Macoupin County, Illinois - A Brief Sketch of the North-West Territory, 1879 (part 1 of 2)

A Brief Sketch of the North-West Territory

Sycim 1784 the North-western Territory was ceded tp the United States by Virginia. It embraced only the territory lying between the Ohio and Mississippi rivers; and north, to the northern limits of the United States. It coincided with the with an aggregate population at the present time of 13,000,000 inhabitants, or nearly one-third of the entire population of the United States.

Its lakes are fresh-water seas, upon whose bosom floats the commerce of many states. Its far-stretching prairies have more acres that are arable and productive than Any other area of like extent on the globe.

For the last quarter of a century the increase of population and wealth in the north-west has been about as three to one in any other portion of the United States.

Early Explorations

In the year 1512, on Easter Sunday, the Spanish name for which is Pascua Florida,* Juan Ponce de Leon, an old comrade of Columbus, discovered the coast of the American continent, near St. Augustine, and in honor of the day and of the blossoms which covered the trees along the shore, named the new-found country Florida. Juan had been led to undertake the discovery of strange lands partly by the hope of finding endless stores of gold, and partly by the wish to reach a fountain that was said to exist deep within the forests of North America, which possessed the power of renovating the life of those who drank of or bathed in its waters. He was made governor of the region he had visited, but circumstances prevented his return thither until 1521; and then he went only to meet death at the hands of the Indians.

In the meantime, in 1516, a Spanish sea captain, Diego Miruelo, had visited the coast first reached by Ponce de Leon, and in his barters with the natives had received considerable quantities of gold, with which he returned home and spread abroad new stories of the wealth hidden in the interior.

Ten years, however, passed before Pamphilo de Narvaez undertook to prosecute the examination of the lands north of the Gulf of Mexico. Narvaez was excited to action by the late astonishing success of the conqueror of Montezuma, but he found the gold for which he sought constantly flying before him ; each tribe of Indians referred him to those living farther in the interior. And from tribe to tribe he and his companions wandered. They suffered untold privations in the swamps and forests; and out of three hundred followers only four or five at length reached Mexico. And still these disappointed wanderers persisted in their original fancy, that Florida was as wealthy as Mexico or Peru.

Among those who had faith in that report was Ferdinand de Soto, who had been with Pizzaro in the conquests of Peru. He asked and obtained leave of the King of Spain to conquer Florida at his own cost. It was given in the year 1538. With a brilliant and noble band of followers he left Europe, and in May, 1538, after a stay in Cuba, anchored his vessels near the coast of the Peninsula of Florida, in the bay of Spiritu Santa, or Tampa bay.

De Soto entered upon his march into the interior with a determination to succeed. From June till November of 1539, the Spaniards toiled along until they reached the neighborhood of Appalachee bay. During the next season, 1540, they followed the course suggested by the Florida Indians, who wished them out of their country, and going to the north-east, crossed the rivers and climbed the mountains of Georgia. De Soto was a stern, severe man, and none dared to murmur. De Soto passed the winter with his little band near the Yazoo. In April, 1541, the resolute Spaniard set forward, and upon the first of May reached the banks of the great river of the West, not far from the 35th parallel of latitude.*

A month was spent in preparing barges to convey the horses, many of which still lived, across the rapid stream. Having successfully passed it, the explorers pursued their way northward, into the neighborhood of New Madrid ; then turning westward again, marched more than two hundred miles from the Mississippi to the highlands of White river; and still no gold, no gems, no cities - only bare prairies, and tangled forests, and deep morasses. To the south again they toiled on, and passed their third winter of wandering upon the Washita. In the following spring (1542), De Soto, weary with hope long deferred, descended the Washita to its junction with the Mississippl. He heard, when he reached the mighty stream of the west, that its lower portion flowed through endless and uninhabitable swamps.

The news sank deep into the stout heart of the disappointed warrior. _ His health yielded to the contests of his mind and the influence of the climate. He appointed a successor, and upon the 21st of May died. His body was sunk in the stream of the Mississippi. Deprived of their energetic leader, the Spaniards determined to try to reach Mexico by land. After some time spent in wandering through the forests, despairing of success in the attempt to rescue themselves by land, they proceeded to prepare such vessels as they could to take them tosea. From January to July, 1543, the weak, sickly band of gold-seekers labored at the doleful task, and in July reached, in the vessels thus built, the Gulf of Mexico, and by September entered the river Paunco. One-half of the six hundred + who had disembarked with De Soto, so gay in steel and silk, left their bones among the mountains and in the morasses of the south, from Georgia to Arkansas.

De Soto founded no-settlements, 'produced no results, and left no traces, unless it were that he awakened the hostility of the red man. against the white man, and disheartened such as might desire to follow up the career of

* De Soto probably was at the lower Chickasaw bluffs. The Spaniards called the Missixsippi Rio Grande, Great River, which is the literal meaning of the aboriginal name.

discovery for better purposes. The French nation were eager and ready to seize upon any news from this extensive domain, and were the first to profit by De Soto's defeat. As it was, for more than a century after the expedition, the west remained utterly unknown to the whites.

The French were the first Europeans to make settlements on the St. Lawrence river and along the great lakes. Quebec was founded by Sir Samuel Champlain in 1608, and in 1609, when Sir Henry Hudson was exploring the noble river which bears his name, Champlain ascended the Sorelle river, and discovered, embosomed between the Green mountains, or " Verdmont," as the chivalrous and poetic Frenchman called them, and the Adirondacks, the beautiful sheet of water to which his name is indissolubly attached. In 1613 he founded Montreal.

During the period elapsing between the years 1607 and 1664, the English, Dutch, and Swedes alternately held possession of portions of the Atlantic coast, jealously watching one another, and often involved in bitter controversy, and not seldom in open battle, until, in the latter year, the English became the sole rulers, and maintained their rights until the era of the Revolution, when they in turn were compelled to yield tothe growing power of their colonies, and retire from the field.

The French movements, from the first settlement at Quebec, and thence westward, were led by the Catholic missionaries. Le Caron, a Franciscan friar, who had been the companion and friend of Champlain, was the first to penetrate the western wilds, which he did in 1616 * in a birch canoe, exploring Lake Huron and its tributaries. This was four years before the pilgrims "moored their bark on the wild New England shore."

In 1634, three Jesuit missionaries, Brébeuf, Daniel, and Lallemand, planted a mission on the shores of the lake of the Iroquois (probably the modern Lake Simcoe), and also established others along the eastern border of Lake Huron.

From a map published in 1660, it would appear that the French had, at that date, become quite familiar with the region from Niagara to the head of Lake Superior, including considerable portions of Lake Michigan.

In 1641, Fathers Jogues and Raymbault embarked on the Penetanguishine Bay for the Sault St. Marie, where they arrived after a passage of seventeen days. A crowd of two thousand natives-met them, and a great council was held. At this meeting the French first heard of many nations dwelling beyond the great lakes.

: ES : a : pursuing his discoveries. The same year, Jogues and Bressani were Captured by the Indians and tortured, and in 1648 the mission which had been founded at St. Joseph was taken and destroyed, and Father Daniel slain.

