History of Iroquois County, together with Historic notes on the Northwest, gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and other authentic, though, for the most part, out-of-the-way sources, Part 9

Author: Beckwith, H. W. (Hiram Williams), 1833-1903
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago : H.H. Hill and Co.
Number of Pages: 1180

USA > Illinois > Iroquois County > History of Iroquois County, together with Historic notes on the Northwest, gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and other authentic, though, for the most part, out-of-the-way sources > Part 9

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FORT CREVECOEUR AND ITS LOCATION.

When the fort was half finished, M. La Salle lodged himself, with M. Tonti, in the middle of the fortification, and every one took his post. We placed the forge on the curtain on the side of the wood, and laid in a great quantity of coal for that purpose. But our greatest diffi- culty was to build a boat,- our carpenters having deserted us, we did not know what to do. However, as timber was abundant and near at hand, we told our men that if any of them would undertake to saw boards for building the bark, we might surmount all other difficulties. Two of the men undertook the task, and succeeded so well that we began to build a bark, the keel whereof was forty-two feet long. Our men went on so briskly with the work, that on the 1st of March our boat was half built, and all the timber ready prepared for furnishing it. Our fort was also very near finished, and we named it ' Fort Creve- cœur,' because the desertion of our men, and other difficulties we had labored under, had almost ' broken our hearts. ' *

" M. La Salle," says Hennepin, " no longer doubted that the Griffin was lost; but neither this nor other difficulties dejected him. His great courage buoyed him up, and he resolved to return to Fort Fron- tenac by land, notwithstanding the snow, and the great dangers attend- ing so long a journey. We had many private conferences, wherein it was decided that he should return to Fort Frontenac with three men, to bring with him the necessary articles to proceed with the discov- ery, while I, with two men, should go in a canoe to the River Me- schasipi, and endeavor to obtain the friendship of the nations who inhabited its banks.

" M. La Salle left M. Tonti to command in Fort Crevecœur, and ordered our carpenter to prepare some thick boards to plank the deck of our ship, in the nature of a parapet, to cover it against the arrows of the savages in case they should shoot at us from the shore. Then, calling his men together, La Salle requested them to obey M. Tonti's orders in his absence, to live in Christian union and charity ; to be courageous and firm in their designs ; and above all not to give credit to false reports the savages might make, either of him or of their com- rades who accompanied Father Hennepin."

Hennepin and his two companions, with a supply of trinkets suitable

* "Fort Crevecœur," or the Broken Heart, was built on the east side of the Illi- nois River, a short distance below the outlet of Peoria Lake. It is so located on the great map of Franquelin, made at Quebec in 1684. There are many indications on this map, going to show that it was constructed largely under the supervision of La- Salle. The fact mentioned by Hennepin, that they went down the river, and that coal was gathered for the supply of the fort, would confirm this theory as to its location; for the outcrop of coal is abundant in the bluffs on the east side of the river below Peoria. There is also a spot in this immediate vicinity that answers well to the site of the fort as described by Fathers Hennepin and Membre.

HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

for the Indian trade, left Fort Crevecœur for the Mississippi, on the 29th of February, 1680, and were captured by the Sioux, as already stated. From this time to the ultimate discovery and taking possession of the Mississippi and the valleys by La Salle, Father Zenobe Membre was the historian of the expedition.

La Salle started across the country, going up the Illinois and Kan- kakee, and through the southern part of the present State of Michigan. He reached the Detroit River, ferrying the stream with a raft ; he at length stood on Canadian soil. Striking a direct line across the wilder- ness, he arrived at Lake Erie, near Point Pelee. By this time only one man remained in health, and with his assistance La Salle made a canoe. Embarking in it the party came to Niagara on Easter Monday. Leaving his comrades, who were completely exhausted, La Salle on the 6th of May reached Fort Frontenac, making a journey of over a thou- sand miles in sixty-five days, "the greatest feat ever performed by a Frenchman in America."*

La Salle found his affairs in great confusion. His creditors had seized upon his estate, including Fort Frontenac. Undaunted by this new misfortune, he confronted his creditors and enemies, pacifying the former and awing the latter into silence. He gathered the fragments of his scattered property and in a short time started west with a com- pany of twenty-five men, whom he had recruited to assist in the prose- cution of his discoveries. He reached Lake Huron by the way of Lake Simcoe, and shortly afterward arrived at Mackinaw. Here he found that his enemies had been very busy, and had poisoned the minds of the Indians against his designs.

