Fulton County, Illinois - Chapter 20: Mlscellaneous 1014, 1879 (part 1 of 4)

Mound-Builders

The numerous and well-authenticated accounts of antiquities found in various parts of our country, clearly demonstrate that a people civilized, and even highly cultivated, occupied the broad surface of our continent before its possession by the present Indians; but the date of their rule of the Western World is so remote that all traces of their history, their progress and decav, lie buried in deepest obscurity. Nature, at the time the first Europeans came, had asserted her original dominion over the earth; the forests were all in their full luxuriance, the growth of many centuries; and naught existed to point out who and what they were who formerly lived, and loved, and labored, and died, on the continent of America. This pre-historic race is known as the Mound- Builders, from the numerous large mounds of earth-works left by them. The remains of the works of this people form the most interesting class of antiquities discovered in the United States. Their character can be but partially gleaned from the internal evidences and the peculiarities of the only remains left, - the mounds. They consist of remains of what were apparently villages, altars, temples, idols, cemeteries, monuments, camps, fortifications, pleasure grounds, etc., etc. Their habitations must have been tents, structures of wood, or other perishable material; otherwise their remains would be numerous. If the Mound-Builders were not the ancestors of the Indians, who were they? The oblivion whicli has closed over them is so complete that only conjecture can be given in answei to the question. Those who do not believe in the common parentage of mankind contend that they were an indigenous race of the Western hemisphere; others, with more plausibility, think they came from the East, and imagine they can see coincidences in the religion of the Hindoos and Southern Tartars and the supposed theology of the Mound- Builders, They were, no doubt, idolators, and it hh^ been conjectured tiiat the sun was tlie object of their adoration. Tl»e mounds were generally built in a situation aifording a view of the rising sun: when enclosed in walls their gateways were toward the east; the caves in which their dead were occasionally buried alwaye opened in the same direction; whenever a mound was partially enclosed by a semi-circular pavement, it was on the east side; wheb bodies were buried in graves, as was frequently the case, they were laid in a direction east and west; and, tinully. medals have been found representing the sun and his raj's of light.

At what period they came to this country, is likewise a matter oi speculation. From the comparatively rude state of the arts among them, it has been inferred that the time was verv remote. Their axes were of stone. Their raiment, judging from fragments which have been discovered, consisted of the bark of trees, interwoved with feathers; and their military works were such as a people would erect who had just passed to the pastoral state of society from that dependent alone upon hunting and fishing.

The mounds and other ancient earth-works constructed by this people are far more abundant than generally supposed, from the fact that while some are quite large, the greater part of them are small and inconspicuous. Along nearly all our water courses that are large enough to be navigated with a canoe, the mounds are almost invariably found, covering the base points and headlands of the bluffs which border the narrower vallej's; so that when one finds himself in such positions as to command the grandest views for river scenery, he may almost always discover that he is standing upon, or in close proximity to, some one or more of these traces of the labors of an ancient people.

Galeka Mounds

On the top of the high blufis that skirt the west bank of the Mississippi, about two and a half miles from (J-alena, are a number of these silent monuments of a pre-historic age. The spot is one of surpassing beauty. From that point may be obtained a view of a portion of three States, - Illinois, Iowa and "Wisconsin. A hundred feet below, at the foot of the perpendicular clifis, the trains of the Illinois Central Railroad thunder around the curve, the portage is in full view, and the " Father of Waters," with its numerous bayous and islands, sketches a grand pamorama for miles above and below. Here, probably thousands of years ago, a race of men now extinct, and unknown even in the traditions of the Indians who inhabited that section for centuries before the discovery of America by Columbus, built these strangely wonderful and enigmatical mounds. At this point these mounds are circular and conical in form. The largest one is at least forty feet in diameter at the base, and not less than fifteen feet high, even yet, after it has been beaten by the storms of many centuries. On its top stands the large stump of an oak tree that was cut down about tifty years ago, and its annual rings indicate a growth of at least 200 years.

One of the most singular earth-works in the State was found on the top of a ridge near the east bank of the Sinsinawa creek in the lead region. It resembled some huge animal, the head, ears, nose, legs and tail, and general outline of which being as perfect as if made bv men versed in modern art. The ridjje on which it was situated, stands on the prairie, 300 yards wide, 100 feet in height, and rounded on the top by a deep deposit of clay. Centrally, along the line of its summit, and thrown up in the form of an embankment three feet high, extended the outline of a quadruped measuring 250 feet from the tip of the nose to the end of the tail, and having a width of 18 feet at the center of the body. The head was 35 feet in length, the ears 10 feet, legs 60 and tail 75. The curvature in both the fore and hind leijs was natural to an animal lying on its side. The general outline of the figure most nearly resembled the extinct animal known to ojeoloo-ists as the Mciratherium. The question naturally arises. By whom and for what purpose was this earth figure raised? Some have conjectured that numbers of this now extinct animal lived and roamed over the prairies of Illinois when the Mound-Builders first made their appearance on the upper part of the Mississippi Valley, and that their wonder and admiration, excited by the colossal dimensions of these huge creatures, found some expression in the erection of this figure. The bones of some similar gigantic animals were exhumed on this stn'eam about three miles from the same place.

Large Cities

Mr. Breckenridge, who examined the antiquities of the Western country ia 1817, speaking of the mounds in the American Bottom, says: "The great number and extremely large size of some of them may be regarded as furnishing, with other circumstances, evidences of tlieir antiquity. 1 have sometimes been induced to think that at the period wlien they were constructed there was a population here as numerous as that which once animated the borders of the Nile or Euphrates, or of Mexico. The most numerous, as well as considerable, of these remains are found in precisely those parts of the country where the traces of a numerous population might be looked for, namely, from the mouth of the Ohio on the east side of the Mississippi, to the Illinois river, and on the west from the St. Francis to the Missouri. I am perfectly satisfied that cities similar to those of ancient Mexico, of several hundred thousand souls, have existed in this country."

It must be admitted that whatever the uses of these mounds - whether as dwellings or burial places - these silent monuments were built, and the race who built them vanished from the face of the earth, ages before the Indians occupied the land, but their date must probably forever baffle human skill and ingenuity.

It is sometimes difficult to distinguish the places of sepulture raised by the Mound-Builders from the more modern graves of the Indians. The tombs of the former were in general larger than those of the latter, and were used as receptacles for a greater number of bodies, and contained relics of art, evincina; a his-her deo'ree of civilization than that attained by the Indians. The ancient earthworks of the Mound -Builders have occasionally been appropriated as burial places by the Indians, but the skeletons of the latter may be distinguished from the osteological remains of the former by their greater stature.

What finally became of the Mound-Builders is another query which has been extensively discussed. The fact that their works extend into Mexico and Peru has induced the belief that it was their posterity that dwelt in these countries when they were first visited by the Spaniards. The Mexican and Peruvian works, with the exception of their greater magnitude, are similar. Pelics common to all of them have been occasionally found, and it is believed that the religious uses which tliey subserved were the same. If, indeed, the Mexicans and Peruvians were the progeny of the more ancient Mound-Builders, Spanish rapacity for gold was the cause of their overthrow, and final extermination.

which now repose under the ground, but the most searching investigation can give us only vagne speculations for answers. No historian has preserved the names of their mighty chieftains, or given an account of their exploits, and even tradition is silent respecting them.

FoUowino; the Monnd-Builders as inhabitants of North America, were, as it is supposed, the people who reared the magniticent cities the ruins of which are found in Central America. This people was far more civilized and advanced in the arts than were the Mound-Builders. The cities built by them, judging from the ruins of broken columns, fallen arches and crumbling walls of temples, palaces and pyramids, which in some places for miles bestrew the ground, must have been of great extent, magnificent and very populous. When we consider the vast period of time necessary to erect such colossal structures, and, again, the time required to reduce them to their present ruined state, we can conceive something of their antiquity. These cities must have been old when many of the ancient cities of the Orient were being built.

The third race inhabiting North America, distinct from the former two in every particular, is the present Indians. They were, when visited by the early discoverers, without cultivation, refinement or literature, and far behind the Mound-Builders in the knowledge of the arts. The question of their origin has long interested archasologists, and is the most difficult they have been called upon to answer. Of their predecessors the Indian tribes knew nothing; they even had no traditions respecting them. It is quite certain that they were the successors of a race which had entirely passed away ages before the discovery of the New World. One hypothesis is that the American Indians are an original race indigenous to the Western hemisphere. Those who entertain this view think their peculiarities of physical structure preclude the possibility of a common parentage with the rest of mankind. Prominent among those distinctive traits is the hair, which in the red man is round, in the white man oval, and in the black man flat. A more common supposition, however, is that they are a derivative race, and sprang from one or more of the ancient peoples of Asia. In the absence of all authentic history, and when even tradition is wanting, any attempt to point out the particular location of their origin must prove unsatisfactory. Though the exact place of origin may never be known, yet the striking coincidence of physical organization between the Oriental type of mankind and the Indians point unmistakably to some part of Asia as the place whence they emigrated, which was originally peopled to a great extent by the children of Shem. In this connection it has been claimed that the meeting of the Europeans, Indians and Africans on the continent of America, is the fulfillment of a prophecy as recorded in Genesis ix. 27: "God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant." Assuming the theory to be true that the Indian tribes are of Shemitic origin, they were met on this continent in the fifteenth century by the Japhetic race, after the two stocks had passed around the globe by directly difierent routes. A few years afterward the Hamitic branch of the human family were brought from the coast of Africa. During the occupancy of the continent by the three distinct races, the children of Japheth have grown and prospered, while the called and not voluntarv sons of Ham have endured a servitude in the wider stretching: vallevs of the tents of Shem.