In 1649, the missions St. Louis and St. Ignatius were also destroyed, and Fathers Brébeuf and Lallemand barbarously tortured by the same terrible and unrelenting enemy. Literally did those zealous missionaries of the Romish Church "take their lives in their hands," and lay them a willing sacrifice on the altar of their faith.

It is stated by some writer that, in 1654, two fur-traders accompanied a baud of Ottawas on a journey of five hundred leagues to the west. They were absent two years, and on their return brought with them fifty canoes and two hundred and fifty Indians to the French trading posts.

They related wonderful tales of the countries they had seen, and the various red nations they had visited, and described the lofty mountains and mighty rivers in glowing terms. A new impulse was given to the spirit of aulyenture, and scouts and traders swarmed the frontiers and explored the great lakes and adjacent country, and a party wintered in 1659-60 on the south shore of Lake Superior.

In 1660, Father Mesnard was sent out by the Bishop of Quebec, and visited Lake Superior in October of that year. While crossing the Keeweenaw Point he was lost in the wilderness and never afterwards heard from, though his cassock and breviary were found long afterwards among the Siow.

A change was made in the government of New France in 1665. The Company of the Hundred Associates, who had ruled it since 1682, resigned its charter. Tracy was made Viceroy,Courcelles Governor, and Talon intendent.t This was called the Government of the West Indies.

In the same year (1665), Pierre Claude Allotiez was sent out by way of the Ottawa River to the far west, via the Sault St. Marie and the south shore of Lake Superior, where he landed at the bay of Chegoimegon. Here he found the chief village of the Chippewas, and established a mission. He also made an alliance with them and the Sacs, Foxes, and Iilinois,* against the formidable Iroquois. Allotiez, the next year (1666), visited the western end of the great lake, where he met the Sioux, and from them first learned of the Mississippi River, which they called " Messipi." From thence he ré- turned to Quebec.

In 1668 Claude Dablon and Jacques Marquette established the mission at the Sault called St. Marie, and during the next five years Allotiez, Dablon, and Marquette explored the region of-Lake Superior on the south shore, and extending to Lake Michigan. They also established the missions of Chegoimegon, St. Marie, Mackinaw, and Green Bay.

The plan of exploring the Mississippi probably originated with Marquette. It was at once sanctioned by the Intendent, Talon, who was ambitious to extend the dominion of France over the whole West.

In 1670, Nicholas Perot was sent to the West to propose a congress of all the nations and tribes living in the vicinity of the lakes; and, in 1671, a great council was held at Sault St. Marie, at which the Cross was set up, and the nations of the great Northwest were taken into an alliance with much pomp and ceremony.

On the 13th of May, 1673, Marquette, Joliet, and five voyageurs embarked in two birch canoes at Mackinaw and entered Lake Michigan. The first nation they visited was the " Folles-Avoines," or nation of Wild Oats, since known as the Menomonies, living around the " Baie des Puans," or Green Bay. These people, with whom Marquette was somewhat acquainted, en- | deayored to persuade the adventurers from visiting the Mississippi. They represented the Indians on the great river as being bloodthirsty and sayage in the extreme, and the river itself as being inhabited by monsters which would devour them and their canoes together. +

Marquette thanked them for their advice, but declined to be guided by it. Passing through Green Bay, they ascended the Fox River, dragging their canoes over the strong rapids, and visited the village, where they found liying in harmony together trikes of the Miamis, Mascoutens,t and Kikabeax, or Kickapoos. Leaving this point on the 10th of June, they made the portage to the " Ouisconsin," and descended that stream to the Mississippi, which they entered on the 17th with a joy, as Marquette says, "which he could not express." §

Sailing down the Mississippi, the party reached the Des Moines River, and, according to some, visited an Indian village some two leagues up the stream. Here the people again tried to persuade them from prosecuting their voyage down the river. After a great feast and a dance, and a night-passed with this hospitable people, they proceeded on their way, escorted by six hundred persons to their canoes. These people called themselves Illinois, or Illini. The name of their tribe was Peruaca, and their language a dialect of the Algonquin.

Leaving these savages, they proceeded down the river. Passing the wonderful rocks, which still excite the admiration of the traveler, they arrived at the mouth of another great river, the- Pekitanoni, or Missouri of the present day. They noticed the condition of its waters, which they described as "muddy, rushing, and noisy."

Passing a great rock,|| they came to the Ouabouskigon, or Ohio. Marquette shows this river very small, even as compared with the I/dinois. From the Ohio they passed as far down as the Akamsea, or Arkansas, where they came very near being destroyed by the natives; but they finally pacified them, and, on the 17th of July, they commenced their return voyage.

The party reached Green Bay in September without loss or injury, and reported their discoveries, which were among the most important of that age. Marquette afterwards returned to Illinois, and preached to the natives until 1675.

On the 18th of May of that year, while cruising up the eastern coast of Lake Michigan with a party of boatmen, he landed at the mouth of a stream putting into the lake from the east, since known as the river Marquette.

+ See legend of the great bird, the terrible " Piosa," that devoured men, and was only oyvercome by the sacrifice of a brave young chief. The rocks above Alton, Nlinois, have some rude representations of this monster. 7 ' a Marqvette's journal.

He performed mass, and went a little apart to pray, and being gone longer than his companions deemed -necessary, they went in search of him, and found him dead where he had knelt. They buried him in the sand.

While this distinguished adventurer was pursuing his labors, two other men were preparing to follow in his footsteps and make still further explorations, and, if possible, more important discoveries. These were the Chevalier Robert de la Salle and Louis Hennepin.

La Salle was a native of Rouen in Normandy. He was educated at a seminary of the Jesuits, and designed for the ministry, but, for reasons unknown, he left the seminary and came to Canada in 1667, where he engaged in the fur trade.

Like nearly every intelligent man, he became intensely interested in the new discoveries at the West, and conceived the idea of exploring the passage to the great South Sea, which by many was believed to exist. He made known his ideas to the Governor-General, Count Frontenac, and desired his co-operation. The Governor at once fell in with his views, which were strengthened by the reports brought back by Marquette and Joliet, and advised La Salle to apply to the King of France in person, and gave him letters of introduction to the great Colbert, then Minister of Finance and Marine. Accordingly, in 1675, he returned to France, where he was warmly received by the King and nobility, and his ideas were at once listened to and every possible favor shown to him.

He was made a Chevalier, and invested with the seigniory of Fort Catarocouy, or Frontenac (now known as Kingston), upon condition that he would rebuild it, as he proposed, of stone.

Returning to Canada, he wrought diligently upon the fort until 1677, when he again visited France to report progress. He was received, as before, with favor, and, at the instance of Colbert and his son, the King granted him new letters patent and new privileges. On the 14th of July, 1678, he sailed from Rochelle, accompanied by thirty men, and with Tonti, an Italian, for his lieutenant. They arrived at Quebec on the 13th of September, and after a few days' delay proceeded to Frontenac. Father Louis Hennepin, a Franciscan friar, of the Recollet sect, was quietly working in Canada on La Salle's arrival. He was a man of great ambition, and much interested in the discoveries of the day. He was appointed by his religious ~uperiors to accompany the expedition fitting out for La Salle.

