wood laid across.
The pot ladle, called by them niikoine, laid at the side.>J "In the
north they often made use of wooden kettles, and made the water
boil by throwing into it red hot pebbles. < )ur iron ])ots are esteemed
by them as much more commodious than their own.^li
That the Kortli American Indians not only used, but actually
manufactured, pottery for various culinary and religious purposes
admits of no argument. Hennepin renuirks : "Before the arrival
of the Europeans in North America both the northern and southern
savages made use of, and do to this day use, earthen pots, especially
such as have no commerce with the Europeans, from whom they may
procui'e kettles and other movables. "•[ M. Pouchot, who was ac-
quainted with the manners and customs of the CJanadian Indians,
states "that they formerly had usages and utensils to which they
are now scarcely accustomed. T/tey made jyottery and drew lire from
wood." **
In 1700, Father Gravier, in speaking of the Yazoos, says: "You
see there in their cabins neither clothes, nor sacks, nor kettles, nor
guns ; they carry all with them, and have no riches hut eartlien pots^
quite well made, especially little glazed jntchers^ as neat as you would
see in France." tf The Illinois also occasionally used glazed pitch-
ers. :{::}; The manufacturing of these earthen vessels was done by the
women. §§ By the southern Indians the earthenware goods were
used for religious as well as domestic purposes. Gravier noticed
several in their temples, containing bones of departed warriors,
ashes, etc.
* Statements of early settlers.
t Laudonniere. p. 174.
X Hennepin, vol. 2, p. 105.
S Pouchot's Memoirs, vol. 2, p. 186.
II Charlevoix' Narrative .loiirnal, vol. 2. pp. 123, 124.
"I Volume 2, pp. 102, 10;i This work was written in 1G97.
** Pouchot's Memoirs, vol. 2, p. 219.
ttGravier's Journal, published in Shea's Early Voyages Up and Down the Missis-
sippi, p 135.
XX Vide p. 109 of this work.
S^ Gravier's Journal, published in Shea's Early Voyages Up and Down the Missis-
sippi, p. 135; also, Du Pratz' History of Louisiana, vol. 2, p. 166.
IXDIAX FORTH- ICATIOXS. 183
The Anu'rican Indians, botli northern and southern, liad most of
their vilhiges fortified either by wooden palisades, or earthen
breastworks and palisades combined. De Soto, on the 19th of June,
1541, entered the town of Pacaha,^^ which was very great, walled,
and beset with towers, and many loopholes were in the towers and
wall.f Charlevoix said: " The Indians are more skillful in erect-
ing their fortifications than in building their houses. Here you see
villages surrounded with good ])alisa(les and with rcMJoubts ; and
they are very careful to lay in a proper })i'ovision of water and
stones. These })alisades are double, arid even sometimes treble,
and generally have battlements on the outer circumvallation. The
piles, of which they are composed, are interwoven with branches of
trees, without any void space between them. This sort of fortifica-
tion was sufficient to sustain a long siege whilst the Indians were
ignorant of the use of fire-arms. ■':{:
La Hontan thus describes these palisaded towns : " Their villages
are fortified with double palisadoes of very hardwood, which are
as thick as one's thigh, and fifteen feet high, with little squares about
the middle of eourtines."'§
These wooden fortifications were used to a comparatively late
day. At the siege of Detroit, in 1712, the Foxes and Mascoutins
resisted, in a wooden fort, for nineteen days, the attack of a much
larger force of Frenchmen and Indians. In order to avoid the
fire of the French, they dug ludes four or five feet deep in the bot-
tom of their fort.
The western Indians, in their fortifications, made use of both
earth and wood. An early American author remarks: ''The re-
mains of Indian fortifications seen throughout the western country,
have given rise to strange conjectures, and have been supposed to
a])pertain to a period extremely remote ; but it is a fact well known
that in some of them the remains of palisadoes were found by the
first settlers. "•[ AVhen Maj. Long's party, in 1S23, })assed through
Fort Wayne, they in(juired of Metea, a celebrated Pottawatomie chief
well versed in the lore of his tribe, whether he had ever heard of any
tradition accounting for the erection of those ai'tificial mounds which
are found scattered over the whole country. ''He immediately
replied tliat they had been constructed hy the Indians as fortijica-
* Probably in the limits of the present state of Arkansas.
t Account by the Gentleman of Elvas, p. 172.
t Narrative Journal, vol. 2, p. 128.
S Vol. 2. p. 6.
II Dubuisson's Official Report.
*jf Views of Louisiana: Brackenridge, p. 14.
184 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
tion.'< before the white nuiii hud eoiiie {uiioiig- them. He liad always
heard this origin ascribed to them, and knew three of those con-
strnctions which were su])posed to have been made by liis nation.
One is at the fork of the Kankakee and the Des Phiines Rivers, a
second on the Oliio, which, from his description, was siipjiosed to be
at the mouth of the Muskingum. He visited it, but couhl not de-
scribe the spot accurately, and a third, which lie had also seen, he
stated to be on the head-waters of the St. Joseph of Lake Michigan.
This latter place is about forty miles northwest of Fort Wayne.""
One 'of the Miami chiefs, whom the traders named Le Gros, told
Barron'" that '' he had heard that his father had fought with his tribe
in one of the forts at Piqua, Ohio; that the fort had been erected
by the Indians against tlie French, and that his father had been
kilitMl dui-ing one of the assaults nuide upon it.^f
While at Chicago, and "with a view to collect as much informa-
tion as possible on the subject of Indian antiquities, we inquii-ed of
Robinson ;{: whether any traditions on this subject were current
among the Indians. He observed that these ancient fortifications
v^'em a frequent suhject of conversation^ and especially those in the
nature of excavations made in the ground. He had heard of one
made by the Kickapoos and Fox Indians on the Sangamo River, a
stream running into the Illinois. This fortification is distinguished
by the name of Etnutael'. It is k'noicn to have served as an in-
trenchnient to the Kickapoos and Foxes, who were met there and
defeated by the Pottawatomies, the Ottawas and Chippeways. Xo
date was assigned to this transaction. We understood that the Et-
nataek was near the Kickapoo village on the Sangamo. "jj
Near the dividing line between sections 4 and 5, townshij) 31
north, of range 11 east, in Kankakee county, Illinois, on the i)rairie
about a mile ab(^ve the mouth of Rock Creek, are some ancient
mounds. "One is very lai-ge, being about one hundred feet base in
diametei- and about twenty feet high, in a conic form, and is said tt>
contain the remaiiis of two hundred Indians who were killed in the
celebrated battle between the Illinois and Chij)])eways, Delawares
and Shawnees ; and about two chains to the northeast, and the same
* An Indian interpreter.
t Long's Expedition to the Sources of the St. Peters, vol. 1. pp. 121, 122.
t Robinson was a Pottawatomie halt-breed, of superior intelligence, and his state-
ments can be relied upon. He died, only a few years ago, on the Au Sable Kiver.
§ Long's Expedition, vol. 1, p. 121. This stream is laid down on .Joliet's map. pulj-
lished in 1G81, as the Pierres Sanguines. In the early gazetteers it is called Sdiit/cnno:
vide Beck's Illinois and Missouri Gazetteer, p. 154. Its signification in the I'ottawat-
omie dialect is " a plenty to eat ": Early History of the West and Northwest, by S. R.
Beggs, p. 157. This definition, however, is somewhat doulitful.
INDIAN MOUNDS. 185
distance to tlie nortliwest, are two other small mounds, which are
said to contain the remains of the chiefs of the two parties. '^"^^
Uncorroborated Indian traditions are not entitled to any high
degree of credibility, and these quoted are introduced to refute the
often repeated assertion that the Indianii had no tradition concerning
the origin of the mounds scattered through the western states, or
that tliev sup{)osed them to have been erected by a race wlio occu-
pied tlie continent anterior to themselves.
These mounds were seldom or never used for religious purposes
by the Algonquins or Iroquois, but Penicault states that when lie
visited the Natchez Indians, in 1704, "the houses of the Sunsf are
built on mounds, and are distinguished from c:ach other by their size.
Tlu' mound ii})(>n which the house of the Great Chief, or Sun, is
built is larger than the rest, and its sides are steeper. The temple in
the village of the Great Sun is about thirty feet high and tbrtv-eight
in circumference, with the walls eight feet thick and covered with a
matting of canes, in which they keep up a perpetual fire.'':J:
De Soto found the houses of the chiefs built on mounds of diifer-
ent heights, according to their rank, and their villages fortified with
palisades, or walls of earth, with gateways to go in and out. ^^
When Gravier, in 1700, visited the Yazoos, he noticed that their
temple was raised on a mound of earth, jj He also, in speaking of
the Ohio, states that "it is called by the Illinois and Oumiamis the
river oi \\\q, Akansea ^ because the Akansea formerly dwelt on it."*
The Akansea or Arkansas Indians possessed many traits and cus-
toms in common with the Xatchez, having temples, pottery, etc.
A still more important fact is noticed by Du Pratz, who was inti-
mately acquainted with the Great Sun. lie says: "The temple is
about thirty feet square, and stands on an artificial mound about
eight feet high, by the side of a small river. The mound slopes
insensibly from the main front, which is northward, but on the other
sides it is somewhat steeper.""'
According to their own traditions, the Natchez "were at one
* Manuscript Kankakee Surveys, conducted by Dan W. Beckwith, deputy govern-
ment surveyor, in 1834. Major Beckwith was intimately acquainted witli thePotta-
watomies of the Kankakee, whose vilhiges were in the neigliborhood, and without
doubt the account of these mounds incorporated in his Field Notes was communicated
to him by them.
t The chiefs of the Natches were so called because they were supposed to be the
direct descendants of a man and woman, who, descending from the sun, were the tirst
rulers of this people.
X Annals of Louisiana: Historical Collections of Louisiana and Florida, new series,
pp. 94. 95.
S .Account by the Gentleman of Elvas.
I Karly Voynges Up and Down the Mississippi, p. 136.
IT Idem, p. 120.
186 histokk; notes on the north\vi>t.
time the most powerful nation in all North America, and were
looked upon by the other nations as their superiors, and were, on
that account, respected by them. Their territor}^ extended from
the River Ihe7"oilh\ in Lou island, io the Wahashy-'' They had over
five hundred suns, and, consequently, nearly that many villages.
Their decline and retreat to the south was owing not to the superi-
ority in arms of the less civilized surrounding tribes, but was due to
the pride of their t)wn chiefs, who, to lend an imposing magnificence
to their funeral rites, adopted the impolitic custom of having hun-
dreds of their followers strangled at their pyre. Many of the
mounds, scattered up and down valleys of the Wabash, Ohio and
Mississipjn. while being the only, may be the time-defying monu-
ments of the departed power and grandeur of these two tribes.
The Indian manner of making a fire is thus related by Hennepin :
"Their way of making a fire, which is new and unknown to us, is
thus : they take a triangular piece of cedar wood of a foot and a half
in length, wherein they bore some holes half through ; then they
take a switch, or another small piece of hard wood, and with both
their hands rub the strongest upon the weakest in the hole, which is
made in the cedar, and while they^ are thus i-ubbing they let fall a
sort of dust or powder, wdiicli turns into fire. This white dust they
roll u|) in a |)ellet of herbs, dried in autumn, and rubbing them all
together, and then blowing upon the dust that is in the pellets, the
fire kindles in a moment, ""t
The food of the Indians consisted of all the varieties of gam'e,
fishes and wild fruits in the vicinity ; and they cultivated Indian
corn, melons and squashes. From corn they made a ])re})aration
called sagamite. They pulverized the corn, mixed it with water,
and added a small pro[)ortion of ground gourds or beans.
The clothiiiff of the northern Indians consisted onlv of the skins
of wild animals, roughly [)repared for that ])ui"pose. Their southei'n
l)r('thren were far in advance of tlieiii in this i-ospect. "Many of the
women wore cloaks of the bark of the mulberry tree, or of the
feathers of swans, turkies or Indian ducks. The bark they take from
young mulberry shoots that rise from the roots of ti-ei's that liave
been cut down. After it is dried in the sun they beat it to make all
the woody parts fall off. and they give the threads that remain a
second beating, after which they bk'acli them by ex})<)sing them to
the dew. When they are well whitene(l they spin them about the
coarseness of ])ack-thread, and weave them in the foHowing numner:
* Du Pratz' History of Louisiana, vol. 2. p. 14G. t Ibid. vol. 2. p. 103.
THEIR CANOES. 187
They plant two stakes in the ground about a yard and a half asunder,
and havinii- stretched a cord from the one to the other, they fasten
their threads of ])ark double to this cord, and then interweave them
in a curious manner into a ch^ak of about a yard square, with a
wrought border round the edges.'""
The Indians had three varieties of canoes, elm-bark, birch-bark
and pirogues. "Canoes of elm-bark were not used for long voyages,
as they were very frail. When the Indians wish to make a canoe
of elm-bark they select the trunk of a tree which is very smooth, at
the time when the sap remains. They cut it around, above and
below, about ten, twelve or fifteen feet apart, according to the num-
ber of people which it is to carry. After having taken off the whole
in one piece, they shave off the roughest of the bark, which they
make the inside of the canoe. They make end ties of the thickness
of a finger, and of sufficient length for the canoe, using young oak
or any other flexible and strong wood, and fasten the two larger
folds of the bark between these strips, spreading them apart with
wooden bows, which are fastened in about two feet apart. They sew
up the two ends of the bark with strips drawn from the inner bark
of the elm, giving attention to raise up a little the two extremities,
which they qaW jnnccs\ making a swell in the middle and a curve on
the sides, to resist the wind. If there are any chinks, they sew them
together with thongs and cover them with chewing-gum, which they
crowd by heating it with a coal of fire. The bark is fastened to the
wooden bows by wooden thongs. They add a mast, made of a piece
of wood and cross-piece to serve as a yard, and their blankets serve
them as sails. These canoes will carry from three to nine persons
and all their equipage. They sit upon their heels, without moving,
as do also their children, when they are in, from lear of losing their
balance, when the whole machine would u])set. .But this very seldom
happened, unless struck by a flaw of wind. They use these vessels
particulai'ly in their war ]»arties.
"The canoes made of birch bark were much more solid and more
artistically constructed. The frames of these canoes are made of
stri})s of cedar wood, which is very flexible, and which they render
as thin as a side of a sword-scabbard, and three or four inches wide.
They all touch one another, and come up to a point between the
two end strips. This frame is covered with the bark of the birch tree,
sewed together like skins, secured between the end stri])S and tied
* Du Pratz. vol. 2, p. 231 ; also, Gravier's Voyagre. p. 134. The aborifrinal method of
procuringr thread to sew together their garments made of skins has already been no-
ticed in the description of the manners and customs of the Illinois.
188 HISTORIC XOTKS OX THE XOIITHWEST.
along the ribs with the inner bark of the roots of the cedar, as we
twist wiUows around the hoops of a cask. All these seams are cov-
ered with gum,* as is done with canoes of elm bark. They then
put in cross-bars to hold it and to serve as seats, and a long pole,
which they lay on from fore to aft in rough weather to prevent it
from being broken by the shocks occasioned by pitching. They
have with thoui three, six, twelve and even twenty-four places, which
are designated as so many seats. The French are almost the only
people who use these canoes for their long voyages. They will carry
as much as three thousand pounds, "'f These were vessels in which
the fur trade of the entire northwest has been carried on for so many
years. They were very light, four men being able to carry the
largest of them over })()rtages. At night they were unloaded, drawn
u]>on the shore, turned over and served the savages or traders as
huts. They could endure gales of wind that would play havoc with
vessels of European manufacture. In calm water, the canoe men,
in a sitting posture, used paddles ; in stemming currents, rising from
their seats, they substituted poles for paddles, and in shooting
rapids, they rested on their knees.
Pirogues were the trunks of trees hollowed out and pointed at
the extremities. A fire was started on the trunk, out of which the
pirogue was to be constructed. The fire was kept within the desired
limits by the dripping of water upon the edges of the trunk. As a
part became charred, it was dug out with stone hatchets and the fire
rekindled. This kind of canoes was especially- adaj^ted for the navi-
gation of the Mississippi and Missouri ; the current of these streams
carrying down trees, wdiicli formed snags, rendered their navigation
by bark canoes exceedingly hazardous. It was probably owing to
this reason, as well as because there were no birch trees in their
country, that the Illinois and Miamis were not, as the Jesuits re-
nuirked, "canoe nations;'' they used the awkward, heavy pirogue
instead.
Each nation was divided into villages. The Indian village, when
unfortified, had its cabins scattered along the banks of a ri\er or the
* " The small roots of the spruce tree afford the irattap with which the bark is
sewed, and the gum of the pine h'ee supplies the place of tar and oakum. Bark, some
spare wattap and gum are always carried in each canoe, for the repairs which fre-
quently become necessary." ]l(Ie Henry's Travels. ]>. 14.
tThe above extracts are taken from the Memoir Upon the Late War in North Amer-
ica I^etween the French and English. 1755-1760. by M. I'ouchot; translated and edited
by Franklin Hough, vol. 2, pp. 21(5. 217, 218. Pouchot was the commandant at Fort
Niagara at the time of its surrender to the English. He was exceedingly well versed
in all that pertained to Indian manners and customs, and his work received the indorse-
ment of Marquis Vaudreuil, Governor of Canada. Of the translation, there were only
two hundred copies printed.
WIGWAMS. 189
shores of «a hike, and often extended for tliree or four miles. Each
cabin held the head of the family, the children, grandchildren, and
often the brothers and sisters, so that a single cabin not unfrequently
contained as many as sixty persons. Some of their cabins were in
the form of elongated squares, of which the sides were not more
than live or six feet high. They were made of bark, and the roof
was prepared from the same material, having an opening in the top
for the passage of smoke. At both ends of the cabin there were
entrances. The fire was built under the hole in the roof, and there
were as many fires as there were families.
The beds were upon planks on the floor of the cabin, or upon
simple hides, which they called apjncliimoiu placed along the parti-
tions. The}' slept upon these skins, wrapped in their blankets,
which, during the day, served them for clothing. Each one had
his particular place. The man and wife crouched together, her
back being against his body, their blankets passed around their
heads and feet, so that they looked like a plate of ducks. '"■ These
bark cabins were used by the Iroquois, and, indeed, by many Indian
tribes who lived exclusively in the forests.
The prairie Indians, who were unable to procure bark, generally
made mats out of platted reeds or flags, and placed these mats around
three or four poles tied together at the ends. They were, in form.
round, and ternunated in a cone. These mats were sewed together
witli so much skill that, when new, the rain could not penetrate
them. This variety of cabins possessed the great advantage that,
when they moved their place of residence, the mats of reeds were
rolled up and carried along by the squaws. f
"The nastiness of these cabins alone, and that infection which
was a necessary consefpience of it, would have been to any one but
an Indian a severe punishment. Having no wind()W\s, they were full
of smoke, and in cold weather they were crowded with dogs. The
Indians never changed their garments until they fell ofl' by their
very rottenness. Being never washed, they were fairly alive with
vermin. In summer the savages bathed every day, but immediately
afterward rubbed themselves with oil and grease of a very rank
smell. " In winter they remained unwashed, and it was impossible
to enter their cabins without being jxHSoned with the stench."'
All their food was vei"v ill-seasoned and insipid, ••and there ])re-
vailed in all their repasts an uncleanliuess which })assed all concep-
* Extract from Pouchot's Memoirs, pp. 185. 18C.
t Letter of Father Marest, Kip's .Jesuit Missions, p. 199.
