USA > Illinois > Chapters from Illinois history > Part 16
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23
28 Tonty, 1693, supra, says La Salle departed (from Fort Saint Louis) in the month of September. But Tonty, 1684, says he departed thence in the month of August. And La Salle's letter to Brossard and others at Fort Saint Louis, written after leaving that place on this expedition and a journey of some days, is dated at Chicago, Sep- tember 1, 1683. He probably left the fort about August 26th.
Tonty, 1693, supra.
30 Ibid., and Tonty, 1684, supra.
31 H. W. Beckwith's address to Chicago Bar Association.
32 Tonty, 1693, Margry, i, pp. 613-614. Tonty, 1684, Rel. Ined., p. 22.
33 Rolland evidently was the famous trader of Lachine. See "Lac St. Louis," Girouard, pp. 71-74.
34 Boisrondet was Tonty's comrade in 1680 at the Iroquois invasion and La Salle's commissary at Fort Saint-Louis (see Joutel, in Margry, iii, p. 478).
35 This letter was preserved by Brossard and his descendants for more than two hundred years, until 1895, when it came to sale in Montreal and was purchased by the Chicago Historical Society
36 Tonty, 1684, Margry, i, p. 614.
37 La Salle's Memoir to Seignelay, N. Y. Col. Doc., ix, p. 215; and Extrait du Mémoire, Margry, ii, p. 347. La Barre denied this charge (Margry, ii, pp. 349-350).
38 La Salle's Memoir, supra, p. 214.
39 Margry, ii, pp. 338-344.
208 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY
40 "Ferland's Cours d'Histoire," ii, p. 138, citing Belmont's "His- toire du Canada," p. 16.
41 Margry, ii, p. 343.
42 Tonty, 1693, Rel. Inéd, p. 22.
43 Ibid. Tonty, 1684, Margry, i, p. 614.
# Tonty, 1684, 1693, supra.
45 Lettre du Père Nouvel à La Barre, de la Mission de Saint François Xavier, dans la Baie des Puans. Margry, ii, p. 345. Tonty, 1684, supra.
46 Tonty, 1684, supra.
47 Margry, ii, pp. 344-345.
48 Ibid.
49 Nouvel to La Barre, supra. Tonty, 1684, 1693, supra.
50 Tonty, supra.
51 Tonty, 1693, supra, says it was the 23d, but in a more formal statement (De Baugy, p. 190) he says the 22d.
52 Tonty, 1693, supra.
53 La Salle's letter to Brossard shows that Boisrondet was at this time at the fort.
54 Tonty, 1684, supra.
55 Nicolas de La Salle, Margry, i, p. 570.
56 La Salle to Seignelay, N. Y. Col. Doc., ix, pp. 213-215.
57 Ibid., p. 216.
58 De Baugy, pp. 186-187. For La Barre's campaign against the Iroquois see Kingsford's "Canada," ii, p. 54.
59 Parkman's "La Salle," p. 329. Kingsford's "Canada," ii, p. 120.
6 Parkman's "La Salle," p. 329. Paris Documents, ix, p. 223.
61 N. Y. Col. Doc., ix, pp. 225, 233. Parkman's "La Salle," p. 330. 62 N. Y. Col. Doc., supra.
63 La Forest was at La Rochelle July 17, 1684, when La Salle gave him an obligation there (Margry, ii, p. 418). He arrived in Quebec in time to go in autumn to Fort Frontenac (Tonty, 1693, Rel. Inéd., p. 23).
64 Tonty, 1684, 1693, supra.
65 De Baugy, p. 187.
66 Tonty, 1693, Rel. Inéd., p. 23.
De Baugy, p. 189.
68 Ibid., pp. 189-190.
69 Ibid.
70 Tonty à M. Cabart de Villemont, Aug. 24, 1686, Margry, iii, p. 559.
71 Tonty, 1693, Rel. Inéd., p. 23. Margry, iii, p. 559.
12 Tonty au ministre de la marine, Aug. 24, 1686, Margry, iii, p. 553. Procès Verbal, Tonty, April, 1686, Margry, iii, p. 554. Tonty à M. Cabart de Villemont, supra, p. 560.
