History of Chicago. From the earliest period to the present time, Part 15

Author: Andreas, Alfred Theodore
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago, A. T. Andreas
Number of Pages: 1340

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heavily laden canoes, and proceeded south along the Wisconsin shore of Lake Michigan. They passed the mouth of the Chicago River, and, coasting the south- ern shore of the lake, reached the mouth of the St. Joseph, which LaSalle calls "the river of the Miamis," on the ist day of November, 1679. Here they expected to meet Tonty, whom they had left at Michilimack- inac to arrange some affairs of LaSalle's, and who was to make his way to St. Joseph by the eastern shore of the lake. LaSalle remained at the mouth of the river twenty days before Tonty arrived, and during that time his men nearly completed a fort, which was called the "Fort of Miamis." After the arrival of Tonty, La- Salle still lingered at the St. Joseph, hoping and wait- ing for the appearance of the " Griffin." Finally, yield- ing to the importunities of his men, he started for the Illinois River, sending two of his followers back to Michilimackinac to gain tidings of the vessel, and leav- ing four in charge of the fort. On the 3d of Decem- ber, 1679, the party ( thirty-three in all ) embarked on the St. Joseph in eight canoes,and ascended the river to where now is the village of South Bend, Indiana. After a long search for the portage leading to the Kankakee, then called Theakiki, and which was about four miles in length, they finally reached the place. Shouldering their canoes and luggage, they traversed this frozen plain and embarked on the southern branch of the Illi- nois. Descending the gradually widening river, they passed the Indian village where Marquette and Allouez had already preached to the inhabitants, but which was now deserted, the savages having departed to their hunting-grounds. On the 4th of January, 1680, they reached the Indian camp, a short distance below Peoria Lake, then called Pimitouai. This encampment of Illi- nois consisted of about eighty wigwams. LaSalle first terrified the Indians, and then succeeded in establish- ing the most friendly relations with them. The French- men were invited to partake of the usual feasts and festivities. On explaining to them his purpose to build a boat to descend the Mississippi to the sea their jealousy awoke, and was fanned by the repre- sentations of a Mascoutin chief wh , visited the camp. The tales told by the Indians of the horrors and perils to be encountered on the Mississippi, finally so wrought on the fears of LaSalle's followers that six de- serted him utterly, and dissatisfaction and even mutiny were rife among those who remained. Tonty and a few others continued faithful, but it was dangerous to remain at the Indian camp, and LaSalle resolved to fortify him- self in a position where he could resist successfully an attack of hostile Indians, if such should be made. About the middle of January he selected a spot for a fort on the southern bank of the Illinois River, about a mile and a half below the Indian encampment. The fort was completed and christened Crevecœur .* It was enclosed by a palisade twenty-five feet high, within which were the huts of the men, and the cabins of LaSalle, Tonty and the friars LaSalle had ere this almost given up hope of the return of the "Griffin," which was to bring to him, at the head of Lake Michigan, many articles needed for the construction of another vessel on the Illi- nois River. Determined not to fail in his design. La- Salle concluded to return on foot to Fort Frontenac for the needed supplies. The vessel was commenced at Fort Crevecoeur, and the work so hurried on by LaSalle and Tonty that in the course of six weeks the hull was nearly finished, and LaSalle started, on the ed of March. 1680, with five attendants, for Fort Frontenac, leaving Tonty in command of the fort, with a garrison of four-

*Broken Heart.

EARLY EXPLORATIONS.

