History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Part 4

Author: Andreas, A. T. (Alfred Theodore), 1839-1900
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago : A.T. Andreas
Number of Pages: 875

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'Nicolet returned to the Hurons, and presently, to Three Rivers, and resumed both of his former functions, viz., as com- missary and interpreter; being singularly beloved by both the French and the natives; specially intent upon this, that uniting his industry and the very great influence which he possessed over the savages, with the efforts of the fathers of the society (Jesuits), he might bring as many as he could to the Church; until, upon the recall to France of Oliver," who was the chief commissary of Que. bec, Nicolet, on account of his merits, was appointed in his place. But he was not long allowed to enjoy the Christian comfort he had so greatly desired, viz., that at Quebec he might frequently attend upon the sacraments, as his pious soul desired, and That he might enjoy the society of those with whom he could converse upon di- vine things. On the last day of October (1642), having embarked upun a pinnace at the seventh hour of the afternoon (as we French reckon the hours), i. e., just as the shades of evening were falling, hastening. as I have said, to Three Rivers, upon so pious an erraml, f scarcely had he arrived in sight of Sillery,# when, the north wind blowing more fiercely, and increasing the violence of the storm which had conunenced before Nicolet started, the pin- nace was whirled around two or three times, filled with water from all directions, and finally was swallowed up by the waves. Some of those on board escaped, among them Savigny, the owner of the pinnace: and Nicolet, in thal hour of peril, addressing him calinly, sail: 'Savigny, since you know how to swim, by all means consult your own safety; 1, who have no such skill, am going to God; I recommend my wife and daughter to your kindness.' In the midst of this conversation, a wave separated them: Nicolet was drowned: Savigny, who from horror and the darkness of the night. did not know where he was, was torn by the violence of the waves from the boat, to which he had clung for some time; then he struggled for awhile in swimming, with the hostile force of the changing waves, until at last, his strength failing, and his courage almost forsaking him, he made a vow to God (but what, is not related). Then strik- ing the bottom of the stream with his foot, he reached the sloping land under the water, and forcing his way with difficulty through the edge of the stream, already frozen, he erept, half dead, to the humble abode of the fathers. The prisoner, for whose sake Nico. let had exposed himself to this deadly peril, twelve days afterward reached Sillery, and soon after Quebec-having been rescued from the cruelty of the Algonquins by Rupaeus, who was in command at Three Rivers, in pursuance of letters from Montmagny, on pay- ment, no doubt, of a ransom. This, moreover, was nol the first occasion on which Nicolet had encountered peril of his life for the safety of savages. He had frequently done the very same thing be- fore, says the French# writer; and to those with whom he asso- ciated he left proofs of his virtues by such deeds as could hardly be expected of a man entangled in the bonds of marriage; they were, indeed, eminent, and rise to the height of apostolic perfec- tion; and, therefore, was the loss of so great a man the more grievous. Certain it is That the savages, themselves, as soon as

*Champlain died on Christmas, 1636. He was succeeded hy de Chastelart, and he in turn, by de Montmagny. The General Commissary of the Hundred Partners, at Quebre, was M. Olivier le Tardiff, who sailed for France in (c- Jober, 1642.

+His labors in behalf of the Indians were unceasing. At this time he was on his way from Quebec to Three Rivers to release an Indian prisoner who was being tortured by a hostile hand.

¡An Algonquin mission four miles above Quebec, ¡Vimont,

they heard what had befallen him, surrounded the bank of the great river in crowds, to see whether they could render any aid. When all hope of that was gone, they did what alone remained In their power, by incredible manifestations of grief and lamentation at the sad fate of the man who had deserved so well of them."

Thus perished John Nicolet, the brave yet gentle young pioneer who first found the path tothe Northwest, and the first white man who saw its magnificent lakes, forests and prairies. Along his path followed, after many years, a long procession of devoted priests, brave explorers and hardy voyageurs ; but among them all, not one whose record is more noble than that of this unpretending " layman," who carried peace to the nations which he visited, and lived and died in unselfish devotion to the call of the suffering aud oppressed.

