USA > Illinois > Chapters from Illinois history > Part 13
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When Tonty returned to Fort St. Louis in December he sent out trusty messengers among the Illinois tribes to bid them rendezvous at his post in good season in the spring for the long march to the country of the Iroquois. They joyfully complied and early in April, 1687, the lodges of the war parties arose on the prairie near the fort. Tonty welcomed his allies with appropriate cere- monies including a dog feast which gave much satisfac-
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tion, and announced to the warriors that the great King beyond the ocean, and his servant at Quebec, Onontio, desired them to go on the war path against the children of the Long House. They heard him with clamorous delight, and one and all decked themselves for the fray and performed their war dance. La Forest had already departed with thirty Frenchmen in canoes, arranging to meet Tonty on the strait between Lakes Huron and Erie at the end of May. Tonty left twenty of his men in the fort with Sieur de Bellefontaine in command, and set forth on April 17th, having with him sixteen Frenchmen and a Miami guide. He made his first encampment but a mile away and awaited there his savage companions. Fifty Shawanoes, four Mohegans and seven Miamis joined him the first night and the next day more than three hundred Illinois warriors came up, but only one hundred and forty-nine of them were willing to go further. The little army marched on foot across what is now northern Indiana and southern Michigan, and on May 19th went into camp on the strait leading to Lake Erie near a little stockade called by them Fort Detroit. While they were making canoes of elm bark, Tonty sent a messenger to Fort St. Joseph, as Duluth's new post was called. The second in command, Beauvais de Tilly, soon appeared and was followed by La Forest, Durantaye and Duluth with their respective detachments. As they disembarked, Tonty formed his Frenchmen and savages in two rows, between which the new comers marched and exchanged salutes with the soldiers from the distant land of the Illinois. The combined forces numbered one hundred and eighty Frenchmen and four hundred Indians and now launched their canoes on Lake Erie to go to join the troops from the St. Lawrence.
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The expedition landed on the Niagara River and estab- lished itself below the portage, where a stockade was built, while advices were awaited from Denonville then at Fort Frontenac. La Forest went in a swift canoe, to report to him, and returned with orders to meet the main body on July roth at Irondequoit Bay on the south shore of Lake Ontario.1 The Governor led a force of about two thousand French regulars, militia and Indians who crossed the lake in barques and canoes. And as these approached the bay on the evening of the appointed day the western forces were seen plying their paddles along the lake. This well timed junction aroused the greatest enthusiasm among all of the troops as they disembarked together. "Never," says a contemporary writer, "has Canada seen, and never will it see, a spectacle like to this ; the three barques moored vis-à-vis to the camp, in which in one quarter were the regular troops of France, with the court of the Governor-General; in another the four battalions of the Canadian soldiery commanded by the chief men of the country; in a third the Christian Indians from the missions near the settlements; and in the remaining space a tumultuous crowd of untamed savages of different tribes, almost naked, undisciplined, their bodies painted with all sorts of figures, wearing horns on their heads and tails at their backs, armed with bows and arrows and keeping up an endless chatter the live- long night, with songs and dances of every kind." 92 M. de Vaudreuil, who had brought the royal troops from France acted as Chief of Staff to the Marquis de Denon- ville; M. de Callières commanded the regulars, and Sidrac Dugué the militia, with Berthier, de La Valterye, Granville, and Le Moyne de Longueuil as battalion officers, and Sainte Hélène, another scion of the famous
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family of Le Moyne, ruled the three hundred Christian Indians. Very prominent were the three captains from the west, Tonty, Duluth and Durantaye, and very pic- turesque were their motley companies of bold wood rangers and wild Indian warriors. Tonty occupied a defensive position with his band of French and Illinois, while a fort was built at the bay to protect the line of communication. On July 12th the whole army moved towards the Seneca villages, with the three western captains and their men in the van. Two dangerous defiles were passed without attack, but as the line was crossing a little stream and ascending a wooded ridge beyond, the war cries of the Senecas were heard and five hundred of their warriors fell upon the advance. Most of the western Indians fled at the first discharge and left exposed the flanks of Tonty's detachment which was at the immediate front. But the Frenchmen held their ground, and those tried soldiers, Duluth and Dur- antaye ably supported their comrade Tonty. In the hot fight which ensued Tonty's lieutenant and two of his men were slain, and the army lost five white men and six Indians in all, while eleven were wounded including the Jesuit Father Engelran. The main body came up led by Denonville in his shirt sleeves, sword in hand, shouting orders to fire constantly and beat the drums, the sound of which was more terrifying to the savages than even the roll of musketry. The baffled Senecas, losing heart and seeing themselves outnumbered, fled the field, leaving twenty-seven dead behind, and fourteen others were over- taken and scalped by the French Indians. The steady courage of the men of the West saved the day. Denon- ville, in his dispatches, praises most highly the conduct of the three captains and their French followers. Duran-
