USA > Illinois > Marshall County > Records of the olden time; or, Fifty years on the prairies. Embracing sketches of the discovery, exploration and settlement of the country, the organization of the counties of Putnam and Marshall, biographies of citizens, portraits and illustrations > Part 4
USA > Illinois > Putnam County > Records of the olden time; or, Fifty years on the prairies. Embracing sketches of the discovery, exploration and settlement of the country, the organization of the counties of Putnam and Marshall, biographies of citizens, portraits and illustrations > Part 4
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In the morning, La Salle saw a change in the countenances and be- havior of his hosts. They looked at him askance and sullen. At length one of them, whom the day before he had more completely won over than the rest, by liberal presents, came and gave him the secret. La Salle saw in this the device of his enemies, and his suspicions were confirmed at a feast given in the afternoon. The chief told the Frenchmen, before eat- ing, that they had been invited there to refresh their bodies and cure their minds of the dangerous purpose of descending the Mississippi. Its shores were not only beset by savage tribes in fearful numbers, against whom their courage would avail nothing, but its waters were infested by ser- pents, alligators and unnatural monsters, while hidden rocks, whirlpools and other dangers awaited them. La Salle, however, cared not for these; he feared more the secret machinations of his enemies. He astonished them by a knowledge of the secret council of the previous night, and charged that the presents given by his enemies were at the very moment of his speech hidden under the floor where they sat. He demanded the presence of the spies and liars who had come in the night to traduce him,
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LA SALLE-HENNEPIN.
and dare not meet him to his face, in the light of day. This speech qui- eted the chiefs, and the feast went on.
Next morning LaSalle found that six of his men, two of his best car- penters, had deserted and left him. This loss, together with the lurking, half mutinous discontent of others, cut him to the heart. Not only this, but an attempt was actually made to poison him. Tonti informs us, "that poison was placed in the pot in which the food was cooked, but LaSalle was saved by a timely antidote.
Feeling insecure in his position he determined to leave the Indian camp and erect a fort, where he could be better able to protect himself. He set out in a canoe with Hennepin to visit the site for this projected fort. It was half a league below on the southern bank of the river, or lake, and was intended to be a very secure place. On either side was a deep ravine, and in front a low ground, which overflowed in high water. It was completely isolated by the ravine and ditches, and surrounded by lofty embankments, guarded by a chevaux de frise, while a palisade twenty-five feet high surrounded the whole. This fort he called Creve Cœur (broken heart). The many disasters he had encountered-the toil, suf- fering and treachery, coupled with the attempt to take his life, were quite enough to suggest the idea of a broken heart. After a time he took courage, and not having abandoned his grand scheme of going down to the sea, collected and organized such scanty means as he had and began to build another ship. While engaged upon this work, le concluded that he might get more valuable service out of Hennepin as a voyageur than as a preach- er, and much to that priest's surprise, remonstrance and regret, put him in a canoe, provided him with two men as companions, gave him food and presents for the Indians, and instructed him to explore the Illinois River to its mouth. Hennepin wrote, "Anybody but me would have been very much frightened at the dangers of such a journey, and, in fact, if I had not placed all my trust in God, I should not have been the dupe of La- Salle, who exposed my life rashly."
HENNEPIN'S EXPLORATIONS.
This intrepid explorer was inspired by extreme religious fervor, and possessed a courage almost superhuman. He left an extensive account of his experience in the wilderness, but historians are compelled to recognize
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RECORDS OF THE OLDEN TIME.
in him habits of exaggeration especially commendatory of his own, lofty achievements, far above his merit. His vicious attempts to malign his commander, LaSalle, and defraud him of laurels justly won, have materi- ally detracted from an otherwise glorious record.