THE JESUITS AND THEIR EXPLORATIONS .- In the sketch of John Nicolet, it was mentioned that he started on his long western journey at the same time that Fathers Brebeuf, Daniel and Davost set out to found the Huron mission, accompanying them a part of the way. After leaving Nicolet at the Isles des Allumette, the fathers pursued their journey to the southern extremity of the Georgian Bay, and on the eastern shore of Lake Huron, at Ihonatiria, the principal Indian village, established the mission of St. Joseph. The country of the Hurons, although sinall in area, was rich and populous, and the inhabitants were more gentle and ready to listen to the missionaries than the other tribes they had visited. By i636 three more fathers had been sent among them, and their work was wonderfully pros- perous. In the autumn of 1641, the mission of St. Joseph was visited by a deputation of Indians occupy- ing "the country around a rapid in the midst of the channel by which Lake Superior empties into Lake Huron,"* inviting them to visit their tribe. The fathers " were not tlispleased with the opportunity thus pre- sented of knowing the countries lying beyond Lake Huron, which no one of them had yel traversed ; " so Isaac Jogues and Charles Raymbault,t two of the later comers, were detached to accompany the Chippewas to their home. After seventeen days from their departure they reached the village at the "Sault," which Nicolet had visited in 1634, where the savages had assembled in great numbers to hear their words. They did not found a mission ; their visit being merely a prelim- inary one, to view the field. The following year the Iroquois war broke out afresh, and missions and Huron villages alike disappeared. Fathers Jogues and Raym- bault attempted to return to the St. Lawrence. The former was taken prisoner by the Iroquois and cruelly scourged and mutilated ; the latter died soon after his return. It was not until 1656 that the Jesuits dared again attempt the extension of their missions. In that year Father Garreau was ordered to Lake Superior, which nuw seemed a more promising field, but he was killed before leaving the St. Lawrence. DeGroselles and another Frenchman wintered on the shore of Lake Superior in 1658. They visited the Sioux, and from the fugitive Hurons who had sought refuge among them, heard of the Mississippi and the Illinois Indians, whom they had found on its banks. In 1660, René Menard, formerly a missionary among the Hurons, founded an Ottawa mission on the southern shore of Lake Superior, at Keweenaw Bay, but after a brief stay among the Indians died in the woods, of famine, or through violence. Five years later, Father Claude Allaucz was sent to Lake Superior to take up the work of Menard. He arrived October 1, 1665, at " Chegoi- megon," now Chequamegon, or Ashland Bay, in Wis-

* From the village visited by Nicolet in 1014.

+ Whose death is mentioned with that of Nicolet in "Historia Canadensis."

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HISTORY OF EARLY CHICAGO.

consin, " at the bottom of which," wrote the missionary. "are situated the great villages of the savages, who there plant their fields of Indian corn, and lead a station- ary life." Near by he erected a small chapel of bark -the first structure erected by civilized man in Wiscon- sin, and at LaPointe, a little north of the Indian vil- lages, he established the mission of the " Holy Ghost," which in 1669, fell to the charge of Father Jacques Marquette.

JACQUES MARQUETTE, whose name is now identified with the early history of Chicago, was a native of Laon, in Picardy-a devoted priest, and a learned and talented man. He had been employed on the St. Lawrence, and was preparing for a projected mission to the Montaeg- nais Indians, at the mouth of the Saguenay, in Canada, when he received orders to prepare for the Ottawa mis- sion on Lake Superior, then in chargeof Father Allouez. He left Quebec on the 21st of April, 1668, and jour- neyed with the Ottawa flotilla of that year, to Sault Ste. Marie. When he reached Lake Superior, he found that new missions were required on the lakes, as the Hurons and other tribes driven west by the Iroquois were now returning toward their old homes. Two places were se- lected by the Jesuit superior, wherein to found these missions-the Chippewa village at the "Sault," and Green Bay. The former station was assigned to Mar- quette. A year later Allouez left the Ottawa mission at La Pointe, to found the mission at St. Francis Xavier, at Green Bay, and Marquette was transferred from the "Sault " where, with the help of Father Dablon, his superior, he had built a church and established the mis- sion of St. Maryi, to the western shore of Lake Superi- or, the former station of Father Allouez. Marquette arrived at La Pointe in the autumn of 1669, then the extreme point to which the French had penetrated, and lived a year and a half among the savage tribes who had congregated there (the Hurons, and Ottawas driven from the east, the Christian Kiskadons, and the scoffing Ontaonks', " busily employed from morning till night " in instructing and admonishing them, both in chapel and cabin. In the spring of 1670, he was appointed to the Illinois mission, and earnestly hopes that it will " please God to send some father to take his place," that he may set out in the fall to commence the work among the Illinois. Several of this nation had. been at La Pointe during the winter, and these "lost sheep " had called upon him " so piteously," that he could not resist their entreaties to visit them. The young Illinois hunt- ers accordingly left La Pointe in the spring, with a promise to send some of their "old men " to guide Mar- quette to their prairies in the coming fall. Marquette had learned much of these "hunters" during the win- ter. They told him of the great river, " almost a league wide," which they passed in coming to La Pointe, which he says he desired to visit, to teach the natives along its banks, and " in order to open the way to so many of the fathers who have long awaited this happiness." a minor consideration, he desired " to gain a knowledge of the southern or western sea." Of the Illinois he says:

" The Illinois are thirty days' journey by land from La Pointe. by a difficult road: they lie southwest" from it. On the way you pass the nation of the Ketchigaminst who lived in more than twenty large cabins. They are inland and seek to have intercourse with the French, from whom they hope to get axes, knives and ironware. . .. You pass then to the Miamiwek,t and by great deserts reach the Illinois, who are assembled chiefly in two towns, containg more than eight or nine thousand souls. When The Illinois come to La Pointe they pass a large river almost a

league wide. It runs north and south, and so far that the Illinois. who do not know what canoes are, have never yet heard of its mouth. The Illinois are warriors, they make many slaves, whom they sell to the Ottawas for guns, powder, kettles, axes and knives. They were formerly at war with the Nadouessi, but having made peace some years since, I confirmed it, to facilitate their coming to I.a Pointe, where I am going to awail them in order to accompany them to their country."

Marquette did not found a mission among the Illi- nois, as he desired, in the fall of 1670. The Sioux-the Nadouessi, whose treaty with the Illinois he had con- firmed, and whose country he believed he could safely pass-declared war on the Ottawas and Hurons, and, with what remained of his terrified flock, he passed an- other winter at the mission of the Iloly Ghost. In the spring he left the dangerous neighborhood of the Sioux, with the Hurons, his last remaining Indians; the Otta- was, for whom the mission was established, having pre- viously fled toward the east.

Marquette embarked with his Hurons on Lake Supe- rior, and crossing to its eastern extremity in frail canoes, passed down the strait of St. Mary, and thence to Michilimackinac. Entering the latter strait, they re- solved to land and make a home there, and on the north- ern side of the trait now Point St. Ignace, of the Michi- gan Peninsula , Marquette erected a rude chapel, and founded among the Hurons the mission of St. Ignatius. The Indians soon built near the chapel a palisade fort, enclosing their cabins, and Marquette remained among them, until the spring of 1673.

In 1671 France took formal possession of the whole country of the upper lakes, determined to extend her power to the extreme limit, vague as it was, of Canada. The Mississippi and some of its principal tributaries were well known to exist, and the importance of its exploration-it could hardly be termed discovery-was well understood. The rulers of New France, however, did not regard this great river merely as another avenue to be opened whereby the cross might be carried to unknown tribes; and the ambitious Frontenac and sagacious Talon, well knew that Marquette was not the man to be entrusted with the purely secular interests of the expedition which they had determined upon. There- fore Louis Joliet, whom they rightly "deemed compe- tent for so great a design," was selected as the leader, and Marquette was " chosen to accompany him;" the former to seek by the Mississippi the mythical kingdom of Quivira, which with its gold and precious stones was believed to lie in the path to the California sea; and the latter "to seek new nations toward the South Sea, to teach them of the great God whom they have hitherto unknown."

Louis JOLIET was born in Quebec, in 1645, and was the son of a wheelwright in the employ of the Com- pany of the One Hundred Associates. He was educated at the college of Quebec, and, evincing a desire to enter the priesthood, took the preliminary steps and entered the theological seminary in the same city. As he grew older, mathematical and geographical studies seemed to have a greater charm for him than theological, and he finally decided to embark in business life. He first came to the West as a fur-trader, and was afterward-about 1667-sent by Talon to explore the copper mines of Lake Superior. On his return from this expedition, in 1669, he met LaSalle near the head of Lake Ontario, and in 1671, he is mentioned as being present at St. Lus- son's grand convention of Indian tribes at Sault Ste. Marie. Having received the necessary instructions, Joliet left Quebec on the 8th of December, 1672; arrived at Michilimackinac, and on the 17th of May, 1673, the two explorers, with one other Frenchman, and four In-

. Evidently alluding to that portion of the Illinois west uf the Mississippi. + This tribe of Masculins had a village in common with the Kickapoos,on the Wisconsin River, twelve miles lower than the Mascoutin villagr, near the portage.

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EARLY EXPLORATIONS.

dians, started from the mission of St. Ignatius on their memorable expedition. Before leaving, they made a map of the new country they hoped to explore, from information gained from the Indians, " marking down the rivers," says Marquette, " on which we were to sail, the names of the nations and places through which we were to pass, the course of the great river, and what direction we should take when we got to it." The history of their expedition is well known. Entering Green Bay they

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passed to its head, and entered Fox River. This they ascended, obtaining guides to lead them through the maze of marshes and little lakes between it and the Wis- consin, as they approached the portage between the two rivers. Sailing down the Wisconsin, they entered the Mississippi on the 17th of June, 1673. After a voyage of more than a week, they for the first time beheld an Indian trail, leading from the west bank of the river back to a beautiful prairie. Leaving their men with the canoes, Joliet and Marquette, with many misgivings as to what would be their fate, silently followed the little path until they came in sight of three Indian villages.