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taye received a commission in one of the regular regi- ments, and Duluth and Tonty and La Forest as well were specially recommended to the home government for reward. A week was spent in destroying the crops and villages of the Senecas, and while this work was going on seven Illinois warriors arrived, armed with bows and arrows, who had made the long journey on foot from their distant land to take part in the fray.93 Denonville withdrew to the coast, and his forces returned to their respective homes. Tonty and Duluth, accompanied by the Baron La Hontan, a picturesque figure in these early annals, and later an alleged visitor to the Illinois region, proceeded to Duluth's Fort St. Joseph, of which La Hon- tan was now put in command. Thence Father Jacques Gravier, thereafter to be closely associated with the land of the Illinois, went with Tonty to Mackinac. From this point the latter and his Frenchmen set out in their canoes for Fort St. Louis, their Indian companions having returned by the land route.94
While Tonty and his comrades were merrily pursuing their homeward way, rejoicing in the victory and the honors they had won, a melancholy company were slowly approaching Fort St. Louis from the opposite direction.
La Salle lay dead in the wilderness on the bank of one of the branches of the stream now known as the Trinity River, in the State of Texas. 95 His vast plans had all been thwarted by a complication of disasters, and he met his death at an assassin's hand on the 19th day of March in the year 1687. His few companions had escaped with difficulty from his murderers, and made the desperate attempt to find their way to the Mississippi and so to the Illinois. One of their number was drowned while bath- ing, and the six others, after a toilsome two months'
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journey, emerged from the forest upon the bank of the Arkansas River. On the other shore, to their inexpres- sible delight, they saw a great cross, and near it a house built after the French fashion. It was the settlement made by six of Tonty's men on his return from his last journey to the sea, four of whom had since gone to the Illinois region, and the wayfarers were most heartily welcomed by the remaining two. These were Couture and Delaunay, both natives of Rouen, who heard with exceeding sorrow of the untoward fate of their former leader and fellow townsman. 96 One of the travelers cast in his lot with Tonty's men, and the remaining five departed on July 27th to ascend the Mississippi.97 These were the Abbé Cavelier, La Salle's elder brother, his nephew, young Cavelier, Father Anastase Douay, of the Récollet order, Teissier, a mariner, and Henri de Joutel. 98 The latter was a native of Rouen, son of a gardener, who had been employed by La Salle's uncle. He had served sixteen years in the French army, and had volunteered in La Salle's last expedition, of which he has left us a very full and well written account.99 When this expedition set forth from France in 1684 it comprised one hundred and seventy-three men, besides some women and children. The only fragments of the organization which remained were barely twenty people at La Salle's new fort on the Texas coast, a single soldier at the Arkansas, and this forlorn band of five persons now seeking refuge at Fort St. Louis. 100
On August 19th they passed the mouth of the Ohio River, of which Joutel says it is a very beautiful stream, with very clear water and a very gentle current. To it their Indian guide whom they had secured at a village on the Mississippi offered sacrifices of tobacco and broiled
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meat placed on forked sticks on its banks to be disposed of as the river might think fit. As they skirted the Illi- nois shore of the Mississippi they found the country diversified with hillocks covered with oak and walnut groves. There was great store of plums and of fruits whose names they did not know, and an abundance of buffalo and other game. September Ist they saw on their left the muddy waters of the headlong Missouri, to which also their Indians made offerings, and the next day arrived at the place where were the paintings of the monsters described by Marquette, as Joutel supposed. But as he speaks of these as two wretched figures drawn in red on the flat side of a rock ten or twelve feet high, it is evident that he could not have seen those mentioned by Marquette. Poor as these were, the superstitious natives paid homage to them also, despite Joutel's remon- strances, to which they replied that they should die, if they did not perform this duty. On the 3d, the party left the Mississippi to enter the River of the Illinois.101 Its gentle current and beautiful shores were very agreeable to them, and they made good progress except when they attempted to follow some directions given them by Cou- ture, and missed the channel. Passing many abandoned Indian camps and the landmark of the two isolated and rounded hills to which the voyageurs had given the name of Les Deux Mamelles, they came on the 11th to Lake Pimiteoui. Signs that a band of natives was just in advance of them were observed, and on the 13th several were seen on the river bank. One came to reconnoitre, and upon learning that the strangers were La Salle's men, great delight was shown and salutes of musketry were interchanged. The savages, upon being asked of what nation they were, replied that they were Illinois of
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the Kaskaskia tribe. They also informed the Frenchmen that Tonty had not yet returned from the Iroquois war. The next day, as they neared their goal, other natives appeared on the shore, to whom the travelers repeatedly called that they were of the people of La Salle. At length the magic name was recognized, and a swift run- ner of the Shawanoe tribe called Turpin sped away to carry the news to Fort St. Louis, which loomed in the distance, above the valley.