190 ULSTOIUC NOTKS ON THK NOKTHWEST.
tioii. Tlu'ro were very few animals wliicli did not feed cleaner."*
Tliev never washed their wooden or bark dishes, nor their porringers
and spoons. + In this connection William Biggs states: ''They:}:
])lucked oil* a few of the largest feathers, then threw the duck, —
feathei's, entrails and all, — into the sou})-kettle, and cooked it in that
mannei"."-^
The Indians were cannibals, though hunnin flesh was only eaten
iit war feasts. It was often the case that after a prisoner had been
tortui'ed his body was thrown into "• the war-kettle." and his remains
ji'reedilv devoured. This fact is unifoi'mlv asserted bv the early
Fi'cnch wi'iters. Members of Major Long's party made especial
in(|uiries at Fort Wayne concerning this subject, and were entirely
convinced. They met persons who had attended the feasts, and saw
Indians who acknowledged that they had participated in them.
Joscjih Barron saw the Pottawatomies with hands and limbs, both
of white men and Cherokees, which they were about to devour.
Among some tribes cannibalism was universal, but it a])pears that
among the Pottawatomies and Mianiis it was restricted to a frater-
nity whose privilege and duty it was on all occasions to eat of the
enemy's flesh; — at least one individual must be eaten. The flesh
was sometimes dried and taken to the villages. [
The Indians had some peculiar funeral customs. Joutel thus
records some <^f his observations: "They pay a respect to their
dead, as appears by their special care of burying them, and even of
])utting into lofty coftins the bodies of such as are considerable
among them, as their chiefs and others, which is also practiced
among the Accanceas, but they differ in this respect, that the Accan-
ceas wec]) and make their com]daints for some days, whereas the-
Shawnees and other people of the Illinois nation do just the con-
trary, for when any of them die they wrap them up in skins and
then jnit them into cofiins made of the bark oi' trees, then sing and
dance about them for twenty-four hours. Those dancers take care
to tie calabashes, or gourds, about their bodies, with some Indian
corn in them, to rattle and make a noise, and some of theui have a
drum, made of a great earthen jxd, on which they t'xtend a wild
goat's skin, and beat thereon with one stick, like our tabors. During
that rejoicing they threw their ])resents on the coftin, as bracelets,
* Charlevoix' Narrative .lournal, vol. 2, pp. 132, 133.
t For a full account of their lack of neatness in the culinary department, vuJe Hen-
nepin, vol. 2, p. 120.
X The Kickapoos.
^ Narrative of William Biggs, p. 9.
II Long's Expedition to the sources of the St. Peters, vol. 1, pp. 103-106.
BUKIAL CEREMONIES. 191
pendants or [)ieces of earthenware. Wlien the ceremony was over
tliev buried the body, with a part of the |)resents, making choice of
such as may be most pro])er for it. They also bury with it some
store of Indian wlieat. witli <> pof to boil it in, for fear the dead per-
son should be hungry on his long journey, and they re])eat the cere-
mony at the year's end. A good number of presents still remaining,
they divide them into several lots and play at a game called the stick
to give them to the winner."*
The Indian graves were made of a large size, and the whole of
the inside lined with bark. On the bark was laid the corpse, accom-
panied with axes, snow-shoes, kettle, common shoes, and, if a wo-
man, carrying-belts and paddles.
This was covered with bark, and at about two feet nearer the
surface, logs were laid across, and these again covered with bark, so
that the earth might by no means fall upon the corpse. f If the
deceased, before his death, had so expressed his wish, a tree was
hollowed out and the corpse deposited within. After the body had
become entirely decomposed, the bones were often collected and
buried in the earth. Many of these wooden sepulchres were dis-
covered by the early settlers in Iroquois county, Illinois. Doubt-
less they were the remains of Pottawatomies, who at that time re-
sided there.
After a death they took care to visit every place near their cabins,
striking incessantly with rods and raising the most hideous cries, in
ordei' to drive the souls to a distance, and to keep them from lurk-
ing about their cabins. :|;
The Indians believed that every animal contained a Manitou or
God, and that these spirits could exert over them a beneficial or
prejudicial influence. The rattlesnake was especially venerated by
them. Henry relates an instance of this veneration. lie saw a
snake, and procured his gun, with the intention of dispatching it.
The Indians begged him to desist, and. "with their pipes and to-
bacco-pouches in their hands. ap})roaclied the snake. They sur-
rounded it, all addressing it by turns and calling it their :litened bv driv- Tf^WtSi,''"''''''''''^'''^^'^^!^
ing a wedge between the attacliment and the
surface of the implement, which on the back
is slightly concaved to hold the wedge in
place. ,
Figs. 5, 6 and 7 are also axes ; material,
dark granite. Heretofore it has been the
popular opinion that these instruments are 'Vermilion county. 111.
"fleshers," and were used in skinning animals, cutting up the flesh,
*The writer has divided the " lot," sending samples to the Historical Societies of
Wisconsin and Chicago, and placed others in the collections of H. N. Rust, of Chicago;
Prof. John CoUett, of Indianapolis; Prof. A. H. Worthen. Springfield, Illinois; .fose-
phus Collett, of Terre Haute, while the others remain in the collection of W. C. Beck-
with, at Danville, Illinois.
Fin. 4 = J
STONE IMPLEMENTS.
199
and for scraping hides when ])reparing them for tanning. The re-
cent discoveries of remains of the ancient "Lake Dwellers," of
Switzerland, have resulted in finding similar implements attached to
handles, making them a very formidable battle-axe.
Fig. 5=U
Fig. G=3^.
J
Vermilion county, III. Vermilion co., 111. (H. N. Rust's Collection.)
From the im})lements obtained by Mr. Rust of the Sioux it can
readily be seen how implements like Fig. 6, although tapering
from the bit to the top, could be attached to handles by means of a
rawhide band. Before fastening on the handle the rawhide w^ould
be soaked in water, and on drying would tighten to the roughened
surface of the stone with a secure grip. A blow given with the cut-
ting edge of this implement would tend to w^edge it the more firmly
into the handle.*
* In the Fifth Annual Report of the Regents of the University of New York
(Albany. 1852. page 105), Mr. L. H. Morgan illustrates the ga-ne-(t-ga-o-diis-ha, or war
club, used by " the Iroquois at the period of their discovery." The helve is a crooked
piece of wood, with a chisel-shaped bit formed out of deer's horn — shaped like Fig.
No. 7, on the next page — inserted at the elbow, near the larger end; and m many
respects it resembles the clubs illustrated m Plate X, vol. 2, of Dr. Keller's work on
the " Lake Dwelhngs of Switzerland and other parts of Europe." Mr. Morgan remarks
that "in later times a piece of steel was substituted for the deer horn, thus maknig>
it a more deadly weapon than formerly." There is little doubt that the Indians
used such implements as Figs. 5, 6 and 7 for sphttmg wood and various other pur-
poses. The fact of their being used for splitting wood was mentioned by Father
Charlevoix over a hundred and fifty years ago, as appears from extracts on page 181 of
this book, quoted from his Narrative Journal.
200
iriSTOKIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
Fig. 7=}4.
Fig. 7 is another style of axe. The mate-
rial out of which it is composed is greenstone,
admitting of a fine polish. There would be no
ditficulty at all in shrinking a rawhide band to
its surface, and the somewhat polished condi-
tion of its sides above the "bit" would indi-
cate a long application of this kind of a fasten-
ing. It could also be used as a chisel in exca-
vating the charred surface of wood that was
being fashioned into canoes, mortars for crack-
ing corn, or in the construction of other domes-
tic utensils.
Fig. 8 is a club or hammer, or both. Its
iiuxterial is dark quartz. Some varieties of this
implement have a groove cut around the cen-
ter, like Fig. 9. The manner of handling it in-
volves the use of rawhide, and, with some, is
performed substantially in the same manner as
in Figs. 5, 6 and Y, except that the band of rawhide is broader,
and extends some distance on either side of the lesser diameter
Vermilion countyjll.
Fig. 8:
Fig. 3G.
':ii^
Vermilion coiintv. Til.
'{H. N. Rust's Collection.)
Dakota.
(H. N. Rusfs Collection.)
of the stone. In other instances they are secured in a hood of
rawhide that envelops nearly the whole implement, leaving the
point or one end of the stone slightly exposed, as in Fig. SO.'--'
*Mr. Rust has in his collection a number of such implements, some of them
weig'hing several pounds, which, along with the ones illustrated, were obtained by him
from the Sionx of northwest Dakota, and which are "hooded" in the manner here
' points "
with which arrows are tipped that are used in killing small game.
Fig. 24 is made out of black "trap-rock,"' and Fig. 25 out of flesh-
colored flint.
Fig. 26 is displayed on account of its peculiar form ; the under
surface is nearly flat, and the other side has quite a ridge or spine
running the entire length from head to point. Besides this the head
Fig. 26=1^.
Vermilion county, 111.
and point turn upward, giving a uniform
curve t(j the implement. If used as an
arrow-point, the shaft, in consequence of
tlie shape of the stone, would describe a
curved line when shot from the bow. It
is made of white flint. ISTo suggestions
are offered as to its probable uses.
VARIETIES OF IMPLEMENTS FOR DOMESTIC USES.
20&
IMPLEMENTS FOR DOMESTIC USES.
Fig. 27 is a pestle or pounder. It is made out of common gran-
ite. There are many different styles of this
implement, some varieties are more conical,
while others are more bell-shaped than the
one illustrated. They are used for crushing
corn and other like purposes. The one illus-
trated has a concave place near the center of
the base ; this would the better adapt it to
cracking nuts, as the hollow space would
protect the kernel from being too severely
crushed. In connection with this stone, the
Indians sometimes used inortars, made either
of wood or stone, into which the articles
to be pulverized could be placed ; or the
corn or beans could be done up in the folds Vermilion county, Illinois.
of a skin, or inclosed in a leathern bag, and ^^- ^- ^"^*' '^ collection.)
then crushed by blows struck with either the head or rim of the
pestle.. The stone mortars were usually flat discs, slightly hollowed
out from the edges toward the center.
Fig. 28 may be designated as a flesher or scraper. The specimen
illustrated is made of white flint. It is very
thin, considering the breadth and length of the
implement, and has sharp cutting edges all the
way around. It might be used as a knife, as
well as for a variety of other purposes. It is
an unusually smooth and highly flnished tool.
It and its mate, which is considerably broader,
and proportioned more like p^, 29= i-^
Fig. 29, were found sticking
perpendicular in the ground,
with their points barely ex-
posed above the surface, on
the farm of Wm. Foster, a
few miles east of Danville,
Illinois. Both of them will
make as clean a cut through
Vermilion county, 111. i i? u .c ^.^
^ several lolds oi paper as the
blade of a good pocket-knife.
Fig. 29 is composed of an impure purplish flint. It is very much
like Fig. 28, and was probably used for similar purposes.
Fig. 28=3^
ermilion c
206
HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
Vermilion county, 111.
Fig. 31
Ft': !^o-i<. Fig. 30, as the illustration shows, is rougher-
edged than the two preceding ones. The side
opposite the one shown has a more uneven sur-
face than the other. A smooth, well-defined
groove runs across the implement (as shown by
the dark shading) as though it were intended to
be fastened to a helve, although the groove
would afford good support for the thumb, if
the implement were used only with the hand.
The material is a coarse, impure, grayish flint.
Fiff. 31 miffht be said to combine the qualities of a „ or. w
knife, gimlet and bodkin. Its cutting edges extend all
around, and along the stem the edges are
quite abrupt. The implement was origi-
nally much longer, but it appears to have
lost about an inch in length, its point hav-
ing been broken off*. The blade will cut
cloth or paper very readily. The mate-
rial is white flint.
Fig. 32 may be classed with Fig. 31.
The material is dark fine-grained flint, and
the implement perfect. There is a per-
ceptible wind to the edges of the stem,
while the edges of the head are parallel
with the plane of the implement, and so
sharp that they will cut cloth, leather or
paper. It was probably used to bore holes
and cut out skins that were being manu-
factured into clothing and other articles.
Fig. 33 may have been made for the same uses as
Figs. 31 and 32. The blade is shaped like a spade,
the stem representing the handle. It tapers from
the bit of the blade where the stem joins the
shoulder, which is the thickest part of the imple-
ment, and from the shoulder it tapers to both ends.
The bit is shaped like a gouge, and makes a circular
incision. It is a smooth piece of workmanship, made
Verniuion /. i • n.
county 111 out or white nmt.
Vermilion
county, 111.
Fio..33 = i^
Vermilion
county. 111.
STONE IMPLEMENTS.
207
The Fig. 34
Tlie
Vermilion
county, 111.
35 = 1.^.
Fig. 34 has been designated as a "rimnier."
material of whicli it is made is flesh-colored flint,
stem is nearly round, and the implement could be used
for piercing holes in leather or wood. Another use at-
tributed to it is for drilling holes in pipes, gorgets, discs
and otlier implements formed out of stone where the
material was soft enough to admit of being perforated in
this way.
Fig. 35, By common consent this implement has
received the name of ''discoidal stone." The one illus-
trated is comj)osed of fine dark-gray
granite. Several theories have been
oflPered as to the uses of this imple-
ment, — one that they are quoits used
by the Indians in playing a game
similar to that of '"pitching horse-
shoes"; that they were employed in
another game resembling "ten-pins,"
in which the stone would be grasped
on its concave side by the thumb and
second finger, while the fore-finger
rested on the outer edge, or rim, and
that by a peculiar motion of the arm in hurling the stone it would
describe a convolute figure as it rolled along upon the ground. We
may suggest thatfimplements like this might be used as paint cups, as
their convex surface would enable the warrior to grind his pigments
and reduce them to powder, preparatory to decorating his person.
The implements illustrated were, no doubt, put to many other
uses besides those suggested. As the pioneer would make his house,
furniture, plow, ox yokes, and clear his land with his axe, so the
Indians, in the poverty of their supply, we ma,y assume, were com-
pelled to make a single tool serve as many purposes as their ingenu-
ity could devise.
Vermilion county, 111. (H. N. Rust's
Collection.)
CHAPTER XX.
THE WAR FOR THE FUR TRADE.
FoKMERLY the great Northwest abounded in game and water-fowL
The small lakes and lesser water-courses were full of beaver, otter
and muskrats. In the forests were found the marten, the raccoon,
and other fur-bearing animals. The plains, partially submerged,
and the rivers, whose current had a sluggish flow, the shallow lakes,
producing annual crops of wild rice, of nature's own sowing, teemed
with wild geese, duck and other aquatic fowl bursting in their veiy
fatness. *
The turkey, in his glossy feathers, strutted the forests, some of
them being of prodigious size, weighing thirty-six pounds, f
The shy deer and the lordly elk, crowned with outspreading horns,
grazed upon the plain and in the open woods, while the solitary moose
browsed upon the buds in the thick copsewood that gave him food
and a hiding place as well. The fleet-footed antelope nibbled at the
tender grasses on the prairies, or bounded away over the ridges to
hide in the valleys beyond, from the approach of the stealthy wolf
or wily Indian. The belts of timber along the water-courses
*"The plains and prairies (referring to the country on either side of the Illinois
River) are all covered with buifaloes, roebucks, hinds, stags, and different kind of fallow-
deer. The feathered game is also here in the greatest abundance. We find, particu-
larly, quantities of swan, geese and ducks. The wild oats, which grow naturally on
the plains, fatten them to sucli a degree that they often die from being smothered in
their own grease." — Father Marest's letter, written in 1712. We have already seen,
from a description given on page 103, that water-fowl were equally abundant upon the
Maumee.
t In a letter of Father Rasles, dated October 12, 1723, there is a fine description of
the game found in the Illinois country. It reads: " Of all the nations of Canada, there
are none who live in so great abundance of everything as the Illinois. Their rivers
are covered with swans, bustards, ducks and teals. One can scarcely travel a league
without finding a prodigious multitude of turkeys, who keep together in flocks, often
to the number of two hundred. They are much larger than those we see in France.
I had the curiosity to weigh one, which I found to be thirty-six pounds. They have
hanging from the neck a kind of tuft of hair half a foot in length.
"Bears and stags are found there in very great numbers, and buffaloes and roebucks
are also seen in vast herds. Not a year passes but they (the Indians) kill more than a
thousand roebucks and more than two thousand buffaloes. From four to five thousand of
the latter can often be seen at one view grazing on the prairies. They have a hump on
the back and an exceedingly large head. The hair, except that on the head, is curled
and soft as wool. The flesh has naturally a salt taste, and is so light that, although
eaten entirely raw, it does not cause the least indigestion. When they have killed a
buffalo, which appears to them too lean, they content themselves with taking the
tongue, and going in search of one which is fatter." Vide Kip's Jesuit Missions, pp.
38, 39.
208
THE HUXTEK'S paradise.
209
aflforded lodgment for tlie bear, and were the trellises that supported
the tangled wild grapevines, the fruit of which, to this animal, was
an article of food. The bear had for his neighbor the panther, the
wild cat and the lynx, whose carnivorous appetites were appeased in
the destruction of other animals.
Immense herds of buffalo roamed over
the extensive area bounded on the east by
the Alleghanies and on the north by the
lakes, embracing the states of Ohio, Indi-
ana, Illinois, Wisconsin and the southern
half of Michigan. Their trails checkered
thei prairies of Indiana and Illinois in
every direction, the marks of which, deep
worn in the turf, remained for many years
after the disappearance of the animals that made them.* Their
numbers when the country was first known to Europeans were
immense, and beyond computation. In their migrations southward
in the fall, and on their return from the blue-grass regions of Ken-
tucky in the spring, the Ohio River was obstructed for miles during
the time occupied by the vast herds in crossing it. Indeed, the
French called the buffalo the "Illinois ox," on account of their
numbers found in "the country of the Illinois," using that expres-
sion in its wider sense, as explained on a preceding page. So great
importance was attached to the supposed commercial value of the
buffalo for its wool that when Mons. Iberville, in 1698, was engaged
to undertake the colonization of Louisiana, the king instructed him
to look after the buffalo wool as one of the most important of his
duties; and Father Charlevoix, while traveling through "The
Illinois," observed that he was surprised that the buffalo had been
so long neglected, t Among the favorite haunts of the buffalo
were the marshes of the Upper Kankakee, the low lands about the
lakes of northern Indiana, where the oozy soil furnished early as
well as late pasturage, the briny earth upon the Au Glaize, and the
Salt Licks upon the AVabash and Illinois rivers were tempting places
of resort. From the summit of the high hill at Ouiatanon, over-
looking the Wea plains to the east and the Grand Prairie to the west,
* " Nothing," says Father Charlevoix, writing of the country about the confluence of
the Fox with the Illinois River, " is to be seen in this course but immense prairies, inter-
spersed with small groves which seem to have been planted by the hands of men. The
grass is so very high that a man would be almost lost in it. and through which paths
are to be found everywhere, as well trodden as they could have been in the most popu-
lated countries, although nothing passes over them but buffaloes, and from time to
time a herd of deer or a few roebuck ": Charlevoix' Narrative Journal, vol. 2, p. 200.
t Brackenridge's Views of Louisiana.
14
210 HISTORIC XOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
as far as the eye could reach in either direction, the plains were seen
covered with groups, grazing together, or, in hjng files, stretching
away in the distance, their dark forms, contrasting with the green-
sward upon which they fed or strolled, and inspiring the enthusiasm
of tlie Frenchman, who gave the description quoted on page 104.
Still later, when passi}ig through the prairies of Illinois, on his way
from Vincennes to Ouiatanon, — more a prisoner than an ambassa-
dor, — George Croghan makes the following entry in his daily jour-
nal : " ISth and 19th of June, 1TG5. — We traveled through a pro-
digious large meadow, called the Pyankeshaws' hunting ground.
TTere is no wood to be seen, and the country appears like an ocean.
