History of Vermilion 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 5

Author: Beckwith, H. W. (Hiram Williams), 1833-1903
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Chicago : H. H. Hill and Company
Number of Pages: 1164

USA > Illinois > Vermilion County > History of Vermilion 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 5

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

* Paris Documents, vol. 9, p. 92.

SPANISH EXPLORATIONS.

tained from the Indians relating to the countries to be explored, and also because, as he wrote Father Dablon, his superior, when informed by the latter that he was to be Joliet's companion, "I am ready to go on your order to seek new nations toward the South Sea, and teach them of our great God whom they hitherto have not known."

The voyage of Joliet and Marquette is so interesting that we intro- duce extracts from Father Marquette's journal. The version we adopt is Father Marquette's original journal, prepared for publication by his superior, Father Dablon, and which lay in manuscript at Quebec, among the archives of the Jesuits, until 1852, when it, together with Father Marquette's original map, were brought to light, translated into Eng- lish, and published by Dr. John G. Shea, in his " Discovery and Explo- ration of the Mississippi." The version commonly sanctioned was Marquette's narrative sent to the French government, where it lay unpublished until it came into the hands of M. Thevenot, who printed it at Paris, in a book issued by him in 1681, called "Receuil de Voy- ages." This account differs somewhat, though not essentially, from the narrative as published by Dr. Shea.

Before proceeding farther, however, we will turn aside a moment to note the fact that Spain had a prior right over France to the Missis- sippi Valley by virtue of previous discovery. As early as the year 1525, Cortez had conquered Mexico, portioned out its rich mines among his favorites and reduced the inoffensive inhabitants to the worst of slavery, making them till the ground and toil in the mines for their unfeeling masters. A few years following the conquest of Mexico, the Spaniards, under Pamphilus de Narvaez, in 1528, undertook to conquer and colonize Florida and the entire northern coast-line of the Gulf. After long and fruitless wanderings in the interior, his party returned to the sea-coast and endeavored to reach Tampico, in wretched boats. Nearly all perished by storm, disease or famine. The survivors, with one Cabeza de Vaca at their head, drifted to an island near the present state of Mississippi; from which, after four years of slavery, De Vaca, with four companions, escaped to the mainland and started westward, going clear across the continent to the Gulf of California. The natives took them for supernatural beings. They assumed the guise of jugglers, and the Indian tribes, through which they passed, invested them with the title of medicine-men, and their lives were thus guarded with superstitious awe. They are, perhaps, the first Europeans who ever went overland from the Atlantic to the Pacific. They must have crossed the Great River somewhere on their route, and, says Dr. Shea, "remain in history, in a distant twilight, as the first Europeans known to have stood on the banks of the Mississippi." In 1539,

HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

Hernando de Soto, with a party of cavaliers, most of them sons of titled nobility, landed with their horses upon the coast of Florida. During that and the following four years, these daring adventurers wandered through the wilderness, traveling in portions of Florida, Carolina, the northern parts of Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, crossing the Mississippi, as is supposed, as high up as White River, and going still westward to the base of the Rocky Mountains, vainly searching for the rich gold mines of which De Vaca had given marvel- ous accounts. De Soto's party endured hardships that would depress the stoutest heart, while, with fire and sword, they perpetrated atrocities upon the Indian tribes through which they passed, burning their villages and inflicting cruelties which make us blush for the wicked- ness of men claiming to be christians. De Soto died, in May or June, 1542, on the banks of the Mississippi, below the mouth of the Washita, and his immediate attendants concealed his death from the others and secretly, in the night, buried his body in the middle of the stream. The remnant of his survivors went westward and then returned back again to the river, passing the winter upon its banks. The following spring they went down the river, in seven boats which they had rudely constructed out of such scanty material and with the few tools they could command. In these, after a three months' voyage, they arrived at the Spanish town of Panuco, on the river of that name in Mexico.

Later, in 1565, Spain, failing in previous attempts, effected a lodg- ment in Florida, and for the protection of her colony built the fort at St. Augustine, whose ancient ruin, still standing, is an object of curi- osity to the health-seeker and a monument to the hundreds of native Indians who, reduced to bondage by their Spanish conquerors, perished, after years of unrequited labor, in erecting its frowning walls and gloomy dungeons.