The breathless messenger, understanding that La Salle himself was of the party, so announced at the gateway. Quickly a Frenchman was seen descending the steep path amid a throng of Indians, who were firing their pieces in welcome. He uttered friendly greetings as he drew near, and joined with the natives in inviting them to land. They did so, leaving one man to guard the canoe, and their dusky hosts presented them with dried pumpkins, water melons, corn and bread. Then with their tumul- tuous escort they walked towards the fort, whence other Frenchmen, one of whom was Boisrondet, came to meet them. These all embraced them, and with one voice inquired for La Salle. Cavelier had agreed with his associates to conceal his brother's death, pretending this to be necessary to control the Indians, but really for his own advantage as the representative of the absent chief. He therefore replied that La Salle had come part of the way with them, and was in good health when they parted, and had instructed them to proceed in advance to France to report his discoveries. His companions acquiesced in this deception, which was readily accepted as the truth by the inquirers who joined the throng which accompanied the newcomers to the fort. Here they found the Sieur de Bellefontaine, Tonty's lieutenant, and
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commanding in his absence, at the head of his garrison paraded under arms, who had received them with salvos of musketry and every sign of rejoicing. 102
As soon as the wayfarers entered, the Abbé Cavelier asked for the chapel, and led the way thither to return thanks to God for their marvelous preservation. A Te Deum was chanted within the rude walls, while volleys were fired without. The worshipers performed their devotions with uneasy consciences, for they realized that such enthusiasm would make it easy to send aid forthwith to La Salle's miserable colonists on the gulf. But now their falsehood had sealed their lips and obliged them to delay the much-needed succor until they could reach France. They went next to the building in which were the officers' quarters, and while they were there made at home, bands of savages came in quick succession to dis- charge their pieces at the door in token of their joy at the news from La Salle. Bellefontaine gave the Abbé an apartment by himself, and Father Douay, Joutel and the rest were lodged in the great storeroom of merchandise and peltries of which Boisrondet had charge. The fort appeared much as at the time of its erection four years before. The palisades and wooden redoubts surrounding the acre and a half on the summit of the rock, the log houses and the lighter picket structures, and the four great beams from which water could be drawn to the top of the cliff in case of siege, were all noted by the trained eye of the soldier Joutel. A number of huts had also been erected within the walls of the fort by the savages, who took refuge there at the approach of an Iroquois invading force. 103 And in one part of the enclosure was a striking illustration of the burial customs of the Illinois and of their reverence for their mighty dead. In a sort
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of wooden coffin supported upon four posts were the bones of one whom they described as that ruler of their nation who had welcomed La Salle to that land and made him a present of it, and recognized him as the father of that people. 104 This must have been the great chief Chas- sagoac, with whom La Salle had the remarkable confer- ence at the old Indian village six leagues above the site of Fort St. Louis, on his way from Crèvecœur to Fronte- nac in the spring of 1680. It seemed as if the tribe held Chassagoac in such reverence as to take special care that his remains should not be desecrated by such outrages as the Iroquois had committed in their terrible invasion, and so had brought these to sleep undisturbed within the white man's stronghold.