The ground is exceedingly rich and partially overgrown with wild
liemp.* The land is well watered aiid fidl ofhiiffalo^ deer, bears,
and all kinds of wild game. 20th and 21st. — We passed through
some very large meadows, part of which belonged to the Pyanke-
shaws on the Vermilion River. The country and soil were much the
same as that we traveled over for these three days past. Wild hemp
grows here in abundance. The game is very plenty. At any time
in a half hour we could kill as much as we wanted, "f
Gen. Clark, in the postscript of his letter dated November, 1779,
narrating his campaign in the Illinois country, says, concerning the
j^rairies between Kaskaskia and Yincennes, that "there are large
meadows extending beyond the reach of the eye, variegated with
groves of trees appearing like islands in the seas, covered with
Ijuffaloes and other game. In many places, with a good glass, you
may see all that are upon their feet in a half million acres. "":|: It is
not known at what time the buffalo was last seen east of the Mis-
sissippi. The Indians had a tradition that the cold winter of 17 — ,
— called by them ''the gr^eat cold^^'' on account of its severity, —
destroyed them. "The snow was so deep, and lay upon the ground
for such a length of time, that the bufialo became poor and too
weak to resist the inclemency of the weather;" great numbers of
them perished, singly and in groups, and their bones, either as iso-
lated skeletons or in bleaching piles, remained and were found over
the country for many years afterwards. §
* Further on in his Journal Col. Croghan again refers to " wild hemp, growing in
the prairies, ten or twelve feet high, which if properly cultivated would prove as good
and answer all the purposes of the hemp we cultivate." Other writers also mention
the wild hemp upon the prairies, and it seems to have been supplanted by other grasses
that have followed in the changes of vegetable growth.
t Croghan "s Journal.
i Clark's Campaign in the Illinois, p. 92.
^ On the 4th of October, 1786, one day's maixh on the road from Vincennes to the
Ohio Falls, Captains Zigler's and Strong's companies of regulars came across five buffalo.
The animals tried to force a passage through the column, when the commanding officer
THE DESTRUCTION OF THE GAME. 211
Before the coining of tlie Europeans the Indians hunted the game
for the i)urpose of supplying themselves with the necessary food and
clothing. The scattered tribes (whose numbers early writers greatly
exaggerated ) were few, when compared with the area of the coun-
try they occupied, and the wild animals were so abundant that enough
to supply their wants could be captured near at hand with such rude
weapons as their ingenuity fashioned out of wood and stone. With
the Europeans came a change. The fur of many of the animals
possessed a commercial value in the marts of Europe, where they
were bought and used as ornaments and dress by the aristocracy,
whose wealth and taste fashioned them into garments of extraordi-
nary richness. Canada was originally settled with a view to the fur
trade, and this trade was, to her people, of the first importance — the
chief motor of her growth and prosperity. The Indians were sup-
plied with guns, knives and hatchets by the Europeans, in place of
their former inferior weapons. Thus encouraged and equipped, and
accompanied by the coureur des hois^ the remotest regions were pen-
etrated, and the fur trade extended to the most distant tribes. Stim-
ulated with a desire for blankets, cotton goods and trinkets, the In-
dians now began a war upon the wild animals in earnest; and their
wanton destruction for their skins and furs alone from that period
forward was so enormous that within the next two or three genera-
tions the improvident Indians in many localities could scarcely find
enough game for their own subsistence.
The coareur des hois were a class that had much to do with the
development of trade and with giving a knowledge of the geogra-
phy of the country. They became extremely useful to the mer-
chants engaged in the fur trade, and were often a source of great
annoyance to the colonial authorities. Three or four of these peo-
ple, having obtained goods upon credit, would join their stock, put
their property into a birch bark canoe, which they worked them-
, selves, and accompany the Indians in their excursions or go directly
ordered the men to fire upon them. The discharge killed three and wounded the
others: Joseph Buell's Narrative Journal, published in S. P. Hildreth's Pioneer History.
Thirteen years later, in December, 1799, Gov. St. Clair and Judge Jacob Burnett, on their
way overland from Cincinnati to Vincennes, camped out over night, at the close of one
of their days' journeys, not a great ways east of where the old road from Louisville to
Vincennes crosses White River. The next day they encountered a severe snow-storm,
during which they surprised eight or ten buffalo, sheltering themselves from the storm
behind a beech-tree full of dead leaves which had fallen beside of the trace and hid
the travelers from their view. The tree and the noise of the wind among its leaves
prevented the buffalo from discovering the parties until the latter had approached
within two rods of the place where they stood. They then took to their heels and
were soon out of sight. One of the company drew a pistol and fired, but without
effect: Burnett's Notes on the Northwest Territory, p. 72.
212 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
into tlie country where they knew they were to liunt.* Tliese
voyages were extended twelve or fifteen montlis (sometimes hunger)
before the traders would return laden with rich cargoes of fur, and
often followed by great numbers of the natives. During the short
time required to settle their accounts witli the merchants and pro-
cure credit for a new stock, the traders would contrive to squander
their gains before they returned to their favorite mode of life among
the savages, their labor being rewarded by indulging themselves in
one month's dissipation for fifteen of exposure and hardship. "We
may not be able to explain the cause, but experience proves that it
requires much less time for a civilized people to degenerate into the
ways of savage life than is required for the savage to rise into a state
of civilization. The indifference about amassing property, and the
pleasure of living free from all restraint, soon introduced a licen-
tiousness among the coureur des hois that did not escape the eye of
the missionaries, who complained, with good reason, that they were
a disgrace to the Christian religion, "f
"The food of the coureur des hois when on their long expeditions
was'Indian corn, prepared for use by boiling it in strong lye to re-
move the hull, after which it was mashed and dried. In this state
it is soft and friable like rice. The allowance for each man on the
voyage, was one quart per day ; and a bushel, with two pounds of
prepared fat, is reckoned a month's subsistence. JSTo other allow-
ance is made of any kind, not even of salt, and bread is never
thought of; nevertheless the men are healthy on this diet, and ca-
pable of performing great labor. This mode of victualing was es-
sential to the trade, which was extended to great distances, and in
canoes so small as not to admit of the use of any other food. If
the men were supplied with bread and pork, the canoes would not
carry six months' rations, while the ordinary duration of the voyage
was not less than fourteen. No other men would be reconciled to
such fare excej^t the Canadians, and tliis fact enabled their employ-
ers to secure a monopoly of the fur trade.":};
"The old voyageiirs derisively called new hands at the business
Tfiangeurs' de lard (pork eaters), as, on leaving Montreal, and while
en route to Mackinaw, their rations were pork, hard bread and })ea
*The merchandise was neatly tied into bundles weighing: sixty or seventy pounds;
the furs received in exchange were compressed into packets of about the same weight,
so that they could be conveniently carried, strapped upon the back of the roiiageur,
around the portages and other places where the loaded canoes could effect no passage.
fSir Alexander Mackenzie's Voyages, etc., and An Account of the Fur Trade, etc.
i Henry's Travels, p. 52.
THE COUREUR DES I30IS. 213
soup, wliile tlie old voyageurs in the Indian country ate corn soup
and such other food as coukl be conveniently procured. '"'*
"The coureur des hois were men of easy virtue. They would
eat, riot, drink and play as long as their furs held out," says La
Hontan, ''and when these were gone they would sell their embroi-
dery, tlieir laces and their clothes. The proceeds "of these exhausted,
they were forced to go upon new voyages. for subsistence. "f
They did not scruple to intermarry with the Indians, among
whom they si)ent the greater part of their lives. They made excel-
lent soldiers, and in bush fighting and bordeV warfare they were
•more than u mutcli for the British regulars. "Their merits were
hardihood and skill in woodcraft ; their chief faults were insubor-
dination and lawlessness.":}:
Such were the characteristics of the French traders or coureur des
hois. They penetrated the remotest parts, voyaged upon all of our
western rivers, and traveled many of the insignilicant streams that
afforded hardly water enough to float a canoe. Their influence over
the Indians (to whose mode of life they readily adapted themselves)
was almost supreme. They were efficient in the service of their
king, and materially assisted in staying the downfall of French rule
in America.
There is no data from which to ascertain the value of the fur
trade, as there were no regular accounts kept. The value of the
trade to the French, in 1703, was estimated at two millions of livres,
and this could have been from only a partial return, as a large per
•cent of the trade was carried on clandestinely through Albany and
New York, of which the French authorities in Canada could have
no knowledge. With the loss of Canada, and the west to France,
and owing to the dislike of the Indians toward the English, and the
want of experience by the latter, the fur trade, controlled at Montreal,
fell into decay, and the Hudson Bay Company secured the advan-
tages of its downfall. During the winter of 1783-4 some merchants
*Vol. 2 Wisconsin Historical Collection, p. 110. Judge Lockwood gives a very-
fine sketch of the coureur des hois and the manner of their employment, in the paper
from which we have quoted.
t La Hontan, vol. 1, pp. 20 and 21.
X Parkman's Count Frontenac and New France, p. 309. Judge Lockwood, in the
paper referred to, speaking of the coureur des hois as their relations existed to the fur
trade in 1817, thus describes them: "These men engaged in Canada, generally for five
years, for Mackinaw and its dependencies, transferrable like cattle, to any one who
wanted them, at generally about 500 livres a year, or, in our currency, about $83.33,
furnished with a yearly equipment or outfit of two cotton shirts, one three-point or
triangular blanket, a portage collar and one pair of shoes. They were obliged to pur-
chase their moccasins, tobacco and pipes at any price the trader saw fit to charge for
them. At the end of five years the voyageurs were in debt from $50 to $150, and
could not leave the country until they paid their indebtedness."
214 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
of Canada united their trade under the name of the "Northwest
Company"; they did not get successfully to work until 1Y87. Dur-
ing that year the venture did not exceed forty thousand pounds, but
by exertion and the enterprise of the proprietors it was brought, in
eleven years, to more than triple that amount (equal to six hundred
thousand dollars), yielding proportionate profits, and surpassing any-
thing then known in America.*
The fur trade was conducted by the English, and subsequently
by the Americans, substantially upon the system originally estab-
lished by the French, with this distinction, that the monopoly was
controlled by French officers and favorites, to whom the trade for
particular districts was assigned, while the English and Americans
controlled it through companies operating either under charters or
permits from the government.
Goods for Indian trade were guns, ammunition, steel for striking
fire, gun-flints, and other supplies to repair fire-arms; knives, hatchets,
kettles, beads, men's shirts, blue and red cloths for blankets and
petticoats ; vermilion, red, yellow, green and blue ribbons, gener-
ally of English manufacture ; needles, thread and awls ; looking-
glasses, children's toys, woolen blankets, razors for shaving the
head, paints of all colors, tobacco, and, more than all, spirituous
liquors. For these articles the Indians gave in exchange the skins
of deer, bear, otter, squirrel, marten, lynx, fox, wolf, buffalo,
moose, and particularly the beaver, the highest prized of them all.
Such was the value attached to the skins and fur of the last that
it became the standard of value. All other values were measured
by the beaver, the same as we now use gold, in adjusting com-
mercial transactions. All difterences in exchanges of property or
in payment f(")r labor were first reduced in value to the beaver skin.
Money was rarely received or jniid at any of the trading-posts, the
only circulating medium were furs and peltries. In tliis exchange a
pound of beaver skin was reckoned at thirty sous, an otter skin at
six llvres, and marten skins at thirty sous each. This was only about
half of the real value of the furs, and it was therefore always agreed
to pay either in furs at their equivalent cash value at the fort or
double the amount reckoned at current fur value. +
When the French controlled the fur trade, the posts in the interior
of the country were assigned to officers who were in favor at head-
quarters. x\s they had no money, the merchants of Quebec and
Montreal supplied them on credit M'ith the necessary goods, which
* Mackenzie's Voyages, Fur Trade, etc.
t Henr}''s Travels and Pouchot's Memoirs.
THE FUR tradp:. 215
were to be paid for in peltries at a price agreed upon, thus being
required to earn profits for themselves and the merchant. These
officers were often employed to negotiate for the king with the tribes
near their trading-posts and give tliem goods as presents, the price
for tlie latter being jVaid by the intendant upon tUe approval of the
governor. This occasioned many hypothecated accounts, whicli were
turned to the profit of the commandants, j)articularly in time of
war. The commandants as well as private traders were obliged to
take out a license from the governor at a cost of four or five hundred
liv?'es, in order to carry their goods to the posts, and to charge some
eflTects to the king's account. The most distant posts in the north-
west were prized the greatest, because of the abundance and low-
price of peltries and the high price of goods at these remote estab-
lisliments.
Another kind of trade was carried on by the coureurs des hoisy
who, sharing the license with the ofiicer at the post, with their canoes
laden with goods, went to the villages of the Indians, and followed
them on their hunting expeditions, to return after a season's trading
with their canoes well loaded. If the coureurs des bois were in a
condition to purchase their goods of first hands a quick fortune was
assured them, although to obtain it they had to lead a most danger-
ous and fatiguing life. Some of these traders would return to France
after a few years' venture with wealth amounting to two million five
hundred thousand Jivres.'-^
The French were not permitted to exclusively enjoy the enormous
profits of the fur trade. We have seen, in treating of the Miami
Indians, that at an early day the English and the American colonists
were determhied to share it, and had become sharp competitors. We
have seen (page 112) that to extend their trade the English had set
their allies, the Iroquois, upon the Illinois. So formidable were the
inroads made by the English upon the fur trade of the French, by
means of the conquests to which they had incited the Iroquois to
gain over other tribes that were friendly to the French, that the
latter became "of the opinion that if the Iroquois were allowed to
proceed they would not only subdue the Illinois, but become nuisters
of all the Ottawa tribes,t and divert the trade to the English, so that
it was absolutely necessary that the French should either make the
Iroquois iJieir friends or destroy them.X You perceive, my Lord^
* I'oucliot's Memoirs.
t Whose territories embraced all the country west of Lake Huron and north of
Illinois, — one of the most prolific beaver grounds in the country.
X Memoir of M. Du Chesneau, the Intendant, to the King, September 9, 1681, before
quoted.
216 HISTOIUC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
that the subject which we have discussed [referring to the efforts of
the English of New York and Albany to gain the beaver trade] is to
determine who will be mader of the heaver trade of the south and
southwest."*
In the struggle to determine who should be masters of the fur
trade, the French cared as little, — perhaps less, — for their Indian
allies than the British and Americans did for theirs. The blood that
was shed in the English and French colonies north of the Ohio
Kiver, for a period of over three-quarters of a century prior to 1763,
might well be said to have been spilled in a war for the fur trade, f
In the strife between the rivals, — the French endeavoring to hold
their former possessions, and the English to extend theirs, — the
strait of Detroit was an object of concern to both. Its strategical
position was sucli that it would give the party possessing it a decided
advantage. M. Du Lute, or L'llut, under orders from Gov. De
Nonville, left Mackinaw with some fifty odd coureurs des hois in
1688, sailed down Lake Huron and threw up a small stockade fort
on the west bank of the lake, where it discharges into the River St.
Clair. The following year Capt. McGregory, — Major Patrick Ma-
gregore, as his name is spelled in the commission he had in his
pocket over the signature of Gov. Dongan, — with sixty Englishmen
and some Indians, with their merchandise loaded in thirty-two
osts on Lake Erie,
the Ohio and the AV abash, to seize all English traders found west of
the Alleghanies. In pursuance of this order, in 1751, four English
traders were captured on the Yerniilion <^f the Wabash and sent to
Canada.'" Other traders, dealing with the Indians in other locali-
ties, were captured and taken to Presque Isle,t and from thence to
Canada.
The contest between the rival colonies still went on, increasing
in the extent of its line of operations and intensifying in the ani-
mosity of the feeling with which it was conducted. We quote from
a memoir prepared early in 1T52, by M. de Longueuil, commandant
at Detroit, showing the state of affairs at a previous date in the
Wabash country. It appears, from the letters of the commandants
at the several posts named, from which the memoir is compiled,
that the Indian tribes upon the Maumee and Wabash, through the
successful efforts of the English, had become very much disaffected
toward their old friends and masters. M. de Ligneris, commandant
at the Ouyatanons, says the memoir, believes that great reliance is
not to be placed on the Maskoutins, and that their remaining neutral
is all that is to be expected from them and the Ivickapous. He even
adds that "we are not to reckon on the nations which appear in our
interests ; no Wea chief has appeared at this post for a long time.
M, de Villiers. commandant at the Miamis, — Ft. Wayne, — has been
disappointed in his expectation of bringing the Miamis back from the
White River, — part of whom had been to see him, — the small-pox
having put the whole of them to rout. Coldfoot and his son have
died of it, as well as a large portion of our most trusty Indians.
Le Grls^ chief of the Tepicons^X ^^^ -^^^^ mother are likewise dead;
they are a loss, because they were well disposed toward the French."
The memoir continues: "The nations of the Eiver St. Joseph,
who were to join those of Detroit, have said they would be ready to
perform their promise as soon as 0)ionontio% would have sent the
necessary number of Frenchmen. The commandant of this post
writes, on the 15th of January, that all the nations appear to take
* Paris Documents, vol. 10, p. 248.
t Near Erie, Pennsylvania.
X This is the first reference we have to Tippecanoe. Antoine Gamelin, the French
merchant at Vmcennes, — whom Major Hamtramck sent, in 1700, to the Wabash towns
with peace messages, — calls the village, then upon this river, Qid-ie-pi-con-nac. The
name of the Tippecanoe is derived from the Algonquin word Ke-noii-ge, or Ke-no-zha
— from Keiiofte, long, the name of the long-billed pike, a fish ver}' abundant in this
stream, ride Mackenzie's and James' Vocabularies. Timothy Flint, in his Treography
and History of the Western States, first edition, published at Cincinnati, 1828, vol. 2,
p. 125, says: " The Tippecanoe received its name from a kind of pike called Pic-cn-naii
by the savages." The termination is evidently Frenchified.
§ The name by which the Indians called the governor of Canada.
FRENCH TRADERS KILLED. 219
sides against ns ; that he would not be responsible for the good
dispositions these Indians seem to entertain, inasmuch as the
Miamis are their near relatives. On the one hand, Mr. de Jon-
caire"" repeats that the Indians of the beautiful riverf are all English^
for whom alone they work; that all are resolved to sustain each
other ; and that not a party of Indians go to the beautiful river but
leave some [of their numbers] there to increase the rebel forces.
On the other hand, "Mr. de St. Ange, commandant of the post of
Yincennes, writes to M. des Ligneris [at Ouiatanon] to use all
means to j)rotect himself from the storm which is ,,ready to burst on
the French ; that /te is busy securing himself against the fury of our
enemies."'
"The Pianguichias, who are at war with the Chaouanotis, ac-
cording to the report rendered by Mr. St. Clin, have declared entirely
against us. They killed on Christmas five Frenchmen at the Ver-
milion. Mr. des Ligneris, who was aware of this attack, sent oif a
detachment to secure the effects of the Frenchmen from being plun-
dered ; but when this detachment arrived at the Yermilion, the
Piankashaws had decamped. The bodies of the Frenchmen were
found on the ice.:{:
''M. des Ligneris was assured that the Piankashaws had commit-
ted this act because four men of their nation had been killed by the
French at the Illinois, and four others had been taken and put in
irons. It is said that these eight men were going to fight the Chick-
asaws, and had, without distrusting anything, entered the quartern
of the French, who killed them. It is also reported that the French-
men had recourse to this extreme measure because a Frenchman and
* A French half-breed having great influence over the Indians, and whom the
French authorities had sent into Ohio to conciliate the Indians.
t The Ohio. ^
tCol. Croghan's Journal, before quoted, gives the key to the aboriginal name of
this stream. On the 22d of June, 1765, he makes the following entry: " We passed
through a part of the same meadow mentioned yesterday; then came to a high wood-
land and arrived at Vermilion River, so called from a fine red earth found there by the
Indians, with which they paint themselves. About a half a mile from where we crossed
this river there is a village of Piankashaws, distinguished by the addition of the name
of the river" (that is, the Piankashaws of the Vermilion, or the Vermilions, as they
were sometimes called). The red earth or red chalk, known under the provincial name
of red keel, is abundant everywhere along the bluffs of the Vermilion, in the shales
that overhiy the outcropping coal. The annual fires frequently ignited the coal thus
exposed, and would burn the shale above, turn it red and render it friable. Carpen-
ters used it to chalk their lines, and the successive generation of boys have gathered it
by the pocketful. Those acquainted with the passion of the Indian for paint, particu-
larly red, will understand the importance which the Indians would attach to it. Hence,
as noted by Croghan, they called the river after the name of this red earth. Vermilion
IS the French word conveying the same idea, and it is a coincidence merely that Ver-
milion in French has the same meaning as this word in English On the map in
" Volney's View of the Soil and Climate of the United States," Phila. ed. 1804, it is-
called Red River. The Miami Indian name of the Vermilion was Piankasliaw, as ap-
pears from Gen. Putnam's manuscript Journal of the treaty at Vmcennes in 1792.