He published a book soon after his return, and while LaSalle was still alive, in which he says he went down to the mouth of the Illinois River, and thence followed the Mississippi to the mouth of the Wisconsin, where he was captured by Indians. Fourteen years later, and after LaSalle was dead, he issued a new edition in which he makes a new and surprising revelation, claiming to have explored the whole course of the Mississippi to the sea, and returning went up the Wisconsin, where he was captured. He gives as a reason for not divulging this before, that "his personal safety required him to keep silent while LaSalle lived, who wished to re- tain all the glory and honor of the discovery. But the two statements conflict so materially as to dates and in other circumstances, and especially improbable is the time given for the accomplishment of his southern voy- age and return, that he is very justly disbelieved. Enough, however, of both stories has been gathered and corroborated by other testimony to make it certain that the party of three men, of whom Accau, or Ako was the leader (and not Hennepin, as he pompously pretends), did proceed down the Illinois in the spring of 1680, to its mouth, and thence to the Wisconsin, where on the 11th or 12th of April, as they stopped one after- noon to repair their canoe, a war party of Sioux swept down and carried them off. The prisoners, after innumerable hardships, were taken up the Mississippi two hundred miles north-west of the falls of St. Anthony, and after two years, were released by a small party of fur traders under Greylson du Thut, or (Du Luth), who obtained their freedom, and Hen- nepin went to Canada, and thence to France, where he died at an ad- vanced age.
LA SALLE RETURNS TO, CANADA.
On the 2d of March, 1680, LaSalle, leaving Fort Creve Cœur in com- mand of Tonti, with five men embarked for Canada. They reached Peoria Lake and found it sheeted with ice, and had to drag their canoes up the bank and through the forest lining its shores.
They constructed two rude sledges, placed the canvas and baggage upon them, and dragged them four leagues through the woods, till they
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LA SALLE'S RETURN TO CANADA.
reached an open current above the lake. Launching their frail barks they paddled on until masses of ice too heavy to be broken stopped further pro- gress, again they loaded their canoes and hauled them two leagues over a frozen marsh, where they encamped in a rain storm in an old Indian hut. On the morning of the 3d of March they pursued their way on land a league and a half further, then launched them and breaking the ice with hatchets, forced their way up stream. Thus on land and ice and in the water they plodded their weary way until at length they reached the great Illinois town, still without inhabitants. On the following day Chas- sagoac, the principal chief of the town, and two followers, returned from their hunt, and a friendly acquaintance was made, the chief promising to send fresh meat to Tonti at Creve Cœur.
Here LaSalle first observed the remarkable and afterwards historic cliff since called "Starved Rock," and determined to erect a fort thereon, sending · word to Tonti of his intention, and instructing him to make it his strong- hold in time of need. On the 15th he continued his journey. The trip was a repetition of their experience below. On the 18th they reached a point near the present site of Joliet, where they hid their canoes and struck across the country for Lake Michigan. This part of their route was even more laborious and difficult than what had been passed. For many miles the country was a vast morass covered with melting snow and ice. A river (the Calumet) and innumerable swollen streams had to be crossed ere they reached the shores of Lake Michigan, around which they passed, and traversing the peninsula of Michigan, arrived at Detroit, and finally on Easter Monday reached Niagara, after sixty-five days of severe toil. He had in the meantime received disastrous news from Tonti, whose men, described as "two faithful persons and twelve knaves," had revolted. "The knaves," after destroying Fort Creve Coeur, had followed La Salle, and having gained recruits-now numbering twenty men-had plundered the magazine at Niagara, and were on the road to waylay and murder LaSalle. Hastily gathering a few brave men, he went back to give them battle. Taking position where neither himself nor men could be seen, he watched the enemy slowly approach, their canoes widely separated. At- tacking them in detail, he killed two men and took the restprisoners, sending them to Fort Frontenac for trial.
. LA SALLE'S SECOND VOYAGE.
With characteristic energy, La Salle prepared for another voyage of
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RECORDS OF THE OLDEN TIME.
discovery. With the aid of friends, he appeased his creditors and raised the means to equip an expedition; and with twenty-five men, on the 10th of August, he set out, taking his former course around the lakes and down the Kankakee, arriving at Starved Rock, Dec. 1, 1680, to find the great Indian town at its base in utter ruin and „ desolation. The Iroquois had, only a few days before, swept down upon its people and massacred them,-men, women and children, leaving their charred re- mains and ghastly skeletons only, to tell the awful tale. Six posts painted red, on each of which was drawn in black the figure of a man with eyes bandaged, led him to infer that these represented Tonti and his party, as prisoners.
He pushed on down to Fort Creve Cœur, which he found demolished, though the vessel which he had built was entire, save the nails and iron spikes, which had been drawn. Leaving this, he continued his voyage, until he reached the mouth of the Mississippi, the great object of his - dreams and ambition.
