History of La Salle County, Illinois, Part 4

Author: Hoffman, U. J. (Urias John), b. 1855
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: Chicago : S.J. Clarke Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1286

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FORT CREVE COEUR.

When the Indians saw the long line of canoes coming down the river they were much fright- ened. The men took up their weapons, the women and children hid themselves. The men made ready to fight. But when La Salle stepped on shore unarmed they saw he meant no harm. They came forward and offered the peace pipe. They held a council. La Salle explained that he had come into their territory to trade for their furs, that he woud come in ships bringing the things such as guns, powder, axes, clothing and anything that they wanted. If they would allow him to build a fort in their country he would bring soldiers and help them to drive off the Iroquois who so often came to fight them. The Indians seemed to be well pleased. But La Salle was afraid they were not sincere. He thought. too, his enemies had sent agents to stir up the wrath of the Indians against him. Two of his men, the ones who understood sawing boards out of trees, one night deserted him. The In- dians told them it was too dangerous to go down the Mississippi for he would surely be murdered by the bad Indians along its banks. The men heard this and they were so frightened that they refused to go farther.

La Salle now decided to build a fort and began it at once. He called it Creve Coeur, which means Heart Break, because of the deep disap- pointments which he had suffered. He had not heard from the men he left at Fort Miamis nor from the Griffin. He expected her to bring sup- plies of goods, tools and materials for ship build- ing. This long delay made him suspect that she had been lost in a storm. He knew that his many enemies would do him all the harm in their power. So he left the trustworthy Tonti in charge of Fort Creve Cœur and instructed him to build a large boat for service on the Mississippi and Illinois rivers.

He sent Father Hennepin and two others to explore the upper Mississippi and he and a few men started back to Canada to see what had become of the Griffin. When he passed the Great Rock he took note of what a fine place it was for a fort. Its walls were about 140 feet straight up from the water on three sides. Its top could be reached only by a difficult climb on the fourth side. The top covers about an acre and was covered with trees. When he reached Fort Miamis he sent a man back to tell Tonti that if he got into trouble with the Indians and could not hold Creve Cœur, he should go to the Rock and build a fort.

TONTI ON THE ILLINOIS.

While Tonti was away from Fort Creve Cœur at the Great Rock to see how a fort might be built there, his men at Fort Creve Cœur destroyed the fort, stole all the things they could carry with them and deserted. When he returned he found only the two priests and three men remaining faithful to him. They took what few things were left and departed for the Great Rock. They were gladly received by the Kaskaskians.

Soon after Tonti and his five Frenchmen ar- rived the Indians were greatly frightened by the appearance of a war party of Iroquois numbering six hundred. Because La Salle had gone to Can- ada and his men had deserted Fort Creve Cœur they thought Tonti had betrayed them to their enemies, the Iroquois. They bitterly reproached him for his conduct. To prove to them that he was their friend, when the fighting had al- ready begun, he and one Illinois went over to the Iroquois with presents and a flag of truce. Tonti was dark complexioned and dressed like an Indian and they did not recognize him as a white man. They shot at him as he came in sight, but as he was unarmed they caught him and carried him to the chiefs. One Indian stabbed him in the breast and if the knife had not struck a rib it would have entered his heart. Another caught him by the hair and made as if he would take his scalp. All the time they were dancing about him and yelling their fiercest war whoops. One of the chiefs noticed that Tonti's ears were pierced. By this he knew that he was a French- man. He made the warriors quiet down and treat him respectfully.

Tonti reminded them that they had made peace with the Governor of Canada, that La Salle was the governor of this country and under the pro- tection of the governor of Canada. He expressed his surprise that they should go to war with the Illinois, who were the friends of the French. In this way they broke the peace with the French and

PAST AND PRESENT OF LA SALLE COUNTY.

might expect to be punished. Tonti was succeed- ing in persuading them not to fight the Illinois. Just then some Iroquois came and said that they were shot at by Frenchmen who were with the Illinois. This spoiled everything and some of the chiefs were in favor of killing him on the spot, but another chief favored setting him at liberty and he had his way.