We leave La Salle at Mackinaw to notice some of the occurrences that took place on the Illinois and St. Joseph after he had departed for Fort Frontenac. On this journey, as La Salle passed up the Illinois, he was favorably impressed with Starved Rock as a place presenting strong defenses naturally. He sent word back to Tonti, below Peoria Lake, to take possession of " The Rock" and erect a fortification on its summit. Tonti accordingly came up the river with a part of his avail- able force. and began to work upon the new fort. While engaged in this enterprise the principal part of the mnen remaining at Fort Creve- cœur mutinied. They destroyed the vessel on the stocks, plundered the storehouse, escaped up the Illinois River and appeared before Fort Miami. These deserters demolished Fort Miami and robbed it of goods and furs of La Salle, on deposit there, and then fled out of the country. These misfortunes were soon followed by an incursion of the Iroquois,

* Parkman's "Discovery of the Great West."

DEATH OF FATHER GABRIEL.

who attacked the Illinois in their village near the Starved Rock. Tonti, acting as mediator, came near losing his life at the hand of an infuriated Iroquois warrior, who drove a knife into his ribs. Constantly an object of distrust to the Illinois, who feared he was a spy and friend of the Iroquois, in turn exposed to the jealousy of the Iroquois, who imag- ined he and his French friends were allies of the Illinois, Tonti remained faithful to his trust until he saw that he could not avert the blow meditated by the Iroquois. Then, with Fathers Zenobe Membre and Gabriel Rebourde, and a few Frenchmen who had remained faith- ful, he escaped from the enraged Indians and made his way, in a leaky canoe, up the Illinois River. Father Gabriel one fine day left his com- panions on the river to enjoy a walk in the beautiful groves near by, and while thus engaged, and as he was meditating upon his holy call- ing, fell into an ambuscade of Kickapoo Indians. The good old man, unconscious of his danger, was instantly knocked down, the scalp torn from his venerable head, and his gray hairs afterward exhibited in tri- umph by his young murderers as a trophy taken from the crown of an Iroquois warrior. Tonti, with those in his company, pursued his course, passing by Chicago, and thence up the west shore of Lake Michigan. Subsisting on berries, and often on acorns and roots which they dug from the ground, they finally arrived at the Pottawatomie towns. Pre- vious to this they abandoned their canoe and started on foot for the Mission of Green Bay, where they wintered.

La Salle, when he arrived at St. Joseph, found Fort Miamis plun- dered and demolished. He also learned that the Iroquois had attacked the Illinois. Fearing for the safety of Tonti, he pushed on rapidly, only to find, at Starved Rock, the unmistakable signs of an Indian slaughter. The report was true. The Iroquois had defeated the Illi- nois and driven them west of the Mississippi. La Salle viewed the wreck of his cherished project, the demolition of the fort, the loss of his peltries, and especially the destruction of his vessel, in that usual calm way peculiar to him; and, although he must have suffered the most intense anguish, no trace of sorrow or indecision appeared on his inflexible countenance. Shortly afterward he returned to Fort Miamis. La Salle occupied his time, until spring, in rebuilding Fort Miamis, holding conferences with the surrounding Indian tribes, and confeder- ating them against future attacks of the Iroquois. He now abandoned the purpose of descending the Mississippi in a sailing vessel, and de- termined to prosecute his voyage in the ordinary wooden pirogues or canoes.

Tonti was sent forward to Chicago Creek, where he constructed a number of sledges. After other preparations had been made, La Salle

HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

and his party left St. Joseph and came around the southern extremity of the lake. The goods and effects were placed on the sledges pre- pared by Tonti. La Salle's party consisted of twenty-three French- men and eighteen Indians. The savages took with them ten squaws and three children, so that the party numbered in all fifty-four persons. They had to make the portage of the Chicago River. After dragging their canoes, sledges, baggage and provisions about eighty leagues. over the ice, on the Desplaines and Illinois Rivers, they came to the great Indian town. It was deserted, the savages having gone down the river to Lake Peoria. From Peoria Lake the navigation was open, and embarking, on the 6th of February, they soon arrived at the Mis- sissippi. Here, owing to floating ice, they were delayed till the 13th of the same month. Membre describes the Missouri as follows : "It is. full as large as the Mississippi, into which it empties, troubling it so that, from the mouth of the Ozage (Missouri), the water is hardly drinkable. The Indians assured us that this river is formed by many others, and that they ascend it for ten or twelve days to a mountain where it rises; that beyond this mountain is the sea, where they see great ships; that on the river are a great number of large villages. Although this river is very large, the Mississippi does not seem aug- mented by it, but it pours in so much mud that, from its mouth, the water of the great river, whose bed is also slimy, is more like clear mud than river water, without changing at all till it reaches the sea, a distance of more than three hundred leagues, although it receives seven large rivers, the water of which is very beautiful, and which are almost. as large as the Mississippi." From this time, until they neared the: mouths of the Mississippi, nothing especially worthy of note occurred. On the 6th of April they came to the place where the river divides. itself into three channels. M. La Salle took the western, the Sieur Dautray the southern, and Tonti, accompanied by Membre, followed the middle channel. The three channels were beautiful and deep. The water became brackish, and two leagues farther it became perfectly salt, and advancing on they at last beheld the Gulf of Mexico. La Salle, in a canoe, coasted the borders of the sea, and then the parties assembled on a dry spot of ground not far from the mouth of the river. On the 9th of April, with all the pomp and ceremony of the Holy Catholic Church, La Salle, in the name of the French King, took pos- session of the Mississippi and all its tributaries. First they chanted the " Vexilla Regis" and "Te Deum," and then, while the assembled voyageurs and their savage attendants fired their muskets and shouted " Vive le Roi," La Salle planted the column, at the same time pro- claiming, in a loud voice, "In the name of the Most High, Mighty,

TAKING POSSESSION OF LOUISIANA.

Invincible, and Victorious Prince, Louis the Great, by the Grace of God King of France and of Navarre, Fourteenth of that name, I, this 9th day of April, one thousand six hundred and eighty-two, in virtue of the commission of His Majesty, which I hold in my hand, and which may be seen by all whom it may concern, have taken, and do now take, in the name of His Majesty and his successors to the crown, posses- sion of this country of Louisiana, the seas, harbors, ports, bays, adjacent straits, and all the people, nations, provinces, cities, towns, villages, mines, minerals, fisheries, streams and rivers within the extent of the said Louisiana, from the mouth of the great river St. Louis, otherwise called Ohio, as also along the river Colbert, or Mississippi, and the rivers which discharge themselves therein, from its source beyond the country of the Nadonessious (Sioux), as far as its mouth at the sea, and also to the mouth of the river of Palms, upon the assurance we have had from the natives of these countries that we were the first Europeans who have descended or ascended the river Colbert (Missis- sippi) ; hereby protesting against all who may hereafter undertake to invade any or all of these aforesaid countries, peoples or lands, to the prejudice of His Majesty, acquired by the consent of the nations dwelling herein. Of which, and of all else that is needful, I hereby take to witness those who hear mne, and demand an act of the notary here present."

At the foot of the tree to which the cross was attached La Salle caused to be buried a leaden plate, on one side of which were engraven the arms of France, and on the opposite, the following Latin inscription:

LUDOVICUS MAGNUS REGNAT. NONO APRILIS CIO IOC LXXXII.

ROBERTVS CAVALIER, CVM DOMINO DETONTI LEGATO, R. P. ZENOBIO MEMBRE, RECCOLLECTO, ET VIGINTI GALLIS PRIMVS HOC FLVMEN, INDE AB ILINEORVM PAGO ENAVAGAVIT, EZVQUE OSTIVM FECIT PERVIVM, NONO APRILIS ANNI.

CIO IOC LXXXI.

NOTE .- The following is a translation of the inscription on the leaden plate:

" Louis the Great reigns.

"Robert Cavalier, with Lord Tonti as Lieutenant, R. P. Zenobe Membre, Recollect, and twenty Frenchmen, first navigated this stream from the country of the Illinois, and also passed through its mouth, on the 9th of April, 1682."

After which, La Salle remarked that His Majesty, who was the eldest son of the Holy Catholic Church, would not annex any country to his dominion without giving especial attention to establish the

HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

Christian religion therein. He then proceeded at once to erect a cross, before which the "Vexilla" and "Domine Salvum fac Regem" were sung. The ceremony was concluded by shouting "Vive le Roi!"

Thus was completed the discovery and taking possession of the Mississippi valley. By that indisputable title, the right of discovery, attested by all those formalities recognized as essential by the laws of nations, the manuscript evidence of which was duly certified by a no- tary public brought along for that purpose, and witnessed by the sig- natures of La Salle and a number of other persons present on the occa- sion, France became the owner of all that vast country drained by the Mississippi and its tributaries. Bounded by the Alleghanies on the east, and the Rocky Mountains on the west, and extending from an undefined limit on the north to the burning sands of the Gulf on the south. Embracing within its area every variety of climate, watered with a thousand beautiful streams, containing vast prairies and exten- sive forests, with a rich and fertile soil that only awaited the husband- man's skill to yield bountiful harvests, rich in vast beds of bituminous. coal and deposits of iron, copper and other ores, this magnificent domain was not to become the seat of a religious dogma, enforced by the power of state, but was designed under the hand of God to become the center of civilization,-the heart of the American republic,-where. the right of conscience was to be free, without interference of law, and where universal liberty should only be restrained in so far as its unre- strained exercise might conflict with its equal enjoyment by all.