209
NOTES
13 Margry, iii, pp. 555, 560. Tonty, 1693, Rel. Inéd., p. 23.
14 Kingsford's "Canada," pp. 46, 58. Tonty, 1693, Rel. Inéd., p. 23.
15 Margry, iii, p. 560. Tonty, 1693, supra, says he learned at Mack- inac that Denonville had relieved La Barre, and by a letter which he did him the honor to write had shown that he desired to see him. He does not say the letter was received there. This Mémoire was not written until 1693, eight years later. In his letter to Cabart de Ville- mont, written in 1686, within a year of the events, Tonty says he had to return to Fort Saint Louis from Mackinac, and search by another route for Rolland, who brought him the Marquis' letter. Yet he seems to have learned at Mackinac of La Salle's need, and of Denon- ville's wish to see Tonty. The language of the text seems to be the reasonable reconciliation of the several statements.
76 Rel. Inédit., p. 23, Margry, iii, p. 560.
77 Franquelin's map, 1684, shows no fort at Chicago. Tonty found one there in December, 1685.
78 Joutel, Margry, iii, p. 500. De Baugy, p. 185.
19 Joutel, Margry, iii, p. 500. Tonty, 1693, Rel. Inéd., p. 23.
80 Lettre de La Salle, 4 Juin, 1683, Margry, ii, p. 317. Tonty, supra.
81 Franquelin's map of 1684, Parkman's "La Salle," p. 289.
82 H. W. Beckwith, Chicago Tribune, Feb. 24, 1895.
83 Treaty of Greenville, Aug. 3, 1795. American State Papers, vol. i, Indian Affairs, p. 562.
84 Margry, iii, pp. 555, 560. Tonty, supra. Paris Documents, ix, p. 273. Denonville to La Forest, June 6, 1686, in Francis Parkman's MS. in Mass. Historical Society.
85 Tonty, 1693, Rel. Inéd., pp. 23-24. Tonty au ministre, Margry, iii, p. 553. Procès Verbal, Margry, iii, pp. 555, 558. "Lac St. Louis," Girouard, pp. 80-81. Tonty à Villemont, Margry, iii, pp. 560-561.
86 French's "La., " p. 68, note.
87 Tonty, supra. Margry, supra.
88 Kingsford's "Canada," ii, pp. 74, 79.
N. Y. Col. Doc., ix, supra.
89 Francis Parkman MS. in Mass. Historical Society.
90 lbid. Lettre de Denonville à La Forest, 6 Juin, 1686.
91 Tonty, 1693, Rel. Inéd., pp. 24, 25, 26.
92 Histoire du Canada, par M. L'Abbé de Belmont, pp. 20-24. Kingsford's "Canada," ii, pp. 79-85.
93 Ibid. Ibid.
94 Tonty, 1693, Rel. Inéd., pp. 26, 27.
96 Parkman's "La Salle," chapter 27, pp. 398-409, note.
96 Joutel, Margry, iii, pp. 407, 436, 439.
210
CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY
97 Ibid., p. 451.
98 Kingsford's "Canada," ii, p. 161.
99 Parkman's "La Salle," p. 341.
100 Kingsford's "Canada," supra.
101 Joutel, supra, pp. 469-473.
102 Joutel, Margry, iii, pp. 473-479. Father Anastasius Douay, Shea's "Le Clercq," pp. 229-282. Joutel does not speak of the Indian Tur- pin, but Douay mentions his tribe and name, supra, p. 275.
103 Joutel, Margry, iii, pp. 479, 490, 494. Douay, in "Le Clercq," ii, p. 276.
104 Joutel, supra, p. 505.
105 Joutel, Margry, iii, pp. 480-481, 484, 487, 489.
106 Ibid., pp. 482, 489, 490, 493, 495-496, 497-499.
107 Mémoire de l'Abbé Jean Cavelier, Margry, iii, pp. 588-589.
108 Tonty à Villemont, Margry, iii, p. 564.
109 Joutel, Margry, iii, pp. 488, 499, 500.
110 La Salle à Tonty, Margry, iii, p. 549. Cavelier de Tonty, Mar-
gry, iii, p. 550.