While Spain retained her hold upon Mexico and enlarged her posses- sions, and continued, with feebler efforts, to keep possession of the Floridas, she took no measures to establish settlements along the Mis- sissippi or to avail herself of the advantage that might have resulted from its discovery. The Great River excited no further notice after De Soto's time. For the next hundred years it remained as it were a sealed mystery until the French, approaching from the north by way of the lakes, explored it in its entire length, and brought to public light the vast extent and wonderful fertility of its valleys. Resuming the thread of our history at the place where we turned aside to notice the movements of the Spanish toward the Gulf. we now pro- ceed with the extracts from Father Marquette's journal of the voyage of discovery down the Mississippi.

CHAPTER VII.

JOLIET AND MARQUETTE'S VOYAGE.

THE day of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin, whom I had always invoked, since I have been in this Ottawa country, to obtain of God the grace to be able to visit the nations on the River Mississippi, was identically that on which M. Jollyet arrived with orders of the Comte de Frontenac, our governor, and M. Talon, our intendant, to make this discovery with me. I was the more enraptured at this good news, as I saw my designs on the point of being accom- plished, and myself in the happy necessity of exposing my life for the salvation of all these nations, and particularly for the Illinois, who had, when I was at Lapointe du Esprit, very earnestly entreated me to carry the word of God to their country."

"We were not long in preparing our outfit, although we were embarking on a voyage the duration of which we could not foresee. Indian corn, with some dried meats, was our whole stock of provisions. With this we set out in two bark canoes, M. Jollyet, myself and five men, firmly resolved to do all and suffer all for so glorious an enterprise."

"It was on the 17th of May, 1673, that we started from the mission of St. Ignatius, at Michilimakinac, where I then was."*

" Our joy at being chosen for this expedition roused our courage and sweetened the labor of rowing from morning to night. As we were going to seek unknown countries, we took all possible precau- tions that, if our enterprise was hazardous, it should not be foolhardy ; for this reason we gathered all possible information from the Indians who had frequented those parts, and even from their accounts, traced a map of all the new country, marking down the rivers 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."

"Above all, I put our voyage under the protection of the Blessed Virgin Immaculate, promising her that, if she did us the grace to dis- cover the Great River, I would give it the name of the conception ;

* St. Ignatius was not on the Island of Mackinaw, but westward of it, on a point of land extending into the strait, from the north shore, laid down on modern maps as "Point St. Ignace." On this bleak, exposed and barren spot this mission was estab- lished by Marquette himself in 1671. Shea's Catholic Missions, p. 364.

HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

and that I would also give that name to the first mission I should establish among these new nations, as I have actually done among the Illinois."

After some days they reached an Indian village, and the journal proceeds : " Here we are, then, at the Maskoutens. This word, in Algonquin, may mean Fire Nation, and that is the name given to them. This is the limit of discoveries made by the French, for they have not yet passed beyond it. This town is made up of three nations gathered here, Miamis, Maskoutens and Kikabous .* As bark for cabins, in this country, is rare, they use rushes, which serve them for walls and roofs, but which afford them no protection against the wind, and still less against the rain when it falls in torrents. The advantage of this kind .of cabins is that they can roll them up and carry them easily where they like in hunting time."

" I felt no little pleasure in beholding the position of this town. The view is beautiful and very picturesque, for, from the eminence on which it is perched, the eye discovers on every side prairies spreading away beyond its reach interspersed with thickets or groves of trees. The soil is very good, producing much corn. The Indians gather also quantities of plums and grapes, from which good wine could be made if they choose."

"No sooner had we arrived than M. Jollyet and I assembled the Sachems. He told them that he was sent by our governor to discover new countries, and I by the Almighty to illumine them with the light of the gospel ; that the Sovereign Master of our lives wished to be known to all nations, and that to obey his will I did not fear death, to which I exposed myself in such dangerous voyages; that we needed two gnides to put us on our way; these, making them a present, we begged them to grant us. This they did very civilly, and even pro- ceeded to speak to us by a present, which was a mat to serve us on our voyage."