*The country of the Illinois was formerly both sides of the Mississippi, on the west side extending south nearly to thej Missouri River, and north to the domain of the Sioux,

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One was on the bank of a river, and the others on a hill, a short distance beyond. With a prayer for protection, they halted and gave a cry to announce their presence. The astonished Indians poured from their cabins, to halt in turn and gaze upon the strangers: At last four old men came slowly and gravely toward them, with calu- mets of peace. Silently they advanced, and having reached them, paused to look upon them more closely. Marquette, judging now that their intentions were friend. ly, addressed them in Algon- quin, asking who they were. They replied, " We are Illi- nois,"* and extended the pipe of peace. These were the Peorias and Moingwenas, whose villages were west of the Mississippi, and, as laid down on Marquette's map, were on the south bank of a river sup- posed to be the Des Moines, the upper part of that river still bearing the name of Mo- ingonan the Monk . These Illinois Indians treated their visitors with great kindness, and the next day a crowd of six hundred natives escorted them to their canoes, to see thein embark. The explorers promised to pass back through this town in four moons, but were not enabled to keep their promise. They sailed down the clear current of the Missis- sippi, passed the " Ruined Castles," passed the monstrous painting on the rock, passed the Missouri and Ohio and reached the Arkansas, when they decided that they "had gained all the information that could be desired from the ex- pedition," " that the Missis- sippi had its mouth in Florida or the Gulf of Mexico," and, NATIONT DANS LES TERRES on the 17th of July, just one month from the time they left the Wisconsin, they turned their canoes up the river. Find- ing the ascent difficult. they entered the Illinois River, which Marquette says, " great- ly shortened their path," and which he describes as broad, sleep and gentle for sixty-five leagues, with many little lakes and rivers, while meadows and prairies, teeming with game, bordered it on either side. Sailing up the river to within a few miles of the present site of Utica, they arrived at an Illinois village, called Kaskaskia, where the travelers were well received, and to which Marquette promised to return at some future time to instruct the tribe. A chief, with a band of young Kaskaskians, accompanied them thence to Lake Michigan, which they reached with little trouble, and paddling up its western shore, arrived at the mission of St. Francis Xavier, at Green Bay, during the

HISTORY OF EARLY CHICAGO.

latter part of September. Here the two companions remained together through the winter. As early as possi- hle in the summer of 1674, Joliet hastened to Quebec to report to the authorities, visiting LaSalle at Fort Front- enac, on his journey. In a letter to Frontenac, written October 10, 1674, he says:

"It is not long since 1 returned from my South Sea voyage, I was fortunate during all that lime, but on my way back, jasl as I was about to land at Montreal, my cance capsized and I lost two men, with my chest, containing all my papers and my journal, with some curiosities from those remote countries. I greatly re- gret a little slave ten years old who had been presented to me. Hle was endowed with a good disposition, full of talent, diligent and obelient ; he made himself umlerstood In French, and began to read and write. I was saved after being four hours in the water. having lost sight and consciousness, by sume fisherinen, who never went in that place, and would not have been there, had not the Blessed Virgin obtained this grace for me from God, who arrested the course of nature to rescue me from death. But for this acci- dent, your lordship would have received quite a curious relation ; but nothing is left me except my life."

He then briefly describes the result of his voyage. On the 14th of the following month Count DeFrontenac announced to Colbert the successful issue of the expe- dition.

Marquette was detained at Green Bay through the whule summer of 1674 by sickness. As soon as he was sufficiently recovered, he drew up and sent to his superior . Father Dablon copies of his journal of the voyage down the Mississippi, and doubtless also the map known as " Marquette's map," a copy of which is here given *

With the return of the flotilla from Quebec, he re- ceived orders to set out for his Illinois mission. He started from the mission at Green Bay on the 25th of October, 1674, and with two Frenchman, Jacques and Pierre, went north as far as Sturgeon Bay, where now a canal connects its waters with Lake Michigan. At the portage he joined a party of Pottawatumies and Illinois, who also had started for the Kaskaskia village. With them he crossed the difficult portage from the head of Sturgeon Bay to Lake Michigan, on which they embarked on the 31st of October. The little fleet pro- ceeded up the western shore of the lake, and after many detentions arrived at Portage Rivert early in December. Marquette mentions the fact of passing "eight or ten pretty fine rivers " on his journey up the lake from one portage to the other. On the 19th of November he ar- rived at " the bluffs," where he was detained two days and a half. While thus detained, Pierre left him, and passed through the woods to a prairie twenty leagues from the portage. Starting from "the bluffs " about noon on the zist, Marquette says: "We had hard enough work to reach a river." He entered the river, however, and found there Mascoutins, "to the number of eight ur nine cabins." The Illinois Indians left him here and "passed on the prairies."