Leaving a sign and a letter for Tonti, he returned the same way, to Canada.
LA SALLE'S THIRD VOYAGE.
Although failure and disaster had attended all previous efforts to carry out his grand scheme, the intrepid explorer determined on another effort. Much time was spent in organizing a new expedition. He had heard of Tonti's safe arrival among the Pottawatomies, near Green Bay, and sent for him. He next journeyed to the Miami Village, at the head of the Kankakee, made a speech to the Indians there assembled in grand council, and set forth some of his plans, going thence to Michilimacinac, where he found Tonti and his followers, and returned again to Fort Frontenac.
Some time was spent in organizing another expedition, but in the fall of 1681 his party, consisting of twenty-three Frenchmen, ten women, three children, and eighteen Indians who had fought with King Philip against the Puritans of New England - in all fifty-four persons - em- barked, and reached the present site of Chicago December 21.
The rivers were tightly frozen up, and constructing sledges, they loaded up their canoes and hauled them over the ice and snow to Peoria. Dwellers along the river can appreciate the hardships of transporting a
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FURTHER EXPLORATIONS OF LA SALLE.
party of fifty-four persons, with clothing, baggage and provisions, a dis- tance of two hundred miles, in mid-winter.
On the 6th of February, 1682, LaSalle and his party entered the Missis- sippi, and sailed down to its mouth. They found a different reception from what was experienced upon former expeditions, and occasionally had to fight their way; but, on the 6th of April they gained the sea, where La Salle erected a column bearing the arms of France, and in a formal proclamation took possession of the country of Louisiana in the name of the king, from the mouth of the Mississippi to the Ohio, and from the River of Palms (the Rio Grande) on the west, and all nations, peoples, provinces, etc., to the frozen northernmost limits. The Louisiana of La Salle stretched from the Alleghanies to the Rocky Mountains, and from the Gulf of Mexico to British America-the great Mississippi Valley.
Here he rested until his recovery from a severe illness, and then re- turned to the Straits of Michilimacinac, where, hearing the Iroquois were about to renew their attacks on his friends the Illinois, he ordered Tonti to fortify Starved Rock, where he joined him in December, 1682. The work was named Fort St. Louis, and consisted of earthworks, with strong palisades in the rear, while wary sentinels mounted guard at the only practicable approach. The remains of these works are still visible, after a lapse of two hundred years.
La Salle proposed founding a colony and a trading depot for the West, where he should rule and reign like some great feudal lord, and thus con- trol the entire country. The Illinois Indians were delighted at seeing such a redoubtable warrior begin to fortify here, not only to defend him- self, but to protect them, as he had promised. They returned to their ruined city, and began to rebuild it on a larger scale than ever. Other tribes also came to join in a confederacy of peace and unity, and make the Indian town their capital. But La Salle was becoming the victim of new and complicated difficulties.
La Barre, the new Governor, a most despicable character, became his enemy, and began to undermine and traduce the great explorer to the king. La Salle was thus compelled to return to France, and lay the his- tory of his many adventures before His Majesty. His character was fully vindicated, new honors were heaped upon him, and he was sent to the Gulf of Mexico to conquer the Spanish, then at war with France.
He sailed with four ships, two hundred and fifty men, and a good sup- ply of provisions and materials with which to start a colony. Associated
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RECORDS OF THE OLDEN TIME.
with him in command was a man named Beaujeau, who proved the evil genius of the expedition. He quarrelled with La Salle, and did all in his power to thwart him.
One of the ships was lost on the way, another was taken by the Spaniards, and Beaujeau deserted with one ship and returned. La Salle was wrecked on the coast, and endured all manner of hardships while wandering in the interior of what is now Texas.
At length, while making his way overland to Canada, at a point sup- posed to be somewhere near Arkansas Post, he was assassinated by one of his followers, March 19, 1687.
Thus perished, at the age of 43, one of the most remarkable of men, whose history is embalmed in the imperishable records of the New World.
·
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MILITARY OPERATIONS-INDIAN WARS.
CHAPTER IV.
FROM MONARCHY TO REPUBLICANISM.