But the purpose was to deceive the Illinois. By making them a present they expected to throw them off their guard. Tonti had great difficulty to get back to the Illinois, for he had lost much blood from his wound. The priests were over- joyed to see them return, for they thought he had been killed. He told the Illinois that they could not trust the Iroquois and that they would better go to some distant nation out of reach of their enemies. They then went to an island sev- eral miles down the river where their women and children had gone a few days before. The Iroquois then moved into the Illinois village and the French lived in one of the huts.

They were going to make a treaty of peace with the Illinois, but when some of the Iro- quois visited them on their island they found that there were only a small number of them and no Frenchmen. This changed their minds and now they meant to destroy them. This is the way Tonti tells what happened next.

"The eighth day of their arrival, the 18th of September, the Iroquois called me and Father Zenoble to council, and having made me sit down, they placed six packets of beaver skins before us and addressing me they said that the two first packets were to inform M. de Frontenac that they would not eat his children (the Illinois) and that he should not be angry at what they had done; the third packet was a plaster for my wound; the fourth was some oil to rub on my own and Father Zenoble's limbs on account of the long journey we had taken; the fifth was to show us that the sun was bright; the sixth was to tell us that we should profit by it and depart the next day for the French settlement." (The Indians made presents and each present meant something.) "I asked them when they would go away themselves. Murmers arose, and some of them said that they would eat some of the Illinois before they went away ; upon which I kicked away their presents saying that I would have none of them since they desired to eat children of the Governor. The chiefs then arose and drove me from the council.

"We then went to our cabin, where we passed the night on our guard, resolved to kill some of them before they should kill us, for we thought that we should not live out the night."

At day break they started off in leaky canoes

up the river. They were much in fear that the Iroquois were following them. One day while they were mending their canoes, Father Gabriel went into the woods to pray. He never came back. They hunted for him several days but had to go on without him. Their canoes gave out entirely and they had to go on foot toward Green Bay. They nearly starved and would have perished had some Indians not taken pity on them. They spent the winter at Green Bay, Father Zenoble with the Jesuits, and Tonti with the Indians.

LA SALLE RETURNS TO ILLINOIS.

We left La Salle at Fort Miamis on his journey to Canada to learn the fate of his ship, the Griffin, and to get more help to explore and settle the country. He went on foot from the mouth of the St. Joseph to Lake Erie and along the shore. Then he learned that the Griffin had not been heard of and must have been lost. His enemies had done him much harm. But these things could not break his courage. He gathered what sup- plies he could and started back to Illinois.

He left five men at Fort Miamis and with six white men and an Indian he started down the Kankakee, November, 1680. At this very time Tonti was footing it up the west side of Lake Michigan toward Green Bay. La Salle was as- tonished and grieved to find that the Indians' village at the Rock was entirely destroyed. No human being was in sight and the Rock where he expected to find a fort and Tonti and his men was desolate. Dead bodies were scattered all about. They spent some time trying to find some trace of white men but finding none, they had hopes that their friends were safe. But they saw that an awful tragedy had taken place. When he arrived at Fort Creve Coeur he was horrified to find that it was in ruins. The ship which he left them building was in pieces, the Indians having taken every piece of iron in it. Not a sign was left as to what had become of Tonti and his men. No Indians were in sight from whom they could learn what had become of his friends. But they pushed on down the river. Some distance below Fort Creve Cœur they found where the Iroquois had destroyed the Illinois. Men, women and children had been most cruelly butchered. Sick at heart they con- tinued on until they came to the Mississippi. This was La Salle's first view of the great river.

It was useless for him to sail down the Missis- sippi with his little company. So he wrote a letter to Tonti, nailed it to a tree where he would be sure to see it should he come that way. This was in 1680 and we know Tonti was then at Green Bay.

PAST AND PRESENT OF LA SALLE COUNTY.

LA SALLE'S GREAT CONFEDERATION.

La Salle hurried back as fast as he could to Fort Miamis. Here he found that his men had done their duty. They had strengthened the fort and cleared a plat of ground for planting. They had made friends with the Indians who were living near the fort. He talked with those of several nations not belonging to the Iroquois. The thought came to him that if he could unite all of these nations into one confederacy and put himself at the head of it, he could put a stop to depredations of the Iroquois and not only be safe in the Illinois country but could control the fur trade in all that region.