When Christopher Columbus had finally succeeded in demonstrating the trutli of his theory that by sailing westward from Europe land would be discovered, landing on the Island of Bermuda he supposed he had reached the East Indies. This was an error, but it led to the adoption of the name of " Indians " for the inhabitants of the Island and the main land of America, by which name the red men of America have ever since been known.

Of the several great branches of Xorth American Indians the only ones entitled to consideration in Illinois history are the Algonquins and Iroquois. At the time of the discovery of America the former occupied the Atlantic seaboard, while the home of the Iroquois was as an island in this vast area of Algonquin population. The latter great nation spread over a vast territory, and various tribes of Algonquin lineage sprung up over the country, adopting, in time, distinct tribal customs and laws. An almost continuous warfare was carried on between tribes; but later, on the entrance of the white man into their beloved homes, every foot of territory was fiercely disputed by the confederacy of many neighboring tribes. The Algonquins formed the most extensive alliance to resist the encroachment of the whites, especially the English. Such was the nature of Kin<^ Philip's war. This King, with his Algonquin braves, spread terror and desolation throughout New England. With the Algonquins as the controlling spirit, a confederacy of continental proportions was the result, embracing in its alliance the tribes of every name and lineage from the Northern lakes to the gulf. Pontiac, having breathed into them his implacable hate of the English intruders, ordered the conflict to commence, and all the British colonies trembled before the desolating fury of Indian vengeance.

Illinois Confederacy

The Illinois confederacy, the various tribes of which comprised most of the Indians of Illinois at one time, was composed of five tribes: the Tamaroas, Michigans, Kaskaskias, Cahokas, and Peorias. The Illinois, Miamis and Delawares were of the same stock. As early as 1670 the priest Father Marquette mentions frequent visits made by individuals of this confederacy to the missionary station at St. Esprit, near the western extremity of Lake Superior. At that time they lived west of the Mississippi, in eight villages, whither they had been driven from the shores of Lake Michigan by the Iroquois. Shortly afterward they began to return to their old hunting ground, and jnost of them finally settled in Illinois. Joliet and Marquette, in 1673, met with a band of them on their famous voyage of discovery down the Mississippi. They were treated with the greatest hospitality by the principal chief. On their return voyage up the Illinois river tliey stopped at the principal town of the confederacy, situated on the banks of the river seven miles below the present town of Ottawa. It was then called Kaskaskia. Marquette returned to the village in 1675 and established the mission of the Immaculate Conception, the oldest in Illinois. When, in 1679, LaSalle visited the town, it had greatly increased, numbering 460 lodges, and at the annual assembly of the different tribes, from 6,000 to 8,000 souls. In common with other western tribes, they became involved in the conspiracy of Pontiac, although displaying no very great warlike spirit. Pontiac lost his life by the hands of one of the braves of the Illinois tribe, which so enraged the nations that had followed him as their leader that they fell upon the Illinois to avenge his death, and almost annihilated them.

Starved Rock

river since known as Starved Rock. Nature has made this one of the most formidable militarj' fortresses in the world. From the waters which wash its base it rises to an altitude of 125 feet. Three of its sides it is impossible to scale, while the one next to the land may be climbed with difficulty. From its summit, almost as inaccessible as an eagle's nest, the valley of the Illinois is seen as a landscape of exquisite beauty. The river near by struggles between a number of wooded islands, while further below it quietly meanders through vast meadows till it disappears like a thread of liirht in the dim distance. On the summit of this rock the Illinois were besieged by a superior force of the Pottawatomies whom the great strength of their natural fortress enabled them to keep at bay. Hunger and thirst, however, soon accomplished what the enemy was unable to effect. Surrounded b}' a relentless foe, without food or water, they took a last look at their beautiful hunting grounds, and with true Indian fortitude lay down and died from starvation. Years afterward their bones were seen whitening in that place.

At the beginning of the present century the remnants of this once powerful confederacy were forced into a small compass around Kaskaskia. A few years later they emigrated to the Southwest, and in 1850 they were in Indian Territory, and numbered but 84 persons.

Sacs And Foxes

The Sacs and Foxes, who figured most conspicuously in the later history of Illinois, inhabited the northwestern portion of the State. By long residence together and intermarriage they had substantiall}' become one people. Drake, in his "Life of Black Hawk," speaks of these tribes as follows : " The Sacs and Foxes fought their way from the waters of the St. Lawrence to Green Bay, and after reaching that place, not only sustained themselves against hostile tribes, but were the most active and courageous in the subjugation, or rather the extermination, of the numerous and powerful Illinois confederacy. They had many wars, offensive and defensive, with the Sioux, the Pawnees, the Osages, and other tribes, some of which are ranked among the most fierce and ferocious warriors of the whole continent; and it does not appear that in these conflicts, running through a long period of years, they were found wanting in this, the greatest of all savage virtues. In the late war with Great Britain, a party of the Sacs and Foxes fought under the British standard as a matter of choice; and in the recent contest between a fragment of these tribes and the United States, although defeated and literally cut to pieces by an overwhelming force, it is very questionable whether their reputation as braves would suffer by a comparison with that of their victors. It is believed that a careful review of their history, from the period when they tirst established themselves on the waters of the Mississippi down to the present time, will lead the inquirer to the conclusion that the Sacs and Foxes were truly a courageous people, shrewd, politic, and enterprising, with no more ferocity and treachery of character than is common among the tribes by whom they were surrounded," These tribes at the time of the Black Hawk War were divided into twenty families, twelve of which were Sacs and eight Foxes. The following were other prominent tribes occupying Illinois: the Kickapoos, Shawnees, Mascoulius, Piaukishaws, Pottawatomies, Chippewas, and Ottawas.

Manners And Customs

The art of hunting not only supplied the Indian with food, but, like that of war, was a means of gratifying his love of distinction. The male children, as soon as they acquired sufficient age and strens:th, were furnished with a bow and arrow and tauo-ht to shoot birds and other small game. Success in killing large quadrupeds required years of careful study and practice, and the art was as sedulously inculcated in the minds of the rising generation as are the elements of reading, writing and arithmetic in the common schools of civilized communities. The mazes of the forest and the dense, tall grass of the prairies were the best fields for the exercise of the hunter's skill. No feet could be impressed in the jnelding soil but that the tracks were the objects of the most searching scrutiny, and revealed at a glance the animal that made them, the direction it was pursuing, and the time that had elapsed since it had passed. In a forest country he selected the valleys, because they were most frequently the resort of game. The most easily taken, perhaps, of all the aiiimals of the chase was the deer. It is endowed with a curiosity which prompts it to stop in its flight and look back at the approaching hunter, who always avails himself of this opportunity to let fly the fatal arrow.

speaker, and each individual, notwithstanding the fiery passions that rankled within, preserved an exterior as immovable as if cast in bronze. Before commencing business a person appeared with the sacred pipe, and another with fire to kindle it. After being lighted, it was first presented to heaven, secondly to the earth, thirdly to the presiding spirit, and lastly the several councilors, each of whom took a whiff. Tnese formalities were observed with as close exactness as state etiquette in civilized courts.

The dwellings of the Indians were of the simplest and rudest character. On some pleasant spot by the bank of a river, or near an ever-running spring, they raised their groups of wigwams, constructed of the bark of trees, and easily taken down and removed to another spot. The dwelling-places of the chiefs were sometimes more spacious, and constructed with greater care, but of the same materials. Skins taken in the chase served them for repose. Though principally dependent upon hunting and fishing, the uncertain supply from those sources led them to cultivate small patches of corn. Every family did everything necessary within itself, commerce, or an interchangeof articles, being almost unknown to them. In cases of dispute and dissension, each Indian relied upon himself i')v retaliation. Blood for blood was the rule, and the relatives of the slain man were bound to obtain bloody revenge for his death. This principle gave rise, as a matter of course, to innumerable and bitter feuds, and wars of extermination where such were possible. War, indeed, rather than peace, was the InJian's glory and delight, - war, not conducted as civilization, but war where individual skill, endurance, gallantry and cruelty were prime requisites. For such a purpose as revenge the Indian would make great sacrifices, and display a patience and perseverance truly heroic; but when the excitement was over, he sank back into a listless, unoccupied, well-nigh useless savage. During the intervals of his more exciting pursuits, the Indian employed his time in decorating his .person with all tlie refinement of paint and feathers, and in the manufacture of his arms and of canoes. These were constructed of bark, and so light that they could easilj' be carried on the shoulder from stream to stream. His amusements were the war-dance, athletic games, the narration of his exploits, and listening to the oratory of the chiefs; but during long periods of such existence he remained in a state of torpor, gazing listlessly upon the trees of the forests and the clouds that sailed above them; and this vacancy

Histoey Of Illinois

The main labor and drudgery of Indian communities fell upon the women. The planting, tending and gathering of the crops, making mats and baskets, carrying burdens, - in fact, all things of the kind were performed by them, thus making their condition but little better than that of slaves. Marriage was merely a matter of bargain and sale, the husband giving presents to the father of the bride. In general they had but few children. They were subjected to many and severe attacks of sickness, and at times famine and pestilence swept away whole tribes.