220 HISTORIC NOTES ON" THE NORTHWEST.
two slaves had been killed a few days before by another party of
Piankashaws, and that the Indians in question had no knowledge of
that circumstance. The capture of four English traders by M. de
Celoron's order last year has not prevented other Englishmen going
to trade at the Vermilion liiver, where the Rev. Father la liichardie
wintered."*
The memoir continues: "On the 19th of October the Pianka-
shaws had killed two more Frenchmen, who were constructing
pirogues lower down than the Post of Yincenne. Two days after-
ward the Piankashaws killed two slaves in sight of Fort Vincenne.
The murder of these nine Frenchmen and these two slaves is but
too certain. A squaw, the widow of one of the Frenchmen who had
Tjeen killed at the Vermilion, has reported that the Pianguichias,
Illinois and Osages were to assemble at the prairies of , the
place where Messrs. de Villiers and de JSToyelle attacked the Foxes
about twenty years ago, and when they had built a fort to secure
their families, they were to make a general attack on all the French.
"The Miamis of Rock Riverf have scalped two soldiers belong-
ing to Mr. Villiers"' fort.:}; This blow was struck last fall. Finally,
the English have paid the Miamis for the scalps of the two soldiers
belonging to Mr. de Villiers' garrison. To add to the misfortunes,
M. des Ligneris has learned that the commandant of the Illinois at
Fort Charters would not permit Sieurs Delisle and Fonblanche,
who had contracted with the king to supply the Miainis^ Ouyaton-
0718^ and 6^6-/1 Detroit with provisions from the Illinois, to purchase
any provisions for the subsistence of the garrisons of those posts, on
the ground that an increased arrival of troops and families would
consume the stock at the Illinois. Famine is not the sole scourge
we experience ; the smallpox commits ravages ; it begins to reach
Detroit. It were desirable that it should break out and spread gen-
erally throughout the localities inhabited by our rebels. It would
be fully as good as an army."
The Piankashaws, now completely estranged from the French,
withdrew, almost in a body, from the Wabash, and retired to the
Big Miami, whither a number of Miamis and other Indians had,
* Father Justinian de la Ricliaidie came to Canada (according to the Liste Ctono-
logique, No. 439) in 1716. He served many years in the Huron country, and also in
the Illinois, and died in February, 1758. Biographical note of the editor of Paris
Documents : Col. Hist, of New York, vol. 9. p. 88. The time when and the place at
which this missionary wa§ stationed on the Vermilion River is not given. The date
was before 1750, as is evident from the text. The place was probal^ly at the large
Piankashaw town where the traders were killed.
fThe Big Miami River of Ohio, on which stream, near the mouth of Loramies
Creek, the Miamis had an extensive village, hereafter referred to.
X Ft. Wayne, where Mr. Villiers was then stationed in charge of Fort Miamis.
PICKAWILLANY. 221
some years previous, established a village, to be nearer the English
traders. The village was called Pick aiolllany^ or P lcktown. To
the English and Iroquois it was known as the Taw ixtwi T own^ or
Miamitown. It was located at the mouth of what has since been
called Loramie's creek. The stream derived this name from the fact
that a Frenchman of that name, subsequent to the events here nar-
rated, had a trading-house at this place. The town was visited in
1751 by Christopher Gis^t, who gives the following description of it:*
''The Twightee town is situated on the northwest side of the Big
Min e ami River, about one hundred and fifty miles from its mouth.
It consists of four hundred families, and is daily increasing. It is
accounted one of the strongest Indian towns in this part of the con-
tinent. The Twightees are a very numerous people, consisting of
many different tribes under the same form of government. Each
tribe has a particular chief, or king, one of which is chosen indiffer-
ently out of any tribe to rule the whole nation, and is vested with
greater authority than any of the others. They have but lately
traded with the English. They formerly lived on the farther side of
the "Wabash, and were in the French interests, who supplied them
with some few trifles at a most exorbitant price. They have now
revolted from them and left their former habitations for the sake of
trading with the English, and notwithstanding all the artifices the
French have used, they have not been able to recall them." George
Croghan and Mr. Montour, agents in the English interests, were in
the town at the time of Gist's visit, doing what they could to inten-
sify the animosity of the inhabitants against the French. Speeches
were made and presents exchanged to cement the friendship with
the English, ^hile these conferences were going on, a deputation
of Indians \\^ the French interests arrived, with soft words and valu-
able j^resents, marching into the village under French colors. The
deputation was admitted to the council-house, that they might make
the object of their visit known. The Piankashaw chief, or king,
"Old Britton," as he was called, on account of his attachment
for the English, had both the British and French flags hoisted from
the council-house. The old chief refused the brandy, tobacco and
other presents sent to him from the French king. In reply to the
speeches of the French ambassadors he said that the road to the
French had been made foul and bloody by them ; that he had
cleared a road to our brothers, the English, and that the French had
made that bad. The French flag was taken down, and the emissaries
* Christopher Gist's Journal.
222 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
of that people, with their presents, returned to the French post from
whence thej came.
When negotiations failed to win the Mianiis back to French
authority, force was resorted to. On the 21st of June, 1Y52, a party
of two hundred and forty French and Indians appeared before Pick-
awillany, surprised the Indians in their corn-tields, approaching so
suddenly that the white men who were in their houses had great
difficulty in reaching the fort. They killed one Englishman and
fourteen Miamis, captured the stockade fort, killed the old Pianka-
sliaw king, and put his body in a kettle, boiled it and ate it up in
retaliation for his people having killed the French traders on the
Vermilion River and at Yincennes.* "Thus," says the eloquent
historian, George Bancroft, "on the alluvial lands of western Ohio
began the contest that was to scatter death broadcast through the
world, "t
* The account of the affair at Pickawillany is summarized from the Journal of Capt.
Wm. Trent and other papers contained in a valuable book edited by A. T. Goodman,
secretary of the Western Reserve Historical Society, and published by Robert Clarke
& Co., 1871, entitled "Journal of Captain Trent."
fOld Britton's successor was his son, a young man, whose name was Mu-she-
gu-a-nock-qne, or "The Turtle." The English, and Indians in their interests, had a
very high esteem for the young Piankashaw king. It is said by some writers, and
there is much probability of the correctness of their opinion, that the great Miami
chief. Little Turtle, was none other than the person here referred to. His age would
correspond very well with that of the Piankashaw, and members of one band of the
Miami nation frequently took up their abode with other bands or families of their kin-
dred.
CHAPTER XXL
THE WAR FOR THE EMPIRE. ITS LOSS TO THE FRENCH.
The English not only disputed the right of the French to the
fur trade, but denied their title to the valley of the Mississippi,
which lay west of their American colonies on the Atlantic coast.
The grants from the British crown conveyed to the chartered pro-
prietors all of the country lying between certain parallels of latitude,
according to the location of the several grants, and extending west-
ward to the South Sea, as the Pacific was then called. Seeing the
weakness of such a claim to vast tracts of country, upon which no
Englishman had ever set his foot, they obtained deeds of cession
from the Iroquois Indians, — the dominant tribe east of the Mississip-
pi, — who claimed all of the country between the Alleghanies and the
Mississippi b}' conquest from the several Algonquin tribes, who occu-
pied it. On the 13th of July, 1701, the sachems of the Five Nations
conveyed to William III, King of Great Britain, "their beaver-
hunting grounds northwest and west from Albany," including a
broad strip on the south side of Lake Erie, all of the present states
of Michigan, ( )hio and Indiana, and Illinois as far west as the Illi-
nois liiver, claiming " that their ancestors did, more than fourscore
years before, totally conquer, subdue and drive the former occupants
out of that country, and had peaceable and quiet possession of the
same, to hunt beavers in, it being the only chief place for hunting
in that part of the world,'" etc.* The Iroquois, for themselves and
heirs, granted the English crown "the whole soil, the lakes, the
*The deed is found in London Documents, voL 4, p. 908. The boundaries of the
grant are indefinite in many respects. Its westward limit, says the deed, " abutts
upon the Twichtwichs [Miamis], and is bounded on the right hand by a place called
Qua doge.'''' On Eman Bowen's map, which is certainly the most authentic from the
British standpoint, is a " pecked line" extending from the mouth of the Illinois river,
up that stream, to the Desplaines, thence across the prairies to Lake Michigan at
Quadoge or Quadaghe, which is located on the map some distance southeast of Chicago,
which is also shown in its correct place, and at or near the mouth of the stream that
forms the harbor at Michigan City, formerly known by the French as Riviere du Che-
min, or " Trail River," because the great trail from Chicago to Detroit and Ft. Wayne
left the lake shore at this place. The "pecked line," — as Mr. Bowen calls the dotted
line which he traces as the boundary of the Iroquois deed of cession, — extends from
Michigan City northward through the entire length of Lake Michigan, the Straits of
Mackinaw and between the Manitou-lin islands and the main shore in Lake Huron;
thence into Canada around the north shore of Lake Nipissing; and thence down the
Ottawa River to its confluence with the St. Lawrence.
223
224 HISTOllIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
rivers, and all things pertaining to said tract of land, with power
to erect forts and castles there, ^' only reserving to the grantors and
"their descendants forever the right of liunting upon the same," in
which privilege the grantee "was expected to j)r()tect them." The
grant of the Iroquois was coniirmed to the British crown by deeds
of renewal in 1726 and 1744. The reader will have observed, from
what has been said in the preceding chapters upon the Illinois and
Mianiis and Pottawatomies relative to the pretended conquests ot
the Iroquois, how little merit there was in the claim they set up to
the territory in question. Their war parties only raided upon the
country, — they never occupied it; their war parties, after doing as
much mischief as they could, returned to their own country as
rajDidly as they came. Still their several deeds to the English crown
were a "color of title" on which the latter laid great stress, and
paraded at every treaty with other powers, where questions involv-
ing the right to this territory were a subject of discussion.*
The war for the fur trade expanded into a struggle for empire
that convulsed both continents of America and Europe. The limit
assigned this work forbids a notice of the principal occurrences in
the progress of the French-Colonial War, as most of the military
jnovements in that contest were outside of the territory we are con-
sidering. There were, however, two campaigns conducted by troops
recruited in the northwest, and these engagements will be noticed.
AVe believe they have not heretofore been compiled as fully as their
imjDortance would seem to demand.
In 1758 Gen. Forbes, with about six thousand troops, advanced
against Fort Du Quesne.f In mid-September the British troops had
only reached Loyal-hannon,:{: where they raised a fort. "Intelli-
gence had been received that Fort Du Quesne was defended by but
eight hundred men, of whom three hundred were Indians, "§ and
Major Grant, commanding eight hundred Highlanders and a com-
pany of Virginians, was sent toward the French fort. On the third
* The Iroquois themselves, — as appears from an English memoir on the Indian
trade, and contained among the London Documents, vol. 7, p. 18, — never supposed
they had actually conveyed their right of dominion to these lands. Indeed, it appears
that the Indians generally could not comprehend the purport of a deed or grant in the
sense that the Europeans attach to these formidable instruments. The idea of an
absolute, fee-simple right of an individual, or of a body of persons, to exclusively own
real estate against the right of others even to enter upon it, to hunt or cut a shrub,
was beyond the power of an Indian to comprehend. From long habit and the owner-
ship (not only of land but many articles of domestic use) by the tribe or village of
property in common, they could not understand how it could be held otherwise.
t At the present site of Pittsburgh, Pa.
i Loyal-hannon, afterward Fort Ligonier, was situated on the east side of Loyal-
hannon Creek, Westmoreland county. Pa., and was about forty-five miles from Fort
Du Quesne; ride Pennsylvania Archives, XII, 389.
§ Bancroft, vol. iv, p. 311.
DEFEAT OF THE ENGLISH. 225
day's mtircli (Traiit liad arrived within two rniles of Fort Du Quesne.
Leaving his baggage there, he took position on a hill, a quarter of a
mile from the fort, and encamped.*
Grant, who was not aware that the garrison had been reinforced
by the arrival of Mons. Aubry, commandant at Fort Chartes, with
four hundred men from the Illinois country, determined on an am-
buscade. At break of day Major Lewis was sent, with four hundred
men, to lie in ambush a mile and a half from the main body, on the
path on which they left their baggage, imagining the Fi-ench would
send a force to attack the baggage guard and seize it. Four hundred
men were po.-ted along the hill facing the fort to cover the retreat of
MacDonald's company, which marched with drums beating toward
the fort, in order to draw a party out of it, as Major Grant liad rea-
son to believe there were, including Indians, only two hundred men
within it.f
M. de Ligneris, commandant at Fort Du Quesne, at once assem-
bled seven or eight hundred men, and gave the command to M.
Aubry.:]: The French sallied out of the fort, and the Indians, who
had crossed the river to keep out of the way of the British, returned
and made a flank movement. Aubry, by a rapid movement, attacked
the different divisions of the English, and completely routed and
dispersed them. The force under Major Lewis was compelled to
give way. Being flanked, a number were driven into the river,
most of whom were drowned. The English lost two hundred and
seventy killed, forty-two wounded, and several prisoners ; among the
latter was Grant.
On the 22d of September M. Aubry left Fort Du Quesne, with a
force of six hundred French and Indians, intending to reconnoitre
the position of the English at Loyal-hann(»n.
"He found a little camp in front of some intrenchments which
would cover a body of two thousand men. The advance guard of
the French detachment having been discovered, the English sent a
captain and fifty men to reconnoitre, who fell in with the detach-
ment and were entirely defeated. In following the fugitives the
French fell upon this camp, and surprised and dispersed it.
"The fugitives scarcely gained the principal intrenchment, which
M. Aubry held in blockade two days. He killed two hundred horses
and cattle." The French returned to Fort Du Quesne mounted. §
"The English lost in the engagement one hundred and fifty men,
*The hill has ever since borne Grant's name,
f Craig's History of Pittsburgh, p. 74.
JGameau's History of Canada, Bell's translation, vol. 2, p. 214.
§ Pouchot's Memoir, p. 130.
15
226 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
killed, wounded and missing. The French loss was two killed and
seven wounded.'^
The Louisiana detachment, which took the principal part in both
of these battles, was recruited from the French posts in "The Illi-
nois," and consisted of soldiers taken from the garrison in that terri-
tory, and tlie coxreurs des bois; traders and settlers in their respective
neighborhoods. It was the first battalion ever raised within the
limits of the jiresent states of Illinois, Indiana and Michigan, xifter
the action of Lojal-haunon, ''the Louisiana detachment, as well as
those from Detroit, returned home.""
Soon after their departure, and on the 24th of November, the
French abandoned Fort Du Quesne. Pouchot says: "It came to
pass that bv blundering at Fort Du Quesne the French were obliged
to abandon it for want of provisions." This may have been the
true reason for the abandonment, but doubtless the near approach of
a large English army, commanded by Gen. Forbes, had no small
influence in accelerating their movements. The fort was a mere
stockade, of small dimensions, and not suited to resist tlie attacks of
artillery, f
Having burnt the stockade and storehouses, the garrison sepa-
rated. One hundred retired to Presque Isle, by land. Two hundred,
by way of the Alleghany, went to Yenango. The remaining hun-
dred descended the Ohio. About forty miles above its confluence
with the Mississippi, and on a beautiful eminence on the north bank
of the river, they erected a fort and named it Fort Massac, in honor
of the commander, M. Massac, who superintended its construction.
This was the last fort erected by the French on the Ohio, and it was
occupied by a garrison of French troops until the evacuation of the
country under the stipulations of the treaty of Paris. Such was the
origin of Fort Massac, divested of the romance which fable has
thrown around its luime.":};
* Letter of Marquis Montcalm: Paris Documents, vol. 10, p. 901.
t Hildreth's Pioneer History, p. 42.
i Monette's Valley of the Mississippi, vol. 1, p. 317. Gov. Reynolds, who visited
the remains of Fort Massac in 1855, thus describes its i-emains: " The outside walls
were one hundred and thirty-five feet square, and at each angle strong bastions were
erected. The walls were palisades, with earth between the wood. A large well was
sunk in the fortress, and the whole appeared to have been strong and substantial in its
day. Three or four acres of gravel walks were made on the north of the fort, on which
the soldiers paraded. The walks were made in exact angles, and beautifully graveled
with pebbles from the river. The site is one of the most beautiful on La Belle Rivere,
and commands a view of the Ohio that is charming and lovely. French genius for the
selection of sites for forts is eminently sustained in their choice of Fort Massacre." The
Governor states that the foi't was first established in 1711, and "was enlarged and
made a respectable fortress in 1756." Vide Reynolds' Life and Times, pp. 28, 29. This
is, probably, a mistake. There are no records in the French official documents of any
military post in that vicinity until the so-called French and Indian war.
CHANGE OF WAR-PLAN. 227
On the day following the evacuation, tlie English took peaceable
possession of the snioking ruins of Fort Du Quesne. They erected
a temporary fortification, named it Fort Pitt, in honor of the great
English statesman of that name, and leaving two hundred men as a
garrison, retired over the mountains.
On the 5th of December, 1758, Thomas Pownall, governor of
Massachusetts Bay Province, addressed a memorial to the British
Ministry, suggesting that there should be an entire change in the
method of carrying on the war. Pownall stated that the French
were superior in battles fought in the wilderness ; that Canada never
could be conquered by land campaigns ; that the proper way to
succeed in. the reduction of Canada would be to make an attack on
Quebec by sea, and thus, by cutting off supplies from the home gov-
ernment, Canada would be starved out.*
Pitt, if he did not act on the recommendations of Gov. Pownall,
at least had similar views, and the next year (1759), in accordance
with this plan. Gen. Wolfe made a successful assault on Quebec, and
from that time, the supplies and reinforcements from the home gov-
ernment being cut off, the cause of the French in Canada became
almost hopeless.
During this year the French made every effort to stir up the
Indians north of the Ohio to take the tomahawk and scalping-knife
in hand, and make one more attempt to preserve the northwest
for the joint occupancy of the Gallic and American races. Emissa-
ries were sent to Lake Erie, Detroit, Mackinaw, Ouiatanon,Vincennes,
Kaskaskia and Fort Chartes, loaded with presents and ammunition,
for the purpose of collecting all those stragglers who had not enter-
prise enough to go voluntarily to the seat of war. Canada was hard
pressed for soldiers ; the English navy cut off most of the rein-
* Pownall's Administration of the Colonies, Appendix, p. 57. Thomas Pownall,,
born in England in 1720, came to America in 1753; was governor of Massachusetts
Bay, and subsequently was appointed governor of South Carolina. He was highly edu-
cated, and possessed a thorough knowledge of the geography, history and policy of
both the French and English colonies in America. His work on the "Administration
of the American Colonies" passed through many editions. In 1756 he addressed a
memorial to His Highness the Duke of Cumberland, on the conduct of the colonial war,
in which he recommended a plan for its further prosecution. The paper is a very
able one. Much of it compiled from the official letters of Marquis Vaudreuil, Governor-
General of (yanada, written between the years 1743 and 1752, showing the policy of the
French, and giving a minute description of their settlements, military establishments
in the west, their manner of dealing with the Indians, and a description of the river
communications of the French between their possessions in Canada and Louisiana. In
1776 he revised Evans' celebrated map of the " Middle British Provinces in America."