111 Joutel, Margry, iii, p. 499.
112 Ibid., pp. 499, 500, 507, 508-509, 510-511.
113 Ibid., p. 511.
11+ Ibid., pp. 511, 513.
115 Sulte's "Les Tonty," p. 21.
116 Joutel, Margry, pp. 517-534.
117 Tonty, 1693, Rel. Inéd., pp. 27, 28.
118 "Narrative and Critical History of America," iv, p. 194, La Hon- tan Voyages, Lettre xiv, vol, i, p. 106, edit. à la Haye, 1704.
119 Tonty, 1693, Rel. Inéd., pp. 31-33. Joutel, Margry, iii, pp. 330 and 331. French's "La.," pp. 142-144. Parkman, who has most worthily told the story of his life, pays him this matchless tribute: "It is easy to reckon up his defects, but it is not easy to hide from sight the Roman virtues that redeemed them. Beset by a throng of enemies, he stands, like the king of Israel, head and shoulders above them all. He was a tower of adamant, against whose impregnable front, hardship and danger, the rage of men and the elements, the southern sun, the northern blast, fatigue, famine, and disease, delay, disap- pointment, and deferred hope emptied their quivers in vain. . . . America owes him an enduring memory, for in this masculine figure she sees the pioneer who guided her to her richest heritage."
120 Tonty, supra, p. 36.
121 La Hontan, Lettres xiv, xvi-xvii, vol. i, p. 177, edit. à la Haye, 1704.
122 Ibid., La Hontan, vol. i, p. 177.
211
NOTES
123 For La Hontan's unreliability see Kingsford's "Canada," ii, pp. 59-60, note.
124 N. Y. Col. Doc., ix, p. 276.
125 Ibid., pp. 343-344. Margry, iii, p. 563.
126 Margry, iii, p. 576.
127 Kingsford's "Canada," ii, pp. 198, 200. Quebec Documents, i, p. 466.
ILLINOIS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
I. OLD FORT CHARTRES
The marvelous growth of the Great West obscures all relating to it, save what is of recent date. It has a past and a history, but these are hidden by the throng of mod- ern events. Few realize that the territory of Illinois, which seems but yesterday to have passed from the con- trol of the red man to that of our Republic, was once claimed by Spain, occupied by France, and conquered by England. And fewer still may know that within its boundaries yet remain the ruins of a fortress, in its time the most formidable in America, which filled a large place in the operations of these great powers in the val- ley of the Mississippi. Above the walls of old Fort Char- tres, desolate now, and almost forgotten, have floated, in turn, the flags of two mighty nations, and its story is an epitome of their strife for sovereignty over the New World.
The union of Canada, by a line of forts, with the region of the West and South, was a favorite scheme of the French Crown at an early day. It originated in the active brain of the great explorer, La Salle, whose communica- tions to the ministers of Louis XIV contain the first sug- gestions of such a policy. These military stations were intended to be the centers of colonization for the vast inland territory, and its protection against rival nations. Spain had laid claim to nearly the whole of North Amer-
212
1
ILLINOIS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 213
ica, under the name of Florida, by the right of first dis- covery, and by virtue of a grant from the Pope, who disposed of a continent-which he did not own-with reckless liberality. France relied on the possession taken by La Salle for her title to the Mississippi Valley; and a long altercation ensued. The ordinary state of feeling between their officers may be inferred from a corre- spondence which has come down to us from the early part of the eighteenth century. Bernard de La Harpe estab- lished a French post on the Red River, and this aroused the ire of Don Martin de La Come, the nearest Spanish commandant. Writes the Spaniard: "I am compelled to say that your arrival surprises me very much. Your Gov- ernor could not be ignorant that the post you occupy belongs to my government. I counsel you to give advice of this to him, or you will force me to oblige you to abandon lands that the French have no right to occupy. I have the honor to be, Sir, &c., De La Come." To him replies the courteous Frenchman: "Permit me to inform you that M. de Bienville is perfectly informed of the limits of his government, and is very certain that this post depends not upon the dominions of his catholic majesty. If you will do me the favor to come into this quarter, I will convince you I hold a post I know how to defend. I have the honor to be, Sir, &c., De La Harpe."