" The next day, which was the 10th of June, two Miamis whom they had given us as guides embarked with us in the sight of a great crowd, who could not wonder enough to see seven Frenchmen, alone in two canoes, dare to undertake so strange and so hazardous an expe- dition."

" We knew that there was, three leagues from Maskoutens, a river emptying into the Mississippi. We knew, too, that the point of the compass we were to hold to reach it was the west-southwest, but the

* The village was near the mouth of Wolf River, which empties into Winnebago Lake, Wisconsin. The stream was formerly called the Maskouten, and a tribe of this name dwelt along its banks.

MARQUETTE'S VOYAGE.

way is so eut up with marshes and little lakes that it is easy to go astray, especially as the river leading to it is so covered with wild oats that you can hardly discover the channel ; hence we had need of our two guides, who led us safely to a portage of twenty-seven hundred paces and helped us transport our canoes to enter this river, after which they returned, leaving us alone in an unknown country in the hands of Providence."*

" We now leave the waters which flow to Quebec, a distance of four or five hundred leagues, to follow those which will henceforth lead us into strange lands.

" Our route was southwest, and after sailing about thirty leagues we perceived a place which had all the appearances of an iron mine, and in fact one of our party who had seen some before averred that the one we had found was very rich and very good. After forty leagues on this same route we reached the mouth of our river, and finding our- selves at 423° N. we safely entered the Mississippi on the 17th of June with a joy that I cannot express."+

* This portage has given the name to Portage City, Wisconsin, where the upper waters of Fox River, emptying into Green Bay, approach the Wisconsin River, which, coming from the northwest, here changes its course to the southwest. The distance from the Wisconsin to the Fox River at this point is, according to Henry R. School- craft, a mile and a half across a level prairie, and the level of the two streams is so nearly the same that in high water loaded canoes formerly passed from the one to the other across this low prairie. For many miles below the portage the channel of Fox River was choked with a growth of tangled wild rice. The stream frequently expanding into little lakes, and its winding, crooked course through the prairie, well justifies the tradition of the Winnebago Indians concerning its origin. A vast serpent that lived in the waters of the Mississippi took a freak to visit the great lakes ; he left his trail where he crossed over the prairie, which, collecting the waters as they fell from the rains of heaven, at length became Fox River. The little lakes along its course were, prob- ably, the places where he flourished about in his uneasy slumbers at night. Mrs. John H. Kinzie's Waubun, p. 80.

+ Father Marquette, agreeably to his vow, named the river the Immaculate Concep- tion. Nine years later, when Robert La Salle, having discovered the river in its entire length, took possession at its mouth of the whole Mississippi Valley, he named the river Colbert, in honor of the Minister of the Navy, a man renowned alike for his ability, at the head of the Department of the Marine, and for the encouragement he gave to literature, science and art. Still later, in 1712, when the vast country drained by its waters was farmed out to private enterprise, as appears from letters patent from the King of France, conveying the whole to M. Crozat, the name of the river was changed to St. Lewis. Fortunately the Mississippi retains its aboriginal name, which is a com- pound from the two Algonquin words missi, signifying great, and sepe, a river. The former is variously pronounced missil or michil, as in Michilimakinac ; michi, as in Mich- igan ; missu, as in Missouri, and missi, as in the Mississeneway of the Wabash. The variation in pronunciation is not greater than we might expect in an unwritten lan- guage. "The Western Indians," says Mr. Schoolcraft, "have no other word than missi to express the highest degree of magnitude, either in a moral or in a physical sense, and it may be considered as not only synonymous to our word great, but also magnificent, supreme, stupendous, etc." Father Hennepin, who next to Marquette wrote concern- ing the derivation of the name, says : " Mississippi, in the language of the Illinois, means the great river." Some authors, perhaps with more regard for a pleasing fic- tion than plain matter-of-fact. have rendered Mississippi "The Father of Waters;" whereas, nos, noussey and nosha mean father, and neebi, nipi or nepee mean water, as universally in the dialect of Algonquin tribes, as does the word missi mean great and sepi a river.

HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

" Having descended as far as 41º 28', following the same direction, we find that turkeys have taken the place of game, and pisikious (buf- falo) or wild cattle that of other beasts.