Sending agents forward to prepare the Indians for his coming, and to open trade with them, La Salle himself embarked on the 18th of November, in a little brigantine of ten tons, to cross: Lake Ontario. This was the first ship of European build that ever sailed upon this fresh-water sea. Contrary winds made the voyage long and troublesome, and a month was consumed in beating up the lake to the Niagara River. Near the mouth of this river the Troquois had a village, and here La Salle constructed the first fortification, which afterwards grew into the famous Fort Niagara. On the 26th of January, 1679, the keel 'of the first vessel built on Lake Erie was laid at the mouth of the Cayuga Creek, on the American side, about six miles above the falls.

In the meantime La Salle had returned to Fort Frontenac to forward supplies for his forthcoming vessel. The little barque on Lake Ontario was wrecked by carelessness, and a large amount of the supplies she carried was lost. On the 7th of August the new vessel was launched, and made ready to sail. She was of about seventy tons' burden.

La Salle christened his vessel the "Griffin," in honor of the arms of Count Frontenac. Passing across Lake Erie, and into the small lake, which they named St. Clair, they entered the broad waters of Lake Huron. Here they encountered heavy storms, as dreadful as those upon the ocean, and after a niost tempestuous passage they took refuge in the roadstead of Michilimackinac (Mackinaw), on the 27th of August. La Salle remained at this point until the middle of September, busy in founding a fort and constructing a trading-house, when he went forward upon the deep waters of Lake Michigan, and soon after cast anchor in Green Bay. Finding here a large quantity of furs and peltries, he determined to load his vessel and send her back to Niagara. On the 18th of September she was sent under charge of a pilot, while La Salle himself, with fourteen men,* proceeded up Lake Michigan, leisurely examining its shores and noting everything of interest. Tonti, who had been sent to look after stragglers, was to join him at the head of the lake. From the 19th of September to the 1st of November, the time was occupied in the voyage up this inland sea. On the last-named day, La Salle arrived at the mouth of the river Miamis, now St. Joseph. Here he con- structed a fort, and remained nearly a month waiting for tidings of his vessel; but, hearing nothing, he determined to push on before the winter should prevent him. On the 3d of December, leaving ten men to garrison the fort, he started overland towards the head-waters of the Illinois, accompanied by three monks and twenty men. Ascending the St. Joseph River, he crossed a short portage and reached the The-a-ki-ki, since corrupted into Kankakee. Embarking on this sluggish stream, they came shortly to the Llinois, and soon after found a village of the Illinois Indians, probably in the vicinity of the rocky bluffs a few miles above the present city of La Salle, Illinois. They found it deserted, but the Indians had quite a quantity of maize stored here, and La Salle, being short of provisions, helped himself to what he required. Passing down the stream, the party on the 4th of January came toa lake, probably the Lake Peoria, as there is no other upon this stream. Here they found a great number of natives, who were gentle and kind, and La Salle determined to construct a fort. It stood ona rise of ground near the river, and was named Creve-Ceur* (broken-heart), most probably on account of the low spirits of the commander, from anxiety for his vessel and the uncertainty of the future. Possibly he had heard of the loss of the " Griffin," which occurred on her downward trip from Green Bay ; most probably on Lake Huron. He remained at the Lake Peoria through the winter, but no good tidings came, and no supplies. His men were discontented, but the brave adventurer never gave up hope. He resolved to send a party on a voyage of exploration up the Mississippi, under the lead of Father Hennepin, and he himself would proceed on foot to Niagara and Frontenac to raise more means and enlist new men; while Tonti, his lieutenant, should stay at the fort, which they were to strengthen in the meaatime, and extend their intercourse with the Indians.

Hennepin started on his voyage on the last day of February, 1680, and La Salle soon after, with a few attendants, started on his perilous journey of twelve hundred miles by the way of the Illinois River, the Miami, and Lakes Erie and Ontario, to Frontenac, which he finally reached in safety. He found his worst fears''realized. The "Griffin" was lost, his agents had taken advantage of his absence, and his creditors had seized his goods. But he knew no such word as fail, and by the middle of summer he was again on his way with men and supplies for his band in Illinois. A sad disappointment awaited him. He found his fort deserted, and no tidings of Tonti and his men. During La Salle's abserice the Indians had become jealous of the French, and they had been attacked and harassed even by the Iroquois, who came the long distance between the shores of Lake Ontario and the Illinois River to make war upon the more peaceable tribes dwelling on the prairies. Uncertain of any assistance from La Salle, and apprehensive of a general war with the savages, Tonti, in September, 1680, abandoned his position and returned to the shores of the lakes. La Salle reached the post on the Illinois in December, 1680, or January, 1681. Again and bitterly disappointed, La Salle did not succumb, but resolved to return to Canada and start anew. This he did, and in June met his lieutenant, Tonti, at Mackinaw.

Hennepin in the meanwhile had met with strange adventures. After leaving Creye-Coeur, he reached the Mississippi in seven days; but his way was so obstructed by ice that he was until the 11th of April reaching the Wisconsin line. Here he was taken prisoner by some northern Indians, who, however, treated him kindly and took him and his companions to the falls of St. Anthony, which they reached on the lst of May. 'These falls Hennepin named in honor of his patron saint. Hennepin and his companions remained here for three months, treated very kindly by their captors. At the end of this time they met with a band of French, led by one Sieur de Luth,+ who, in pursuit of game and trade, had penetrated to this country by way of Lake Superior. With his band Hennepin and his companions returned to the borders of civilized life in November, 1680, just after La Salle had gone back to the wilderness. Hennepin returned to France, where, in 1684, he published a narrative of his wonderful adventurers.

Robert De La Salle, whose name is more closely connected with the explorations of the Mississippi than that of any other, was the next to descend the river in the year 1682. Formal possession was taken of the great river and all the countries bordering upon it or its tributaries in the name of the King.

La Salle and his party now retraced their steps towards the north. They met with no serious trouble until they reached the Chickasaw Bluffs, where they had erected a fort on their downward voyage, and named it Prudhom- me. Here La Salle was taken violently sick. Unable to proceed, he sent forward Tonti to communicate with Count Frontenac. La Salle himself reached the mouth of the St. Joseph the latter part of September. From that point he sent Father Zenobe with his dispatches to represent him at court, while he turned his attention to the fur trade and to the project of completing a fort, which he named St. Louis, upon the Illinois River. The precise location of this work is not known. It was said to be upon a rocky bluff two hundred and fifty feet high, and only accessible upon one side. There are no bluffs of such a height on the Illinois River answering the description. It may have been on the rocky bluff above La Salle, where the rocks are perhaps one hundred feet in height.

Upon the completion of this work La Salle aguin sailed for France, which he reached on the 13th of December, 1683. A new man, La Barre, had now succeeded Frontenac as Governor of Canada. This man was unfriendly towards La Salle, and this, with other untoward circumstances, no doubt led him to attempt the colonization of the Mississippi country by way of the mouth of the river. Notwithstanding many obstacles were in his path, he succeeded in obtaining the grant of a fleet from the King, and on the 24th of July, 1684, a fleet of twenty-four vessels sailed from Rochelle to America, four of which were destined for Louisiana, and carried a body of two hundred and eighty people, including the crews. 'There were soldiers, artificers, and volunteers, and also "some young women.' Discord soon broke out between M. de Beaujeu and La Salle, and grew from bad to worse. On the 20th of December they reached the island of St. Domingo.