His plans were well received by the Indian tribes. Toward the end of May, 1681, La Salle arrived at Mackinac on his way to Canada to prepare to carry out his plans for an Indian con- federacy. To his great joy he met Tonti. He had almost given him up as lost. What he learned from him filled his soul with sorrow which, however, was relieved by the fact that his trusted and true friend was yet alive. They made plans to form the confederacy and went to Fort Frontenac for supplies and help.

At the fort they found everything in disorder. La Salle's enemies had increased in number and in bitterness. His creditors clamored for what he owed them. The Jesuits always regarded him with suspicion. The Sulpicians who had looked on him as their ally now hated him. He defied them and this secured the hatred of both orders. He satisfied his creditors by giving them a mort- gage on his estate at Frontenac and also agreed to give them a share of all the profits which he expected to make in his fur trade.

SAILS DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI.

In August, 1681, La Salle with Tonti and fifty- four men started for the Mississippi. They left a few men at Fort Miamis and then separated into two parties. La Salle went down the Kan- kakee and Tonti up the Chicago and down the Des Plaines. It was winter before they got fairly started. They had to put their boats on sleds and drag them over the ice. The two parties met on the Illinois but they had to drag their sleds all the way over the ice to Fort Creve Cœur. Here they found open water and sailed down the river. In February of 1682, they reached the Mississippi. In March they reached the Arkansas river. Here they planted a cross, hoisted the flag of France and formally took possession of the country for King Louis XIV of France.

On the 9th of April, 1682, they arrived at the mouth of the river in the Gulf of Mexico. They were the first white men to sail from the Illinois river to the gulf. La Salle planted a cross. At its foot he buried a lead plate on which was engraved the arms of France and the sentence, "Louis the Great reigns." He named the country Louisiana in honor of the King.

FORT ST. LOUIS OF THE ROCK.

On the homeward journey from the mouth of the Mississippi La Salle was taken very ill and for forty days he was in danger of losing his life. He meant to go to Frontenac and to France but this sickness delayed him. He now determined to fortify the Great Rock and complete his league of Indian nations.

In the spring of 1682 he sent Tonti with a strong force of men and supplies to build the fort. The rock is a natural fortification. It took but little to make it so strong that the In- dians could never take it with the weapons which they had. The river valley is wide and as it overflows in the spring, the water leaving before the first of June, it forms a perfect field for plant- ing corn. Here La Salle expected to gather all the Indians for a hundred miles around and pro- tect them against their enemies. This was to be a trading post where all the furs of the region would be brought for sale to the French, and could then be loaded into ships, sent down the river to the Gulf and direct to France. With the Indians living here in peace it would be an easy matter for the missionaries to preach to them and, as they hoped, to convert and civilize them.

The Indians came in great numbers. six thousand Illinois who had been scattered by the Iroquois, also Shawnees from the Wabash, and Miamis from Lake Michigan. In four months more than twenty thousand Indians had built their cabins near Fort St. Louis of the Rock. Among them were over four thousand warriors.

Tonti built his fort and expected La Salle to come up the river from the mouth of the Mis- sissippi. The Iroquois came expecting to drive them out of the country. But Tonti defeated them with great loss. He then led an expedition against them in their own country in New York and punished them so badly that they were satis- fied to let them alone. All this time La Salle's enemies in Canada were busy and gave a great deal of trouble, but Tonti guarded the interests of his chief and friend. As La Salle did not come and as he had heard of his being lost somewhere on the Gulf of Mexico he started down the river to find him.

PAST AND PRESENT OF LA SALLE COUNTY.

THE SAD ENDING OF A GREAT LIFE.

After La Salle had sent Tonti to the Great Rock to build Fort St. Louis, he went to Canada only to find that his friend Frontenac had been superseded as governor by another who was La Salle's bitter enemy. His property at Fort Frontenac had been taken from him and his priv- iliges in the Illinois country had been withdrawn. Thus stripped of all power he had either to give up or take his case to the King of France. He went to France and stated his case to Louis XIV, who was so well pleased with La Salle's plans that he gave him all that he asked.