" At last, on the 25th of June, we perceived foot-prints of men by the water-side and a beaten path entering a beautiful prairie. We stopped to examine it, and concluding that it was a path leading to some Indian village we resolved to go and reconnoitre ; we accordingly left our two canoes in charge of our people, cautioning them to beware of a surprise ; then M. Jollyet and I undertook this rather hazardous discovery for two single men, who thus put themselves at the mercy of an unknown and barbarous people. We followed the little path in silence, and having advanced about two leagues we discovered a village on the banks of the river, and two others on a hill half a league from the former. Then, indeed, we recommended ourselves to God with all our hearts, and having implored his help we passed on undiscovered, and came so near that we even heard the Indians talking. We then deemed it time to announce ourselves, as we did, by a cry which we raised with all our strength, and then halted, without advancing any farther. At this cry the Indians rushed out of their cabins, and hav- ing probably recognized us as French, especially seeing a black gown, or at least having no reason to distrust us, seeing we were but two and had made known our coming, they deputed four old men to come and speak to us. Two carried tobacco-pipes well adorned and trimmed with many kinds of feathers. They marehed slowly, lifting their pipes toward the sun as if offering them to it to smoke, but yet without uttering a single word. They were a long time coming the little way from the village to us. Having reached us at last, they stopped to con- sider us attentively.

"I now took courage, seeing these ceremonies, which are used by them only with friends, and still more on seeing them covered with stuff's which made me judge them to be allies. I, therefore, spoke to them first, and asked them who they were. They answered that they were Illinois, and in token of peace they presented their pipes to smoke. They then invited us to their village, where all the tribe awaited us with impatience. These pipes for smoking are all called in this country calumets, a word that is so much in use that I shall be obliged to employ it in order to be understood, as I shall have to speak of it frequently.

" At the door of the cabin in which we were to be received was an old man awaiting us in a very remarkable posture, which is their usual ceremony in receiving strangers. This man was standing perfectly naked, with his hands stretched out and raised toward the sun, as if he wished to screen himself from its rays, which, nevertheless, passed

PRESENTATION OF THE CALUMET.

through his fingers to his face. When we came near him he paid us this compliment : 'How beautiful is the sun, O Frenchman, when thou comest to visit us! All our town awaits thee, and thou shalt enter all our cabins in peace.' He then took us into his, where there was a crowd of people, who devoured us with their eyes but kept a profound silence. We heard, however, these words occasionally ad- dressed to us : ' Well done, brothers, to visit us !' As soon as we had taken our places they showed us the usual civility of the country, which is to present the calumet. You must not refuse it unless you would pass for an enemy, or at least for being very impolite. It is, however, enough to pretend to smoke. While all the old men smoked after us to honor us, some came to invite us, on behalf of the great sachem of all the Illinois, to proceed to his town, where he wished to hold a council with ns. We went with a good retinue, for all the people who had never seen a Frenchman among them could not tire looking at us; they threw themselves on the grass by the wayside, they ran ahead, then turned and walked back to see us again. All this was done without noise, and with marks of a great respect entertained for us.

" Having arrived at the great sachem's town, we espied him at his cabin door between two old men ; all three standing naked, with their calumet turned to the sun. He harangued us in a few words, to con- gratulate us on our arrival, and then presented us his calumet and made us smoke; at the same time we entered his cabin, where we received all their usual greetings. Seeing all assembled and in silence, I spoke to them by four presents which I made. By the first, I said that we marched in peace to visit the nations on the river to the sea ; by the second, I declared to them that God, their creator, had pity on them, since, after their having been so long ignorant of him, he wished to become known to all nations; that I was sent on his behalf with this design ; that it was for them to acknowledge and obey him; by the third, that the great chief of the French informed them that he spread peace everywhere, and had overcome the Iroquois ; lastly, by the fourth, we begged them to give us all the information they had of the sea, and of nations through which we should have to pass to reach it.