Single-Handed Combat With Indians

The most desperate single-handed combat with Indians ever fought on the soil of Illinois was that of Tom Iliggins, August 21, 1814. Higgins was 25 years old, of a muscular and compact build, not tall, but strong and active. In danger he possessed a quick and discerning judgment, and was without fear. He was a member of Journey's rangers, consisting of eleven men, stationed at Hill's Fort, eight miles southwest of the present Greenville, Putnam county. Discovering Indian signs near the fort, the company, early the following morning, started on the trail. They had not gone far before they were in an ambuscade of a larger party. At the first fire their commander. Journey, and three men fell, and six reti'eated to the fort; but Higgins stopped to "have another pull at the red-skins," and, taking deliberate aim at a straggling savage, shot him do^vn. Higgins' horse had been wounded at the first fire, as he supposed, mortally. Coming to, he was about to effect his escape, when the familiar voice of Burgess hailed him from the long grass, "Tom, don't leave me." Higgins told him to come along, but Burgess replied that his leg was smashed. Higgins attempted to raise him on his horse, but the animal took fright and ran away. Higgins then directed Burgess to limp off" as well as he could; and by crawling through the grass he reached the fort while the former loaded his gun and remained behind io protect him against the pursuing enemy. When Burgess was well out of the way, Higgins took another route, which led by a small thicket, to throw any wandering enemy off the trail. Here he was confronted by three savages approaching. He ran to a little ravine near for shelter, but in the efibrt discovered for the first time tha,t.

he was badly wounded in the ]eg. He was closely pressed by the largest, a powerful Indian, who lodged a ball in his thigh. He fell, but instantly rose again, only, however, to draw the fire of the other two, and again fell wounded. The Indians now advanced upon him with their tomahawks and scalping knives; but as he presented his gun first at one, then at another, from his place in the ravine, each wavered in his purpose. Neither party had time to load, and the large Indian, supposing finally that Iliggins' gun was empty, rushed forward with uplifted tomahawk and a yell; but as he came near enough, was shot down. At this the others raised the war-whoop, and rushed upon the wounded Higgins, and now a hand-to-hand conflict ensued. Thev darted at him with their knives time and again, inflicting many ghastly flesh-wounds, which bled profusely. One of the assailants threw his tomahawk at him with such precision as to sever his ear and lay bare his skull, knocking him down. They now rushed in on him, but he kicked them ofi', and grasping one of their spears thrust at him, was raised up by it. He quickly seized his gun, and by a powerful blow crushed in the skull of one, but broke his rifle. His remaining antagonist still kept up the contest, making thrusts with his knife at the bleeding and exhausted Higgins, which he parried with his broken gun as well as he could. Most of this desperate engagement was in plain view of the fort; but the rangers, having been in one ambuscade, saw in this fight only a ruse to draw out the balance of the garrison. But a Mrs. Pursely, residing at the fort, no longer able to see so brave a man contend for his life unaided, seized a gun, mounted a horse, and started to his rescue. At this the men took courage and hastened along. The Indian, seeing aid comii.g, fled. Higgins, being nearly hacked to pieces, fainted from loss of blood. He was carried to the fort. There being no surgeon, his comrades cut two balls from his flesh; others remained in. For days his life was despaired of; but by tender nursing he ultimately regained his health, although badly crippled. He resided in Fayette county for many years after, and died in 1829.

Nicholas Perkot

The first white nuiii who ever set foot on the soil ernhraced within the boundary of tlie present populous State of Illinois was Nicliolas Perrot, a Frenchman. He was sent to Chicago in the year 1671 by M. Talon, Intendant of Canada, for the purpose of inviting the Western Indians to a great peace convention to be held at Green Bay. This convention had for its chief object the promulgation of a plan for the discovery of the Mississippi river. This great river had been discovered by De Soto, the Spanish explorer, nearly one hundred and fifty years previously, but his nation left the country a wilderness, without further exploration or settlement within its borders, in which condition it remained until the river was discovered by Joliet and Marquette in 1673. It was deemed a wise policy to secure, as far as possible, the friendship and co-operation of the Indians, far and near, before venturing upon an enterprise which their hostility might render disastrous. Thus the great convention was called.

Joliet And Marquette

Although Perrot was the first European to visit Illinois, he was not the first to make any important discoveries. Tliis was left for Joliet and Marquette, which they accomplished two years thereafter. The former, Louis Joliet, was"born at Quebec in 161:5. He was educated for the clerical profession, but he abandoned it to engage in the fur trade. His companion. Father Jacques Mai'- quette, was a native of France, born in 1637. He was a Jesuit priest by education, and a man of simple faith and great zeal and devotion in extending the Roman Catholic religion among the Indians. He was sent to America in 1666 as a missionary. To convert the Indians he penetrated the wilderness a thousand miles in advance of civilization, and bv his kind attention in their afflictions he won their affections and made them his lasting friends. There were others, however, who visited Illinois even prior to the famous exploration of Joliet and Marquette. In 1672 the Jesuit missionaries, Fathers Claude Allouez and Claude Dablon, bore the standard of the Cross from their mission at Green Bay through western Wisconsin and northern Illinois.

According to the pre-arranged plan referred to above, at the Jesuit mission on the Strait of Mackinaw, Joliet joined Marquette, and with five other Frenchmen and a simple outfit the daring explorers on the ITtli of Maj, 1673, set out on their perilous vojao-e to discover the MississijDpi. Coasting along the northern shore of Lake Michigan, they entered Green Bay, and passed thence up Fox river and Lake Winnebago to a village of the Muscatines and Miamis, where great interest was taken in the expedition by the natives. With guides they proceeded down the river. Arriving at the portage, they soon carried their light canoes and scanty baggage to the Wisconsin, about three miles distant. Their guides now refused to accompany them farther, and endeavored, by reciting the dangers incident to the voyage, to induce them to return. They stated that huge demons dwelt in the great river, whose voices could be heard a long distance, and who engulfed in the raging waters all who came within their reach. They also represented that if any of them should escape the dangers of the river, fierce tribes of Indians dwelt upon its banks ready to complete the work of destruction. They proceeded on their journey, however, and on the 17th of June pushed their frail barks on the bosom of the stately Mississippi, dawn which they smoothly glided for nearly a hundred miles. Here Joliet and Marquette, leaving their canoes in charge of their men, went on the western shore, where they discovered an Indian village, and were kindly treated. They journeyed on down the unknown river, passing the mouth of the Illinois, then running into the current of the muddy Missouri, and afterwaid the waters of the Ohio joined with them on their journey southward. Near the mouth of the Arkansas they discovered Indians who showed signs of hostility; but when Marquette's mission of peace was made known to them, they were kindly received. After proceeding up the Arkansas a short distance, at the advice of the natives tlley turned their faces northward to retrace their steps. After several weeks of hard toil they reached the Illinois, up which stream they proceeded to Lake Michigan. Following the western shore of the lake, they entered Green Bay the latter part of September, having traveled a distance of 2,500 miles.

On his way np the Illinois, Marquette visited the Kaskaskias, near what is now Utica, in LaSalle county. The following vear he returned and established anion^ them the mission of the Immaculate Virgin Mary. This was the last act of his life. He died in Michigan, May 18, 1675.

The first French occupation of Illinois was effected by LaSalle, in 1680. Having constructed a veesel, the " Griffin," above the falls of Niagara, he sailed to Green Bay, and passed thence in canoe to the mouth of the St. Joseph river, by which and the Kankakee he reached the Illinois in January, 1680; and on the 3d he entered the expansion of the river now called Peoria lake. Here, at the lower end of the lake, on its eastern bank, now in Tazewell ' county, he erected Fort Crevecoeur. The place where this ancient fort stood may still be seen just below the outlet of Peoria lake. It had, however, but a temporary existence. From this point LaSalle determined, at that time, to descend the Mississippi to its mouth. This he did not do, however, until two years later. Returning to Fort Frontenac for the purpose of getting material with which to rig his vessel, he left the fort at Peoria in charge of his lieutenant, Henri Tonti, an Italian, who had lost one of his hands by the explosion of a grenade in the Sicilian wars. Tonti had with him fifteen men, most of whom disliked LaSalle, and were ripe for a revolt the first opportunity. Two men who had, previous to LaSalle's departure, been sent to look for the " Giiffin " now returned and reported that the vessel was lost and that Fort Frontenac was in the hands of LaSalle's creditors. This disheartening intelligence had the effect to enkindle a spirit of mutiny among the garrison. Tonti had no sooner left the fort, with a few men, to fortify what was afterward known as Starved Pock, than the garrison at the fort refused longer to submit to authority. They destroyed the fort, seized the ammunition, provisions, and other portables of value, and fied. Only two of their number remained true. These hastened to apprise Tonti of what had occurred. He thereupon sent four of the men with him to inform LaSalle. Thus was Tonti in the midst of treacherous savages, with only five men, two of whom were the friars Pibourde and Membre. With these he immediately returned to the fort, collected what tools had not been destroyed, and conveyed theui to the great town of the Illinois Indians.