Joutel * was sent out with this party, which left on the 4th of February, and traveled eastward three days, when they came to a great stream which they could not cross Here they made signals by building great fires, and on the 13th two of the vessels came in sight The stream was sounded and the vessels were anchored under shelter. But again misfortune overtook La Salle, and the vessel was wrecked, and the bulk of the supplies was lost. At this juncture M. de Beaujeu, his second in command, set sail and returned to France. La Salle now constructed a rude shelter from the timbers of his wrecked vessel, placed his people inside of it, and set out to explore the surrounding country in hope of finding the Mississippi. He was, of course, disappointed ; but found on a stream, which he named the Vaches, a good site for a fort. He at once removed his camp, and, after incredible exertions, constructed a fortification sufficient to profect them from the Indians. This fort was situated on Matagorda Bay, within the present limits of Texas, and was called by La Salle Fort St. Louis.

Leaving Joutel to complete the work with one hundred men, La Salle took the remainder of the company and embarked on the river, with the intention of proceeding as far up as he could. The savages soon became troublesome, and on the 14th of July La Salle ordered Joutel to join him with his whole force. They had already lost several of their best men, and dangers threatened them on every side. It would seem from the historian's account of the expedition that La Salle began to erect another fort, and also that he became morose and severe in his discipline, so much so as to get the ill will of many of his people. He finally resolyed to advance into the country, but whether with the view of returning to Canada by way of Illinois, or only for the purpose of making further discoveries, Joutel leaves in doubt. Giving his last instructions, he left the fort on the 12th day of January, 1687, with a company of about a dozen men, including his brother, two nephews, Father Anastasius, a Franciscan friar, Joutel, and others, and moved northeastward, as is supposed, until the 17th of March, when some of his men, who had been cherishing revengeful feelings for some time, waylaid the Chevalier and shot him dead. They also slew one of his nephews and two of his servants.

In 1687, France was inyolved in a long and bloody war. The League of Augsburg was formed by the Princes of the Empire against Louis XIV., and England, Spain, Holland, Deumark, Sweden, and Savoy took up arms, and Louis found himself battling with nearly the whole of Europe, and only Turkey for an ally. This war ended with the peace of Ryswick in 1697.

No material change took place in America, but the colonists were harassed and many of their people killed or carried captives to the Canadas. In 1688, the French possessions in North America included nearly the whole of the continent north of the St. Lawrence, and the entire valley of the Mississippi; and they had begun to establish a line of fortifications extending-from Quebec to the mouth of the Mississippi, between which points they had three great lines of communication, to wit: by way of Mackinaw, Green

* Joutel, historian of the voyage, accompanied La Salle, and subsequently wrote his "Journal Historique," which was published in Paris, 1713.

Bay, and the Wisconsin River; by way of Lake Michigan, the Kankakee and Illinois Rivers; and by way of Lake Erie, the Maumee and Wabash Rivers, and were preparing to explore the Ohio as a fourth route.

In 1699, D'Iberville, under the autherity of the crown, discovered, on the second of March, by way of the sea, the mouth of the "Hidden River." This majestic stream was called by the natives " Malbouchia," and by the Spaniards, " La Palissade," from the great number of trees about its mouth. After traversing the several outlets, and satisfying himself as to its certainty, he erected a fort near its western outlet, and returned to France. An ayenue of trade was now opened out which was fully improved.

At this time a census of New France showed a total population of. cleyen thousand two hundred and forty-nine Europeans. War again broke out in 1701, and extended over a period of twelve years, ending with the treaty of Utrecht in 1713. This also extended to the American Colonies, and its close left everything as before, with the exception that Nova Scotia was captured in 1710.

In 1718, New Orleans was laid out, and settled by some European colonists. In 1762, the colony was made over to Spain, to be regained by France under the consulate of Napoleon.

In 1803, it was purchased by the United States for the sum of fifteen million dollars, and the territory of Louisiana and the commerce of the Mississippi river came under the charge of the United States. Although La Salle's labors ended in defeat and death, he had not worked and suffered in vain. He had thrown open to France and the world an immense and most valuable country. Had established several ports, and laid the foundation of more than one settlement there. ' Peoria, Kaskaskia and Cahokia are to this day monuments of La Salle's labors; for, though he had founded neither of them (unless Peoria, which was built nearly upon the site of Fort Crevecceur), it was by those he led into the west that these places were peopled and civilized. He was, if not the discoverer, the first settler of the Mississippi Valley, and as such deserves to be known and honored.*

The French early improved the opening made for them, and before 1693, the Reverend Father Gravier began a mission among the Illinois, and hecame the founder of Kaskaskia. For some time it was merely a missionary station, and the inhabitants of the village consisted entirely of natives ; it being one of three such villages, the other two being Cahokia and Peoria. This we learn from a letter written by Father Gabriel Marest, dated " Aux Cascaskias, Autrement dit de ! Immaculee conception de la Sainte Vierge, le 9 Novembre, 1712." In this letter, the writer, tells us that Gravier must be regarded as the founder of the Illinois missions. Soon after the founding of Kaskaskia, the missionary Pinet gathered a flock at Cahokia,t while Peoria arose near the remains of Fort Crevecceur.t

In the north, De La Motte Cadillac, in June, 1701, laid thé foundation of Fort Pontchartrain on the strait, (le Detroit), || while in the south-west efforts were making to realize the dreams of LaSalle. The leader in the last named enterprise was Lemoine D'Iberville, a Canadian officer, who from 1694 to 1697 distinguished himself not a little by battles and conquests among the icebergs of the " Baye D'Udson or Hudson's Bay."

The post at Vincennes, on the Oubache river, (pronounced W4-ba, meaning summer cloud moving swiftly), was established in 1702. It is quite probable that on La Salle's last trip he established the stations at Kaskaskia and Cahokia. Until the year 1750 but little is known of the settlements in the north-west, as it was not until this time that the attention of the English © was called to the occupation of this portion of the new world, which they then supposed they owned. Vivier, a missionary among the Illinois, writing "Aux Illinois,' six leagues from Fort Chartres, June 8th, 1750, says: "We have here, whites, negroes, and Indians, to say nothing of the cross-breeds. There are five French villages, and three villages of the natives within a space of twenty-one leagues, situated between the Mississippi and another river, called the Karkadiad (Kaskaskia). In the five French

* The authorities in relation to La Salle are Hennepin; a narrative published in the name of Fonti in 1697, but disclaimed by him. (Charlevoix iii. 365 - Lettres Edifiantes.)

t There was an old Peoria on the Northwest shore of the lake of that name,a mile and a half above the outlet. From 1778 to 1796 the inhabitants left this for New Peoria, (Fort Clark) at the outlet. American State Papers, xviii. 476.

|| Charlevoix, ii. 284. Le Detroit was the whole strait from Erie to Huron. The first grants of land at Detroit, i. e., Fort Pontchartrain, were made in 1707.

villages are, perhaps, eleven hundred whites, three hundred blacks, and some sixty red slaves or savages. The three Illinois towns do not contain more than eight hundred souls all told.* Most- of the French till the soil, They raise wheat, cattle, pigs and horses, and live like princes. Three times

Again, in an epistle dated November 17th, 1750, Vivier says: "For fifteen leagues above the mouth of the Mississippi, one sees no dwellings * * * * New Orleans contains black, white and red, not more, I think, than twelve hundred persons. To this point come all kinds of lumber, bricks, salt-beef, tallow, tar, skins, and bear's grease; and above all pork and flour from the Illinois. These things create some commerce, as forty vessels and more have come hither this year. Above New Orleans plantations are again met with ; the most considerable is a colony of Germans, some ten leagues up the river. At Point Coupee, thirty-five leagues above the German settlement, is a fort. Along here, within five or six leagues, are not less than sixty habitations. Fifty leagues farther up is the Natchez post, where we have a garrison."