teen or fifteen men. LaSalle and his men embarked in two canoes, but made slow progress. They were obliged to drag the canoes over the half-frozen ice and snow through the woods and marshes-the river being frozen sufficiently to stop their progress, but not strong enough to bear their weight. They passed the deserted village of Kaskaskia, now the site of Utica, and about a mile and a half above the village LaSalle's attention was ar- rested by the high cliff of yellow sandstone on the south bank of the river, now called Starved Rock. Knowing by this time the precarious tenure of his footing in the country, and the remarkable advantages of the cliff as a fortress, he sent word to Tonty to retreat to it if neces- sary and there fortify himself. On the 18th of March the party reached a point some miles below the site of Joliet, and there secreting their canoes, struck across the country for the fort at St. Joseph. Wading through marshes, and staggering over the half-frozen, half-thawed ground of the prairie, fording streams when they could, and constructing rafts when they were forced to do so, they at last reached Lake Michigan, and follow- ing its shores arrived, on the night of the 24th, at the fort, which had been built the autumn before at the mouth of the St. Joseph. Here LaSalle found two of his men whom he had sent to Michilimackinac to learn tidings of the " Griffin," and who had returned without gaining the slightest clue to her fate. Sending these two men to re- enforce Tonty, he pushed on through the wilderness and reached Fort Frontenac on the 6th of May, 1680; en- during the hardships and exposure of this journey of sixty-five days, through an utterly wild and savage country, with undaunted courage and resolution. He wasted no time at Fort Frontenac, but hastened on to Montreal to procure the needed supplies for his post on the Illinois River. While LaSalle was thus braving and daring every danger for the accomplishment of his pur- pose, and looking to his return to the Illinois as the final step to be taken before he should be fairly em- barked on his long delayed voyage, the hardest blow he had yet received fell upon him. Fort Crevecœur was destroyed. During a brief absence of Tonty, its faith- ful commander, nearly all the garrison deserted ; having first plundered and then destroyed the fort. The faith- less men, not satisfied with their work of evil at Creve- cœur, returned to Canada by way of the St. Joseph River, and also destroyed Fort Miamis, whence they pro- ceeded toward Fort Frontenac with the intention of murdering LaSalle, but were captured by the latter be- . fore they reached their destination, and carried prisoners to the fort. Anxious for the fate of Tonty and his few remaining men, LaSalle hastened his preparations, and on the ioth of August embarked at Fort Frontenac, . with a new command of twenty-five men, for the Illinois. He reached Michilimackinac by way of Lake Simcoe and the Georgian Bay, and leaving there La Forest, his lieutenant, with a small command and instructions to follow him speedily, hastened forward with twelve men to the St. Joseph River, where he found, as he anticipated, only the ruins of his fort. At St. Joseph he again divided his force. Leaving five men to rebuild Fort Miamis, and await the arrival of La Forest and the remainder of his party. he set out with seven followers for the Illinois, ar- riving at his destination by the same route he had trav- ersed on his first visit to the river. As he approached the site of the old Kaskaskia village, he looked with hope to the high cliff on the south bank of the river, which he had named the " Rock of St. Louis,"* half ex- pecting that Tonty had taken refuge there, according to the instruccions he had sent him. No sign of fortifica-

tion was visible,-no sign of human life. A little farther, and the site of the Indian village of the Kaskas- kias was reached. No village greeted the eyes of the horrified voyagers ; but the torn and mangled corpses which strewed the prairie, and the horrible skulls which grinned from the charred poles of the burned cabins, bore silent evidence that the Iroquois had done their evil work, and that the friendly tribe on which he relied for protection and assistance was scattered, if not totally destroyed. Finding nothing among the mutilated re- mains that caused him to believe that Tonty or any white man was among the slain, LaSalle resolved to push on and rescue his faithful followers if they were still alive. He left three of his men secreted on an island near the site of the ruined village, and with the remaining four de- scended the river to the Mississippi, finding no trace of Tonty, but, all along, signs of the fearful havoc commit- ted by the invaders. The disappointed and almost dis- heartened commander rejoined his followers at the deso- lated village, and the united party retraced their path to the junction of the Kankakee with the Desplaines. He entered the latter river, and had proceeded but a short distance, when he found, in a bark cabin on its bank, a bit of sawed wood, and from this slight token of the pres- ence of civilized man, believed that Tonty must have passed up the stream to safety. This was true. Tonty, with the two friars Membre and Ribourde, the young officer Boisrondet, and two men of the Crevecœur garri- son, escaped the Iroquois massacre, and ascended the Illinois to the junction of the two branches. Father Ribourde, wandering from the rest of the party, was slain by a band of Kickapoos. Tonty and his companions continued their journey up the Desplaines until the canoe could be used no longer, and then crossing the " Checa- gou portage" to Lake Michigan, traversed its western shore to Green Bay, where they arrived the last of No- vember, and spent a part of the winter at the village of a friendly Pottawatomie chief, and the remainder at the mission of St. Francis Xavier.