By this voluntary display of confidence he hoped to remove the jealousy created in the minds of the Illinois by the enemies of La- Salle. Here he awaited, unmolested, the return of LaSalle.

Great Battle Of The Illinois

!N^either Tonti nor his wild associates suspected that hordes of Iroquois were gathering preparatory to rushing down upon their country and reducing it to an uninhabited waste. Already these hell-hounds of the wilderness had destroyed the Hurons, Eries, and other natives on the lakes, and wei-e now directing their attention to the Illinois for new victims. Five hundred Iroquois warriors Bet out for the home of the Illinois. All was fancied security and idle repose in the great town 'of this tribe, as the enemy stealthily approached. Suddenly as a clap of thunder from a cloudless sky the listless inhabitants were awakened from their lethar^v. A Shawnee Indian, on his return home after a visit to the Illinois, first discovered the invaders. To save his friends from the impending danger, he hurriedly returned and apprised th^m of the coming enemy. This intelligence spread with lightning rapidity over the town, and each wigwam disofors^ed its boisterous and astonnded inmates. Women snatched their children, and in a delirium of f.ight wandered aimlessly about, rending the air with their screams. The men, more self-possessed, seized their arms ready for the coming fray. Tonti, long an object of suspicion, was soon surrounded by an angry crowd of warriors, who accused him of being an emissary of the enemy. His inability to defend himself properly, in consequence of not fully understanding their language left them still inclined to believe him guilty, and they seized his effects from the fort and threw them into the river. The women and children were sent down the river for safety, and the wai riors, not exceeding four hundred, as most of their young men were ofi" huntino:, returned to the villaofe. Alon^ the shores of the river they kindled huge bonfires, and spent the entire night in greasing their bodies, painting their faces, and performing the war-dance, to prepare for the approaching enemy. At early dawn the scouts who had been sent out returned, closely followed by the Iroquois. The scouts had seen a chief arrayed in French costume, and reported their suspicions that LaSalle was in the camp of the enemy, and Tonti again became an object of jealousy. A concourse of wildly gesticulating savages immediately gathered about him, de- manding his life, and nothing saved him from, their uplifted weapons hut a promise that he and his men would go with them to meet the enemy. With their suspicions partly lulled, they hurriedly crossed the river and met the foe, when both commenced firing. Toiiti, seeino- that the Illinois were outnumbered and likely to be defeated, determined, at the imminent risk of liis life, to stay the fio-ht by an attempt at mediation. Presuming on the treaty of peace then existing between the French and Iroquois, he exchanged his gun for a belt of wampum and advanced to meet the savage multitude, attended by three companions, who, being unnecessarily exposed to danger, were dismissed, and he proceeded alone. A short walk brought him in the midst of a pack of yelping devils, writhing and distorted with fiendish rage, and impatient to shed his blood. As the result of his swarthy Italian complexion and half-savage costume, he was at first taken for an Indian, and before the mistake was discovered a young warrior approached and stabbed at his heart. Fortunately the blade was turned aside by coming in contact with a rib, yet a large fiesh wound was inflicted, which bled profusely. At this juncture a chief discovered his true character, and he was led to the rear and efibrts were made to staunch his wound. When sufficiently recovered, he declared the Illinois were under the protection of the French, and demanded, in consideration of the treaty between the latter and the Iroquois, that they should be suffered to remain without further molestation. Durinothis conference a young warrior snatched Tonti's hat, and, fleeing with it to the front, held it aloft on the end of his gun in view of the Illinois. The latter, judging that Tonti had been killed, renewed the figrht with great vio^or. Simultaneouslv, intellio^ence was brought to the Iroquois that Frenchmen were assisting their enemies in the fight, when the contest over Tonti was renewed with redoubled fury. Some declared that he should be immediately put to death, while others, friendly to LaSalle, with equal earnestness demanded that he should be set at liberty. During their clamorous debate, his hair was several times lifted by a Imge savage who stood at his back with a scalping knife ready for execution. Tonti at length turned the current of the angry controversy in hie favor, by stating that the Illinois were 1,200 strong, and that there were 60 Frenchmen at the village ready to assist them. This statement obtained at least a partial credence, and his tornientors now determined to use him as an instrument to delude the Illinois with a pretended truce. The old warriors, therefore, advanced to the front and ordered the firing to cease, while Tonti, dizzy from the loss of blood, was furnished with an emblem of peace and sent staggering across the plain to rejoin the Illinois. The two friars who had just returned from a distant hut, whither they had repaired for prayer and meditation, were the first to meet him and bless God for what they regarded as a miraculous deliverance. With the assurance brought by Tonti, the Illinois re-crossed the river to their lodges, followed by the enemy as far as the opposite bank. Not long after, large numbers of the latter, under the pretext of hunting, also crossed the river and hung in threatening groups about the town. These hostile indications, and the well-known disregard which the Iroquois had always evinced for their pledges, soon convinced the Illinois that their only safety was in flight. With this conviction they set fire to their village, and while the vast volume of flames and smoke diverted the attention of the enemy, they quietly dropped down the river to join their women and children. As soon as the flames would permit, the Iroquois entrenched themselves on the site of the village. Tonti and his men were ordered by the suspicious savages to leave their hut and take up their abode in the fort.

At first the Iroquois were much elated at the discomfiture of the Illinois, but when two days afterward they discovered them reconnoitering their intrenchments, their courage greatly subsided. With fear they recalled the exaggerations of Tonti respecting their numbers, and concluded to send him with a hostage to make overtures of peace. He and his hostage were received with delight by the Illinois, who readily assented to the proposal which he brought, and in turn sent back with him a hostage to the Iroquois. On his return to the fort his life was again placed in jeopardy, and the treaty was with great difficulty ratified. The young and inexperienced Illinois hostage betrayed to his crafty interviewers the numerical weakness of his tribe, and the savages immediately rushed upon Tonti, and charged him with having deprived them of the spoils and honors of victory. It now required all the tact of which he was master to escape. After much difficulty however, the treaty was concluded, but the savages, to show their contempt for it, immediately commenced constructing canoes in which to descend the river and attack the Illinois.

Frenchmen Driven Away

Tonti managed to apprise the latter of their designs, and he and Membre were soon after summoned to attend a council of the Iroquois, who still labored under a wholesome fear of Count Frontenac, and disliking to attack the Illinois in the presence of the French, thej thought to try to induce them to leave the country. At the assembling of the council, six packages of beaver skins were introduced, and the savage orator, presenting them separately to Tonti, explained the nature of each. "The first two," said he, "were to declare that the children of Count Frontenac, that is, the Illinois, should not be es-ten; the next was a plaster to heal the wounds of Tonti; the next was oil wherewith to anoint him and Membre, that they might not be fatigued in traveling; the next proclaimed that the sun was bright; and the sixth and last required them to decamp and go home."

At the mention of going home, Tonti demanded of them when they intended to set the example by leaving the Illinois in the peaceable possession of their country, which they had so unjustly invaded. The council grew boisterous and angry at the idea that they should be demanded to do what they required of the French, and some of its members, forgetting their previous pledge, declared that they would "eat Illinois flesh before they departed." Tonti, in imitation of the Indians' manner of expressing scorn, indignantly kicked away the presents, of fur, saying, since they intended to devour the children of Frontenac with cannibal ferocity, he would not accept their gifts. This stern rebuke resulted in the expulsion of Tonti and his companion froai the council, and the next day the chiefs ordered them to leave the country.

Tonti had now, at the great peril of his life, tried every expedient to prevent the slaughter of the Illinois. There was little to bo accomplished by longer remaining in the country, and as longer delay might imperil the lives of his own men, he determined to depart, not knowing where or when he would be able to rejoin LaSalle. With this object in view, the party, consisting of six persons, embarked in canoes, which soon proved leaky, and they were compelled to land for the purpose of making repairs. While thus employed, Father Ribourde, attracted by the beauty of the surrounding landscape, wandered f >rth among the groves for meditation and prayer. Not returning in due time, Tonti became alarmed, and started with a compan- ion to ascertain the cause of the long delay. They soon discovered tracks of Indians, by whom it was supposed he had been seized, and guns were fired to direct his return, in case he was alive. Seeing nothing of him during the day, at night they built fires along the bank of the river and retired to the opposite side, to see who might approach them. Near midnight a number of Indians were seen flitting about the light, by whom, no doubt, had been made the tracks seen tlie previous day. It was afterward learned that they were a band of Kickapoos, who had for several daj'S been hovering about the camp of the Iroquois in quest of scalps. They had fell in with the inoffensive old friar and scalped him. Thus, in the 65th year of his age, the only heir to a wealthy Burgundian house perished under the war-club of the savages for whose salvation he had renounced ease and affluence.