Father Marest, writing from the post at Vincennes, makes the same observation. Vivier also says, "Some individuals dig lead near the surface, and supply the Indians and Canada. Two Spaniards, now here, who claim to be adepts, say that our mines are like those of Mexico, and that if we would dig deeper we would find silver under the lead; at any rate the lead is excellent. There are also in this country, beyond doubt, copper mines, as from time to time, large pieces have been found in the streams." +

At the close of the year 1750, the French occupied in addition to the lower Mississippi posts and those in Illinois, one at Du Quesne, one at the Maumee, in the country of the Miamis, and one at Sandusky, in what may be termed the Ohio Valley. In the northern part of the northwest, they had stations at St. Joseph's, on the St. Joseph's of: Lake Michigan, at Fort Pontchartrain (Detroit), at Michillimackinac or Massillimacinac, Fox River of Green Bay, and at Sault Ste. Marie. The fondest dreams of La Salle were now fully realized. The French alone were possessors of this vast realm, basing their claim on discovery and settlement. Another nation, however, was now turning its attention to this extensive country, and learning of its wealth, began to lay plans for occupying it and for securing the great profits arising therefrom,

Discovery Of The Ohio

The largest branch of the Mississippi river from the east, known to the carly French settlers as /a belle riviere, called " beautiful" river, was discovered by Robert, Cavalier de La Salle, in 1869. While La Salle was at his trading post on the St. Lawrence, he found leisure to study nine Indian dialects, the chief of which was the Iroquois. While conversing with some Seneeas, he learned of a river called the Ohio, which rose in their country and flowed to the sea.

Tn this statement the Mississippi and its tributaries were considered as one - stream. La Salle, believing as most of the French at that period did, that the great rivers flowing west emptied into the Sea of California, was anxious to embark in the enterprise of discovering a route across the continent. He repaired at once to Quebec to obtain the approval of the Governor and the Intendent, Talon. They issued letters patent, authorizing the enterprise, but made no provisions to defray the expenses.

At this juncture the seminary St. Sulpice decided to send out missionaries in connection with the expedition, and La Salle offering to sell his improvements at La Chive to raise the money, the offer was accepted by the Superior, and two thousand eight hundred dollars were raised, with which La Salle purchased four canoes and the necessary supplies for the outfit.

On the 6th of July, 1669, the party, numbering twenty-four persons, embarked in seven canoes on the St. Lawrence. Two additional canoes carried the Indian guides.

In three days they were gliding over the bosom of Lake Ontario. Their guides conducted them directly to the Seneca village on the bank of the Genesee, in the vicinity of the present city of Rochester, New York. Here they expected to procure guides to conduct them to the Ohio, but in this they were disappuinted. After waiting a month in the hope of gaining their object, they met an Indian from the Iroquois colony, at the head of Lake Ontario, who assured them they could find guides, and offered to conduct them thence. On their way they passed the mouth of the Niagara river, when they heard for the first time the distant thunder of the cataract. Arriving among the Iroquois they met with a friendly reception, and learned from a Shawnee prisoner that they could reach the Ohio in six weeks. Delighted with the unexpected good fortune, they made ready to resume their journey, and as they were about to start they heard of the arrival of two Frenchmen in a neighboring village. One of them proved to be Louis Joliet, afterwards famous as an explorer in the west. He had been sent by the Canadian government to explore the copper mines on Lake Superior, but had failed and was on his way back to Quebec.

On arriving at Lake Superior, they found, as La Salle had predicted, the Jesuit fathers, Marquette and Dablon, occupying the field. After parting with the priests, La Salle went to the chief Iroquois village at Onondago, where he obtained guides, and passing thence to a tributary of the Ohio south of Lake Erie, he descended the latter as far as the falls of Louisville. Thus was the Ohio discovered by La Salle, the persevering and successful French explorer of the west in 1669.

When Washington was sent out by the colony of Virginia in 1753, to demand of Gordeur de St. Pierre why the French had built a fort on the Monongahela, the haughty commandant at Quebec replied: " We claim the 'country on the Ohio by virtue of the discoveries of La Salle, and will not give it up to the English. Our orders are to make prisoners of every Englishman found trading in the Ohio valley."

English Explorations And Settlements

We have sketched the progress of French discovery in the valley of the Mississippi. The first travelers reached that river in 1673, and when the year 1750 broke in upon the father of waters and the great north-west, all was still except those little spots upon the prairies of Illinois and among the marshes of Louisiana.

Volney, by conjecture, fixes the settlement of Vincennes about 1735. * Bishop Brute, of Indiana, speaks of a missionary station there in 1700, and adds: "The friendly tribes and traders called to Canada for protection, and then M. De Vincennes came with a detachment, I think, of Carignau, and was killed in 1735." + Bancroft says a military establishment was formed there in 1716, and in 1742 a settlement of herdsmen took place.{ Ina petition of the old inhabitants at Vincennes, dated in November, 1793, we find the settlement spoken of as having been made before 1742.§ And such is the general voice of tradition. On the other hand, Charleyoix, who records the death of Vincennes, which took place among the Chickasaws, in 1736, makes no mention of any post on the Wabash, or any missionary station there. Neither does he mark any upon h's map, although he gives even the British forts upon the Tennessee and elsewhere. Such is the character of the proof relative to the settlement of Vincennes.

Hennepin, in 1663-4, had heard of the " Hohio." The route from the lakes to the Mississippi, by the Wabash, was explored in 1676,|| and in Hennepin's yolume of 1698, is a journal, said to be that sent by La Salle to Count Frontenac, in 1682 or '83, which mentions the route by the Maumee § and Wabash as the most direct to the great western river.

In 1749, when the English first began to think seriously of sending men into the west, the greater portions of the states of Ohio, Indiana, IIlinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota were yet under the dominion of the red men. The English knew, however, of the nature of the vast wealth of these wilds.

In the year 1710, Governor Spotswood, of Virginia, had matured a plan and commenced movements, the object of which was to secure the country beyond the Alleghenies to the English crown. In Pennsylvania, also, Governor Keith and James Logan, Secretary of the Province from 1719 to 1731, represented to the powers of England the necessity of taking steps to secure the western lands. Nothing, however, was done by the mother country, except to take certain diplomatic steps to secure the claim of Britain to this unexplored wilderness. England had from the outset claimed from the Atlantic to the Pacific, on the ground that the discovery and possession of the sea coast was a discovery and possession of the country; and as is well known, her grants to Virginia, Connecticut, and other colonies, were through from "sea to sea." This was not all her claims; she had purchased from the Indian tribes large tracts of land. This was also a strong argument.