Here and elsewhere, the French held their own, and continued to occupy the disputed territory. In the Illi- nois country, the mission villages of Cahokia and Kas- kaskia sprang up and throve apace. From the latter place, as early as 1715, the good father Mermet reported to the Governor of Canada that the encroaching English were building forts near the Ohio and the Mississippi. So the shadow of the coming power of her old enemy was
214
CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY
cast athwart the path of France in the western wilder- ness, while Spain watched her progress there with a jeal- ous eye. And the need of guarding the Illinois settle- ments became more manifest when the discovery of valu- able mines in that locality was announced. Such rumors often repeated, and the actual smelting of lead on the west bank of the Mississippi, had their effect in the mother country. And when the grant of the province of Louisiana to the merchant Crozat, was surrendered, in 1717, John Law's famous Company of the West, after- ward absorbed in that of the Indies, was ready to become his successor, and to dazzle the multitude with the glit- tering lure of the gold and silver of Illinois. The repre- sentatives of this great corporation, in unison with those of the French Crown, recognizing the many reasons for a military post in that far-away region, made haste to found it; and thus Fort Chartres arose. It was estab- lished as a link in the great chain of strongholds, which was to stretch from the St. Lawrence to the Gulf, realiz- ing the dream of La Salle; a bulwark against Spain and a barrier to England; a protector of the infant colony, and of the church which planted it; a center for trade, and for the operation of the far-famed mines; and as the chief seat in the New World of the Royal Company of the Indies, which wove a spell so potent that its victims saw, in the near future, crowded cities all along the course of the Mississippi, and stately argosies afloat upon its waters, one hundred and fifty years ago.
On the 9th of February, 1718, there arrived at Mobile, by ship, from France, Pierre Duqué Boisbriant, a Cana- dian gentleman, with the commission of Commandant at the Illinois. He was a cousin of Bienville, then Gov- ernor of Louisiana, and had already served under him in
ILLINOIS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 215
that province. In October, of the same year, accompa- nied by several officers and a detachment of troops, he departed for the Illinois country, where he was ordered to construct a fort. The little flotilla, stemming the swift current of the Mississippi, moved slowly on its way, encountering no enemies more troublesome than "the mosquitoes, which," says the worthy priest Poisson, who took the same journey shortly after, "have caused more swearing since the French have been here, than had pre- viously taken place in all the rest of the world." Late in the year Boisbriant reached Kaskaskia, and selected a site for his post sixteen miles above that village, on the left bank of the Mississippi. Merrily rang the axes of the soldiers in the forest by the mighty river, as they hewed out the ponderous timbers for palisade and bastion. And by degrees the walls arose, and the barracks and com- mandant's house, and the storehouse and great hall of the India Company were built, and the cannon, bearing the insignia of Louis XIV, were placed in position. In the spring of 1720 all was finished, the banner of France was given to the breeze, and the work was named Fort Chartres. An early governor of the State of Illinois, who wrote its pioneer history, has gravely stated that this fort was so called because it had a charter from the Crown of France for its erection. But it is feared that the same wag who persuaded an Illinois legislature to name the second capital of the State Vandalia, by reason of the alleged traces of a tribe of Indians named the Vandals in the neighborhood of the site, also victimized a governor. We can hardly accept his derivation, when it seems so much more probable that the name was taken, by way of compliment to the then Regent, from the title of his son, the Duc de Chartres, for whom, about this time, streets
216 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY
were named in New Orleans and Kaskaskia, which are still thus designated.