Inhuman Butcheky

During this tragedy a far more rev^olting one was being enacted in the great town of Illinois. The Iroquois were tearing open the graves of the dead, and wreaking their vengeance upon the bodies made hideous by putrefaction. At this desecration, it is said, they even ate portions of the dead bodies, while subjecting them to every indignity that brutal hate could inflict. Still unsated by their hellish brutalities, and now unrestrained by the presence of the French, they started in pursuit of the retreating Illinois. Day after day they and the opposing forces moved in compact array down the river, neither being able to gain any advantage over the other. At length the Iroquois obtained by falsehood that which number and prowess denied them. They gave out that their object was to possess the country, not by destroying, but by driving out its present inhabitants. Deceived by this false statement, the Illinois separated, some descending the Mississippi and others crossing to the western shore. Tlie Taraaroas, more credulous than the rest, remained near the mouth of the Illinois, and were suddenlv attacked by an overwhelming force of the enemy. The men fled in dismay, and the women and children, to the number of 700, fell into the hands of the ferocious enemy. Then followed the tortures, butcheries and burnings which only the infuriated and imbruted Iroquois could perpetrate. LaSalle on his return discovered the half-charred bodies of women and children still bound to the stakes where they had suffered all the torments hellish hate could devise. In addition to those who had been burnt, the mangled bodies of women and children thickly covered the ground, many of which bore marks of brutality too horrid for record.

After the ravenous horde had sufficiently glutted their greed for carnage, they retired from the country. The Illinois returned and rebuilt their town.

Tonti Safe At Green Bat

After the death of Ribourde, Tonti and his men again resumed their journey. Soon again their craft became disabled, when they abandoned it and started on foot for Lake Michigan, Their supply of provisions soon became exhausted, and they were compelled to subsist in a great measure on roots and herbs. One of their companions wandered off in search of game, and lost his way, and several days elapsed before he rejoined them. In his absence he was without flints and bullets, yet contrived to shoot some^turkeys by using slugs cut from a pewter porringer and afirebrand to discharge his gun, Tonti fell sick of a fever and greatly retarded the progress of the march. Nearing Green Bay, the cold increased and the means of subsistence decreased and the party would have perished had they not found a few ears of corn and some frozen squashes in the fields of a deserted village, Near the close of j^ovember they had reached the Pottawatomies, who warmly greeted them. Their chief was an ardent admirer of the French, and was accustomed to say: " There were but three great captains in the world, - himself, Tonti and LaSalle." For the above account of Tonti's encounter with tlie Iroquois, we are indebted to Davidson and Stuve's History of Illinois,

LaSalle returned to Peoria only to meet the hideous picture of devastation, Tonti had escaped, but LaSalle knew not whither. Passing down the lake in search of him and his men, LaSalle discovered that the fort had been destroyed; but the vessel which he had partly constructed was still on the stocks, and but slightly injured. After further fruitless search he fastened to a tree a painting representing himself and party sitting in a cxnoe and bearing a pipe of peace, and to the painting attached a letter addressed to Tonti.

LaSalle was born in France in 1643, of wealthy parentage, and educated in a college of the Jesuits, from which he separated and came to Canada," a poor man, in 1G66. He was a man of daring genius, and outstripped all his competitors in exploits of travel and commerce with the Indians. He was granted a large tract of land at LaChine, where he established himself in the fur trade. In 1669 he visited the headquarters of the great Iroquois confederacy, at Onondaga, New York, and, obtaining guides, explored the Ohio river to the falls at Louisville. For many years previous, it must be remembered, missionaries and traders were obliged to make their way to the Northwest through Canada on account of the fierce hostility of the Iroquois along the lower lakes and Niagara river, which entirely closed this latter route to the upper lakes. Thej' carried on their commerce chiefly by canoes, paddling them through Ottawa river to Lake Ni pissing, carrying them across the portage to French river, and descending that to Lake Huron. This being the route by which they reached the Northwest, we have an explanation of the fact that all the earliest Jesuit missions were established in the neighborhood of tlie upper lakes. LaSalle conceived the grand idea of opening the route by Niagara river and the Tower lakes to Canada commerce by sail vessels, connecting it with the navigation of the Mississippi, and thus opening a magnificent water communication from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico. This truly grand and comprehensive purpose seems to have animated him in his wonderful achievements, and the matchless difficulties and hardships he surmounted. As the first step in the accomplishment of this object he established himself on Lake Ontario, and built and garrisoned Fort Frontenac, the site of the present city of Kingston, Canada. Here he obtained a grant of land from the French crown, and a body of troops, bv which he repulsed the Iroquois and opened passage to Niagara Falls. Having by this masterly stroke made it safe to attempt a hitherto untried expedition, his next step, as we have seen, was to build a ship with which to sail the lakes. He was successful in this undertaking, though his ultimate purpose was defeated by a strange combination of untoward circumstances. The Jesuits evidently hated LaSalle and plotted against him, because he had abandoned them and united with a rival order. The fur traders were also jealous of his success in opening new channels of commerce. While they were plodding with their bark canoes through the Ottawa, he was constructino^ sailinof vessels to command the trade of the lakes and the Mississippi. These great plans excited the jealousy and envy of small traders, introduced treason and revolt into the ranks of his men, and linally led to the foul assassination by whicli his great achievements were permanently ended.

lasalle's assassination. Again visiting the Illinois in the year 1682, LaSalle descended the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico. He erected a standard upon veliich he inscribed the arms of France, and took formal possession of the whole valley of this mighty river in the name of Louis XIV., then reigning, and in honor of whom he named the country Louisiana. LaSalle then returned to France, was appointed Governor, and returned with a fleet of immigrants for the purpose of planting a colony in Illinois. They arrived in due time in the Gulf of Mexico, but failing to find the mouth of the Mississippi, up which they intended to sail, his supply ship, with the immigrants, was driven ashore and wrecked on Matagorda Bay. With the fragments of the vessel he constructed rude huts and stockades on the shore for the protection of his followers, calling the post Fort St. Louis. He then made a trip into New Mexico in search of silver mines, but, meeting with disappointment, returned to find his colony reduced to forty souls. He then resolved to travel on foot to Illinois. With some twenty of his men they filed out of their fort on the 12th of January, 1687, and after the parting, - which was one of sighs, of tears, and of embraces, all seeming intuitively to know that they should see each otlier no more, - they started on their disastrous journey. Two of the party, Du Ilaut and Leotot, wlien on a hunting expedition in company with a nephew cf LaSalle, assassinated liim while asleep. The long absence of his nephew caused LaSalle to go in search of him. On approaching the murderers of his nephew, they fired upon him, killing him instantly. They then despoiled the body of its clothing, and icft it to be devoured by the wild beasts of the forest. Thus, at the age of 43, perished one whose exploits have so greatly enriched the history of the New World. To estimate aright the marvels of his patient fortitude, one must follow on his track through the vast scene of his interminable journeyings, those thousands of weary miles of forest, marsh and river, where, again and again, in the bitterness of baffled striving, the untiring pilgrim pushed onward toward the goal he never was to attain. America owes him an enduring memory; for in this masculine figure, cast

Tonti, who had been stationed at the fort on the Illinois, learning of LaSalle's unsuccessful voyage, immediately started down the Mississippi to his relief. Reaching the Gulf, lie found no traces of the colony. He then returned, leaving some of his men at the mouth of the Arkansas. These were discovered by the remnant of LaSalle's followers, who guided them to the fort on the Illinois, where they reported that LaSalle was in Mexico. The little band left at Fort St. Louis were finally destroyed by the Indians, and the murderers of LaSalle were shot. Thus ends the sad chapter of Kobert Cavalier de LaSalle's exploration.

Feexcii Occltpatiok First Settlements

The first mission in Illinois, as we have already seen, was commenced by Marquette in April, 1675. lie called the religious society which he established the " Mission of the Immaculate Conception," and the town Kaskaskia. The first military occupation of the country was at Fort Crevecoeur, erected in 1680; but there is no evidence that a settlement was commenced there, or at Peoria, on the lake above, at that early date. The first settlement of which there is any authentic account was commenced with the building of Fort St, Louis on the Illinois river in 1682; but this was soon abandoned. The oldest permanent settlement, not only in Illinois, but in the valley of the Mississippi, is at Kaskaskia, situated six miles above the mouth of the Kaskaskia river. This was settled in 1690 by the removal of the mission from old Kaskaskia, or Ft. St. Louis, on the Illinois river. Cahokia was settled about the same time. The reason for the removal of the old Kaskaskia settlement and mission, was probably because the dangerous and difticult route by Lake Michigan and the Chicago portage had been almost abandoned, and travelers and traders traveled down and up the Mississippi by the Fox and Wisconsin rivers. It was removed to the vicinity of the Mississippi in order to be in the line of travel from Canada to Louirfiana, that is, the lower part of it, for it was all Louisiana then south of the lakes. Illinois came into possession of the French in 1682, and was a dependency of Canada and a part of Louisiana. During the period of French rule in Louisiana, the population probably never exceeded ten thousand. To the year 1T30 the following five distinct settlements were made in the territory of Illinois, numbering, in population, 140 French families, about 600 "converted " Indians, and many traders; Cahokia, near the mouth of Cahokia creek and about five miles below the present city of St. Louis; St. Philip, about forty-five miles below Cahokia; Fort Chartres, twelve miles above Kaskaskia; Kaskaskia, situated on the Kaskaskia river six miles above its confluence with the Mississippi, and Prairie du Rocher, near Fort Chartres. Fort Chartres was built under the direction of the Mississippi Company in 1718, and was for a time the headquarters of the military commandants of the district of Illinois, and the most impregnable fortress in JNorth America. It was also the center of wealth and fashion in the West. For about eighty years the French retained peaceable possession of Illinois. Their amiable disposition and tact of ingratiating themselves with the Indians enabled them to escape almost entirely the broils which weakened and destroyed other colonies. Whether exploring remote rivers or traversing hunting grounds in pursuit of game, in the social circle or as participants in the religious exercises of the church, the red men became their associates and were treated with the kindness and consideration of brothers. For more than a hundred years peace between the white man and the red was unbroken, and when at last this reign of harmony terminated it was not caused by the conciliatory Frenchman, but by the blunt and sturdy Anglo-Saxon. During this century, or until the country was occupied by the English, no regular court was ever held. When, in 1765, the country passed into the hands of the English, many of the French, rather than submit to a change in their institutions, preferred to leave their homes and seek a new abode. There are, however, at the present time a few remnants of the old French stock in the State, who still retain to a great extent the ancient habits and customs of their fathers.