In the summer of 1684 four ships were given him to go up the Mississippi to establish forts and trading posts in Louisiana. There were two hundred and eighty persons, a hundred of them were soldiers. One of the ships was captured by the Spaniards who were at war with the French. In January of 1685 the three ships ar- rived in the Gulf of Mexico. As La Salle had not taken the longitude of the mouth of the river, he did not know exactly where it was. He sailed by it and landed far to the west at the place now called Matagorda Bay. One of the ships de- serted him and sailed away. While he was build- ing a fort the other ship was hunting for the mouth of the river and was wrecked.

The colonists were in great want and blamed La Salle for all their misfortunes. He now started in canoes to find the mouth but in four months returned, not being successful and having lost twelve men.

In April of 1686 he started northward with twenty men, hoping to reach Fort St. Louis by land. They pressed on until all their powder was used up and then returned to the fort. Half of those who started with him had been killed. There were now only forty-five persons alive of those who came. In January of 1687 La Salle started northward again. It rained much of the time and streams were swollen. The men were discontented and even his best friends began to hold aloof. His nephew and one of his most faithful Indians were murdered. One day some of the company lurked in the grass and when La Salle came along they shot him dead. Soon they were quarreling among themselves. Seven of them took all the goods they could and went westward to live with the Indians. The rest. among them a brother of La Salle, kept on north- ward until they came to the Arkansas River and at its mouth they found several Frenchmen who had been left there by Tonti when he went in search of La Salle. In the fall they reached Fort St. Louis of the Rock. But Tonti had gone to Canada. They met him at Fort Miamis.

They were so much afraid that even La Salle's brother did not tell him of La Salle's death. When he arrived in France he told of his death. When Tonti heard the true story he started from Fort St. Louis to find the men left by LaSalle. When he reached the Red River six men deserted him and having lost his powder he had to return.

Thus ended one of the greatest lives in the history of the new world; thus ended in disaster the most heroic effort to achieve one of the great- est ends ever conceived in the mind of a great man. La Salle's body rests somewhere in the soil of Texas and his plan to settle the Missisippi valley came to naught.

THE FATE OF FORT ST. LOUIS OF THE ROCK.

After the death of La Salle, Tonti received a grant of the land about the fort, and the privilege of the fur trade. He occupied the land and was in command of the fort until 1702, when he went to the Gulf of Mexico or Mobile Bay, where he died in 1704.

After this the French seem to have abandoned the route from Canada to Louisiana by way of Illinois. They followed the route marked out by Joliet and Marquette from Green Bay down the Wisconsin. Catholic missionaries sometimes came into the valley but they could do nothing, the Indians remembering the failure of La Salle's plans to help them. The English traders came among them and made them suspicious of the French. It seems that the Englishman's fire water had more attraction for them than the Frenchman's religion. For more than a hun- dred years, from 1702 to 1820, white men seldom came into the valley of the Illinois.

The Indians fought each other. All seem to have hated the Illinois. Illinois in the Indian language means "Perfect men." They regarded other men as beasts. They were more gentle and humane than the others. But being less sav- age they were not as strenuous warriors and were despised as cowards. The Catholic missionaries had greater success among them than among others. This made them still less warlike. When the French abandoned the Illinois valley most or all of the Illinois who lived near the Rock who called themselves Kaskaskians, abandoned their old home and went with the French to their mis- sion in the southern part of the state. They named their new home and river Kaskaskia in memory of their old one on the Illinois.

THE LEGEND OF STARVED ROCK.

Comparatively very little is now known of the Indian history of northern Illinois after the

PAST AND PRESENT OF LA SALLE COUNTY.

French abandoned the valley of the Illinois about 1700. At that time the Illinois Indians occupied nearly all the state. The fierce Iroquois came from the east and struck them a terrible blow just before the French left the Illinois valley for the Mississippi. The remnant of the Kaskas- kia followed the French to the new Kaskaskia. At that time the Pottowatomies were found about Green Bay in Wisconsin and farther north. They seem to have gradually pushed southward be- tween the Rock River on the west and the lake on the east. They also occupied Michigan and northern Indiana. The Ottawas came from Can- ada and were closely allied with them, so closely that at last they were one people.

The Illinois made the Illinois River their line of defense. There was a fort at Joliet and Mar- seilles, Starved Rock and Peoria. The remains of these were in evidence only a few years ago.