In the year 1684, Lord Howard, Governor of Virginia, held a treaty with the five nations at Albany. These were the great Northern Confederacy, and comprised at first the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas. Afterward the Tuscaroras were taken into the confederacy, and it became known as the six nations. They came under the protection of the mother country, and again in 1701 they repeated the agreement. Another formal deed was drawn up and signed by the chiefs of the National Confederacy in 1726, by which their lands were conveyed in trust to England, "to be protected and defended by his majesty, to and for the use of the grantors and their heirs." The validity of this claim has often been disputed, but never successfully. In 1774, a purchase was made at Lancaster of certain lands within the "colony of Virginia," for which the Indians received £200 in gold and a like sum in goods, with a promise that as settlements increased, more should be paid. The commissioners from Virginia at the treaty were Col. Thomas Lee and Col. William Beverly.

As settlements extended, and the Indians began to complain, the promise of further pay was called to mind, and Mr. Conrad Weiser was sent across the Alleghenies to Logstown. In 1748,* Col. Lee and some Virginians accompanied him, with the intention of ascertaining the feelings of the Indians with regard to further settlements in the west, which Col. Lee and others were contemplating. The object of these proposed settlements was not the cultivation of the soil, but the monopoly of the Indian trade. <Accordingly, after Weiser's conference with the Indians at Logstown, which was fxvorable to their views, Thomas Lee, with twelve other Virginians, among whom were Lawrence and Augustine, brothers of George Washington, and also Mr. Hanbury, of London, formed an association which they called the " Ohio Company," and in 1748 petitioned the king for a grant beyond the mountains. This petition was approved by the English government, and the government of Virginia was ordered to grant to the petitioners half a million of acres within the bounds of that colony beyond the Alleghenies, two hundred thousand of which were to be located at once. This portion was to be held for ten years free of quit-rent, provided the company would put there one hundred families within seven years, and build a fort sufficient to protect the settlement. The company accepted the proposition, and sent to London for a cargo suited to the Indian trade, which should arrive in November, 1749. Other companies were also formed about this time in Virginia to colonize the west. On the 12th of June, 1749, a grant of 800,000 acres from the line of Canada, on the north and west, was made to the Loyal Company, and on ihe 29th of October, 1751, another of 100,000 acres to the Greenbriar Company. +

The French were not blind all this time. They saw that if the British once obtained a stronghold upon the Ohio, they might not only prevent their settlements upon it, but in time would come to the lower posts, and so gain possession of the whole country. Upon the 10th of May, 1744, Vaudreuil, the French governor, well knowing the consequences that must arise from allowing the English to build trading posts in the northwest, seized some of their frontier posts, to further secure the claims of the French to the west. Having these fears, and seeing the danger of the late movements of the British, Gallisoniere, then Governor of Canada, determined to place along the Ohio eyidences of the French claim to, and possession of, the country. For that purpose he sent, in the summer of 1749, Louis Celeron, with a party of soldiers, to place plates of lead, on which were written out the claims of France, in the mounds and at the mouths of the rivers. These were heard of by William Trent, an Indian commissioner, sent out by Virginia in 1752, to treat with and conciliate the Indians, while upon the Ohio, and mentioned in his journal. One of these plates was found with the inscription partly defaced. It bears date August 16th, 1749, and a copy of the inscription, with particular account, was sent by De Witt Clinton to the American Antiquarian Society, among whose journals it may now be found. These measures did not, however, deter the English from going on with their explorations.

In February 1751, Christopher Gist was sent by the Ohio Company to examine its lands. He went to a village of the Twigtwees, on the Miami, about 150 miles aboye its mouth. From there he went down the Ohio River nearly to the falls, at the present city of Louisville, and in November he commenced a survey of the company's lands. In 1751 General Andrew Lewis commenced some suryeys in the Greenbrier country, on behalf of the company already mentioned. Meanwhile the French were busy in preparing their forts for defence, and in opening roads. In 1752 having heard of the trading houses on the Miami River, they, assisted by the Ottawas and Chippewas, attacked it, and, after a severe battle,in which fourteen of the natives were killed and others wounded, captured the garrison. The traders were carried away to Canada, and one account says several were burned. This fort, or trading house was called by the English writers Pickawillany. A memorial of the king's ministers refers to it as " Pickawellanes, in the center of the territory between the Ohio and the Wabash." This was the first blood shed between the French and English, and occurred near the present city of Piqua, Ohio. The English were determined on their part, to purchase a title from the Indians of lands which they wished to occupy, and in the spring of 1752 Messrs. Fry,* Lomax and Patton, were sent from Virginia to hold a conference with the natives at Logstown, to learn what they objected to in the treaty of Lancaster, and to settle all difficulties. On the 9th June the commissioners met the red men at Logstown. This was a village seventeen miles below Pittsburg, upon the north side of the Ohio. Here had been a trading point for many years, but it was abandoned by the Indians in 1750. At first the Indians declined to recognize the treaty of Lancaster, but the commissioners taking aside Montour, the interpreter, who was a son of the famous Catherine Montour, and a chief among the six nations, being three-fourths of Indian blood, through his influence an agreement was effected, and upon the 13th of June they all united in signing a deed, confirming the Lancaster treaty in its fullest extent. Meanwhile the powers beyond the seas were trying to out-manceuver each other, and were professing to be at peace. The English generally outwitted the Indians, and secured themselves, as they thought by their, politic conduct. But the French, in this as in all cases, proved that they knew best how to manage the natives. While these measures were taken, another treaty with the wild men of the debatable land was also in contemplation. And in September 1753 William Fairfax met their deputies at Winchester, Virginia, where he concluded a treaty. In the month following, however, a more satisfactory interview took place at Carlisle, between the representatives of the Iroquois, Delawares, Shawnees, Twigtwees, and Wyandots, and the commissioners of Pennsylvania, Richard Peters, Isaac Norris, and Benjamin Franklin. Soon after this, no satisfaction being obtained from the Ohio, either as to the force, position, or purposes of the French, Robert Dinwiddie, then Governor of Virginia, determined to send to them another messenger, and learn if possible their intentions. For this purpose he selected a young surveyor, who, at the age of nineteen had attained the rank of major, and whose previous life had inured him to hardships and woodland ways; while his courage, cool judgment, and firm will, all fitted him for such a mission. This personage was no other than the illustrious George Washington, who then held considerable interest in Western lands. He was twenty-one years old at the time of the appointment.t Taking Gist asa guide, the two, accompanied by four servitors, set out on their perilous march. They left Will's Creek, where Cumberland now is, on the 15th of November, and on the 22d reached the Monongahela, about ten miles above the fork. From there they went to Logstown, where Washington had a long conference with the chiefs of the Six Nations. Here he learned the position of the French, and also that they had determined not to come down the river until the following spring. The Indians were non-committal, they deeming a neutral position the safest. Washington, finding nothing could be done, went on to Venango, an old Indian town at the mouth of French Creek. Here the French had a fort called Fort Machault. On the 11th of December he reached the fort at the head of French Creek. Here he delivered Governor Dinwiddie's letter, received his answer, and upon the 16th set out upon his return journey with no one but Gist, his guide, and a few Indians who still remained true to him. They reached home in safety on the 6th of January, 1754. From the letter of St. Pierre, commander of the French fort, sent by Washington to Governor Dinwiddie, it was perfectly clear that the French would not yield the West without a struggle. Active preparations were at once made in all the English colonies for the coming conflict, while the French finished their fort at Venango and strengthened their lines of fortifications to be in readiness. The Old Dominion was all alive. Virginia was the center of great activities. Volunteers were called for, and from the neighboring colonies men rallied to the conflict, and everywhere along the Potomac men were enlisting under the Governor's proclamation, - which promised two hundred thousand acres on the Ohio. Along this river they were gathering as far as Will's Creek, and far beyond this point, whither Trent had come for assistance, for his little band of fortyone men, who were working away in hunger and want, to fortify that point at the fork of the Ohio, to which both parties were looking with deep interest. The first birds of spring filled the forest with their songs. The swift river rolled by the Allegheny hillsides, swollen by the melting snows of spring and April showers. The leaves were appearing, a few Indian scouts were seen, but no enemy seemed near at hand, and all was so quiet that Frazier, an old Indian trader, who had been left by Trent in command of the new fort, ventured to his home at the mouth of Turtle Creek, ten miles up the Monongahela. But though all was so quiet in that wilderness, keen eyes had seen the low entrenchment that was rising at the fork, and swift feet had borne the news of it up the valley, and on the morning of the 17th of April, Ensign Ward who then had charge of it, saw upon the Allegheny a sight that made his heart sink; - sixty batteaux and three hundred canoes, filled with men, and laden deep with cannon and stores. The fort was called on to surrender: by the advice of the Half-King, Ward tried to evade the act but it would not do. Contrecceur, with a thousand men about him, said ' Evacuate,' and the ensign dared not refuse. That evening he supped with his captor, and the next day was bowed off by the Frenchman, and, with his men and tools, marched up the Monongahela." The French and Indian war had begun. The treaty of Aix la Chappelle, in 1748, had left the foundries between the French and English possessions unsettled, and the events already narrated show that the French were determined to hold the country watered by the Mississippi and its tributaries : while the English laid claim to the country by virtue of the discoveries by the Cabots, and claimed all the country from New Foundland to Florida and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The first decisive blow had been struck, and the first attempt of the English, through the Ohio Company, to occupy these lands had resulted disastrously to them. The French and Indians immediately completed the fortifications begun at the fork, which they had so easily captured, and when completed gave to the fort the name of Du Quesne. Washington was at Will's ercek, when the news of the capture of the fort arrived. He at once departed to recapture it. On his way he entrenched himself at a place called the " Meadows," where he erected a fort called by him Fort Necessity. From there he surprised and captured a force of French and Indians marching against him, but was soon after attacked by a much superior foree, and was obliged to yield on the morning of July 4th. He was lowed to return to Virginia.