The Mississippi Company

During the earliest period of French occupation of this country, M. Tonti, LaSalle's attendant, was commander-in-chief of all the territory embraced between Canada and the Gulf of Mexico, and extending east and west of the Mississippi as far as his ambition or imagination pleased to allow. He spent twenty-one years in establishing forts and organizing the first settlements of Illinois, Sep- tember 14, 1712, the French government granted a monopoly of all the trade and commerce of the country to M. Crozat, a wealthy merchant of Paris, who established a trading company in Illinois, and it was by this means that the early settlements became permanent and others established. Crozat surrendered his charter in 1717, and the Company of the West, better known as the Mississippi Company, was organized, to aid and assist the banking system of John Law, the most famous speculator of modern times, and perhaps at one time the wealthiest private individual the world has ever known ; but his treasure was transitory. Under the Company of the West a branch was organized called the Company of St. Philip's, for the purpose of working the rich silver mines supposed to be in Illinois, and Philip Renault was appointed as its agent. In 1719 he sailed from France with two hundred miners, laborers and mechanics. During 1719 the Company of the West was by royal order united with the Royal Company of the Indies, and had the influence and support of the crown, who was deluded by the belief that immense wealth would flow into the empty treasury of France. This gigantic scheme, one of the most extensive and wonderful bubbles ever blown up to astonish, deceive and ruin thousands of people, was set in operation by the fertile brain of John Law. Law was born in Scotland in 1671, and so rapid had been his career that at the age of twenty-three he was a " bankrupt, an adulterer, a murderer and an exiled outlaw." But he possessed great financial ability, and by his agreeable and attractive manners, and his enthusiastic advocacy of his schemes, he succeeded in inflaming the imagination of the mercurial Frenchmen, whose greed for gain led them to adopt any plans for obtaining wealth.

Law arrived in Paris with two and a half millions of francs, which he had gained at the gambling table, just at the right time. Louis XIY, had just died and left as a legacy empty coffers and an immense public debt. Every thing and everybody was taxed to the last penny to pay even the interest. All the sources of industry were dried up; the very wind which wafted the barks of commerce, seemed to have died away under the pressure of the time; trade stood still; the merchant, the trader, the artificer, once flourishing in affluence, were transformed into clamorous beggars. The life-blood that animated the kinordom was stagnated in all its arteries, and the danger of an awful crisis became such that the nation was on the verge of bankruptcy. At this critical juncture John Law arrived and proposed liis grand scheme of the Mississippi Company; 200,000 shares of stock at 500 livres each were at first issued. This sold readily and great profits were realized. More stock was issued, speculation became rife, the fever seized everybody, and the wildest speculating frenzy pervaded the whole nation. Illinois was thought to contain vast and rich mines of minerals. Kaskaskia, then scarcely more than the settlement of a few savages, was spoken of as an emporium of the most extensive traffic, and as rivaling some of the cities of Europe in refinement, fashion and religious culture. Law was in the zenith of his glory, and the people in the zenith of their infatuation. The high and the low, the rich and the poor, were at once filled with visions of untold wealth, and every age, set, rank and condition were buying and selling stocks. Law issued stock ao-ain and again, and readilv sold until 2,235,000,000 livres were in circulation, equaling about $450,000,000. While confidence lasted an impetus was given to trade never before known. An illusory policy everywhere prevailed, and so dazzled the eve that none could see in the horizon the dark cloud announcing the approaching storm. Law at the time was the most influential man in Europe. His house was beset from morning till night with eager applicants for stock. Dukes, marquises and counts, with their wives and daughters, waited for hours in the street below his door. Finding his residence too small, he changed it for the Place Yendome, whither the crowd followed him, and the spacious square had the appearance of a public market. The boulevards and public gardens were forsaken, and the Place Vendome became the most fashionable place in Paris; and he was unable to wait upon even one-tenth part of his applicants. The bubble burst after a few years, scattering ruin and distress in every direction. Law, a short time previous the most popular man in Europe, fled to Brussels, and in 1729 died in Venice, in obscurity and poverty.

English Rule

As early as 1750 there could be perceived the first throes of the revolution, which gave a new master and new institutions to Illinois. France claimed the whole valley of the Mississippi, and England the right to extend her possessions westward as far as she might desire. Through colonial controversies the two mother countries were precipitated into a bloody war within tlie !N"ortliwesteru Territory, George Wasliingtou firing the first gun of the military struggle which resulted in the overthrow of the French not only in Illinois but in North America. The French evinced a determination to retain control of the territory bordering the Ohio and Mississippi from Canada to the Gulf, and so long as the English colonies were confined to the sea-coast there was little reason for controversy. As the English, however, became acquainted with this beautiful and fertile portion of our country, they not only learned the value of the vast territory, but also resolved to set up a counter claim to the soil. The French established numerous military and trading posts from the frontiers of Canada to New Orleans, and in order to establish also their claims to jurisdiction over the country they carved the lilies of France on the forest trees, or sunk plates of metal in the ground. These measures did not, however, deter the English from going on with their explorations; and though neither party resorted to arms, yet the conflict was . gathering, and it was only a question of time when the storm should burst upon the frontier settlement. The French based their claims upon discoveries, the English on grants of territory extending from ocean to ocean, but neither part}^ paid the least attention to the prior claims of the Indians. From this position of affairs, it was evident that actual collision between the contending parties would not much longer be deferred. The English Government, in anticipation of a war, urged the Governor of Virginia to lose no time in building two forts, which were equipped by arms from England. The French anticipated the English and gathered a considerable force to defend their possessions. The Governor determined to send a raessenojer to the nearest French post and demand an explanation. This resolution of the Governor brought into the history of our country for the first time the man of all others whom America most loves to honor, namely, George "Washington. He was chosen, although not yet twenty-one years of age, as the one to perform this delicate and difiicult mission. "With five companions he set out on Nov. 10, 1753, and after a perilous journey returned Jan. 6, ITo-i. Tiie struggle commenced and continued long, and was bloody and fierce; but en the lOtli of October, 1765, the ensign of France was replaced on the ramparts of Fort Chartres by the flag of Great Britain. This fort was the depot of supplies and the place of rendezvous for the united forces of the French. At this time the colonies of the Atlantic seaboard were assembled in preliminary congress at New York, dreaming of liberty and independence for the continent; and Washington, who led the expedition against the French for the English king, in less than ten years was commanding the forces opposed to the English tyrant. Illinois, besides being constructively a part of Florida for over one hundred years, during which time no Spaniard set foot upon her soil or rested his eyes upon her beautiful plains, for nearly ninety years had been in the actual occupation of the French, their puny settlements slumbering quietly in colonial dependence on the distant waters of the Kaskaskia, Illinois and Wabash.

The J^orthwest Territory was now entirely under English rule, and on the breaking out of the Revolutionary war the British held every post of importance in the West. While the colonists of the East were maintaining a fierce struggle with the armies of England, their western frontiers were ravaged by merciless butcheries of Indian warfare. The jealousy of the savage was aroused to action by the rapid extension of American settlement westward and the improper influence exerted by a number of military posts garrisoned by British troops. To prevent indiscriminate slaughters arising froin these causes, Illinois became the theater of some of the most daring exploits connected with American history. The hero of the achievements by which this beautiful land was snatched as a gem from the British Crown, was George Rogers Clark, of Yirginia. lie had closely watched the movements of the British throughout the Northwest, and understood their whole plan; he also knew the Indians were not unanimously in accord with the English, and therefore was convinced that if the British could be defeated and expelled from the Northwest, the natives might be easily awed into neutrality. Having convinced himself that the enterprise against the Illinois settlement might easily succeed, he repaired to the capital of Virginia, arriving Nov. 5, 1777. While he was on his way, fortunately, Burgoyne was defeated (Oct. 17), and the spirits of the colonists were thereby greatly encouraged. Patrick Henry was Governor of Yirginia, and at once entered heartily into Clark's plans. After satisfying the Yirginia leaders of the feasibility of his project, he received two sets of instructions, - one, secret, the other open. The latter authorized him to enlist seven companies to go to Kentucky, and serve three months after their arrival m the West. The secret order authorized him to arm these troops, to procure his powder and lead of General Hand at Pittsburg, and to proceed at once to subjugate the country.