In the meantime, LaSalle, after finding a trace of the presence of Tonty on the Desplaines, struck across the northern part of Illinois, and arrived at his fort on the St, Joseph about midwinter, where he remained until spring, and during that time learned of the safety of Tonty and where he was, from a band of wandering Outagamies, or Foxes. Before spring he had formed a plan, and taken measures to carry it out, for uniting the western tribes in a common league, and of colonizing them around a French fort in the valley of the Illinois, which should be a center of trade and a safe point from which to extend his ex- plorations to the south and west. In May, 1681, he went to Mackinac, where he met Tonty and Father Membre, who had already arrived there from Green Bay. Together they proceeded to Fort Frontenac, and once more made arrangements for the exploration of the Mississippi. It was autumn when LaSalle again reached the mouth of the St. Joseph, and not until the latter part of De- cember was he ready to leave Fort Miamis. The party which he gathered for this expedition consisted of twen- ty-three Frenchmen and eighteen Mohegans and Abna- kis. ten of whom took along their squaws, " to cook for them, as their custom is." There were also three children. Among the Frenchmen were Tonty, Membre, Dautrey. and Prudhomme. LaSalle sent a portion of his party from the St. Joseph, on the 21st of December, remaining himself to attend to the supplies necessarily left behind at the fort. Father Membre, of the advance party. says :

"On the 21st of December (1681), I embarked with the Sieur de Tonty and a part of our people on Lake Dauphin (Michigan).

* Starved Rock, in La Salle County.

--- - +

HISTORY OF EARLY CHICAGO.

to go toward the Divine River, called by the Indians, Checagou,* in order to make necessary arrangements for our voyage. The Sieur de la Salle joined us there with the rest of his troops, on the 4th of January, 1652, and found that Tonty had had sleighs made to put all on and carry it over the Checagou, which was frozen ; for though the winter in these parts is only two months long, it is, notwithstanding, very severe."

LaSalle tells the story of the journey by way of the Checagou to the Illinois, but does not quite agree with Membre on dates. He says, in a communication to Frontenac :

" I sent M. de Tonty (from the St. Joseph) in advance with all my people, who, after marching three days along the lake, and reaching the division line called Checagou, were stopped, after a day's march along the river of the same name, which falls into the Illinois, by the ice, which entirely prevented further navigation. This was the 2d and 3d of January, 1682. I remained behind to direct the making of some caches in the earth, of the things I left behind. Having finished my caches, I left, the 28th of December, and went on foot to join the Sieur de Tonty, which I did the 7th of January, the snow having detained me some days at the portage of Checagou."

LaSalle then gives a long description of the portage from what he calls the " channel which leads to the lake of the Illinois " (this channel being our Chicago River), to the Desplaines (" Checagou "), and combats the state- ment of Joliet, that " by cutting only one canal half a league through the prairie, one may pass from the lake of the Illinois into the St. Louis River,"t saying that this " may very well happen in the spring "-when the swollen waters of the "Checagnu," through the " little lake on the prairie," found their way even to Lake Michigan-" but not in the summer," because at that season, he says, even the Illinois River is navigable only as far as Fort St. Louis .; There was another difficulty in the way of successful navigation, which LaSalle be- lieved Joliet's "proposed ditch " would not remedy, and that was the " sand bar at the mouth of the channel which leads to the lake of the Illinois." Even the force of the current of the Checagou, when in the great fresh- ets of the spring it poured its waters into this channel, was not powerful enough to remove that obstacle ; and for these and various other reasons, LaSalle believed " it would be easier to effect the transportation from Fort St. Louis to the lakes by using horses, which it is easy to have, there being numbers among the savages."

LaSalle states, in a paper written in 1682, that he " joined M. de Tonty who had preceded him, with his followers and all his equipage forty leagues into the Miamis' country, at the River Chekagou $ in the coun- try of the Mascoutins, where the ice on the river had arrested his progress ; and where, when the ice became stronger, they used sledges to drag the baggage, the cannes and a wounded Frenchman through the whole length of this river and on the Illinois, a distance of seventy leagues." It would seem from the above quota- tions, that the name " Checagou," or " Chekagou," was applied to a certain locality which, in 1681-82, formed the division line between the Miamis and Mfascoutins ; the river of that name being within the limits of, or the eastern boundary line of the Mascontin country, which extended west to the Fox River.

It is not within the province of this history to relate, in detail, the adventures of LaSalle and his followers on their Mississippi voyage. It is sufficient to say that the party descended the Illinois River, on the sledge- made at the Desplaines, to Peoria Lake, where open water was reached. Embarking thence in the canoes, which

. Meaning the Desplaines. LaSalle sprake of crossing the portage of Checagon and juining Tonty on the river of the sime name" which fall into the Illinois."

+ Illinois.

* starved Rurk.