The first important arrival at the new post was that of Philippe François Renault, formerly a banker in Paris, the director-general of the mines of the India Company, who reached Fort Chartres before its completion, and made his headquarters there. He brought with him 250 miners and soldiers, and also a large number of slaves from St. Domingo. This was the beginning of negro slavery in Illinois. The practice of enslaving Indian captives was already in vogue, but from this time on the records of the French settlements there speak of both black slaves and red slaves. The fort was finished not at all too soon. The tardy Spaniards had at last decided to strike a blow at their neighbor on the Mississippi, and Boisbriant hardly had everything in readiness when news reached him of the march of a force from Mexico against his stronghold. But this invasion was repelled by the natives on the route, and all concerned in it were slain, except the chaplain of the expedition, who was taken prisoner by the Pawnees. He finally escaped in a dexterous manner. While delighting the Indians with feats of horsemanship he gradually withdrew to a distance, and described a final elaborate figure which had no return curve. Two Indian chiefs, who displayed as trophies a Catalonian pistol and a pair of Spanish shoes, gave this account to Father Charlevoix, at Green Bay.
This pleasant old traveler was then making the jour- ney through North America, of which he has left such a charming account. On the 9th of October, 1721, he passed Fort Chartres, which stood a musket-shot from the river, as he tells us, and he further says, "M. Duqué de Boisbriant commands here for the Company to whom
ILLINOIS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 217
the place belongs. The French are now beginning to settle the country between this Fort and Kaskaskia." The leader of Charlevoix' escort was a young Canadian officer, Jean St. Ange de Belle Rive, destined in later years to have a closer acquaintance with Fort Chartres than this passing glimpse of its newly-built walls and structures afforded him. He hardly anticipated then that to him would come the honor of commanding it, and that on him, almost half a century later, would fall the sad duty of finally lowering there his country's flag, which waved so proudly above it on that autumn morning.
No sooner was the fort erected than a village began to grow up at its gates, in which the watchful Jesuits forth- with established the parish of St. Anne de Fort Char- tres. All that remains of the records of this parish is in the writer's possession. They begin with an ancient document, tattered and worn, written in Quebec, in the year 1716. It is a copy of a curious decree of Louis XV, promulgated in the same year, which seems to be some- thing in the nature of a manual of church etiquette. Reciting that His Majesty has considered all the ordi- nances on the subject of honors in the churches of New France, and wishes to put an end to all the contests on the subject, it proceeds to regulate the whole matter. Twelve articles provide that the Governor-General and the Intendant shall each have a prie Dieu in the cathedrals of Quebec and Montreal, the Governor-General on the right, the Intendant on the left; the commander of the troops shall have a seat behind the Governor-General; in church processions the Governor-General shall march at the head of the council, his guards in front, the Intendant to the left and behind the council, and the chief notary, first
218 CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY
usher, and captain of the guard, with the Governor-Gen- eral, yet behind him, but not on the same line with the council; and similar minute directions cover all contin- gencies. In all other churches of New France, the same rules of precedence are to be observed according to the rank of those in attendance. Doubtless copies of this important decree were kept in readiness, that one might be furnished to each new church at its establishment. And probably the one from which we quote was sent from Quebec to Ste. Anne of Fort Chartres some time in 1721, the year in which the first entries seem to have been made in the parish registers. We may presume that Boisbriant followed its instructions strictly, and took care to be on the right hand in the church, and also that the Intendant or civil officer should be on the left. That position was filled by Marc Antoine de La Loire des Ursins, principal director for the Company of the Indies. These two, together with Michel Chassin, commissary for the Company, formed the Provincial Council of the Illinois, and speedily made Fort Chartres the center of the civil government of the colony. To this council applications for land were made, and its members exe- cuted the grants upon which many titles rest to this day. Boisbriant, doubtless believing that he that provideth not for his own household is worse than an infidel, had a large tract conveyed to himself, beginning at the little hill behind the fort. He and his associates dispensed justice, regulated titles, and administered estates, and, in fact, established the court, which, for more than forty years, decided the cases which arose in the Illinois country, according to the civil law. Their largest land grant was made in 1723, to M. Renault, and comprised a tract west of the Mississippi, another, fifteen leagues
ILLINOIS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 219
square, near the site of Peoria, and another above Fort Chartres, one league along the river and two leagues deep, the latter to raise provisions for his settlements among the mines. Of this last tract, a large part was never sold by Renault, and to this day the unconveyed portion is marked upon the maps of Monroe County, Illinois, as the property of the Philip Renault heirs.