The English Government immediately planned four campaigns, one against Fort Du Quesne, one against Nova Scotia, one against Fort Niagara, and one against Crown Point. These oecurred during 1755-6, and were not successful in driving the I*'rench from their possessions. The expedition against Fort Du Quesne, was led by the famous Braddock, who, refusing to listen to the advice of Washington and those acquainted with Indian warfare, suffered an inglorious defeat. This occurred on the morning of July 9th, and is generally known as the battle of Monongahela or " Braddock's defeat." The war continued through various vicissitudes through the years 1756-7, when, at the commencement of 1758, in accordance with the plans of William Pitt, then secretary of state, afterwards Lord Chatham, active preparations were made to carry on the war. Three expeditions were planned for this year: one under General Amhurst, against Louisburg: another under Abercrombie, against Fort Ticonderoga: anda third under General Forbes, against Fort Du Quesne. On the 26th of July, Louisburg surrendered after a desperate resistance of more than forty days, and the eastern part of the Canadian possessions fell into the hands of the British. Abercrombie captured Fort Frontenac, and when the expedition against Fort Du Quesne, of which Washington had the active command, arrived there, it was found in flames and deserted. The English at once took possession, rebuilt the fort, and in honor of their illustrious statesmen, changed the name to Fort Pitt.

The great object of the campaign of 1759, was the reduction of Canada. General Wolfe was to lay siege to Quebec; Amherst was to reduce Ticonderoga and Crown Point, and General Prideaux was to capture Niagara. This latter place was taken in July, but the gallant Prideaux lost his life. Amherst captured Ticonderoga and Crown Point, without a blow; and Wolfe after making the fhemorable ascent to the plains of Abraham, on September 13th, defeated Montcalm, and on the 18th the city capitulated. In this engagement Montcalm and Wolfe both lost their lives. De Levi, Montcalm's successor, marched to Sillery, three miles above the city, with the purpose of defeating the English, and there on the 28th of the following April was sulted in the defeat of the French and the fall of the city of Montreal, The Governor signed a capitulation by which the whole of Canada was surrendered to the English. This practically concluded' the war, but it was not until 1763 that the treaties of peace between France and England were signed. This was done on the 10th of February of that year, and under its provisions all the country east of the Mississippi and north of the Iberville river in Louisiana were ceded to England. At the same time Spain ceded Florida to Great Britain. :

On the 18th of September, 1760, Major Robert Rogers was sent from Montreal to take charge of Detroit, the only remaining French post in the territory. He arrived there on the 9th of November and summoned the place to surrender. At first the commander of the post, Beletre, refused, but on the 29th, hearing of the continued defeat of the French army, surrendered. The Northwest Territory was now entirely under the English rule. In 1762, France, by a secret treaty, ceded Louisiana to Spain, to prevent it falling into the hands of the English, who were becoming masters of the entire West. The next year the treaty of Paris, signed at Fontainbleau, gave to the English the dominion in question. Twenty years after, by the treaty of peace between the United States and England, that part of Canada lying south and west of the great lakes, comprehending a large territory, was acknowledged to be a portion of the United States. In 1803 Louisiana was ceded. by Spain back to France, and by France sold to the United States. By the treaty of Paris, the regions east of the Mississippi, including all these and other towns of the northwest, were given over to England; but they do not appear to have been taken possession of until 1765, when Captain Stirling, in the name of the Majesty of England, established himself at Fort Chartres, bearing with him the proclamation of Gencral Gage, dated December 30th, 1764, which promised religious freedom to all Catholics who worshiped here, and the right to leave the country with their effects if they wished, or to remain with the privileges of Englishmen. During the years 1775 and 1776, by the operations of land companies and the perseverance of individuals, several settlements were firmly established between the Alleghenies and the Ohio river, and western land speculators were busy in Illinois and on the Wabash. At a council held in Kaskaskia, on July 5th, 1773, an association of English traders, calling themselves the "Tllinois Land Company," obtained from the chiefs of the Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and Peoria tribes two large tracts of land lying on the cast side of the Mississippi river south of the Illinois. In 1775 a merchant from the Illinois country, named Viviat, came to Post Vincennes as the agent of the association called the " Wabash Land Company." On the 8th of October he obtained from eleven Piankeshaw chiefs, a deed for 37,497,600 acres of land. This deed was signed by the grantors, attested by a number of the inhabitants of Vincennes, and afterward recorded in the office of a Notary Public at Kaskaskia. This and other land companies had extensive schemes for the colonization of the West, but all were frustrated by the breaking out of the Revolutionary war. On the 20th of April, 1780, the two companies named consolidated under the name of the " United Illinois and Wabash Land Company ;" they afterwards made strenuous efforts to have these grants sanctioned by Congress, but all signally failed. When the war of the Revolution commenced, Kentucky was an unorganized country, though there were several settlements within her borders.