After his return to England he devoted himself to scientific pursuits. He was a warm
friend of the American colonists in the contest with the mother country, and de-
nounced the measures of parliament concerning the colonies as harsh and wholly
unwarranted, and predicted the result that followed. He died in 1805.
228 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
forcenients from France, while the Englisli, on the contrary, were
constantly receiving troops from the mother country.
Mons. de Aubry, commandant at Fort ('hartes, persuaded four
hundred men from the "Illinois country"' to i'ollow him eastward.
Taking with him two hundred thousand pounds of flour, he em-
barked his heterogeneous force in bateaux and canoes. The route
by way of the Ohio was closed ; the English were in possession of
its headwaters. He went down the Mississippi, thence up the Ohio
to the mouth of the Wabash. Having ascended the latter stream
to the Miami villages, near the present site of Fort Wayne, his fol-
lowers made the portage, passed down the Maumee, and entered
■ Lake Erie.
During the wdiole course of their journey they were being con-
stantly reinforced by bands of different tribes of Indians, and by
Canadian militia as they passed the several posts, until the army
was augmented to sixteen hundred men, of whom there were six
hundred French and one thousand Indians. An eye-witness, in
speaking of the aj)pearance of the force, said : " When they passed
the little rapid at the outlet of Lake Erie (at Bufi'alo ) the flotilla ap-
peared like a floating island, as the river was covered with their
bateaux and canoes."*
Aubry was compelled to leave his flour and provisions at the
Miami portage. He afterward i-equested M. de Port-neuf, com-
mandant at Presque Isle, to take charge of the portage, and to send
it constantly in his bateaux, f
Before Aubry reached Presque Isle he was joined by other bodies
of Indians and Canadians from the region of the upper lakes. They
were under the command of French traders and commandants of
interior posts. At Fort Machault:}: he was joined by M. de Lignery ;
the latter had assembled the Ohio Indians at Presque Isle. >j It was
.the original intention of Aubry to recapture Fort I)u Quesne from
the English. On the 12th of July a grand council was held at Fort
Machault, in which the commandant thanked the Indians for their
attendance, threw down the war belt, and told them he would set
out the next day for Fort Du Quesne. Soon after messengers arrived
with a packet of letters for the officers. Aftei- reading them Aubry
told the Indians: "Children, I have received bad news; the Eng-
lish are gone against Niagara. We must give over thoughts of going
down the river to Fort Du Quesne till we have cleared that place of"
*Pouchot's Memoirs, vol. 1, pp. 186, 187
tidem, p. 152.
t Located at the mouth of French Creek, Pennsylvania.
§ Idem, 187.
aubky's campaign. 229
the enemy. If it should be taken, our road to you is stopped, and
you must become poor.'"' Orders were immediately given to pro-
ceed with the artillery, provisions, etc., up French Creek, and the
Indians prepared to follow."
These letters were from M. Pouchot, commandant at Niagara, +
and stated that he was besieged by a much superior force of English
and Indians, who were under the command of Gen. Predeaux and
Sir "William Johnson. Aubry answered these letters on the next day,
and said he thought they niiglit fight the enemy successfully, and
com])el them to raise the siege. The Indians who brought these mes-
sages to Poucliot informed him that they, on the part of the Indians
with Aubry and Lignery. had oftered the Iroquois and other Indian
allies of the English five war belts if they would retire. These prom-
ised that they would not mingle in the quarrel. " We will here recall
the fact that Pouchot, by his letter of the 10th, had notified Lignery
and Aubry that the enemy might be four or five thousand strong
without the Indians, and if they could put themselves in condition
to attack so large a force, he should pass Chenondac to come to
Niagara by the other side of the river, where he would be in con-
dition to drive the English, who were only two hundred strong on
that side, and could not easily be reinforced. This done, they could
easily come to him, because after the defeat of this body they could
send bateaux to bring them to the fort."
]\I. Poucliot now recalled his previous request, and informed
Aubry that the enemy were in three positions, in one of which
there were three thousand nine hundred Indians. He added, could
Aubry succeed in driving the enemy from any of these positions,
he had no d(nibt they would be foi'ced to raise the siege. :{:
Aubry's route was up French Creek to its head-waters, thence
making the portage to Presque Isle and sailing along the shores of
Lake Erie until he reached Niagara. Arriving at the foot of Lake
Erie he left one hundred and fift}' men in charge of his canoes, and
with the remainder advanced toward Niagara. Sir William John-
son was informed, on the evening of the 23d, of this advance of the
French, and ordered his light infantry and pickets to take post on
the left, on the road between Niagara Falls and the fort; and these,
after reinforcing them with grenadiers and parts of the 46th and 44th
regiments, were so arranged as to eflfectually support the guard left
* Extract from a letter dated July 17, 1759, of Col. Mercer, commandant at Fort
Pitt, published in Craig's Olden Time, vol. 1, p. 194.
t Fort jSTiajrara was one of the earliest French military posts, and situated on the
right, or American shore of Lake Ontario, at the mouth of Niagara River. It has
figured conspicuously in all of the wars on the lake frontier.
t Pouchot 's Memoirs, vol. 1, pp. 186, 187, 188.
230 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
in the trenches. Most of his men were concealed either in the
trendies or by trees.
On the morning of the 24th the French made their appearance.
They were marcliing along a path about eight feet wide, and "were
in readiness to fight in close order and without ranks or files." On
their right were thirty Indians, who formed a front on the enemy's
left. The Indians of the English army advanced to speak to those
of the French. Seeing the Iroquois in the latter' s company, the
French Indians refused to advance, under pretext that they were at
peace with the first named. Though thus abandoned by their chief
force, Aubry and Lignery still proceeded on their way, thinking
that the few savages they saw were isolated men, till they reached
a narrow pathway, when they discovered great numbers beyond.
The English Indians then gave the war-whoop aitd the action com-
menced. The English regulars attacked the French in front, while
the Indians poured in on their flank. Thus surprised by an am-
buscade, and deserted by their savage allies, the French proved easy
victims to the prowess of far superior numbers. They were assailed
in front and rear by two thousand men. The rear of the column,
unable to resist, gave way, and left the head exposed to the enemy's
fire, which crushed it entirely. An Indian massacre followed, and
the pursuit of the victors continued until they were compelled to
desist by sheer fatigue. Almost all the French officers were killed,
wounded or taken prisoners. Among the latter was Aubry. Those
who escaped joined M. Rocheblave, and with his detachment re-
treated to Detroit and other western lake posts.*
This defeat on the shores of Lake Erie was very severe on the
struggling western settlements. Most all of the able-bodied men
had gone with Aubry, many never to return. In 1760 M. de Mac-
Carty, commandant at Fort Chartes, in a letter to Marquis Vaudreuil,
stated that "the garrison was weaker than ever before, the check at
Niagara having cost him the elite of his men. "f
It is apparent, from the desertion of Aubry by his savage allies,
that they perceived that the English were certain to conquer in the
end. They felt no particular desire to prop a falling cause, and
thus deserted Mons. Aubry at the crisis whcji their assistance was
most needed. Thus was defeated the greatest P^rench-Indian force
ever collected in the northwest. :{:
* The account of this action has been compiled from Mante,, p. 226; Pouchot, vol. 1,
p. 192; and (iarneau's History of Canada, vol. 2, pp. 250, 251, Bell's translation.
t Paris Documents, vol. 10, p. 1093.
X Aubry returned to Louisiana and i-emained there until after the peace of 1763.
In 1765 he was appointed <;overnor of Louisiana, and surrendered the colony, in March,
THE DOWNFALL OF FRENCH RULE. 231
The next day after Aubry's defeat, near P'ort Niagara, the fortress
surrendered.
After the surrender of Niagara and Fort Du Quesne, the Indian
allies of France retired to the deej) recesses of the western forests,
and the English frontiers suffered no more from their depredations.
Settlements were gradually formed on the western side of the Alle-
ghanies, and they remained secure from Indian invasions.
In the meantime many Canadians, becoming satisfied that the
conquest of Canada was only a mere question of time, determined,
before that event took place, to remove to the French settlements
on the lower Mississippi. *'Many of them accordingly dei)arted
from Canada by way of the lakes, and thence through the Illinois
and "Wabash Eivers to the Mississippi."-
After the su^ender of Quebec, in 1759, Montreal became the
headquarters of the French in Canada, and in the spring of 1760
Mons. Levi, the French commander-in-chief, besieged Quebec. The
arrival of an English fleet compelled him to relinquish his designs.
Amherst and Johnson formed a junction, and advanced against
Montreal. The French governor of Canada, Marquis Yaudreil,
believing that further resistance was impossible, surrendered all
Canada to the English. This included the western posts of Detroit,
Mackinaw, Fort Miami, Ouiatanon, Vincennes, Fort St. Joseph,
etc.
After this war ceased to be waged in America, though the ti*eaty
of Paris was not concluded until February, 1763, the most essential
parts of which are contained in the following extracts :
" In order to establish peace on solid and durable foundations,
and to remove forever all subjects of dispute with regard to the
limits of the British and French territories on the continent of
America, it is agreed that for the futui'e the confines between the
dominions of his Britannic Majesty and those of Ilis Most Christian
Majesty in that part of the world, shall be fixed irrevocably by a
line drawn along the middle of the Biver Mississippi from its source
to the Biver Iberville, and from thence by a line drawn along the
middle of this river and the lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain, to
the sea ; and for this purpose the most Christian King cedes, in full
right, and guarantees to his Britannic Majesty, the river and port of
Mobile, and everything which he ])0ssesses, or ought to possess, <>n
the left side of the Mississippi, with the exception of the town of
1766, to the Spanish governor, Ulloa. After the expulsion of Ulloa, he held the
government until relieved by O'Reilly, in July, 1769. He soon afterward sailed for
France. The vessel was lost, and Aubry perished in the depths of the sea.
* Monette's Valley of the Mississippi, vol. 1, p. 305.
232 HLSTOIllC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
New Orleans and of the island on which it is situated ; it being well
understood tliat the navigation of the Mississi})}ji shall be equally
free, as well to the subjects of Great JJi-itain as to those of France,
in its whole length and breadth, from its source to the sea. ""'^
Thus Gallic rule came to an end in North America. Its downfall
was the result of natural causes, and was owing largely to the differ-
ence between the Frenchmen and the Englishmen. The former, as
ii rule, gave no attention to agriculture, but found occupation in
hunting and trading with the Indians, acquiring nomadic habits that
unfitted them for the cultivation of the soil ; their families dwelt in
villages se|)arated by wide stretches of wilderness. While the able
men were hunting and trading, the old men, women and children
produced scanty crops sown in "common fields," or inclosures of a
piece of ground which were portioned off among t\e families of the
vnllage. The Englishman, on the other hand, loved to own land,
and pushed his improvements from the coast line up through all the
valleys extending westward. Heaching the summit of the Allegha-
nies, the tide of emigration flowed into the valleys beyond. Every
cabin was a fort, every advancing farm a new line of intrenchment.
The distinguishing characteristic of the Anglo-Saxon is consistency
and firmness in his designs, and, more than all, his love for a home.
In the trials and hardships necessarily connected with the oj^ening
up of the wilderness these traits come prominently into play. .The
result was, that the English colonies prospered in a degree hitherto
uidvnown in the annals of the world's progress. And by way of con-
trast, how little did the French have to show in the way of lasting-
improvements in the northwest after it had been in their possession
for nearly a century !
However, the very traits that disqualified the Gaul as a successful
colonist gave him a preeminent advantage over the Anglo-Saxon in
the influence he exerted upon the Indian. He did not want their
*"0n the 3d day of the previous November, France, by a secret treaty ceded
to Spain all her possessions west of the Mississippi. His Most Christian Majesty
made known to the inhabitants of Louisiana the fact of the cession by a letter, dated
April 21, 17G-1. Don Ulloa, the New Spanish jjovernor, ai-rived at New Orleans
in 1766. The French inhabitants objected to the transfer of Louisiana to Spain, and,
resortinuf to arms, compelled Ulloa to return to Havana. In 176!J, O'Reilly, with a
Spanish force, arrived and took possession. He killed six of the rintjleaders and sent
others to Cuba. Spain remained in possession of Louisiana until March, 1801, when
Louisiana was retroeeded to the French republic. The French made preparations to
•occupy Lousiana, and an army of twenty-five thousand men was desijjned for that
territory, but the fleet and army were suddenly blockaded in one of the ports of Hol-
land by an Entj'lish squadron. This occurrence, together with the jrloomy aspect of
uffairs in Europe, induced Napoleon, who was then at the head of the French republic,
to cede Louisiana to the United States. The tueaty was dated April 30, 1803. The
actual transfer occurred in December of the same year." Vide Stoddard's Sketches of
Louisiana, pp. 71, 102.
FRENCH WAYS WITH TH K INDIANS. 238
lands ; he fraternized with them, adopted their ways, and flattered
and pleased them. The Anglo-Saxon wanted their lands. From
the start he was clamorous for deeds and cessions of territory, and
at once began crowding the Indian out of the country. "The Iro-
quois t(dd Sir \Vm. Johnson that they believed soon they should not
be able t<^) hunt a bear into a hole in a ti'ee but some Englishman
would claim a right to the property of it, as being found in his
tree. *"■'■■
The happiness which the Indians enjoyed from their intercourse
with the French was their perpetual theme ; it was their golden age.
''Those who are old enough to remember it speak of it with rap-
ture, and teach their children to venerate it, as the ancients did the
reign of Saturn. ' You call us your children, ' said an aged chief to
Gen. Harrison, ' wjiy do you not make us happy, as our fathers the
French did ? They never took from us our lands, which, indeed,
were in common between us. They planted where they pleased,
and cut wood where they pleased, and so did we ; but now, if a poor
Indian attempts to take a little bark from a tree to covel" him from
the rain, up comes a white man and threatens to shoot him, claim-
ing the tree as his own." " +
*Pownairs Administration of the Colonies,
t Memoirs of Gen. Harrison, p. 134.
CHAPTER XXII.
PONTIAC'S WAR TO RECOVER THE NORTHWEST FROM THE ENGLISH.
After the surrender of Canada to the English by the Marquis
Vaudreuil, Sir Jeffery Amherst, coinnuiiider-iu-chief of His Majesty's
forces in North America, ordered Major Robert Rogers to ascend
the lakes and take possession of the western forts. On the 13th of
September Rogers, with two hundred of his rangers, left Montreal.
After weeks of weary traveling, they readied the mouth of Cuyahoga
River, the present site of Cleveland, on the Tth of November. Here
they were met by Pontiac, a celebrated Ottawa chieftain, who asked
Rogers what his intentions were, and how he dared enter that coun-
try without his permission. Rogers replied that the French had
been defeated ; that Canada was surrendered into the hands of the
British ; and that he was on his way to take possession of Detroit,
Mackinaw, Miamis and Ouitanon. He also proposed to restore a
general peace to white men and Indians alike. "Pontiac listened
with attention, but only replied that he should stand in the path of
the English until morning."" In the morning he returned, and
allowed the English to advance. He said there would be no trouble
so long as the}' treated him with deference and respect.
Embarking on the 12th of November, they arrived in a few days
at Maumee Bay, at the western end of Lake Erie. The western
Indians, to the number of four hundred, had collected at the mouth
of Detroit River. They were determined to massacre the entire party
under Rogers. It afterward apjxnired that they were acting under
the influence of the French commandant at Detroit. Rogers pre-
vailed upon Pontiac to use his influence to induce the warlike
Indians to disband. After some parleying, Pontiac succeeded, and
the road was open to Detroit.
Before his arrival at Detroit Rogers had sent in advance Lieuten-
ant Brehm with a letter to Captain Beletre, the commandant, inform-
ing the latter that his garrison was included in the surrender of
Canada. Beletre wholly disregarded the letter. He declared he
thought it was a trick of the English, and that they intended to
obtain possession of his fortress by treachery. He made use of
every endeavor to excite the Indians against the English. "He
DETROIT SURKENDEUED. 235
displayed upon a p(jle, before the yelling multitude, the effigy of a
crow pecking a man's head, the crow representing himself, and the
head, observes Rogers, 'being meant for my own.' ''*
Rogers then sent forward C^iptain C^ampbell *• witli a copy of the
capitulation and a letter from the Marquis Vaudreuil, directing that
the place should be given up in accordance with the articles agreed
upon between him and General Amherst." The French command-
ant could hold out no longer, and, nmch against his will, was com-
pelled to deliver the fortress to the English. The lilies of France
were lowered from the flagstaff, and their place was taken by the
cross of St. George. Seven hundred Indian warriors and their
families, all of whom had aided the French by murdering innocent
women and children on the frontiers of Pennsylvania and New York,
greeted the change with demoniacal yells of apparent })leasure ; but
concealed in their^ breasts was a natural dislike for the English.
Dissembling for the present, they kept their hatred to themselves,
for the late successes of British arms had awed them into silence.
It was on the 29th of November, 1700, that Detroit was given
over to the English. The garrison, as prisoners of war, were taken
to Philadelphia.
Rogers sent an officer up the Maumee, and from thence down the
Wabash, to take possession of the posts at the portage and at Oui-
atanon. Both of these objects were attained without any difficulty.
On account of the lateness of the season the detachment which
liad started for Mackinaw returned to Detroit, and all efforts against
the posts on the upper lakes were laid aside until the following sea-
son. In that year the English took possession of Mackinaw, Green
Bay and St. Joseph. The French still retained possession of Yin-
cennes and Fort Chartes.+
It always was the characteristic policy of the French to render
the savages dependent upon them, and with that design in view they
had earnestly endeavored to cultivate among the Indians a desire for
Euro})ean goods. By prevailing upon the Indians to throw aside
hides and skins of wild beasts for clothing of European manufacture,
to discontinue the use of their pottery for cooking utensils of iron,
to excliange the bow and arrow and stone wea})ons for the gun, the
knife and hatchet of French manufacture, it was thought that in the
course of one or two generations they would become dependent upon
their French neighbors for the common necessaries of life. When
* Paikraan's Conspiracy of Pontiac, p. 150.
t This account of the delivery of the western forts to Rogers has been collated from
his Journal and from Parkman's Conspiracy of Pontiac.
236 HISTORIC notp:s on the northwest.
this cliange in tlieir customs luid taken place, by simply withholding
the supply of ammunition they could coerce the savages to adopt any
measures that the French government saw fit to propose. The pol-
icy of the French was not to force, but to lead, the savages into sub-
jection. The}^ told the barbarians that they were the children of the
great king, who had sent his people among them to preserve them
from their implacable enemies, the English. Flattering them, asking
their advice, bestowing upon them presents, and, above all, showing
them respect and deference, the French gained the good will of tlie
savages in a degree that no other European nation ever equaled.
After the surrender of the western posts all this was changed. The
accustomed presents formerly bestowed upon them were withheld.
English traders robbed, bullied and cheated them. English officers
treated them with rudeness and contempt. But, most of all, the
steady advance of the English colonists over the mountains, occupy-
ing their lands, driving away their game, and forcing them to retire
farther west, alarmed and exasperated the aborigines to the limit of
endurance. "The wrongs and neglect the Indians felt were inflamed
by the French coureurs de hois and traders. They had every motive
to excite the tribes against the English, such as their national rancor,
their religious antipathies, and most especially the fear of losing the
profitable Indian trade." Every efi'ort was made to excite and in-
flame the slumbering passions of the tribes of the Northwest. Secret
councils were held, and diff'erent plans for obtaining possession of
the western fortresses wepe discussed. The year after Rogers ob-
tained Detroit there was, in the summer, an outbreak, but it was
easily quelled, being only local. The next year, also, there was
another disturbance, but it, like the former, did not spread.