In one of the apartments of the fort there lay ill La Salle's old opponent, the Jesuit Father Allouez. He manifested great alarm upon the arrival of Cavelier's party understanding at first that La Salle was with them. When the priests and Joutel came to call upon him he inquired concerning their leader, and was told that when La Salle left them he intended to come to the Illinois country and might be there in a little time. Allouez heard the news with much agitation, and began at once to plan, as on other occasions, to depart before La Salle's arrival. Cavelier was impatient to be off that he might reach Quebec in season to sail for France that year, and tarried but three days at Fort St. Louis. He made the acquaintance of the chiefs of the Kaskaskia and Peoria tribes who were established there, of the Shawanoes who had dwelt in the neighborhood since they came at La Salle's invitation in 1683, and of the Miamis who were encamped a league or more up the river upon the eleva- tion now known as Buffalo Rock. The fortunate arrival
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of three voyageurs from Mackinac, who were willing to act as their guides and canoemen thither, enabled the five Frenchmen who had traveled all the way from the Texas coast to resume their adventurous journey on September 18, 1687. Accompanied by a dozen savages detailed by the chief of the Shawanocs to carry their provisions and peltries, they made such expedition, considering the shal- lowness of the river, that in a week's time they arrived at the place called Checagou. Joutel carefully records, and this is probably the earliest definition of the word, establishing its meaning beyond all doubt, that it takes this name from the quantity of garlic which grows in the woods in this locality. He describes the portage, the streams on either side, and the other natural features so minutely that there can be no question but that the place referred to is the site of the great city of to-day. Here they were storm-stayed for eight days, and, when at length they embarked on Lake Michigan, waves as large as those of the ocean, and fear of a scarcity of provisions com- pelled them to return to the entrance of the River of Che- cagou. At this point they made a cache of their goods, peltries and ammunition, built a platform on which they left the canoe since low water made the streams unnavi- gable, and set out on foot for Fort St. Louis, where they appeared again on October 7th, to the great surprise of the garrison, who had believed them to be far on their way to Montreal. 105
Some of Tonty's Indian cohorts had already reached the fort, bringing tidings of the attack upon the Five Nations, and on the 27th of October the "man with the iron arm" himself appeared with his soldier comrades, among whom was one of his cousins, Greysolon de La Tourette, a younger brother of the famous Greysolon
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Duluth. Tonty gave Cavelier's party a cordial greet- ing, and listened with absorbing interest to their accounts of La Salle's ill-starred expedition and their own experi- ences. They concealed from him also the death of La Salle, having agreed not to speak of this until they were in France. Tonty, at their request, gave them a sketch of what had taken place in the recent campaign, including the capture of English trading parties on Lakes Huron and Erie, who were on their way to make an establish- ment in the Illinois country. During the autumn La Forest came again to Fort St. Louis, to pass the winter with his fellow captain in the Iroquois war. December 20th two Frenchmen arrived at the post and reported that they had left at Checagou three canoes loaded with merchandise and ammunition which the canoemen, who had brought them from Montreal, could not proceed further with, because of ice in the river. Tonty at once arranged with the chief of the Shawanoes to send thirty of his people to bring these supplies to the fort. Joutel says they employed this tribe because of their fidelity, and that they could go among the whites and through the storehouse without anything being missed. The Illinois, on the contrary, he says, are naturally rogues, and it is very necessary to keep watch of their feet as well as their hands when anything is within reach of either. One of the two men who brought advices of the canoes at Chi- cago was the Sieur Juchereau de Saint Denis, a distin- guished Canadian, Durantaye's second in command at Mackinac, whom Tonty as he passed that station on his homeward voyage had invited to make him a visit at the Illinois to enjoy the good hunting there. Game was abundant well through the winter, and in good condition as there were plenteous supplies of nuts and acorns for