HE deatlı of LaSalle practically ended the era of discovery on this continent. The great lakes had been located and the lines of the principal rivers marked out, and what remained to be done was hereafter to be accomplished by private en- terprise. The English colonized New England and laid the basis of the great Republic, and the French settled Canada, establishing a series of military and trading posts in the Northwest to control the fur trade and hold possession of the country. The English colonists pushed across the Alleghanies, and in the deep forests of the Ohio encountered the French, and sharp contests ensued that were duly reported at the Court of St. James and at Versailles. Great events were rapidly ripening, and the French and Indian war of 1754-63, ending in the discomfiture of the French, and the transfer of the country to the English, was the result. In this contest, the few colonists in the Mississippi Valley, took little part or interest. The Northern In- dian nations sympathised with the French, and parties from the prairies joined them in incursions against the New England colonists, but when peace came they returned to their homes, and the belligerent tribes sub- mitted to the "long knives."
For ten years or more peace reigned, and the few settlers pursued their avocations unmolested. A few remote frontier posts in the northwest were held by the English, and a plan was set on foot by Capt. Clark to surprise and capture them. Gathering his forces at what is now Louis- vile, he embarked his men and sailed down to the mouth of the Ohio, and thence up the Mississippi to Kaskaskia, which surrendered without a blow. Without delay he marched to surprise Vincennes, a fortified post on the Wabash, which also fell into his hands, and the influence of the British over the tribes of the prairies, was ended. They were not wholly paci- fied, however, and numbers of Illinois Indians fought Gen. Harmar and aided in defeating him near Fort Wayne, in 1789, and also Gen. St.
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RECORDS OF THE OLDEN TIME.
Clair, on the St. Mary, a tributary of the Maumee, where the latter lost six hundred men.
In 1794 "Mad Anthony" Wayne signally defeated them at the Rapids of the Maumee, and compelled them to sue for peace. In that battle, Black Partridge, Gomo, Black Hawk, Shaubena, Senachwine, and most of the Illinois Indians participated and lost heavily. Peace followed, and continued until British emissaries incited them to fresh massacres in the war of 1812.
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THE MOUND BUILDERS.
PRE-HISTORIC RACES.
CHAPTER VII.
THE MOUND BUILDERS.
OME notice, though a brief one, is due the mysterious people that inhabited the valleys of the Great West previous to the advent of the red man. From the shores of Hudson's Bay to the Gulf of Mexico, from the Alleghanies to the Pacific, are evidences of an extinct race, a mysterious people, far su- perior to those whom the first explorers found in possession of the country. They have passed away and left no records from which the historian can gather the story of their lives, except such as are disclosed in the singular mounds found along the great rivers and water courses of the West. Although their works are every- where about us, whence they came, the age in which they flourished, and the time of their decay and fall are all buried in the unknown past. No poet has chanted their story; no adventurous Layard has unveiled their secrets. The cities they built have vanished; the temples they reared are overthrown, their names are forgotten, their records obliterated, and their very existence doubted!
This much is known, or rather conjectured. They were below the aver- age stature of to-day-were a purely agricultural people, industrious, pa- tient, easily governed, in strict subjection to their rulers, and dwelt in large communities. They possessed a knowledge of metals, and were probably the artisans who long ago toiled in the mines of Lake Superior, and left behind evidences of their work. They were peaceful and un- warlike, and to their incapacity for defence is probably due their over- throw.
When Peru was overran by the Spaniards, they found there a civiliza- tion as far advanced as their own. There were houses built of stone and wood, and great temples and public works. Excellent roads extended into every part of the empire; yet the people who, reared these structures
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RECORDS OF THE OLDEN TIME.
were strangers to the soil, whom tradition said came from the far North, whence they were driven by a fiercely warlike people to found new homes in more propitious climes, and the theory is not difficult to maintain that the mound-builders of North America and the race inhabiting Mexico when Cortez invaded it are identical.
There is reason for the belief that after their exodus from the Missis- sippi Valley, their homes were for centuries in Central America, where they built the great cities of Uxmal, Palenque and Copan, and reared the vast temples whose remains rival even Thebes in extent and magnificence. A portion, meanwhile, settled in Arizona, and built the "Seven Cities" described by Major Powell and others, where, in their rocky fastnesses, dwell the Moquis to-day,-supposed descendants of the ancient mound- builders.