He Takes Kaskaskia

With these instructions Col. Clark repaired to Pittsburg, choosing rather to raise his men west of the mountains, as he well knew all were needed in the colonies in the conflict there. He sent Col. W. B. Smith to Holstein and Captains Helm and Bowman to other localities to enlist men; but none of them succeeded in raising the required number. Tlie settlers in these parts were afraid to leave their own firesides exposed to a vigilant foe, and but few could be induced to join the expedition. With these companies and several private volunteers Clark commenced his descent of the Ohio, which he navigated as far as the falls, where he took possession of and fortified Corn Island, a small island between the present cities of Louisville, Ky., and Xew Albany, Ind. Here, after having completed his arrangements and announced to the men their real destination, he left a small garrison; and on the 24rth of June, during a total eclipse of the sun, which to them augured no good, they floated down the river. His plan was to go by water as far as Fort Massac, and thence march direct to Kaskaskia. Here lie intended to surprise the garrison, and after its capture go to Cahokia, then to Yincennes, and lastly to Detroit. Should he fail, he intended to march directly to the Mississippi river and cross it into the Spanish country. Before his start he received good items of information: one that an alliance had been formed between France and the United States, and the other that the Indians throughout the Illinois country and the inhabitants at the various frontier posts had been led by the British to believe that the " Long Knives," or Virginians, were the most fierce, bloodthirsty and cruel savages that ever scalped a foe. With this impression on their minds, Clark saw that proper management would cause them to submit at once from fear, if surprised, and then from gratitude would become friendly, if treated with unexpected lenity. The march to Kaskaskia was made through a hot July sun, they arriving on the evening of the 4th of July, 1778. They captured the fort near the village and soon after the village itself, by surprise, and without the loss of a single man and without killing any of the enemy. After sufficiently working on the fears of the natives, Clark told them they were at perfect liberty to worship as they pleased, and to take whichever side of the great conflict they would; also he would protect them against any barbarity from British or Indian foe. This had the desired effect; and the inhabitants, so unexpectedly and bo gratefully surprised by the unlooked-for turn of affairs, at once swore allegiance to the American arms; and when Clark desired to go to Cahokia on the 6th of July, they accompanied him, and through their influence the inhabitants of the place surrendered and gladly placed themselves under his protection.

In the person of M. Gibault, priest of Kaskaskia, Clark found a powerful ally and generous friend. Clark saw that, to retain possession of the Korthwest and ti-eat successfully with the Indians, he must establish a government for the colonies he had taken. St. Yincent, the post next in importance to Detroit, remained yet to be taken before the Mississippi valley was conquered. M. Gibault told him that he would alone, by persuasion, lead Yincennes to throw off its connection with England. Clark gladly accepted this offer, and July 14th, in company with a fellow-townsman, Gibault started on his mission of peace. On the 1st of August he returned with the cheerful intelligence that everything was peaceably adjusted at Yincennes in favor of the Americans. During the interval. Col. Clark established his courts, placed garrisons at Kaskaskia and Cahokia, successfully re-enlisted his men, and sent word to have a fort (which proved the germ of Louisville) erected at the falls of the Ohio.

While the American commander was thus negotiating with the Indians, Hamilton, the British Governor of Detroit, heard of Clark's invasion, and was greatly incensed because the country which he had in charge should be wrested from him by a few ragged militia. He therefore hurriedly collected a force, marched by way of the Wabash, and appeared before the fort at Yincennes. The inhabitants made an effort to defend the town, and when Hamilton's forces arrived, Captain Helm and a man named Henry were the only Americans in the fort. These men had been sent by Clark. The latter charged a cannon and placed it in the open gateway, and the Captain stood by it with alighted match and cried out, as Hamilton came in hailing distance, "Halt!" The British officer, not knowing the strength of the garrison, stopped, and demanded the surrender of tlie fort. Hehn exclaimed, " Ko man shall enter here till I know the terms." Hamilton responded, " You shall have the honors of war." The entire garrison consisted of one officer and one private.

Vincennes Captured

On taking Kaskaskia, Clark made a prisoner of Rocheblave, commander of the place, and got possession of all his written instructions for the conduct of the war. From these papers he received important information respecting the plans of Col. Hamilton, Governor at Detroit, who was intending to make a vigorous and concerted attack upon the frontier. After arriving at Yincennes, however, he gave np his intended campaign for the winter, and trusting to his distance from danger and to the difficulty of approaching him, sent off his Indian warriors to prevent troops from coming down the Ohio, and to annoj the Americans in all ways. Thus he sat quietly down to pass the winter with only about eighty soldiers, but secure, as he thought, from molestation. But he evidently did not realize the character of the men with whom he was contending. Clark, although he could muster only one hundred and tliirt}' men, determined to take advantage of Hamilton's weakness and security, and attack him as the only means of saving himself; for unless he captured Hamilton, Hamilton would capture him. Accordingly, about the beginning of February, 1779, he dispatched a small galley which he had fitted out, mounted with two four-pounders and four swivels and manned with a company of soldiers, and carrying stores for his men, with orders to force her way up the Wabash, to take her station a few miles below Vincennes, and to allow no person to pass her. He himself marched with his little band, and spent sixteen days in traversing the country from Kaskaskia to Yincennes, passing with incredible fatigue through woods and marshes. He was five days in crossing the bottom lands of the Wabash; and for five miles was frequently up to the breast in water. After overcoming difficulties which had been thought insurmountable, he appeared before the place and completely surprised it. The inhabitants readily submitted, but Hamilton at first defended himself in the fort. Next day, however, he surrendered himself and his garrison prisoners-of-war. By his activity in encouraging the hostilities of the Indians and by the revolting enormities perpetrated by those savages, Hamilton had rendered himself so obnoxious that he was thrown in prison and put in irons. During his command of the British frontier posts he offered prizes to the Indians for all the scalps of the Americans thej^ would bring him, and earned in consequence thereof the title, "llair-Bujer General," by which he was ever afterward known.

The services of Clark proved of essential advantage to his countrymen. They disconcerted the plans of Hamilton, and not only saved the western frontier from depredations by the savages, but also greatly cooled the ardor of the Indians for carrying on a contest in which they were not likely to be the gainers. Had it not been for this small army, a union of all the tri'oes from Maine to Georgia against the colonies might have been effected, and the whole current of our history changed.

County Of Illinois

In October, 1778, after the successful campaign of Col. Clark, the assembly of Virginia erected the conquered country, embracing all the territory northwest of the Ohio river, into the County of Illinois, which was doubtless the largest county in the world, exceeding in its dimensions the whole of Great Britian and Ireland. To speak more definitely, it contained the territory now embraced in the great States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan. On the 12th of December, 1778, John Todd was appointed Lieutenant- Commandant of this county by Patrick Henry, then Governor of 'Virginia, and accordingly, also, the first of Illinois County.

Northwestern Territory

Illinois continued to form a part of Virginia until March 1, 1784, when that State ceded all the territory north of the Ohio to the United States. Immediately the general Government proceeded to establish a form of government for the settlers in the territories thus ceded. This form continued until the passage of the ordinance of 1787, for the government of the ISTorthwestern Territory. No man can study the secret history of this ordinance and not feel that Providence was guiding with sleepless eye the des-

This ordinance has a marvelous and interesting history. Considerable controversy has been indulged in as to who is entitled to the credit for framing it. This belongs, undoubtedly, to ^Nathan Dane; and to Rufus King and Timothy Pickering belong the credit for suggesting the proviso contained in it ag.dnst slavery, and also for aids to religion and knowledge, and for assuring forever the common use, without charge, of the great national highways of the Mississippi, the St. Lawrence and their tributaries to all the citizens of the United States. To Thomas Jefferson is also due much credit, as some features of this ordinance were embraced in his ordinance of ITS-i. But the part taken by each in the long, laborious and eventful struggle which had so glorious a consummation in the ordinance, consecrating forever, by one imprescriptible and unchangeable monument, the v^ery heart of our country to Freedom, Knowledge, and Union, will forever honor the names of those illustrious statesmen.

Mr. Jefferson had vainly tried to secure a system of government for the Northwestern Territory. He M'as an emancipationist and favored the exclusion of slavery from the territory, but the South voted him down every time he proposed a measure of this nature. In 1787, as late as Jul}'- 10, an organizing act without the antislaverj' clause was pending. This concession to the South was expected to carry it. Congress was in session in New York. On July 5, Rev. Manasseh Cutler, of Massachusetts, came into New York to lobby on the Northwestern Territory, Everything seemed to fall into his hands. Events were ripe. The state of the public credit, the growing of Southern prejudice, the basis of his mission, his personal character, all combined to complete one of those sudden and marvelous revolutions of public sentiment that

Cutler was a graduate of Yale. He had studied and taken degrees in the three learned professions, medicine, law, and divinity. He had published a scientific examination of the plants of New Eno-land. As a scientist in America his name stood second only to that of Franklin He was a courtly gentleman of the old style, a man of commanding presence and of inviting face. The Southern members said they had never seen such a gentleman in the North. He came representing a Massachusetts company that desired to purchase a tract of land, now included in Ohio, for the purpose of planting a colony. It was a speculation. Government money was worth eighteen cents on the dollar. This company had collected enough to purchase 1,500,000 acres of land. Other speculators in New York made Dr. Cutler tlieir agent, which enabled him to represent a demand for 5,500,000 acres. As this would reduce the national debt, ai:d Jefferson's policy was to provide for the public credit, it presented a good opportunity to do something.