Had France, with the same energy she displayed in discovering Louisiana, retained her grasp upon this territory, the dominant race in the valley of the Mississippi would have been Gallic instead of Anglo- Saxon.

The manner in which France lost this possession in America will be referred to in a subsequent chapter.

CHAPTER XI.

LA SALLE'S RETURN, AND HIS DEATH IN ATTEMPTING A SETTLEMENT ON THE GULF.

LA SALLE and his party returned up the Mississippi. Before they reached Chickasaw Bluffs, La Salle was taken dangerously ill.

Dispatching Tonti ahead to Mackinaw, he remained there under the care of Father Membre. About the end of July he was enabled to proceed, and joined Tonti at Mackinaw, in September. Owing to the threatened invasion of the Iroquois, La Salle postponed his projected trip to France, and passed the winter at Fort St. Louis. From Fort St. Louis, it would seem, La Salle directed a letter to Count Frontenac, giving an account of his voyage to the Mississippi. It is short and his- torically interesting, and was first published in that rare little volume, Thevenot's "Collection of Voyages," published at Paris in 1687. This letter contains, perhaps, the first description of Chicago Creek and the harbor, and as everything pertaining to Chicago of a historical charac- ter is a matter of public interest, we insert La Salle's account. It seems that, even at that early day, almost two centuries ago, the idea of a canal connecting Lake Michigan and the Illinois was a subject of consideration :

" The creek (Chicago Creek) through which we went, from the lake of the Illinois into the Divine River (the Au Plein, or Des Plaines) is so shallow and so greatly exposed to storms that no ship can venture in except in a great calm. Neither is the country between the creek and the Divine River suitable for a canal ; for the prairies between them are submerged after heavy rains, and a canal would be immedi- ately filled up with sand. Besides this, it is not possible to dig into the ground on account of the water, that country being nothing but a marsh. Supposing it were possible, however, to cut a canal, it would be useless, as the Divine River is not navigable for forty leagues together ; that is to say, from that place (the portage) to the village of the Illinois, except for canoes, and these have scarcely water enough in summer time."

The identity of the " River Chicago," of early explorers, with the modern stream of the same name, is clearly established by the map of Franquelin of 1684, as well, also, as by the Memoir of Sieur de Tonti.

HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

The latter had occasion to pass through the Chicago River more fre- quently than any other person of his time, and his intimate acquaint- ance with the Indians in the vicinity would necessarily place his decla- rations beyond the suspicion of a mistake. Referring to his being sent in the fall of 1687, by La Salle, from Fort Miamis, at the mouth of the St. Joseph, to Chicago, already alluded to, he says: "We went in canoes to the ' River Chicago,' where there is a portage which joins that of the Illinois." *

The name of this river is variously spelled by early writers, " Chi- cagon,"+ "Che-ka-kou," # "Chikgoua."§ In the prevailing Algonquin language the word signifies a polecat or skunk. The Aborigines, also, called garlic by nearly the same word, from which many authors have inferred that Chicago means "wild onion." |

While La Salle was in the west, Count Frontenac was removed, and M. La Barre appointed Governor of Canada. The latter was the avowed enemy of La Salle. He injured La Salle in every possible

* Tonti's Memoir, published in the Historical Collections of Louisiana, vol. 1, p. 59. + Joutel's Journal.

Į La Hontan.

Father Gravier's Narrative Journal, published in Dr. Shea's "Voyages Up and Down the Mississippi."