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food. Merry companies sallied forth upon the frozen river at daybreak, drawing light sledges which they brought back to the fort at nightfall laden with deer.106 "Of our living," says the chronicler, "there was no com- plaint to make, except that we had nothing but water to drink." The winter passed swiftly with hunting parties by day and pleasant gatherings at night around cheery log fires in the snug quarters of the fort. Within, soldier and priest, trapper and native, mingled together and related tales of foray and ambuscade, of stormy ocean voyages and weary journeys through the wilderness. Without, the snow lay deep on all the land of the Illinois, and the nearest white men were at the little mission at the head of the distant Green Bay. There was occasional excitement, moreover, at the departure and return of the savage war parties which kept up the contest with the bloodthirsty Iroquois. In the month of January alone the Abbé Cavelier saw thirteen such expeditions of Illi- nois Indians set out from Fort St. Louis, two of forty and eleven of twenty warriors each, or three hundred in all. The Miamis put in the field one band of eighty and sev- eral smaller ones, while the Shawanoes sent several num- bering one hundred and fifty in all. One at least of the Illinois parties returned to the fort with Iroquois pris- oners of whom six were made slaves, and six were burned at the stake. During that winter and spring the Illinois furnished tangible proofs, presumably scalps, that they had put to death two hundred and forty persons among the Iroquois in their own land.107 Tonty relates that the Five Nations attempted to make reprisals, but were val- iantly withstood by the Illinois, who had greatly improved in the art of war under French guidance and so harried the Senecas that this tribe was obliged to remain in its
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villages all winter and refrain from raids upon the Canadian settlements. Furthermore, he says, "our Illi- nois have captured and brought to Fort St. Louis eighty Iroquois slaves." And he adds with a ferocious exultation which we regret to see in him, but for which his times were in a measure responsible, "we have made a good broiling of them." 108
Apprehension lest some of the men at the Arkansas settlement should come to Fort St. Louis and reveal the truth concerning La Salle, spurred Cavelier to as early a departure as the season permitted. But his anxiety was surpassed by that of Allouez, who set out a week or more before him.109 One feared the arrival of the living La Salle, the other the receipt of the news of his death. Cavelier produced an order which La Salle had given him when his return to France by way of Canada was first planned, directing Tonty to give Cavelier what he needed for the expenses of the party, and 2,652 livres in payment of La Salle's indebtedness to his brother.110 The unsus- picious Tonty honored the draft, never dreaming that the maker was no longer in the land of the living, and gave Cavelier four thousand livres in beaver, and a canoe .* 11 Thus provided, the unscrupulous priest made ready to resume his course, with his five associates and five sav- ages whom he added to his party. Of these two were Illinois, two Shawanoes, and the fifth a young captive from one of the Missouri River tribes who had been given to La Salle. "This one," says Joutel, "had learned to speak French and had been baptized, but he was no better Christian for all of that." Boisrondet, who had concluded to go to France, and Juchereau, who wished to return to his post at Mackinac, joined the departing com- pany, who bade farewell to Fort St. Louis on March 21,
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1688. It was doubtless a grief to Tonty to part with Boisrondet, the tried comrade who had been faithful among the faitliless in the Crèvecœur mutiny, and brav- est of the brave at the time of the Iroquois invasion. This loyal and gallant soul deserves honorable remem- brance among the pioneers of Illinois.
A hard journey of eight days, during which they were often compelled to wade in icy water over the rocky bot- tom of the stream, drawing the heavy canoes by main force against the current, brought the travelers to Chi- cago. Joutel pushed on in advance to the cache by the lake shore, and found some articles abstracted, as he believed, by a Frenchman who had been sent there dur- ing the winter by Tonty to see whether any canoes had arrived or savages gathered at this place. The garrison of Fort Checagou had apparently been withdrawn to take part in the Iroquois campaign of 1687, and the buildings of the post were occupied only by occasional parties of Indians. Severe weather delayed Cavelier and his com- panions here until April 8th, and their hunting yielded but little game. They eked out their scanty larder with a species of manna which they thought Providence had provided to make their Indian corn more palatable. This was the sap of the maple tree abounding in the vicinity, boiled into sugar, which seemed to be almost as good as that bought in France. Great quantities of garlic and of another herb like the chervil were also gathered and found very good. 112 The observant Joutel describes the situation of the place called Checagou, and its river, formed by the water flowing from a prairie, which, he says, discharges into the lake, as well as the stream flow- ing from the other side of that prairie which goes to join the Illinois River; so that, whether one is descending or
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