Massachusetts then owned the territory of Maine, which she was crowding on the market. She was opposed to opening the Northwestern region. This fired the zeal of Virginia. The South caught the inspiration, and all exalted Dr. Cutler, The entire South rallied around him. Massachusetts could not vote against him, because many of the constituents of her members were interested personally in the Western speculation. Thus Cutler, making friends in the South, and doubtless using all the arts of the lobby, was enabled to command the situation. True to deeper convictions, he dictated one of the most compact and finished documents of wise statesmanship that has ever adorned any human law book. He borrowed from Jeiferson the term "Articles of Compact," which, preceding the federal constitution, rose into the most sacred character. He then followed very closely the constitution of Massachusetts, adopted three years before. Its most prominent points were :

2. Provision for public schools, giving one township for a seminary and every section numbered 16 in each township; that is, one thirty-sixth of all the land for public schools.

the enactment of any law that ehould nullity pre-existing contracts. Beit forever remembered that this compact declared that "religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall always be encouraged." Dr. Cutler planted himself on this platform and would not yield. Giving his unqualified declaration that it was that or nothing, - that unless they could make the land desirable they did not want it, - he took his horse and buggy and started for the constitutional convention at Philadelphia. On July 13. 17S7, the bill was put upon its passage, and was unanimously adopted. Thus the great States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, a vast empire, were consecrated to freedom, intelligence, and morality. Thus the great heart of the nation was prepared to save the union of States, for it was this act that was the salvation of the republic and the destruction of slavery. Soon the South saw their great blunder and tried to have the compact repealed. In 1 803 Congress referred it to a committee, of which John Kandolph was chairnuin. He reported that this ordinance was a compact and opposed repeal. Thus it stood, a rock in the way of the on-rushing sea of slavery.

"With all this timely aid it was, however, a most desperate and protracted struggle to keep the soil of Illinois sacred to freedom. It was the natural battle-iield for the irrepressible conflict. In the southern end of the State slavery preceded the compact. It existed amoiiir the old French settlers, and was hard to eradicate. That portion was also settled from the slave States, and this population brought their laws, customs, and institutions with them. A stream of population from the North poured into the northern part of the State. These sections misunderstood and hated each other perfecth*. The Southerners regarded the Yankees as a skinning, tricky, penurious race of peddlers, tilling the country with tinware, brass clocks, and wooden nutmegs. The Northerner thought of the Southerner as a lean, lank, lazy creature, burrowing in a hut. and riotina: in whiskv, dirt, and iffuorance. These causes aided in making the struggle long and bitter. So strong was the sympathy with slavery that, in spite of the ordinance of 1787, and in spite of the deed of cession, it was determined to allow the old French settlers to retain their slaves. Planters from the slave States nuVht bring tlieir slaves if they would give tliera an opportunity to choose freedom or yeai*s of service and bondage for their cliildren till they should become thii ty years x)f age. If they chose freedom they must leave the State within sixty days, or be sold as fugitives. Servants we^e whipped for oifenses for which white men were fined. Each lash paid forty cents of the fine. A negro ten miles from home without a pass was whipped. These famous laws were imported from the slave States, just as the laws for the inspection of flax and wool were imported when there was neither in the State.

St. Clair, Governor Of Northwestern Territory

On October 5, 1T87, Maj. Gen. Arthur St. Clair was, by Congress, elected Governor of this vast territory. St. Clair was born in Scotland and emigrated to America in 1755. He served in the French and English war, and was major general in the Revolution. In 1786 he was elected to Congress and chosen President of that body.

Illinois Tehkitory

After the division of the Northwestern Territory Illinois became one of the counties of the Territory of Indiana, from which it was separated by an act of Congress Feb. 3, 1809, forming the Territory of Illinois, with a population estimated at 9,000, and then included the present State of Wisconsin. It was divided, at the time, into two counties, - St. Clair and Randolph. John Boyle, of Kentucky, was appointed Governor, by the President, James Madison, but declining, Ninian Edwards, of the same State, was then appointed and served with distinction; and after the organization of Illinois as a State he served in the same capacity, being its third Governor.

War Of 1812. The Outbreak

For some years previous to the war between the United States and England in 1812, considerable trouble was experienced with the Indians. Marauding bands of savages would attack small settlements and inhumanly butcher all the inhabitants, and mutilate their dead bodies. To protect themselves, the settlers organized companies of rangers, and erected block houses and stockades in every settlemen-t. The largest, strongest and best one of these was Fort Russell, near the present village of Edwardsville. This stockade was made the main rendezvous for troops and military stores, and Gov. Edwards, who during the perilous times of 1812, when Indian hostilities threatened on every hand, assumed command of the Illinois forces, established his headquarters at this place. The Indians were incited to many of these depredations by English emissaries, who for years continued their dastardly work of '' setting the red men, like dogs, upon the whites."

In the summer of 1811 a peace convention was held with the Pottawatomies at Peoria, when they promised that peace should prevail; but their promises were soon broken. Tecumseh, the great warrior, and fit successor of Pontiac, started in the spring of 1811, to arouse the Southern Indians to war against the whites. The purpose of this chieftain was well known to Gov. Harrison, of Indiana Territory, who determined during Tecumseh's absence to strike and disperse the hostile forces collected at Tippecanoe. This he successfully did on iS'ov. 7, winning the sobriquet of " Tippecanoe," by which he was afterwards commonly known. Several peace councils were held, at which the Indians promised good behavior, but only to deceive the whites. Almost all the savages of the Northwest were thoroughly stirred up and did not desire peace. The British agents at various points, in anticipation of a war with the United States, sought to enlist the favor of the savages by distributing to them large supplies of arms, ammunition and other goods.

The English continued their insults to our flag upon the high seas, and their government refusing to relinquish its offensive course, all hopes of peace and safe commercial relations were abandoned, and Congress, on the J9th of June, 1812, formally declared war against Great Britain. In Illinois the threatened Indian troubles had already caused a more thorough organization of the militia and greater protection by the erection of forts. As intimated, the Indians took the war-path long before the declaration of hostilities

Massacre At Fort Dearborn

During the war of 1812 between the United States and England, the greatest, as well as the most revolting, massacre of whites that ever occurred in Illinois, was perpetrated by the Pottawatomie Indians, at Fort Dearborn. This fort was built by the Government, in 180-1, on the south side of the Chicago river, and was garrisoned by 54 men under command of Capt. Nathan Heald, assisted by Lieutenant Helm and Ensign Ronan; Dr. Voorliees, surgeon. Tiie residents at tlie post at that time were the wives of officers Heald and Helm and a few of the soldiers, Mr. Kinzie and his family, and a few Canadians. The soldiers and Mr. Kinzie were on the most friendly terms with the Pottawatomies and Winnebagoes, the principal tribes around them.

On the Tth of August, 1812, arrived the order from Gen. Hull, at Detroit, to evacuate Fort Dearborn, aud distribute all United States property to the Indians. Chicago was so deep in the wilderness that this was the first intimation the garrison received of the declaration of war made on the 19th of June. The Indian chief who brouo^ht the dispatch advised Capt. Heald not to evacuate, and that if he should decide to do so, it be done immediately, and by forced marches elude the concentration of the savao'es before the news could be circulated among them. To this most excellent advice the Captain gave no heed, but on the 12th held a council with the Indians, apprising them of the orders received, and offering a liberal reward for an escort of Pottawatomies to Fort Wayne. The Indians, with many professions of friendship, assented to all he proposed, and promised all he required. The remaining officers refused to join in the council, for they had been informed that treachery was designed, - that the Indians intended to murder those in the council, and then destroy those in the fort. The port holes were open, displaying cannons pointing directly upon the council. This action, it is supposed, prevented a massacre at that time.

Mr. Kinzie, who knew the Indians well, begged Capt. Heald not to confide in their promises, or distribute the arms and ammunitions among them, for it would only put power in their hands to destroy the whites. This argument, true and excellent in itself, was now certainly inopportune, and would only incense the treacherous foe. But the Captain resolved to follow it, and accordingly on the night of the 13th, after the distribution of the other property, the arms were broken, and the barrels of whisky, of which there was a large quantity, were rolled quietly through the sally-port, their heads knocked in and their contents emptied into the river. On that night the lurking red-skins crept near the fort and discovered the destruction of the promised booty going on within. The next morning the powder was seen floating on the surface of the river, and the Indians asserted that such an abundance of " fire-water" had been emptied into the river as to make it taste " g^oggy.'^ Many of them drank of it freely.

On the l-ith the desponding garrison was somewhat cheered by the arrival of Capt. Wells, with 15 friendly Miamis. Capt. Wells heard at Fort Wavne of the order to evacuate Fort Dearborn, and knowing the hostile intentions of the Indians, made a rapid march through the wilderness to protect, if possible, his niece, Mrs. Heald, and the officers and the garrison from certain destruction. But he came too late. Every means for its defense had been destroyed the night before, and arrangements were made for leaving the fort on the following morning.

The fatal morning of the 16th at length dawned brightly on the world. The sun shone in unclouded splendor upon the glassy waters of Lake Michigan. At 9 a. m., the party moved out of the southern gate of the fort, in military array. The band, feeling the solemnity of the occasion, struck up the Dead March in Saul. Capt.