During these two years one Indian alone, — Pontiac, — compre-
hended the situation. He read correctly the signs and portents of
the times. He well knew that English supremacy on the North
American continent meant the destruction of his race. He saw the
great difierence between the English and the French. The former
were settlers, the latter traders. The French came to the far west
for their beaver skins and peltries, while the English would only be
satisfied with their lands. Pontiac soon arrived at the conclusion
that unless the ceaseless flow of English immigration was stopped,
it would not be many decades before the Indian race would be
driven from the face of the earth. Well has time justified this opin-
ion of the able Indian chieftain !
To accoini)lish his designs, Pontiac was well aware that he must
induce all the tribes of the northwest to join him. Even then he
PONTIAC'S WAK. J.:',!
had doubts of final success. To encourage him, the French traders
informed him "that the English had stolen Canada while their com-
mon father was asleep at Versailles ; that he would soon awaken and
again wrest his domains from the intruders ; that even now large
French armies were on their way up the St. Lawrence and Missis-
sippi rivers." Pontiac believed these tales, for let it be borne in
mind that this was previous to the treaty of Paris, and late in the
autumn of 1762 he sent emissaries with black wampum and the red
tomahawk to the villages of the Ottawas, Pottawatomies, Sacs,
Foxes, Menominees, Illinois, Miamis, Shawnees, Delawares, Wyan-
dots, Kickapoos and Senecas. These emissaries were instructed to
inform the various tribes that the English had determined to exter-
minate the northwestern Indians ; to accomplish this they intended
to erect numerous fortifications in the territory named ; and also
that the English had induced the southern Indians to aid them.* To
avert these inimical designs of the English, the messengers of Pon-
tiac proposed that on a certain day all the tribes, by concerted action,
should seize all the English posts and then attack the whole English
border.
Pontiac' s plan was contrived and developed with wonderful
secrecy, and all of a sudden the conspiracy burst its fury simultane-
ously over all the forts held by the British west of the Alleghanies.
By stratagem or forcible assault every garrison west of Pittsburgh,
excepting Detroit, was captured.
Fort St. Joseph, on the river of that name, in the present state of
Michigan, was captured by the Pottawatomies. These emissaries of
Pontiac collected about the fort on the 23d of May, 1763, and under
the guise of friendship eflected an entrance within the palisades,
when they suddenly turned upon and massacred tlie whole garrison,
except the commandant. Ensign Slussee and three soldiers, whom
they made prisoners and sent to Detroit.
The Ojibbeways effected an entry within the defenses of Fort
Mackinaw, the gate being left open while the Indians were amusing
the ofiicer and soldiers with a game of ball. In the play the ball
was knocked over within the palisade. The players, hurrying
through the gates, seemingly intent on regaining the ball, seized
their knives and guns from beneath the blankets of their squaws,
where they had been purposely concealed, and commenced an indis-
criminate massacre, t
* The Chickasaws and Cherokees were at that time, though on their own responsi-
bility, waging war aginst some of the tribes of the northwest.
tA detailed account of this most horrible massacre is given by the fur-trader Alex-
238 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST,
Ensign Ilolnies, who was in ccnnniand at Fort Miami,* learned
that to the Miainis in the vicinity of his post was allotted the de-
struction of his garrison. Holmes collected the Indians in an
assembly, and charged them with forming a consi)iracy against his
post. They confessed ; said that they were influenced by hostile
Indians, and promised to relinquish their designs. The village of
Pontiac was within a sliort distance of the post, and some of his im-
mediate followers doubtless attended the assembly. Holmes sup-
posed he had partially allayed t]ieir irritation, as appears from a
letter written ftom him to Major Gladwyn.f
On the 2Tth of May a young Indian squaw, who was the mistress
of Holmes, requested him to visit a sick Indian woman who lived in
a wigwam near at hand. " Having confidence in the girl. Holmes
followed her out of the fort." Two Indians, who were concealed
behind the hut, as he approached it, fired and "stretched him life-
less on the ground.". The sergeant rushed outside of the palisade
to learn the cause of the firing. He was immediately seized by the
Indians. The garrison, who by this time had become thoroughly
alarmed, and had climbed uj^on the palisades, was ordered to surren-
der by one Godefroy, a Canadian. They were informed, if they
submitted their lives would be spared, otherwise they all would be
massacred. Having lost their officers and being in great terror, they
threw open the gate and gave themselves up as prisoners. Accord-
ing to tradition, the garrison was afterward massacred. :|:
Fort Ouiatanon was under the command of Lieut. Jenkins, who
had no suspicion of any Indian troubles, and on the 1st of June,
when he was requested by some of the Indians to visit them in their
cabins near by, he unhesitatingly complied with the request. Upon
his entering the h'ut he was immediately seized by the Indian war-
riors. Through various other stratagems of a similar nature several
of the soldiers were also taken. Jenkins was then told to have the
soldiers in the fort suri*ender. "For," said the Indians, "should
your men kill one of our braves, we shall put you all to death."
ander Henry, an eye-witness and one of the few survivors, in his interesting Book of
Travels and Adventures, p. 85.
* Now Fort Wavne.
Fort Mi AMIS, March 30th, 1763.
t Since my Last Letter to You, wherein I Acquainted You of the Bloody Belt being
in this Village, I have made all the search I could about it. and have found it not to be
True; Whereon I Assembled all the chiefs of this Nation, & after a long and trouble-
some Spell with them, T Obtained the Belt, with a Speech, as You will Receive En-
closed; This affiiir is very timely Stopt, and 1 hope the News of a Peace will put a
Stop to any further Troubles with these Indians, who are the Principal Ones of Setting
Mischief on Foot. I send you the Belt, with this Packet, which I hope You will For-
ward to the General.
X Brice's History of Fort Wayne.
PONTIAC'S FAILURE. 239
Jenkins thinking that resistance would be useless, ordered the re-
maining sokliers to deliver the fort to the Indians. During the
night the Indians resolved to break their plighted word, and mas-
sacre all their prisoners. Two of the French residents, M. M. Mai-
gonville and Lorain, gave the Indians valuable presents, including
wampum, brandy, etc., and thus preserved the lives of the English
captives. Jenkins, in his letter to Major Gladwyn, commandant at
Detroit, states that the Weas were not favorably inclined toward
Pontiac's designs ; but being coerced by the surrounding tribes, they
undertook to carry out their part of the programme. Well did they
succeed. Lieut. Jenkins, with the other prisoners, were, within a
few days afterward, sent across the prairies of Illinois to Fort Cliar-
tres.
Detroit held out, though regularly besieged by Pontiac in person,
for more than fifteen months, when, at last, the suifering garrison
was relieved by the approach of troops under Gen. Bradstreet. In
the meantime Pontiac confederates, wearied and disheartened by the
protracted struggle, longed for peace. Several tribes abandoned the
declining fortune of Pontiac ; and finally the latter gave up the con-
test, and retired to the neighborhood of Fort Miamis. Here he
remained for several months, when he went westward, down the
Wabash and across the prairies to Fort Chartres. The latter fort
remained in possession of a French officer, not having been as yet
surrendered to the English, the hostility of the Indians preventing
its delivery ; and by agreements of the two governments, France
and England, it was left in charge of the veteran St. Ange.
The English having acquired the territory herein considered, by
conquest and treaty, from France, renewed their eff'orts to reclaim
authority over it from its aboriginal inhabitants. To eff'ect this
object, they now resort to conciliation and diplomacy. They sent
westward George Croghan."-
After closing a treaty witli the Indians at Fort Pitt, Ci'oghan
started on his misMon on the 15th of May 1765, going down the
Ohio in two bateaux. His movements were known to the hostile
* Croghan was an old trader who had spent his life among the Indians, and was
versed in their language, ways and habits of thought, and who well knew how to flat-
ter and cajole them. Besides this, Croghan enjoyed the advantage of a personal ac-
quaintance with many of the chiefs and principal men of the Wabash tiibes, who had
met him while trading at Pickawillany and other places where he had trading estab-
lishments. Among the Miami, Wea and Piankashaw bands Croghan had many Indian
friends whose attachments toward him were very warm. He was a veteran, up to all
the arts of the Indian council house, and had in years gone by conducted many impor-
tant treaties between the authorities of New York and Pennsylvania with the Iroquois,
Delawares and Shawnees. In the war for the fur trade Croghan suffered severely; the
French captured his traders, confiscated his goods, and bankrupted his fortune.
240 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
tribes. A war party of eiglity Kickapoos and Mascoutins, "spirited
up " to the act by the French traders at Ouiatanon, as Croghan says
in his Journal, left the latter place, and captured Croghan and his
party at daybreak on the Sth of June, in the manner narrated in a
previous chapter." He was carried to Vincennes, his captors con-
ducting him a devious course through marshes, tangled forests and
small prairie, to the latter place, f
After Croghan had procured wearing apparel (his captors had
stripped him well-nigh naked) and purchased some horses he
crossed the "Wabash,- and soon entered the great prairie which he
describes in extracts we have ah'eady taken from his journal. His
route was up through Crawford, Edgar and Yermilion counties, fol-
lowing the old traveled trail running along the divide between the
Embarrass and the Wabash, and which was a part of the great high-
way leading from Detroit to Kaskaskia ; :{; crossed the Vermilion
River near Danville, thence along the trail thi'ough Wai'ren county,
Indiana. Croghan, still a prisoner in charge of his captors, reached
Ouiatonon on the afternoon of tlie 23d of June.g Here the AVeas,
*P. 161.
tCioghan, in his Journal, says: "I found Vincennes a village of eighty or ninety
French families, settled on the east side of the river, being one of the finest situations
that can be found. The French inhabitants hereabouts are an idle, lazy people, a
parcel of renegadoes from Canada, and are much worse than the Indians. They took
secret pleasure at our misfortune, and the moment we arrived they came to the Indians,
exchanging, ti-ifles for their valuable plunder. Here is likewise an Indian village of
Piankashaws, who were much displeased with the party that took me, telling them
that ' our and your chiefs are gone to make peace, and you have begun war, for which
our women and children will have reason to cry.' Port Vincent is a place of great
consequence for trade, being a fine hunting country all along the Wabash."
X That part of the route from Kaskaskia east, from the earliest settlement of Illi-
nois and Indiana, was called "the old Vmcennes trace." "This trace," says Gov.
Reynolds, in his Pioneer History of Illinois, p. 79, "was celebrated in Illinois. The
Indians laid it out more than one hundred and fifty years ago. It commenced at
Detroit, thence to Ouiatonon, on the Wabash, thence to Vincennes and thence to Kas-
kaskia. It was the Appian way of Illinois in ancient times. It is yet (in 1852) visible
in many places between Kaskaskia and Vincennes." H was also visible for years after
the white settlements began, between the last place, the Vermilion and Ouiatonon, on
the route described. — [Author.
§ Croghan says of Ouiatonon that there wei-e " about fourteen French families liv-
ing in the fort, which stands on the )W7-th side of the river; that the Kickapoos and
Mascoutins, whose warriors had taken us, live nigh the fort, on the same side of the
river, where they have two villages, and the Ouicatonons or Wawcottonans [as Croghan
variously spells the name of the WeasJ have a village on the south side of the river."
"On the south side of the Wabash runs a high bank, in which are several very fine
coal mmes, and behind this bank is a very large meadow, clear for several miles." The
printer made a mistake in setting up Croghan's manuscript, or else Croghan himself
committed an unintentional error in his diary in substituting the word south for north
in describing the side of the river on which the appearances of coal banks are found. The
only locality on the banks of the Wabash, above the Vermilion, where the carbonifer-
ous shales resembling coal are exposed is on the west, or north l)ank, of the river, about
four miles above Independence, at a pl.ace known as ''Black Rock/'' which, says Prof.
Collett, in his report on the geology of Warren county, Indiana, published in the Geolog-
ical Survey of Indiana for 1873, pp. 224-5, " is a notable and romantic feature in the river
scenery." "A precipitous or overhanging cliff exhibits an almost sheer descent of a
SUCCESS OF CROGHAN'S MISSION. 241
from the opposite side of the river, took great interest in Mr.
(Voglian, and were deeply "concerned at what had happened.
They charged the Kickapoos and Mascoutins to take the greatest
care of liini. and the Indians and white men captured with him, nntil
their chiefs shoukl arrive from Fort Charti'cs, whither they had gone,
some time before, to meet liim, and who were necessarily ignorant of
his being captured on his way to the same place." From the 4th to
the Sth of July Croghan held conferences with the Weas, Pianke-
shaws, Kickapoos and Mascoutins, in which, he says, "I was lucky
enough to reconcile those nations to His Majesty's interests, and ob-
tained their consent to take possession of the posts in their country
which the French formerly possessed, and they offered their services
should any nation oppose our taking such possession, all of which they
confirmed by four large pipes."* On the 11th a messenger arrived
from Fort Chartres requesting the Indians to take Croghan and his
party thither ; and as Fort Chartres was the place to which he had
originally designed going, he desired the chiefs to get ready to set
out with him for that place as soon as possible. On the 13tli the
chiefs from "the Miamis" came in and renewed their "ancient
friendshij) with His Majesty." On the ISth Croghan, with his party
and the chiefs of the Miami and other tribes we have mentioned,
forming an imposing procession, started off across the country
toward Fort Chartres. On the way (neither Croghan' s official report
or his private journal show the place) they met the great "Pontiac
himself, together with the deputies of the Iroquois, Delawares and
Shawnees,t who had gone on around to Fort Chartres with Capt.
hundred and forty feet to the Wabash, at its foot. The top is composed of yellow, red,
brown or black conglomerate sandrock, highly ferruginous, and in part pebbly. At the
base of the sandrock, where it joins upon the underlying carbonaceous and pyritous
shales are ■ pot ' or ' rock-houses, ' which so constantly accompany this formation in
southern Indiana. Some of these, of no great height, have been tunneled back under
the cliff to a distance of thirty or forty feet by force of the ancient river once flowing
at this level." The position, in many respects, is like Starved Rock, on the Illinois,
where La Salle built Fort St. Louis, and commands a fine view of the Wea plains,
across the inver eastward, and, before the recent growth of timber, of an arm of the
Grand Prairie to the westward. The stockade fort and trading-post of Ouiatonon has
often been confounded with the Wea villages, which were strung for several miles along
the margin of the prairie, near the river, between Attica and La Fayette, on the south
or east side of the river; and some writers have mistaken it for the village oi Keth-
tjp-e-ca-nuk, situated on the north bank of the Wabash River, near the mouth of the
Tippecanoe. The fort was abandoned as a military post after its capture from the
British by the Indians. It was always a place of considerable trade to the English, as
well as the French. Thomas Hutchins, in his Historical and Topographical Atlas, pub-
lished in 1778, estimates "the annual amount of skins. and furs obtained at Ouiatonon
at forty thousand dollars."
* Croghans official report to Sir Wm. Johnson: London Documents, vol. 7, p. 780.
t These last-named Indian deputies, with Mr. Frazer , had gone down the Ohio with
Croghan, and thence on to Fort Chartres. Not hearing anything from Croghan, or
knowing what had become of him, Pontiac and these Indian deputies, on learning that
Croghan was at Ouiatanon, set out for that place to meet him.
16
242 HISTOKIC NOTES OX THE NOKTHWEST.
Frazer. Tlie wliole ['ai-tj, with deputies from tlie Illinois Indians,
now returned to Ouiatanon, and there held another conference, in
which were settled all matters with the Illinois Indians. " Pontiac
and the Illinois deputies agreed to everything which the other tribes
had conceded in the previous conferences at Ouiatanon, all of which
was ratified with a solemn formality of ])ij)es and belts."*
Here, then, upon the banks of the Wabash at Ouiatonon, did the
Indian tribes, with the sanction of Pontiac, solemnly surrender pos-
session of the northwest territory to the accredited agent of Great
Britain, f Croghan and his party, now swollen to a large body by
the accession of the principal chiefs of the several nations, set out
"for the Miamis, and traveled the whole way through a fine ricli
bottom, alongside the Ouabache, arriving at Eel River on the 27th.
About six miles up this river they found a small village of the
Tioightwee^ situated on a very delightful spot of ground on the bank
of the river.":}: Croghan's private journal continues: "July 28th,
29th, 30th and 31st we traveled still alongside the Eel River, passing
through fine clear woods and some good meadows, though not so
large as those we passed some days before. The country is more
overgrown with woods, the soil is sufficiently rich, and well watered
with springs."
On the 1st of August they "arrived at the carrying place be-
tween the River Miamis and the Ouabache, which is about nine miles
long in dry seasons, but not above half that length in freshets."
"Within a mile of the Twightwee village," says Croghan, "I was
met by the chiefs of that nation, who received us very kindly. Most
part of these Indians knew me, and conducted me to their village,
where they immediately hoisted an English flag that / had formerly
given them at Fort Pitt. The next day they held a council, after
which they gave me up all the English prisoners they had, and ex-
pressed the pleasure it gave them to see [that] the unhappy difl'er-
ences which had embroiled the several nations in a war with their
brethren, the English, were now so near a happy conclusion, and
that peace was established in their country. "§
* Croghan's official report, already quoted.
t It is true that Pontiac, with deputies of all the westward tribes, followed Croghan
to Detroit, where another conference took place; but this was only a moi-e formal rati-
fication of the surrender which the Indians declared they had already made of the
country at Ouiatonon.
JThe Miami Indian name of this village was Ke-na-pa-com-a-qiia. Its French
name was A I'Anguille, or Eel River town. The Miami name of Eel River was Kix-
na-peei-kuoh Sepe, or Water Snake (the Indians call the eel a water-snake fish) River.
The village was situated on the north bank of Eel River, about six miles from Logans-
port. It was scattered along the river for some three miles.
§The following is Mr. Croghan's description of the " Miamis," as it appeared in
PONTIAC'S TRAGIC DEATH. 248
From the Miamis the party proceeded down the Muuinee in
canoes. "About ninety miles, continues the journal, from tlie Miamis
or Twightwee we came to where a large river, that heads in a large
'Z^6'A•,' falls into the Miami River; this they call 'The Forks.'
The Ottawas claim this country and hunt here.* This nation for-
merly lived at Detroit, but are now settled here on account of the
richness of the country, where game is always to be found in plenty."
From Defiance Croghan's party were obliged to drag their canoes
several miles, "on account of the riffs which interrupt the naviga-
tion," at the end of which they came to a village of Wyandottes, who
received them kindly. From thence they proceeded in their canoes
to the mouth of the Maumee. Passing several large bays and a
number of rivers, they reached the Detroit River on the 16th of
August, and Detroit on the following morning, f
As for Pontiac, his fate was tragical. He was fond of the French,
and often visited the Spanish post at St. Louis, whither many of his
old friends had gone from the Illinois side of the river. One day in
1767, as is supposed, he came to Mr. St. Ange (this veteran soldier
of France still remained in the country), and said he was going over
to Oahokia to visit the Kaskaskia Indians. St. Ange endeavored to
dissuade him from it, reminding him of the little friendship existing
between him and the British. Pontiac' s answer was : "Captain, I
am a man. I know how to fight. I have always fought openly.
They will not murder me, and if any one attacks me as a brave man,
1765: "The Twightwee village is situated on both sides of a river called St. Joseph's.
This river, where it falls into the Miami River, about a quarter of a mile from this
place, is one hundred yards wide, o>i the east side of which stands a stockade fort some-
what ruinous.'" The Indian village consists of about forty or fifty cabins, besides nine
or ten French houses, a runaway colony from Detroit during the late Indian war; they
were concerned in it, and being afraid of punishment came to this post, where they
have ever since spirited up the Indians against the English. All the French residing
here are a lazy, indolent people, fond of breeding mischief, and they should not be
suffered to remain. The country is pleasant, the soil rich and well watered."