|| A writer of a historical sketch, published in a late number of "Potter's Monthly," on the isolated statement of an old resident of western Michigan, says that the Indi- ans living thereabouts subsequent to the advent of the early settlers called Chicago "Tuck-Chicago," the meaning of which was, "a place without wood," and thus in- vesting a mere fancy with the dignity of truth. The great city of the west has taken its name from the stream along whose margin it was first laid out, and it becomes im- portant to preserve the origin of its name with whatever certainty a research of all accessible authorities may furnish. In the first place, Chicago was not a place "with- out wood," or trees; on the contrary, it is the only locality where timber was anything like abundant for the distance of miles around. The north and south branches west- ward, and the lake on the east, afforded ample protection against prairie fires; and Dr. John M. Peck, in his early Gazetteer of the state, besides other authorities, especially mention the fact that there was a good quality of timber in the vicinity of Chicago, particularly on the north branch. There is nowhere to be found in the several Indian vocabularies of Sir Alexander Mackenzie. Dr. Edwin James, and the late Albert Gal- latin, in their extensive collections of Algonquin words, any expressions like those used by the writer in Potter's Monthly, bearing the signification which he attaches to them. In Mackenzie's Vocabulary, the Algonquin word for polecat is "Shi-kak." In Dr. James' Vocabulary, the word for skunk is "She-gahg (shegag); and Shig-gau-ga-win- zheeg is the plural for onion or garlic, literally, in the Indian dialect, "skunk-weeds." Dr. James, in a foot-note, says that from this word in the singular number. some have derived the name Chi-ka-go, which is commonly pronounced among the Indians, Shig- gau-go, and Shi-gau-go-ong (meaning) at Chicago.

An association of English traders, styling themselves the " Illinois Land Compa- ny," on the 5th of July, 1773, obtained from ten chiefs of the Kaskaskia. Cahokia and Peoria tribes, a deed for two large tracts of land. The second tract. in the description of its boundaries, contains the following expression: "and thence up the Illinois River, by the several courses thereof, to Chicago, or Garlic Creek; " and it may safely be as- sumed that the parties to the deed knew the names given to identify the grant. Were an additional reference necessary. "Wau Bun," the valuable work of Mrs. Jolın H. Kinzie, might also be cited, p. 190. The Iroquois, who mnade frequent predatory excursions from their homes in New York to the Illinois country, called Chicago Kan- era-ghik; vide Cadwalder Colden's "History of the Five Nations."

MISFORTUNES OF LA SALLE'S COLONY.

way, and finally seized upon Fort Frontenac. To obtain redress, La- Salle went to France, reaching Rochelle on the 13th of December, 1683. Seignelay (young Colbert), Secretary of State and Minister of the Marine, was appealed to by La Salle, and became interested and furnished him timely aid in his enterprise.

Before leaving America La Salle ordered Tonti to proceed and finish "Fort St. Louis," as the fortification at Starved Rock, on the Illinois River, was named. " He charged me," says Tonti, " with the duty to go and finislı Fort St. Louis, of which he gave me the government, with full power to dispose of the lands in the neighborhood, and left all his people under my command, with the exception of six French- men, whom he took to accompany liim to Quebec. We departed from Mackinaw on the same day, he for Canada and I for the Illinois .* On his mission to France La Salle was received with honor by the king and his officers, and the accounts which he gave relative to Louisiana caused them to further his plans for its colonization. A squadron of four vessels was fitted out, the largest carrying thirty-six guns. About two hundred persons were embarked aboard of them for the purpose long projected, as we have foreseen, of establishing a settlement at the moutlı of the Mississippi. The fleet was under the command of M. de Beaujeu, a naval officer of some distinction. He was punctilious in the exercise of authority, and had a wiry, nervous organization, as the portrait preserved of him clearly shows.+ La Salle was austere, and lacked that faculty of getting along with men, for the want of which many of his best-laid plans failed. A constant bickering and collision of cross purposes was the natural result of such repellant natures as he and Beaujeu possessed.

After a stormy passage of the Atlantic, the fleet entered the Gulf of Mexico. Coasting along the northern shore of the gulf, they failed to discover the mouths of the Mississippi. Passing them, they finally landed in what is now known as Matagorda Bay, or the Bay of St. Barnard, near the River Colorado, in Texas, more than a hundred leagues westward of the Mississippi. The whole number of persons left on the beach is not definitely known. M. Joutel, one of the sur- vivors, and the chronicler of this unfortunate undertaking, mentions one hundred and eighty, besides the crew of the "Belle," which was lost on the beach, consisting of soldiers, volunteers, workmen, women and children .¿ The colony being in a destitute condition, La Salle,

* Tonti's Memoir.

+ A fine steel engraving copy of Mons. Beaujeu is contained in Dr. Shea's transla- tion of Charlevoix's " History of New France.'

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History of Iroquois County, together with Historic notes on the Northwest, gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and other authentic, though, for the most part, out-of-the-way sources, Part 9

Author: Beckwith, H. W. (Hiram Williams), 1833-1903 Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Chicago : H.H. Hill and Co. Number of Pages: 1180

Author: Beckwith, H. W. (Hiram Williams), 1833-1903
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago : H.H. Hill and Co.
Number of Pages: 1180