§ Lasalle had changed the spelling of the name of the river since he wrote befure.

formed a part of their baggage, they reached the Mis- sissippi on the 6th of February, 1682, and on the gth of April arrived at its mouth. Then, with solemn and impressive ceremonies, LaSalle took possession of the valley of the Mississippi in the name of France, called the new acquisition Louisiana, in honor of the king, and realized the great and all-absorbing desire of his life. On his return toward the Illinois, he was seized with a dangerous illness, and detained in consequence, at the Chickasaw Bluffs, where a fort had been estab-

ou-

Musucoat

Kikapou

MASCOUTINS

NATION DU FEL Oupacote

200

1150

als

Assistageronons

Marameches

NIE DU SR

COLO

Oratenon

ninois

11200

mikokia 16oh

Ониво

Furt 55 Leurs

Viamy 1300^

Kilation

300"

SALLE

F. de Creveca

SECTION OF FRANQUELIN'S LARGE MAP, 1684.

Franquelin was a young engineer, who, at the time he made the map of which the above is a fac simile section, was hydrographer to the King, at Que- bec. The original map is six feet long, four and a half wide, and very elabo- rately executed. L'pon it is exhibited all the region then claimed by France, under the names of New France and Louisiana. The map was reproduced by Franquelin in 1658. for presentation to the king, and in this the branch of the Illinois, marked A. Chekagon in the above section, was removed-no such branch really existing. On Franquelin's large map. the Illinois is called the "Rivière des llinois, on Macopins," the Mississippi, "Missisipi, on Rivière Col- bert, "and the name applied by Juliet to the Illinois, is transferred to the Ohio, which appears the " St. Louis, on Chucagoa." La Salle's Fort St. Louis, with the Indian villages around it are represented on the section given above, aisc Fort Crevecoeur, and, as will be seen, the limit of the Mascoutin country.

lished on the downward passage. Tonty was directed to hasten forward to Mackinac, and dispatch the news of the successful termination of the expedition to Can- ada. He left the bluffs on the 6th of May, arrived about the end of June at Chicago, and by the middle of July at Mackinac, where he was joined in Septem- ber by LaSalle. Returning to the Illinois the same fall, LaSalle and Tonty, during the winter of 1682-83, strengthened and fortified the cliff known as Starved Rock, encircling its summit with a palisade, and build- ing storehouses and dwellings within the enclosure. 'The fort was called St. Louis, and about it, at the base of the cliff. LaSalle gathered the surrounding Indians, until their log and bark cabins formed a village, con- taining some twenty thousand souls. At Fort St. Louis, French colonists also settled, who were obliged to go to Montreal for supplies, and that by way of the well- known Chicago route. Frontenac, the friend and patron of LaSalle, was no longer in power, and LaBarre, his successor, was hostile to both LaSalle and his enter- prise. Lasalle writes to LaBarre, from the "Chicagou Portage," June 4, 1683, entreating him not to detain his colonists at Montreal, as coureurs de bois, when they came there to make their necessary purchases, some of which are indispensable to the safety of the fort where he has now " but twenty men, and scarcely a hundred

franghichiu

R. Chekagon

R. Pestekouv

150

500h

R. Chassagaach

Chaouenon 200+

R. des Maingoana

EARLY EXPLORATIONS.

pounds of powder." To such lengths did LaBarre finally carry his enmity, that LaSalle's position at Fort St. Louis became unbearable, and in the autumn of 1683, leaving Tonty in possession, he repaired to Que- bec, and thence sailed for France, to triumph over his foes, and reinstate Tonty in peaceful possession of the fort on the Illinois ; but never again to return to Fort Miamis, or the Rock of St. Louis, or visit with his motley retinue of devoted priests, brave young French- men and solemn savages, " Checagou," the site of the great city where now a crowded thoroughfare perpet- uates his name, and where multitudes of people cherish his memory, and " delight to do him honor."

LaSalle again sailed from France, August 1, 1684, with vessels containing supplies for founding a colony at the month of the Mississippi ; entered the Gulf of Mexico, and discovered land on the 28th of December. This proved to be the coast of Texas, the captain hav- ing ignorantly passed the mouth of the Mississippi. They landed near Matagorda Bay, and erected there a fort, where the colony remained together about a year. Afterward, LaSalle made several excursions into the surrounding country, hoping to discover the Mississippi and, finally, discouraged and desperate, resolved to find his way to Canada. One attempt was made, in 1686, which resulted in defeat, and the party, after wandering six months, found their way back to the fort at Matagorda. On the 7th of January, 1687, LaSalle again made an attempt to reach the north, and get sup- plies for his almost starving men, and, after two months' wandering, was assassinated by some of his discon- tented and faithless followers, on the 19th of March, 1687. After the murder, the party separated, and, finally, but five reached Fort St. Louis, on the Illinois, River, where the faithful T'onty still commanded. One of these was Henri Joutel, who with his companions, was detained at the fort until spring. They made one trip to Chicago, in the fall of 1687, and another in the spring of 1688. Joutel describes their experiences thus in his journal :