About this time word came to the fort that the faithful allies of the French, the Illinois Indians, who dwelt about Peoria Lake, and the Rock of St. Louis, now called Starved Rock, were hard pressed by their ancient ene- mies, the Foxes. Boisbriant sent a force to their relief which arrived at the close of a contest, in which the Foxes were defeated, but so greatly had the Illinois suffered that they returned with the French to the shelter of the fort, leaving the route to the settlements from the north unprotected. In the year 1725 Bienville, the Gov- ernor of Louisiana, was summoned to France, and Com- mandant Boisbriant became acting Governor in his stead, with headquarters at New Orleans. His old position was filled by M. De Siette, a captain in the royal army. In the parish register in his administration appears the bap- tism of a female savage of the Padoucah nation, by the chaplain at the fort, who records with great satisfaction that he performed the ceremony, and gave her the name of Thérèse, but does not say whether she consented, or what she thought about it. She apparently paid a casual visit to the fort, and he baptized her at a venture, and made haste to write down another convert. The Fox Indians were a thorn in the side of De Siette. The way by the Illinois River was now open to them, and their war parties swooped upon the settlers, murdering them in their fields, even within a few miles of the fort. In
220
CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY
great wrath, De Siette opened a correspondence on the subject with De Lignerie, the French commandant at Green Bay, and proposed that the Fox tribe should be exterminated at once. The calmer De Lignerie replies in substance that this would be the best possible expedi- ent, provided the Foxes do not exterminate them in the attempt. And he suggests a postponement of hostilities until De Siette and himself could meet "at Chickagau or the Rock," and better concert their plans. But soon the French authorities adopted the views of the commandant at the Illinois, and the Marquis de Beauharnois, grand- father of the first husband of the Empress Josephine, then commanding in Canada, notified him to join the Canadian forces at Green Bay, in 1728, to make war upon the Foxes. A battle ensued, in which the Illinois Indians, headed by the French, were victorious. But hostilities continued until De Siette's successor, by a masterly piece of strategy, waylaid and destroyed so many of the persistent foemen that peace reigned for a time.
This officer, M. de St. Ange de Belle Rive, who, as we have seen, first visited the Illinois country with Father Charlevoix, had since been stationed there, and made it his home, for the ancient title records of this region show that in 1729 he purchased a house in the prairie bounding on one side the road leading to Fort Chartres. And in an old package of stained and moldering papers, but lately disinterred from the dust of at least one century, is the original petition addressed by St. Ange to the proper authorities for the confirmation of his title to cer- tain land, not far from the fort, acquired "from a savage named Chicago, who is contented and satisfied with the payment made to him." During his term of office, in
221
ILLINOIS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
1731, the Royal India Company surrendered its charter to the Crown, which thenceforward had the exclusive government of the country. A few years before, the French warfare with the Natchez Indians, that strange tribe of sun-worshipers, probably of the Aztec race, had resulted in the dispersion of the natives, some of whom joined the Chickasaws, who, under English influence, kept up the strife. A young officer, Pierre d'Artagui- ette, distinguished himself so greatly in the Natchez war that he was appointed to the Illinois district in 1734, taking the place of St. Ange, who was transferred to another post. The new commander was a younger brother of Diron d'Artaguiette, a man very prominent in the early history of Louisiana, and his family connec- tions, his services and virtues, his brilliant career and untimely death, have surrounded his name with a halo of romance. With pride and pleasure he received his promotion to the rank of major, and his orders to take command at Fort Chartres. For two years he ruled his province well, and then the summons to the field came to him again. Bienville had resumed the governorship and resolved to crush the Chickasaws. In preparation for the campaign he strengthened all the posts, that they might better spare a part of their garrisons for active work. De Coulanges, an officer sent to Fort Chartres with a supply of ammunition, disobeyed orders, transport- ing merchandise instead, leaving the powder at the Arkansas. A party of D'Artaguiette's men going after it was routed by the Chickasaws. "For this," Bienville says, "I have ordered D'Artaguiette to imprison De Coulanges for six months in Fort Chartres. I hope this example will moderate the avidity for gain of some of our officers." When everything was in readiness, D'Ar-
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.