If " the bluffs," where Marquette was detained by the weather, were at the present site of Milwaukee,

. Marquette evidently sent two copies of his journal. One of these was transmitted to France but not officially published, the Jesuit Relations being suspended alot that time by the French Government. In 1681. an imperfect copy of this, ne the original journal somewhat mutilated, fell into the hands of Thevenot. n French compiler and publisher, and it appeared in a volume of travels and discoverics, which be imned that year under the title of " Receuil de Voyage." The other cupy. having hiren prepared for publication by Father Jablun, was depmited, together with an unfinished letter of Marquette, giving an account of his secund visit to the Illinois, in the archives of the Jeuit College ut tJurbec. It lay there unnoticed until about 18ou, when Father Cazut, the last survivor of the Jesuits of that institution, when the college was closed, selected some of the papers, including Marquette's journal and map, and presented them to the nugs who had charge of the Hotel Dieu, a laspital at Quebec. In 1844 they passed into the hands of Rev. F. Martin, a Jesuit, and were by him given to John Gilmary Shea, who published them in THsa. + Marquette includes both the prevent Chicago and the Desplaines Rivers, in what he terms " Portage River." (See his map.) A few years later thr Desplaines alone was called the "Checagou River." Gurdun S. Hubbard Mates (sre Htanchard's History of Chicago, p. 757.) that the South Branch of the present Chicago River was called " Purtage River " until about tloo,

where they were more abrupt and lofty, perhaps, than at any other point, Pierre must have passed "through the woods " to the present site of Racine, "twenty leagues from the portage," and Marquette must have reached the place by entering Root River. It was the 27th of November before Marquette again em- barked, being detained by the wind. Nine miles farther, and he was again detained "by a wind from the shore, immense waves that came from the lake, and the cold." On the 4th of December they again " started " to reach " Portage River." He does not say what day they arrived there, but they remained at the mouth of the river a few days, during which time his men killed con- siderable game. On the 12th they began to draw their Inggage up the river, and on the 14th were settled in a cahin some five miles from the mouth of the river, "near the portage," and in the route to an Illinois village, six leagues further on. Here Marquette was obliged to remain all winter on account of a severe illness. This cabin, it would seem, belonged to two French traders, Pierre Moreau ; La Toupine), and his companion who was not only a trader but a surgeon as well, and who were then at their winter hunting-ground, about fifty miles from the portage, and not very far distant from a village of Illinois Indians, These traders were expect- ing a visit from Marquette and his companions at their cabin at the hunting-ground, and had made due prepa- ration to receive them hy laying in an extra store of provisions. Marquette says that "some (person' in- formed la Toupine and the surgeon that we were here at the portage, and unable to leave their cabin." and that as soon as the two Frenchmen knew that ill- ness prevented his " going to them," the surgeon visited him, brought him provisions, and stopped with him for a time " to attend to his duties." In fact, Marquette says "they did and said everything that could be expected of them." They " gave the Indians to under- stand " that the cabin belonged to Marquette, and he remained in it through the winter unmolested. When the surgeon had finished his visit, Jacques accompanied him to his wintering ground, and returned with more provisions, sent by the Frenchmen to the sick priest. Marquette, in turn, repaid their kindness by doing all in his power to inQuence the Indians to deal fairly with the traders, who, he says, "do not rob them the Indians , in getting furs in the country, so great is the hardship they experience in getting them." It is not probable that these were the only traders in the country of the Illinois at this time, or that they were the only ones who had crossed the portage to the interior and returned, hringing their furs to Lake Michigan in the spring, when ready to embark for their trip to the St. Lawrence. When Marquette went, in the spring, to the Kaskaskia village, he met the "surgeon," on the way, coming up the Desplaines with his furs, " but," he says, " the cokl being too severe for men who have to drag their canoe through the water, he made a cache for his beaver," and turned back with Marouette toward the Kaskaskia village.

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History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Part 4

Author: Andreas, A. T. (Alfred Theodore), 1839-1900 Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Chicago : A.T. Andreas Number of Pages: 875

Author: Andreas, A. T. (Alfred Theodore), 1839-1900
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago : A.T. Andreas
Number of Pages: 875