Numerous remains of this exiled race are found in the counties of Marshall and Putnam, but extensive explorations fail to discover in them aught more valuable than a few implements and ornaments of stone, with an occasional jar of clay, of rude manufacture,
Beneath the mounds are usually found one or more skeletons, with ashes, coals, and other evidence going to show the bodies were first burned. Prof. Gifford, who has given the subject careful study, finds, upon micro- scopical examination, blood crystals mixed in large quantities with the earth, and cites it to prove the mounds were for sacrifice as well as sepul- ture. The skulls found show low and receding foreheads, long from front to back, narrow at the top and wide toward the base, indicating a patient people, with some intelligence, but wholly different from the crania of modern Indians.
These remains indicate that this whole country was once populated with a race as old as those who built the pyramids of Egypt. While in some places a single mound is observable, in others they are in groups and series, in which some trace a resemblance to serpents, animals, etc., and term them mounds of worship; but such conclusions are at best fanciful, and rest solely on a basis of conjecture.
Some of these structures are of considerable extent, as witness the large mound north of Chillicothe, and the long line which crown the bluffs in the rear of 'Squire Taliaferro's, in Senachawine Township, in one of which the old chief of that name was buried.
In the immediate vicinity of Lacon are still to be seen these evidences of a remote ancestry, while on the bluffs of Sparland, extensive and well-
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LOCAL EVIDENCES OF FORMER RACES.
defined mounds are found, which have never been disturbed; and in the lower part of Lacon township, and across the line in Woodford county, near what is called "Low Gap," they are specially numerous.
The builders, it is supposed, used these works for the combined pur- poses of military defence, religious sacrifices and ceremonies, and burial places for the dead. The sites were carefully selected with reference to their surroundings of country, and generally near some large stream, though not always, for they crown the highest hills often, and when so found are called " mounds of observation," from which signals of danger were flashed in times of war.
In a few localities, groups of mounds are found, covering a large space of ground and laid out with some sort of system, as at Hutsonville, Ill., Fort Aztalan, Ind., and at different places in Indiana, Wisconsin and Ohio. In some localities are found articles of finer manufacture, showing greater skill and proficiency, such as specimens of pottery, drinking cups, ornaments, pipes, etc., etc.
From all the data that can be gathered, the people of whom we have written were overcome and driven from the country by a more warlike race, at a period many hundreds of years before the advent of the white man. Their conquerers were the supposed ancestors of the Indians found in possession, and probably belonged to some Eastern tribe, crossing in their boats from the Asiatic shore, though evidence is not wanting that the continents were once united, and passage by land easily effected. But their triumph was not forever. The "pale faces" came, with engines of fire, and the red man, with his bow and arrows, contended in vain against the superior mtelligence of the new foe. Backward, step by step, he was driven towards the great sea, and the time is not distant when the last Indian and the buffalo shall disappear together.
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RECORDS OF THE OLDEN TIME.
THE ABORIGINES AND EARLY SETTLERS.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE INDIANS.
HE red men whom the first discoverers found inhabiting this continent possessed neither records nor written language, and all themselves knew concerning their history was veiled in tradition. Some tribes made a slight approach to "picture writing," embraced in rough and stupidly devised hieroglyphics, at best vague and uncertain to those for whom they were intended, and quite as liable to mislead as to con- vey correct information. Their language, though rough and uncouth to educated ears, is said to have possessed singular beauty, flexibility and adaptability. It had a general plan of formation, and its similes were derived from nature, partaking of the flowery prairies, the winds of autumn, the blackened plains of spring, the towering cliff, the craggy bluff, and the great river. The deer was the representative of fleetness, the eagle of vision, the wolf of ferocity, the fox of cunning, the bear of endurance, the bison of usefulness. The passions were symbolized in the animals and birds around them. The elements-fire, water and air-were mysterious agents for their use; the thunder the voice of their terrible Manitou, or God, and the lightning His avenging spear!
While the different tribes, in habits, customs, and even dispositions, were marked by great contrasts, in their general characters they were alike. Some were more advanced toward civilization than others. Some were in- clined to the pursuit of agriculture as a means of obtaining food, others re- jected it totally, and relied upon the spear, or the bow and arrow for food. The Indians of Maine lived wholly upon the products of the waters; those who dwelt about St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario were all hunters. The Algonquins, though ordinarily hunters, often subsisted for weeks upon roots, barks, the buds of trees, and the foulest offal. Even cannibalism
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