*The place referred to is the mouth of the Auglaize, often designated as "The
Forks " in many of the early accounts of the country. It may be noted that Croghan,
like nearly all other early travelers, overestimates distances.
t Croghan describes Detroit as a large stockade " inclosing about eighty houses. It
stands on the north side of the river on a high bank, and commands a very pleasant
prospect for nine miles above and below the fort. The country is thick settled with
French. Their plantations are generally laid out about three or four acres in breadth
on the river, and eighty acres in depth; the soil is good, producing plenty of grain.
All the people here are generally poor wretches, and consist of three or four hundred
French families, a lazy, idle people, depending chiefly on the savages for their subsist-
ence. Though the land, with little labor, produces plenty of grain, they scarcely raise as
much as will supply their wants, in imitation of Indians, whose manners and customs
they have entirely adopted, and cannot subsist without them. The men, women and
children speak the Indian tongue perfectly well." At the conclusion of the lengthj^
conferences with the Indians, in which all matters were " settled to their satisfaction,"
Croghan set out from Detroit for Niagara, coasting along the north shore of Lake Erie
in a birch canoe, arriving at the latter place on the 8th of October.
244 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
I ain his inatc-h.''' Poiitiac went over the river, was feasted, got
(Iriiiik, and retired to the woods to sing medicine songs. In the
meanwhile, an English merchant named Williamson bribed a Kas-
kaskia Indian with a barrel of rum and promises of a greater reward
if he would take Pontiac's life. Pontiac was struck with a pa-ka-
ma-gon — tomahawk, and his skull fractured, causing death. This
murder aroused the vengeance of all the Indian tribes friendly to
Pontiac, and brought about the war resulting in the almost total ex-
termination of the Illinois nation. He was a remarkably fine-looking
man, neat in his person, and tasty in dress and in the arrangement
of his ornaments. His complexion is said to have approached that
of the whites.* St. Ange, hearing of Pontiac's death, kindly took
charge of the body, and gave it a decent burial near the fort, the
site of which is now covered by the city of St. Louis. "Neither
mound nor tablet," says Francis Parkman, "marked the burial-
place of Pontiac. For a mausoleum a city has arisen above the for-
est hue, and the race whom he hated with such burning rancor tram-
ple with unceasing footsteps over his forgotten grave."
*I. N. Nicollet's Report, etc., p. 81. Mr. Nicollet received his information con-
cerning Pontiac from Col. Pierre Chouteau, of St. Louis, and Col. Pierre Menard, of
Kaskaskia, who were personally acquainted with the facts.
CHAPTER XXIII.
GEN. CLARK'S CONQUEST OF "THE ILLINOIS."
After the Indians had submitted to Englisli rule "the west en-
joyed a period of quiet. When the American cohjnists, hjng com-
phiining against the oppressive acts of the mother country, broke
out into open revolt, and the war of the revolution fairly began,
the English, from the w^estward posts of Detroit, Yincennes and
Kaskaskia, incited the Indians
against the frontier settlements,
and from these depots supplied
their war parties with guns aiid
ammunition. The depredations
of the Indians in Kentucky were
so severe that in the fall of 1777
George Rogers Clark conceived,
and next year executed, an expe-
dition against the French settle-
ments of Kaskaskia and Yin-
cennes, which not only relieved
Kentucky from the incursions
of the savages, but at the same
time resulted in consequences
which are without parallel in the
1 +' 4.1 AT 4-\ i. -•" GEN. CLARK.
annals ot tlie JNortliwest. "
*Gen. Clark' was born in Albemarle county, Virginia, on the 19th of November,
1752, and died and was buried at Locust Grove, near Louisville, Kentucky, in February,
1818. He came to Kentucky in the spring of 1775, and became early identified as a
conspicuous leader in the border wars of that country. The border settlers of Kentuckj'
could not successfully contend against the numerous and active war parties from, the
Wabash who were continually lurking in their neighborhoods, coming, as Indians do,
stealthily, striking a blow where least expected, and escaping before assistance could
relieve the localities which they devastated, killing women and children, destroying
live stock and burning the pioneers' cabins. Clark conceived the idea of capturing
Vincennes and Kaskaskia. Keeping his plans to himself, he proceeded to Williams-
burg and laid them before Patrick Henry, then governor of Virginia, who promptly
aided in their execution. Fi-om Gov. Henry Clark received two sets of instructions,
one, to enlist seven companies of men, osteiisihli/ for the protection of the people of
Kentucky, which at that time was a county of Virginia, the other, a secret order, to
attack the British post of Kaskaskia! The result of his achievements was overshad-
owed by the stirring events of the revolution eastward of the AUeghanies, where other
heroes were winning a glory that dazzled while it drew public attention exclusively to
•245
l24i; HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
The account here given of Clark's campaign in ''The Illinois" is
taken from a manuscript memoir composed by Clark himself, at the
joint request of Presidents Jefterson and Madison."" We prefer
giving the account in Gen. Clark's own words, as far as practicable.
The memoir of Ctcu. Clark proceeds: "On the (24th) of June,
1778, we left our little island, f and run about a mile up the river in
order to gain the main channel, and shot the falls at the very mo-
ment of the sun being in a great eclipse, which caused various con-
jectures among the superstitious. As T knew that spies were kept
on the river below the towns of the Illinois, I had resolved to march
part of the way by land, and of course left the whole of our bag-
gage, except as much as would equip us in the Indian mode. The
whole of our force, after leaving such as was judged not competent
to [endure] the expected fatigue, consisted only of four companies,
commanded by Captains John Montgomery, Joseph Bowman,
Leonard Helms and William Harrod. My force being so small to
what I expected, owing to the various circumstances already men-
tioned, I found it necessary to alter my plans of operation.
"I had fully acquainted myself that the French inhabitants in
those western settlements had great influence among the Indians in
general, and were more beloved by them than any other Europeans ;
that their commercial intercourse was universal throughout the west-
ern and northwestern countries, and that the governing interest on
the lakes was mostly in the hands of the English, who were not
much beloved by them. These, and many other ideas similar
thereto, caused me to resolve, if possible, to strengthen myself by
such .train of conduct as might probably attach the French inhabit-
ants to our interest, and give us influence in the country we were
aiming for. These were the principles that influenced my future
conduct, and, fortunately, I had just received a letter from Col.
them. The west was a wilderness, — excepting' the isolated French settlements about
Kaskaskia, and at Vincennes and Detroit. — and occupied only by savages and wild
animals. It was not until after the great Northwest began to be settled, and its capa-
bilities to sustain the empire, — since seated in its lap, — was realized, that the magni-
tude of the conquest forced itself into notice. The several states of Ohio, Indiana,
Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, carved out of the territory which he so gloriously
won, — nay, the whole nation, — owe to the memory of Georg'e Rogers Clark a debt of
gratitude that cannot be repaid in a mere expression of words. An account of his life
and eminent services, worthy of the man, yet remains to be written.
*.Iudge John B. Dillon, when preparing his first history of Indiana, in 1843, had
access to Clark's original manuscript memoir, and copied copious extracts in the vol-
ume named, and it is from this source that the extracts appearing in this work were
taken. This book of Judge Dillon is not to be confounded with a History of Indiana,
prepared and published by him in 1859. His first book, although somewhat crude, is
exceedingly valuable for the historical matter it contains relating to the whole North-
west, while the latter is a better digested history of the state of which he was an emi-
nent citizen.
t At Louisville.
clakk's campaign. 247
Campbell, dated Pittsburgli, informing me of the contents of the
treaties* between France and America. As I intended to leave the
Ohio at Fort Massac, three leagues below the Tennessee, I landed
on a small island in the mouth of that riv^er, in order to prepare for
the march. In a few hours after, one John DuiF and a party of
hunters coming down the river were brought to by our boats. They
were men formerly from the states, and assured us of their happiness
in the adventure. . . . They liad been but lately from Kaskaskia,
and were able to give us all the intelligence we wished. They said
that Gov. Abbot had lately left Port Vincennes, and gone to Detroit
on business of importance ; that Mr. Rochblave commanded at Kas-
kaskia. etc.; that the militia was kept in good order, and spies on
the Mississippi, and that all hunters, both Indians and others, were
ordered to keep a good look-out for the rebels ; that the fort was kept
in good order as an asylum, etc., but they believed the whole to
proceed more from the fondness for parade than the expectation of
a visit ; that if they received timely notice of us, they would collect
and give us a warm reception, as they were taught to harbor a most
horrid idea of the rebels, especially the Virginians ; but that if we
could surprise the place, which they were in hopes we might, they
made no doubt of our being able to do as we pleased ; that they
hoped to be received as partakers in the enterprise, and wished us
to put full confidence in them, and they would assist the guides in
conducting the party. This was agreed to, and they proved valua-
ble men.
''The acquisition to us was great, as I had no intelligence from
those ])osts since the spies I sent twelve months past. But no part
of their information pleased me more than that of the inhabitants
viewing us as more savage than their neighbors, the Indians. I was
determined to improve upon this if I was fortunate enough to get
them into my possession, as I conceived the greater the shock I
could give them at first the more sensibly would they feel my lenity,
and become more valuable friends. This I conceived to be agree-
able to human nature, as I had observed it in many instances.
Having everything prepared, we moved down to a little gully a
small distance above Massac, in wdiich we concealed our boats, and
set out a northwest course. The weather was favorable. In some
parts water w^as scarce, as well as game. Of course we suifered
drought and hunger, but not to excess. On the third day John
*The timely information received of the alliance between the United States and
France was made use of by Gen. Clark with his usual tact and with great success, as
will be seen farther on.
248 HISTORIC NOTKS ON THK NORTHWEST.
Saunders, our principal guide, appeared confused, and we soon dis-
covered that lie was totally lost, without there was some other cause
of his present conduct.
" I asked him various questions, and from his answers I could
scarcely determine what to think of him, — whether or not that he
was lost, or that he wished to deceive us. . . . The cry of the whole
detachment was that he was a traitor. He begged that he miglit be
suffered to go some distance into a plain that was in full view, to try
to make some discovery whether or not he was right. I told him he
might go, but that I was suspicious of him, from his conduct ; that
from the first day of his being employed he always said he knew the
way well ; that tliere was now a different appearance ; that I saw the
nature of the country was such that a person once acquainted with
it could not in a short time forget it; that a few men should go with
him to prevent his escape, and that if he did not discover and take
us into the hunter's road that led from the east into Kaskaskia,
which he had frequently described, I would have him immediately
put to death, which I was determined to have done. But after a
search of an hour or two he came to a place that he knew perfectly,
and we discovered that the poor fellow had been, as they 'call it,
bewildered.
'' On t\\Q fowth of Julij^ in the evening, we got within a few miles
of the town, where we lay until near dark, keeping spies ahead, after
which we commenced our march, and took possession of a house
wlierein a large family lived, on the bank of the Kaskaskia Hiver,
about three-quarters of a mile above the town. Here we were in-
formed that the people a few days before were under arms, but had
concluded that the cause of the alarm was without foundation, and
that at that time there was a great number of men in town, but that
the Indians had generally left it, and at present all was quiet. We
soon procured a sufficiency of vessels, the more in ease to conve}' us
across the river.
''AVith one of the divisions I marched to the fort, and ordered the
other two into different (piarters of the town. If I met with no resist-
ance, at a certain signal a general shout was to be given and certain
parts were to be immediately possessed, and men of each detach-
ment, who could speak the French language, were to run through
every street and proclaim what had happened, and inform the inhab-
itants that every person that appeared in the streets would be shot
down. This disposition had its desired effect. In a very little time
we had complete possession, and every avenue was guarded to prevent
any escape to give the alarm to the other villages in case of opposi-
Clark's conquest. 249
tion. Various orders had been issued not worth mentioning. I don't
suj>pose greater silence ever reigned among the inhabitants of a
phice than did at this at present ; not a person to be seen, not a word
to be heard by them, for some time, but, designedly, the greatest
noise kept up by our troops through every quarter of the town, and
patrols continually the whole night around it, as intercepting any
information was a capital object, and in about two hours the whole
of the inhabitants were disarmed, -and informed that if one was taken
attempting to make his escape he should be immediately put to
death.''
When Col. Clark, by the use of various bloodless means, had
raised the terror of the French inhabitants to a painful height, he
surprised them, and won their confidence and friendship^i by perform-
ing, unexpectedly, several acts of justice and generosity. On the
morning of the 5th of July a few of the principal men were arrested
and put in irons. Soon afterward M. Gibault, the priest of the vil-
lage, accompanied by five or six aged citizens, waited on Col. Clark,
and said that the inhabitants expected to be separated, perhaps never
to meet again, and they begged to be permitted to assemble in their
church, and there to take leave of each other. Col. Clark mildly
told the priest that he had nothing to say against his religion ; that
it was a matter which Americans left for every man to settle with his
God ; that the people might assemble in their church, if they would,
but that they must not venture out of town.
Xearly the whole French population assembled at the church.
The houses were deserted by all who could leave them, and Col.
Clark gave orders to prevent any soldiers from entering the vacant
buildings. After the close of the meeting at the church a deputation,
c(.»nsisting of M. Guibault and several other persons, waited on Col.
Clark, and said "that their present situation was the fate of war, and
that they could submit to the loss of their property, but they solic-
ited that they might not be separated from their wives and children,
and that some clothes and provisions might be allowed for their
support." Clark feigned surprise at this request, and abruptly
exclaimed, "Do you mistake us for savages? I am almost cer-
tain vou do from vour lanfi:uaffe ! Do vou think that Americans
intend to strip women and children, or take the bread out of their
mouths? My countrymen,'" said Clark, "disdain to make war
upon helpless innocence. It was to prevent the horrors of Indian
butchery upon our own wives and children that we have taken ai'ms
and j)enetrated into this remote stronghold of British and Indian
barbarity, and not the despicable prospect of plunder ; that now the
250 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
king of France had united his powerful arms witli those of Anierica,.
the war would not, in all probability, continue long, but the inhabit-
ants of Kaskaskia were at liberty to take which side they pleased,
without the least danger to either their property or families. Noi-
would their religion be any source of disagreement, as all religions
were regarded with equal respect in the eye of the American law,
and that any insult offered to it would be immediately punished."
"And now," Clark continues, "to prove my sincerity, you will
please inform your fellow-citizens that they are quite at liberty to
conduct themselves as usual, without the least apprehension. I am
now convinced, from what I have learned since my arrival among
you, that you have been misinformed and prejudiced against us by
British officers, and your friends who are in confinement shall imme-
diately be released."* In a few minutes after the delivery of this
speech tlie gloom that rested on the minds of the inhabitants of
Kaskaskia had passed away. The news of the treaty of alliance
between France and the United States, and the influence of the mag-
lumimous conduct of Clark, induced the French villagers to take the
oath of allegiance to the state of Virginia. Their arms were restored
to them, and a volunteer company of French militia joined a detach-
ment under Capt. Bowman, when that officer was dispatched to take
possession of Cahokia. The inhabitants of this small village, on
hearing what hatl taken place at Kaskaskia, readily took the oath of
allegiance to Virginia.
,, The memoir of Clark proceeds: " Post Vincennes never being
out of my mind, and from some things that I had learned I suspected
that Mr. Gibault, the priest, was inclined to the American interest
previous to our arrival in the country. Tie had great influence over
the people at this period, and Post Vincennes was under his juris-
diction. I made no doubt of his integrity to us. I sent for him,
and had a lone: conference with him on the subject of Post Vincennes.
In answer to all my queries he informed me that he did not think it
worth my while to cause any military preparation to be made at the
Falls of the Ohio for the attack of Post Vincennes, although the place
was strong and a great number of Indians in its neighborhood, who,
to his knowledge, were generally at war ; that the governor had, a
few weeks before, left the place on some business to Detroit ; that
he expected that when the inhabitants were fully acquainted with
what had j^assed at the Illinois, and the ]iresent happiness of their
friends, and made fully acquainted with the nature of the war, their
sentiments would greatly change; that lie knew that his appearance
* Clark's Memoir.
SECURES VINCENNES. 251
there would have great weight, even among the savages ; that if
it was agreeable to nie he would take this business on himself, and
had no doubt of his being able to bring that place over to the Amer-
ican interest without my being at the trouble of marching against it ;
that the business being altogether spiritual, he wished that another
person might be charged with the temporal part of the embassy, but
that he would privately direct the whole, and he named Dr. Lafont
as his associate.
"This was perfectly agreeable to what I had been secretly aim-
ing at for some days. The plan was immediately settled, and the
two doctors, with their intended retinue, among wliom I had a spy,
set about preparing for their journey, and set out on the 14th of July,
with an address to the inhabitants of Post Yincennes, authorizing
them to garrison their own town themselves, which would convince
them of the great confidence we put in them, etc. All this had its
desired effect. Mr. Gibault and his party arrived safe, and after
their spending a da}' or two in explaining matters to the people,
they universally acceded to the proposal (except a few emissaries
left by Mr. Abbot, who immediately left the country), and went in a
body to the church, where the oath of allegiance was administered
to them in a most solemn manner. An officer was elected, the fort
immediately [garrisoned], and the Amei'ican flag displayed to the
astonishment of the Indians, and everything settled far beyond our
most sanguine hopes. The people here immediately began to put
on a new face, and to talk in a different style, and to act as perfect
freemen. With a garrison of their own, with the United States at
their elbow, their language to the Indians was immediately altered.
They began as citizens of the United States, and informed the
Indians that their old father, the king of France, was come to life
again, and was mad at them for fighting for the English ; that they
would advise them to make peace with the Americans as soon as
they could, otherwise they might expect the land to be very bloody,
etc. The Indians began to think seriously ; throughout the country
this was the kind of language they generally got from their ancient
friends of the Wabash and Illinois. Through the means of their
correspondence spreading among the nations, our batteries began
now to play in a proper channel. Mr. Gibault and party, accom-
panied by several gentlemen of Post Yincennes, returned to Kas-
kaskia about the 1st of August with the joyful news. During his
absence on this business, which caused great anxiety to me (for
without the ])ossession of this post all our views would have been
blasted), I was exceedingly engaged in regulating things in the Illi-
252 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
nois. The reduction of these posts was the period of the enlistment
of our troops. I was at a great h)ss at the time to determine how
to act, and how far I might venture to strain my authority. My
instructions were silent on many important points, as it was impos-
sible to foresee the events that would take place. To abandon the
country, and all the prospects that opened to our view in the Indian
department at this time, for the want of instruction in certain cases,
1 thought would amount to a reflection on government, as having no
confidence in me. I resolved to usurp all the authority necessary to
carry my points. I had the greater part of our [troopsj reenlisted
on a different establishment, commissioned French officers in the
country to command a company of the young inhabitants, estab-
lished a garrison at Oahokia, commanded by Capt. Bowman, and
another at Kaskaskia, commanded by Capt. Williams. Post Yin-
cennes remained in the situation as mentioned. Col. William Linn,
who had accompanied us as a volunteer, took charge of a party
that was to be discharged upon their arrival at the Falls, and
orders were sent for the removal of that post to the mainland.
Capt, John Montgomer}' was dispatched to government with letters.