After the close of the French and Indian war when England wrested Canada and the territory between the Ohio and the Mississippi from the French, Pontiac, a great chief of the Ottawas, formed a confederacy of Indians and tried to drive the English out of the western territory. He was defeated in this at Detroit in 1763. Parkman says Pontiac was murdered at Cahokia in 1768. But there is stronger evidence that he was assassinated on the Mound at Joliet, by a chief of the Illinois tribe named Kinneboo. To avenge the death of Pontiac the allied tribes of the Pottowatomies and Ottawas entered upon a war of extermination against the Illinois.

Of the details of this war, history is silent. We know that the Illinois Indians disappeared ex- cept the Kaskaskias who dwelled under the pro- tection of the French and who were no longer closely associated with the less civilized of their own tribe. Judge J. D. Caton vouches for prob- ably the most authentic of the final disastrous struggle. He was personally acquainted with a chief named Meachelle who claimed that he was present at the siege of Starved Rock. The tra- dition was universal among the Pottowatomies when the Americans came to northern Illinois.

The Illinois made a desperate struggle to hold their territory south of the river. But it was all in vain. Nearly a hundred years before the Iroquois had struck them a terrible blow from which they could not recover. Their contact with white men weakened them. The Pottowa- tomies and Ottawas gradually crowded in from the north and the east and the Kickapoos on the south. At last they were driven to their stronghold, the rock which had formerly been fortified by La Salle and Tonti. This is a sand rock about 140 feet high. It covers about an acre of ground and

its walls are perpendicular except the side facing the south which is a steep slope. The Illinois River washed it on the north. Slight earth works thrown up on its edge made it impregnable to a foe, however numerous, armed with the Indian weapons of that time. The remains of the earth works are still visible. On this rock the last of the Illinois took refuge. They must have been reduced to a few hundred. They could take little provision with them and for water they were dependent on what they could draw up from the river. one hundred forty feet below. The enemy did not try to take the rock by as- sault, for a half dozen men could destroy them as fast as they could ascend the steep rock. They simply waited to let starvation do its work. It was just as dangerous for the Illinois to come down as it was for their enemies to go up. Even their water supply was cut off, for the enemy stationed themselves under the projecting rocks along the river and when the vessel was lowered for water it was seized by those hidden below.

The beseiged very well knew that they would receive no mercy at the hands of their foe. To submit and beg for quarters was foreign to their nature. Famine, thirst and disease did their hor- rid work. Only a few were left and so weak- ened that they were no match for the hundreds who waited for them below.

One dark night when a storm was raging the remnant descended, determined to meet the foe though certain death awaited them. In the un- equal conflict eleven slipped through the lines and made their way down the river. In the morning the canoes were missing and the victors knew that some had escaped. Pursuit was at once made but the Illinois had too great a start to be overtaken. They arrived at St. Louis, where they were cared for by white men' until their kinsmen about Kaskaskia gave them shelter. Thus practically perished the once proud Illinois, who in the days of Father Marquette controlled this country and who justified the proud boast that they were the Illini-perfect men.

After this the Indians called the place Starved Rock and this has ever since been its name. It is the historic spot of greatest significance in northern Illinois. It was here that Father Mar- quette found rest and encouragement among the well disposed Illinois. It was to this spot that he later came and sacrificed his life in found- ing the "Mission of Immaculate Conception among the Kaskaskias." Here was the "habita- tion and place" of LaSalle's dream of a great empire of the French of the new world. Here the heroic and faithful Tonti built Fort St. Louis of the Rock and a tradition says that it was

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STARVED ROCK.

PAST AND PRESENT OF LA SALLE COUNTY.

to this spot that he returned an old man and his weary frame was laid to rest on the high ground west of the rock. The region is not only rich in historic associations, it is most beautiful and picturesque, a fit place for a park for historic purposes. Here should be located a historic museum and library. A great summer school might be established here similar to Chautauqua, New York, or Winona Lake, Indiana, combining recreation and study.

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History of La Salle County, Illinois, Part 4

Author: Hoffman, U. J. (Urias John), b. 1855 Publication date: 1906 Publisher: Chicago : S.J. Clarke Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1286

Author: Hoffman, U. J. (Urias John), b. 1855
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: Chicago : S.J. Clarke Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1286