" When I had finished my speech, the sachem rose, and laying his hand on the head of a little slave whom he was about to give us, spoke thus: ' I thank thee, Black-gown, and thee, Frenchman,' addressing M. Jollyet, ' for taking so much pains to come and visit us. Never has the earth been so beautiful, nor the sun so bright, as to-day ; never has our river been so calm, nor so free from rocks, which your canoes have removed as they passed ; never has our tobacco had so fine a flavor,

HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

nor our corn appeared so beautiful as we behold it to-day. Here is my son that I give thee that thou mayest know my heart. I pray thee take pity on me and all my nation. Thou knowest the Great Spirit who has made us all ; thou speakest to him and hearest his word; ask him to give me life and health, and come and dwell with us that we may know him.' Saying this, he placed the little slave near us and made ns a second present, an all mysterious calumet, which they valne more than a slave. By this present he showed us his esteem for onr governor, after the account we had given of him. By the third he begged us, on behalf of his whole nation, not to proceed farther on account of the great dangers to which we exposed ourselves.

" I replied that I did not fear death, and that I esteemed no happi- ness greater than that of losing my life for the glory of him who made us all. But this these poor people could not understand. The coun- cil was followed by a great feast which consisted of four courses, which we had to take with all their ways. The first course was a great wooden dish full of sagamity,-that is to say, of Indian meal boiled in water and seasoned with grease. The master of ceremonies, with a spoonful of sagamity, presented it three or four times to my mouth, as we would do with a little child ; he did the same to M. Jollyet. For the second course, he brought in a second dish containing three fish; he took some pains to remove the bones, and having blown upon it to cool it, put it in my mouth as we would food to a bird. For the third course they produced a large dog which they had just killed, but, learning that we did not eat it, withdrew it. Finally, the fourth course was a piece of wild ox, the fattest portions of which were put into our mouths.

" We took leave of our Illinois about the end of June, and em- barked in sight of all the tribe, who admire our little canoes, having never seen the like.

"As we were discoursing, while sailing gently down a beautiful, still, clear water, we heard the noise of a rapid into which we were about to fall. I have seen nothing more frightful; a mass of large trees, entire, with branches,- real floating islands,- came rushing from the mouth of the river Pekitanoui, so impetuously that we could not, without great danger, expose ourselves to pass across. The agitation was so great that the water was all muddy and could not get clear .*

* Pekitanoui, with the aboriginals, signified " muddy water," on the authority of Father Marest, in his letter referred to in a previous note. The present name, Mis- souri, according to Le Page du Pratz, vol. 2. p. 157, was derived from the tribe, Mis- souris, whose village was some forty leagues above its mouth, and who massacred a French garrison situated in that part of the country. The late statesman and orator, Thomas A. Benton, referring to the muddiness prevailing at all seasons of the year in the Missouri River, said that its waters were "too thick to swim in and too thin to walk on.'

PLOT AGAINST MARQUETTE'S LIFE.

"After having made about twenty leagues due south, and a little less to the southeast, we came to a river called Onabonskigou, the mouth of which is at 36º north .* This river comes from the country on the east inhabited by the Chaoúanons, in such numbers that they reckon as many as twenty-three villages in one district, and fifteen in another, lying quite near each other. They are by no means warlike, and are the people the Iroquois go far to seek in order to wage an unprovoked war upon them ; and as these poor people cannot defend themselves they allow themselves to be taken and carried off like sheep, and, inno- cent as they are, do not fail to experience the barbarity of the Iroquois, who burn them crnelly.'

Having arrived about half a league from Akansea (Arkansas River), we saw two canoes coming toward us. The commander was standing up holding in his hand a calumet, with which he made signs according to the custom of the country. He approached us, singing quite agreeably, and invited us to smoke, after which he presented us some sagamity and bread made of Indian corn, of which we ate a little. We fortunately found among them a man who understood Illinois much better than the man we brought from Mitchigameh. By means of him, I first spoke to the assembly by ordinary presents. They admired what I told them of God and the mysteries of our holy faith, and showed a great desire to keep me with them to instruct them.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Vermilion 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 5

Author: Beckwith, H. W. (Hiram Williams), 1833-1903 Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Chicago : H. H. Hill and Company Number of Pages: 1164

Author: Beckwith, H. W. (Hiram Williams), 1833-1903
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Chicago : H. H. Hill and Company
Number of Pages: 1164