... I again turned my attention to Post Yincennes. I plainly saw
that it would be highly necessary to have an American officer at that
post. Capt. Leonard Helm appeared calculated to answer my pur-
pose ; he was past the meridian of life, and a good deal acquainted
with the Indian [disposition]. I sent him to command at that post,
and also appointed him agent for Indian affairs in the dejjartment of
the AV abash. . . . About the middle of August he set out to take
possession of his new command." Thus,"' says Clark, referring to
* "An Indian chief called the Tobacco's Son, a Piankeshaw, at this time resided in
a village adjoining Post Vincennes. This man was called by the Indians 'The Grand
Door to the Wabash ' ; and as nothing of consequence was to be undertaken by the
league on the Wabash without his assent, I discovered that to win him was an object
of signal importance. I sent him a spirited compliment b}' Mr. Gibault; he returned
it. I now, by Capt. Helm, touched him on the same spring that I had done the inhab-
itants, and sent a speech, with a belt of wampum, directing Capt. Helm how to man-
age if the chief was pacifically inclined or otherwise. The captain arrived safe at Post
Vincennes, and was received with acclamations by the people. After the usual cere-
mony was over he sent for the (irand Door, and delivered my letter to him. After
having read it, he mformed the captain that he was happy to see him, one of the Big
Knife chiefs, in this town; it was here he had joined the English against him; but he
confessed that he always thought thoy looked gloomy; that as the contents of the let-
ter were of great moment, he could not give an answer for some time; that he must
collect his counsellors on the subject, and was in hopes the captain would be patient.
In short, he put on all the courtly dignity that he was master of, and Capt. Helm fol-
lowing his example, it was several days before this business was finished, as the whole
proceeding was very ceremonious. At length the captain was invited to the Indian
council, and informed by Tobacco that they had maturely considered the case in hand,
and had got the nature of the war between the English and us explained to their sat-
isfaction; that as we spoke the same language and appeared to be the same ])eople, he
always thought that he was in the dark as to the truth of it, but now the sky was
Clark's influence ovkk the Indians. 253
Helm's success, "ended this valuable negotiation, ajid the saving of
niuch blood. ... In a short time almost the whole of the various
tribes of the different nations on the Wabash, as high as the Ouia-
tanon, came to Post Yincennes, and followed the example of the
Grand Door Chief; and as exj3resses were continually passing be-
tween Capt. Helm and myself the whole time of these treaties, the
business was settled perfectly to my satisfaction, and greatly to the
advantage of the public. The British interest daily lost ground in
this quarter, and in a short time our influence reached the Indians
on the River St. Joseph and the border of Lake Michigan. The
French gentlemen at the different posts we now had possession of
engaged warmly in our interest. They appeared to vie with each
other in j^romoting the business, and through the means of their
correspondence, trading among the Indians, and otherwise, in a
short time the Indians of various tribes inhabiting the region of
Illinois came in great numbers to Cahokia, in order to make treaties
of peace with us. From the information they generally got from
the French gentlemen (whom they implicitly believed) respecting us,
they were truly alarmed, and, consequently, we were visited by the
greater part of them, without any invitation from us. Of course we
had greatly the advantage in making use of such language as suited
our [interest]. Those treaties, which commenced about the last of
August and continued between three and four weeks, were probably
conducted in a way different from any other known in America at
that time. I had been always convinced that our general conduct
with the Indians was wrong ; that inviting them to treaties was con-
sidered by them in a different manner from what we expected, and
imputed by them to fear, and that giving them great presents con-
firmed it. I resolved to guard against this, and I took good pains
to make myself acquainted fully with the French and Spanish
methods of treating Indians, and with the manners, genius and dis-
position of the Indians in general. As in this quarter they had not
yet been spoiled by us, I was resolved that they should not be. I
began the business fully pre])ared, having copies of the British trea-
ties."
At the first great council, which was opened at Cahokia, an Indian
chief, with a belt of peace in his hand, advanced to the table at which
cleared up; that he found that the 'Big Knife' was in the right; that perhaps if the
English conquered, they would sarve them in the same manner that they intended to
serve us; that his ideas were quite changed, and that he would tell all the red people
on the Wabash to bloody the land no more for the English. He jumped up, struck
his breast, called himself a man and a warrior, said that he was now a Big Knife, and
took Capt. Helm by the hand. His example was followed by all present, and the
evening was spent in merriment."
254 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
Col. (Mark was sitting; another chief, bearing the sacred pipe of the
tribe, went forward to the table, and a third chief then advanced
with tire to kindle the pipe. When the pipe was lighted it was fig-
uratively presented to the heavens, then to tlie earth, then to all the
good spirits, to witness what was about to be done. After the ob-
servance of these forms the pipe was presented to Clark, and after-
ward to every person present. An Indian speaker then addressed
the Indians as follows : "• Warriors, — You ought to be thankful that
the Great Spirit has taken pity on you, and cleared the sky and
opened your ears and hearts, so that you may hear the truth. We
have been deceived by bad birds fiying through the land. But we
will take up the bloody hatchet no more against the Big Knife," and
we hope, as the Great Spirit has brought us together for good, as he
is good, that we may be received as friends, and that the belt of
peace may take the place of the bloody belt."
"I informed them," says Clark, "that I had paid attention to
what they had said, and that on the next day I would give them an
answer, when I hoped the ears and hearts of all people would be
opened to receive the truth, which should be spoken without decep-
tion. I advised them to keep prepared for the result of this day, on
which, perhaps, their very existence as a nation depended, etc., and
dismissed them, not suffering any of our people to shake hands with
them, as peace was not yet concluded, telling them it was time enough
to give the hand when the heart could be given also. They replied
that ' sucli sentiments were like men who had but one heart, and did
not speak with a double tongue.' The next day I delivered them the
following speech :
'Men and AVarriors, — Pay attention to my words: You informed
me yesterday that the Great Spirit had brought us together, and that
you hoped, as he was good, that it would be for good. I have also
the same hope, and expect that each party will strictly adhere to
whatever may be agreed upon, whether it be peace or war, and hence-
forward prove ourselves worthy of the attention of the Great Spirit.
I am a man and a warrior, — not a counsellor. I carry war in my
* The early border men of Virginia and her county of Kentucky usually carried
very large knives. From this circumstance the Virginians were called, in the Illinois
(Miami) dialect, She-mol-sea, meaning the "Big Knife." At a later day the same
appellation, under the Chippewayan word Che-mo- L'O-man, was extended, by the
Indians, to the white people generally, — always excepting the Englishman proper,
whom they called the Sag-e-nash, and the Yankees to whom they gave the epithet of
Bos-to-ne-h/, i.e., the Bostonians. The term is derived from the Miami word mal-she,
or mol-sea, a knife, or the Ojibbeway mo-ko-man, which means the same thing. The
prefix che or she emphasizes the kind or size of the instrument, as a huge, long or big
knife. Such is the origin of the expression "long knives," frequently found in books
where Indian characters occur.
CLARK'S SPEECH TO THE INDIANS. 255
right luiml, and in my left, peace. I am sent by tlie great council of
the Big Knife, and their friends, to take possession of all the towns
possessed by tlie Englisli in this country, and to watch the motions
of the red people; to bloody the ])aths of those who attempt to stop
the course of the I'iver, but to clear the roads from us to those who
desire to be in peace, that the women and children may walk in them
without meeting anything to strike their feet against. I am ordered
to call upon the Great Fire for warriors enough to darken the land,
and that the red people may hear no sound but of birds who live on
blood. I know there is a mist before your eyes. I will dispel the
clouds, that you may clearly see the cause of the war between the
Big Knife and the English, then you may judge for yourselves which
party is in the right, and if you are warriors, as you profess to be,
prove it by adhering faithfully to the party which you shall believe
to be entitled to your friendship, and do not show yourselves to be
squaws.
'The Big Knives are very much like the red people. They don't
know how to make blankets and powder and cloth. They buy these
things Irom the English, from whom they are sprung. They live by
making corn, hunting and trade, as you and your neighbors, the
French, do. But the Big Knives, daily getting more numerous, like
the trees in the woods, the land became poor and hunting scarce,
and having but little to trade with, the women began to cry at seeing
their children naked, and tried to learn how to make clothes for
themselves. They soon made blankets for their husbands and chil-
dren, and the men learned to make guns and powder. In this way
we did not want to buy so much from the English. They then got
mad with us, and sent strong garrisons through our country, as you
see they have done among you on the lakes, and among the French.
They would not let our women spin, nor our men make powder, nor
let us trade with anybody else. The English said we should buy
everything of them, and since we had got saucy we should give two
bucks for a blanket, which we used to get for one ; we should do as
they pleased ; and they killed some of our people, to make the rest
fear them. This is the truth, and the real cause of the war between
the English and us. which did not take place until some time after
this treatment.
' But our women became cold and hungry and continued to cry.
Our young men got lost for want of counsel to put them in the right
path. The whole land was dark. The old men held down their
heads for shame, because they could not see the sun ; and thus there
was mourning for many years over the land. At last the Great
256 HISTORIC NOTES OM THK NORTHWEST.
Spirit took pity on us, and kindled a great council fire, that never
goes out, at a place called Philadelphia. He then stuck down
a post, and put a war tomahawk by it, and went away. The sun
immediately broke out, the sky was blue again, and the old men
held up their heads and assembled at the fire. They took up the
hatchet, sharpened it, and ])ut it into the hands of our young men,
ordering them to strike the English as long as they could find one
on this side of the great waters. The young men immediately struck
the war post and blood was shed. Tn this way the war began, and
the English were driven from -one place to another until they got
weak, and then they hired you red people to fight for them. The
Great Spirit got angry at this, and caused your old father, the
French king, and other great nations, to join the Big Knives, and
fight with them against all their enemies. So the English have be-
come like deer in the woods, and you may see that it is the Great
Spirit that has caused your waters to be troubled, because you have
fought for the people he was mad with. If your women and chil-
dren should now cry, you must blame yourselves for it, and not the
Big Knives.
' You can now judge who is in the right. I have already told
you who I am. Here is a bloody belt and a white one, take which
you please. Behave like men, and don't let your being surrounded
by the Big Knives cause you to take up the one belt with your hands
while your hearts take up the other. If you take the bloody path,
you shall leave the town in safety, and may go and join your friends,
the English. We will then try, like warriors, who can put the most
stumbling-blocks in each other's way, and keep our clothes longest
stained with blood. If, on the other hand, you should take the path
of peace, and be received as brothers to the Big Knives, with their
friends, the French ; should you then listen to bad birds that may
be flying through the land, you will no longer deserve to be counted
as men, but as creatures with two tongues, that ought to be destroyed
without listening to anything you might say. As I am convinced
you never heard the truth before, I do not wish you to answer be-
fore you have taken time to counsel. We will, therefore, part this
evening, and when the Great Spirit shall bring us together again, let
us speak and think like men, with but one heart and one tongue.'
"The next day after this speech a new fire was kindled with
more than usual ceremony ; an Indian speaker came forward and
said : They ought to be thankful that the Great Spirit had taken
pity on them, and o])ened their ears and their hearts to receive the
truth. He had paid great attention to what the Great Spirit had
CLARK TREATS WITH THE INDIANS. 257
put into my heart to sav to tlieiii. Tliey believed tlie wliole to be
tlie truth, as tlie Big Knives did not speak like any other people
thej had ever heard. They now saw they had been deceived, and
that the English had told them lies, and that I had told them the
truth, just as some of their old men had always told them. They
now believed that we were in the right ; and as the English had
forts in their country, they might, if they got strong enough, want
to serve the red people as they had treated the Big Knives. The
red people ought, therefore, to help us, and they had, with a cheer-
ful heart, taken up the belt of peace, and spurned that of war. They
were determined to hold the former fast, and would have no doubt
of our friendship, from the manner of our speaking, so different
from that of the English. They would now call in their warriors,
and throw the tomahawk into the river, where it could never be
found. They would suffer no more bad birds to fly through the
land, disquieting the women and children. They would be careful
to smooth the roads for their brothers, the Big Knives, whenever
they might wish to come and see them. Their friends should hear
of the good talk I had given them ; and they hoped I would send
chiefs among them, with my eyes, to see myself that they were men,
and strictly adhered to all they had said at this great tire, which the
Great Spirit had kindled at Cahokia for the good of all people who
would attend it."
The sacred pipe was again kindled, and presented, flguratively,
to the heavens and the earth, and to all fthe good spirits, as witness
of what had been done. The Indians and the white men then closed
the council by smoking the pipe and shaking hands. With no ma-
terial variation, either of the forms that were observed, or with the
speeches that were made at this council. Col. Clark and his officers
concluded treaties of peace with the Piankeshaws, Ouiatenons, Kick-
apoos, Illinois, Kaskaskias, Peorias, and branches of some other
tribes that inhabited the couutry between Lake Michigan and the
Mississippi.
Gov. Henry soon received intelligence of the successful progress
of the expedition under the command of Clark. The French inhab-
itants of the villages of Kaskaskia, Cahokia and Post Yincennes
took the oath of allegiance to the State of Virginia.
In October, 1YT8, the General Assembly of the State of Virginia
passed an act which contained the following })rovisions, viz : All the
citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia ''•who are already settled
or shall hereafter settle on the western side of the Ohio^ shall be in-
cluded in a distinct county, which shall be called Illinois county ;
17
258 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
and the governor of this commonwealth, witli the advice of the
council, may appoint a county lieutenant, or commandant-in-chief,
in that county, during pleasure, who shall appoint and commission
so many deputy commandants, militia officers and commissaries as
he shall think pro})er in tlie (litferent districts, during pleasure ; all
of whom, before they enter into office, shall take the oath of fidelity
to this commonwealth and the oath of office, according to the form
of their own religion. And all civil officers to which the inhabit-
ants have been accustomed, necessary for the preservation of the
peace and the administration of justice, shall be chosen by a major-
ity of the citizens in their respective districts, to^ be convened for
that purpose by the county lieutenant, or commandant, or his deputy,
and shall be commissioned by the said county lieutenant or com-
mandant-in-chief. ' '
Before the provisions of the law were carried into effect, Henry
Hamilton, the British lieutenant-governor of Detroit, collected an
army, consisting of about thirty regulars, fifty French volunteers,
and four hundred Indians. With this force he passed down the
River Wabash, and took possession of Post Yincennes on the 15th
of December, 1778. l^o attempt was made by the population to
defend the town. Capt. Helm was taken and detained as a prisoner,
and a number of the French inhabitants disarmed.
Clark was aware that Gov. Hamilton, now that he had regained
possession of Vincennes, would undertake the capture of his forces,
and realizing his danger, he determined to forestall Hamilton and
capture the latter. His !plans were at once formed. He sent a por-
tion of his available force by boat, called The Willing, with instruc-
tions to Capt. Rogers, the commander, to proceed down the Missis-
sippi and up the Ohio and Wabash, and secrete himself a few miles
below Vincennes, and prohibit any persons from passing either up or
down. With another part of his force he marched across the country,
through prairies, swamps and marshes, crossing swollen streams —
for it was in the month of February, and the whole country was
flooded from continuous rains — and arriving at the banks of the
Wabash near St. Francisville, he pushed across the river and brought
his forces in the rear of Yincennes before daybreak. So secret and
rapid were his niovements that Gov. Hamilton had no notice that
Clark had left Kaskaskia. Chirk issued a notice requiring the
people of the town to keep within their houses, and declaring that
all persons found elsewhere would be treated as enemies. Tobacco's
Son tendered one hundred of his Piankashaw braves, himself at
their head. Clark declined their services with thanks, saying his
SURRENDER OF HAMILTON. 259
own force was sufficient. Gov. Hamilton had just completed the
fort, consisting of strong block-houses at each angle, with the cannon
placed on the upper floors, at an elevation of eleven feet from the
surface. The works were at once closely invested. The ports were
so badly cut, the men on the inside could not stand to their cannon
for the bullets that would whiz from the rifles of Clark's sharp-
shooters through the embrasures whenever they were suffered for
an instant to remain open.
The town immediately surrendered with joy, and assisted at the
siege. After the first oflfer to surrender upon terms was declined,
Hamilton and Clark, with attendants, met in a conference at the
Catholic church, situated some eighty rods from the fort, and in the
afternoon of the same day, the 24th of February, 1^79, the fort and
garrison, consisting of seventy-five men, surrendered at discretion.*
The result was that Hamilton and his whole force were made prison-
ers of war.+ Clark held military possession of the northwest until
the close of the war, and in that way it was secured to our country.
At the treaty of peace, held at Paris at the close of the revolutionary
war, the British insisted that the Ohio River should be the northern
boundary of the United States. The correspondence relative to that
treaty shows that the only ground on which ' ' the American commis-
sioners relied to sustain their claim that the lakes should be the
boundary was the fact that Gen. Clark had conquered the country,
and was in the undisputed military possession of it at the time of
the negotiation. This fact was affirmed and admitted, and was the
chief ground on which British commissioners reluctantly abandoned
their claim.":}:
* Two days after the Willing arrived, its crew much mortified because they did not
share in the victory, although Clark commended them for their diligence. Two day*
before Capt. Rogers' arrival with the Willing, Clark had dispatched three armed
boats, under charge of Capt. Helm and Majors Bosseron and Le Grass, up the Wabash,
to intercept a fleet which Clark was advised was on its way from Detroit, laden with
supplies for Gov. Hamilton at Vincennes. About one hundred and twenty miles up
the river the British boats, seven in number, having aboard military supplies of
the value of ten thousand pounds sterling money and forty men, among whom was
Philip De Jean, a magistrate of Detroit, were captured by Capt. Helm. The writer
has before hira the statement of John McFall, born near Vincennes in 1798. He lived
near and in Vincennes until 1817. His grandfather, Ralph Mattison, was one of
Clark's soldiers who accompanied Helm's expedition up the Wabash, and he often told
McFall, his grandson, that the British were lying by in the Vermilion River, near its
mouth, where they were surprised in the night-time and captured by Helm without
firing a shot.
tThis march, from its daring conception, and the obstacles encountered and over-
come, is one of the most thrilling events in our history, and it is to be regretted that
the limited space assigned to other topics precludes its insertion.
J Burnett's Notes on the Northwest Territory, p. 77.
^
CHAPTER XXIV.
( —
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY— THE ORDINANCE OF 1787 — BILL OF
RIGHTS — FREE SCHOOL SYSTEM — PROVISIONS FOR STATES — OLD
BOUNDARIES BETWEEN CANADA AND LOUISIANA— INDIAN WARS —
THE INDIAN COUNTRY RAVAGED.
Col. Clark having c{i])tured Gov. Ilaiiiilton's forces at Vin-
ceniies, and reestablished the autlioritj of Virginia over the north-
west territory, Col. John Todd, commissioned as lieutenant for the
county of Illinois, in the spring ot 1TT9 proceeded to Kaskaskia and
Vincennes, and organized a government under the act of the Gen-
eral Assembly of Virginia of October, 1778, for the establishing of
^'^ Illinois County y Col. Todd formed courts of justice, and pro-
vided other machinery to secure peace and good order among the
inhabitants. The court was comprised of several magistrates, who
•dispensed justice, in the absence of statutes specifically defining
their powers, pretty much according to their own unrestrained no-
tions of equity, applied according to the emergency of each particu-
lar case, as it would come before them, much after the manner of
the early French commandants.*
The northwest territory soon became a source of trouble to the
continental congress. Besides the claims of Virginia, New York,
Massachusetts and Connecticut asserted title to portions of it by
virtue of their ancient charters. f These conflicting claims were the
subjects of much discussion and legislative action in the states
named, and by congress as well. Congress, on the 6th of Septem-
ber, 1780, requested the several states "having claims to waste and
unappropriated lands in the western country to cede a portion-
*"The court" was one of high authority, and among the powers it arrogated to
itself was the right of disposing of the pubHc lands. After having granted some
twenty-two thousand acres to private individuals, by orders entered from time to time
upon their records, "the court" partitioned large tracts among themselves; the recip-
ient member would, out of modesty, absent himself from "court" on the day the
entry was made on the journal by his associates in his favor, "so that it might appear
to be the act of his fellows only." Official letter of Gen. Harrison, January 19, 1803.
The evil grew to such proportions that Gen. Harner, in 1787, issued a military order
suppressing it.
t Connecticut, claiming through her charter granted on the 23d of April, 1662, by
King Charles the Second, passed a resolution in 1783, to the effect "That all the land
lying west of the western limits of Pennsylvania and east of the Mississippi, and be-
tween the forty-first and forty-second parallels of latitude," was hers.
260