"On Sunday, the 14th of September, 1687, about two in the afternoon, we came into the neighborhood of Fort St. Louis. . At length we entered the fort, where we found and surprised several persons who did not expect us. All the French were under arms, and made several discharges to welcome us. MI. de la Belle Fon- laine, lieutenant to M. Tonty, was at the head of them, and com- piimented us. Sieur Boisrondet, clerk to the late M. dle la Salle, having told us he had a canne, in which he desired to go down to Canada, we prepared to make use of that opportunity. Care was taken to gather provision for our voyage : to get furs to barter as we passed Micilimaquinay. M. Cavelier" wrote a letter for M. Tonty, which he left there to be ilelivered to him, and we repaired to the lake [Michigan] to embark. It wouldibe needless to relate all the troubles and hardships we met with in that journey ; it was painful and fruitless, for, having gone to the bank of the lake in very foul weather, after waiting there five days for that foul weather to cease, and after we had embarked-notwithstanding the storm- we were obliged to put ashore again, to return to the place where we had embarked, and there In dig a hole in the earth to bury our baggage and provisions, to save the trouble of carrying them back to Fort Louis, whither we :eturned, and arrived there the 7th of October, where they were surprised to see us come back. Thus we were obliged to continue in that fort all the rest of the autumn, and part of the winter. On the 27th of October, of the same year, M. Tonty returned from the war with the Iroquois. We continued after this manner till the month of December, when two men ar- rived from Montreal. They came to give notice to M. Tonty, that three canoes, laden with merchandise-powder, ball and other things-were arrived at Chicagon : that there being too little water in the river, and what there was being frozen, they could come int lower ; so that, it being requisite to send men to fetch those things, V. Tomy desired the chief of the Chahonanoust to furnish him with people. That chief accordingly furnished forty, men as well

" Our if the party of five who reached the fort. Cavelier was a lautner of laSalle, and a priest. + The Shawawoes ; who had their village just south of the fort.

as women, who set out with some Frenchmen. The nonesty of the Chahonanous was the reason of preferring them before the Illinois, who are, naturally, knaves. That ammunition and merchandise were soon brought, and very seasonably, the fort being then in want. At length we set out. the 21st of March, from Fort Louis. The Sieur Boisrondet, who was desirous to return to France, joined 115. We embarked on the river, which was then become navigable. and before we had advanced five leagues, met with a rapid stream. which obliged us to go ashore, and then again into the water. tu draw along our canoe. I had the misfortune to hurt one of my feet against a rock which lay under the water, which troubled me very much for a long time. We arrived at Chicagou on the 20th af March, and our first care was to seek what we had concealed at our former voyage, having. as was there said, buried nur luggage and provisions. We found it had been opened, and some furs and linen taken away, almost all of which belonged to me. This had been done by a Frenchman, whom M. Tonly had sent from the fort during the winter season to know whether there were any canoes at Chicagou, and whom he bad directed to see whether anybody bad meddled with what he had concealed : and he made use of that ad- vice to rob us. The bad weather obliged us to stay in that place until April. This time of rest was advantageous for the healing of my foot ; and there being but very little game in that place, we had nothing but our meal, or Indian wheat, to feed on ; yet we discov- ered a kind of manna, which was a great help to us. It was a sort of tree, resembling our maple, in which we made incisions. whence flowed a sweet liquor, and in it we boiled our Indian wheat, which made it delicious, sweet, and of a very agreeable relish. There being no sugar ranes in that country, those trees supplied that liquor, which being boiled up and evaporated, turned into a kind of sugar, somewhat brownish, but very good. In the woods we found a sort of garlic, not so strong as ours, and small onions very like ours in taste, and some charvel of the same relish as that we have, .but different in leaf. The weather being somewhat mended, we embarked again, and entered upon the lake on the 5th of April, keeping to the north side, to shun the Iroquois."

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History of Chicago. From the earliest period to the present time, Part 15

Author: Andreas, Alfred Theodore Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Chicago, A. T. Andreas Number of Pages: 1340

Author: Andreas, Alfred Theodore
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago, A. T. Andreas
Number of Pages: 1340