_In Hutchins' Topography of Virginia, it is stated that at that time Kaskaskia contained 80 houses, and nearly 1,000 white and black inhabitants, the whites being a little the more numerous. Cahokia contained fifty houses, 300 white inhabitants and 80 negroes. There were east of the Mississippi river, about the year 1771 - when these observations were made - " 300 white men capable of bearing arms, and 230 negroes." From 1775 until the expedition of Clark, nothing is recorded and nothing known of these settlements, save what is contained in a report made by a committee to Congress in June, 1778. From it the following extract is made: " Near the mouth of the river Kaskaskia, there is a village which appears to have contained nearly eighty families from the beginning of the late Revolution; there are twelve families at a small village at La Prairie Du Rochers, and nearly fifty families at the Kahokia village. There are also four or five families at Fort Chartres and St. Philip's, which is five miles further"up the river." St. Louis had been settled in February, 1764, and at this time contained, including its neighboring towns, over six hundred whites and one hundred and fifty negroes. It must be remembered that all the country west of the Mississippi was under French rule, and remained so until ceded back to Spain, its original owner, who afterwards sold it and the country including New Orleans to the United States. At Detroit, there were, according to Captain Carver, who was in the north-west from 1768 to 1776, more than one hundred houses, and the river was settled for more than twenty miles, although poorly cultivated, the people being engaged in the Indian trade.

On the breaking out of the Revolution, the British held every post of importance in the West. Kentucky was formed as a component part of Virginia, and the sturdy pioneers of the West, alive to their interests, and recognizing the great benefits of obtaining the control of the trade in this part of the New World, held steadily to their purposes, and those within the commonweath of Kentucky proceeded to exercise their civil privileges by electjng John Todd and Richard Gallaway burgesses, to represent them in the assembly of the present state. The chief spirit in. this far-out colony, who had represented her the year previous east of the mountains, was now meditating a move of unequalled boldness. He had been watching the movements of the British throughout the north-west, and understood their whole plan. He saw it was through their possession of the posts at Detroit, Vincennes, Kaskaskia, and other places, which would give them easy access to the various Indian tribes in the north-west, that the British intended to penetrate the country from the north and south, and annihilate the frontier fortresses. This moving, energetic man was Colonel, afterwards General George Rogers Clark. He knew that the Indians were not unanimously in accord with the English, and he was convinced that, could the British be defeated and expelled from the nérth-west,'the natives might be easily awed into neutrality ; by spies sent for the purpose, he satisfied himself that the enterprise against the Illinois settlements might easily succeed. Patrick Henry was Governor of Virginia, and at once entered heartily into Clark's plans. The same plan had before been agitated in the Colonial Assemblies, but there was no one until Clark came who was sufficiently acquainted with the condition of affairs at the scene of action to be able to guide them.

Clark, having satisfied the Virginia leaders of the feasibility of his plan, receiyed on the second of January, two sets of instructions, one secret the other open. The latter authorized him to proceed to enlist seven companies to go to Kentucky, subject to his orders, and to serve three months from their arrival in the west. The secret order authorized him to arm the troops, to procure his powder and lead of General Hand, at Pittsburg, and to proceed at once to subjugate the country.

With these instructions Clark repaired to Pittsburg, choosing rather to raise his men west of the mountains. Here he raised three companies and several private volunteers. Clark at length commenced his descent of the Ohio, which he navigated as far as the falls, where he took possession of and fortified Corn Island, between the present sites of Louisville, Kentucky, and New Albany, Indiana. Remains of this fortification may yet be found. At this place he appointed Col. Bowman to meet him with such recruits as had reached Kentucky by the southern route. Here he announced_to the men their real destination. On the 24th of June he embarked on the river, his destination being Fort Massac or Massacre, and thence march direct to Kaskaskia. The march was accomplished and the town reached on the evening of July 4. He captured the fort near the village and soon after the village itself, by surprise, without the loss of a single man or killing any of the enemy. Clark told the natives that they were at perfect liberty to worship as they pleased, and to take whichever side of the conflict they would, and he would protect them from any barbarity from British or Indian foes. This had the desired effect, and the inhabitants 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. Thus two important posts in Illinois passed from the hands of the English into the possession of Virginia. During the year (1779) the famous " Land Laws" of Virginia were passed. The passage of these laws was of more consequence to the pioneers of Kentucky and the north-west than the gaining of a few Indian conflicts. These grants confirmed in the main all grants made, and guaranteed to actual settlers their rights and privileges.

Division Of The North-West Terrirory

The increased emigration to the north-west, and extent of the domain, made it very difficult to conduct the ordinary operations of government, and rendered the efficient action of courts almost impossible ; to remedy this it was deemed advisable to divide the territory for civil purposes. Congress, in 1800, appointed a committee to examine the question and report some means for its solution.

This committee on the 3d of March reported: "In the three western countries there has been but one court having cognizance of crimes, in five years, and the immunity which offenders experience attracts, as to an asylum, the most vile and abandoned criminals, and at the same time deters useful citizens from making settlements in such society. The extreme necessity of judiciary attention and assistance is experienced in civil as well as in criminal cases. * * * * * To remedy this evil it is expedient to the committee that a division of said territory into two distinct and separate governments should be made, and that such division be made by beginning at the mouth of the Great Miami river, running directly north until it intersects the boundary between the United States and Canada."

The report was accepted by Congress, and, in accordance with its suggestions, that body passed an act extinguishing the north-west territory, which act was approved May 7. Among its provisions were these:

"That from and after July 4 next, all that part of the territory of the United States north-west of the Ohio river, which lies to the westward of a line beginning at a point opposite the mouth of the Kentucky river, and running thence to Fort Recovery, and thence north until it shall intersect the territorial line between the United States and Canada, shall, for the purpose of temporary government, constitute a separate territory and be called the Indian Territory."

Gen. Harrison, (afterwards President) was appointed governor of the Indian Territory, and during his residence at Vincennes he made several important treaties with the Indians, thereby gaining large tracts of land. The next year is memorable in the history of the west for the purchase of Louisiana from France by the United States for $15,000,000. Thus by a peaceful manner the domain of the United States was extended over a large tract of country west of the Mississippi, and was for a time under the jurisdiction of the north-western government. The next year Gen. Harrison obtained additional grants of land from the various Indian nations in Indiana and the present limits of Illinois, and on the 18th of August, 1804, completed a treaty at St. Louis, wherevy over 51,000,000 acres of land were obtained.

During this year, Congress granted a township of land for the support ofa college, and began to offer inducements for settlers in these wilds, and the country now comprising the state of Michigan began to fill rapidly with settlers along its southern borders. This same year a law was passed organizing the south-west territory, dividing it into two portions, the territory of New Orleans, which city was made the seat of government, and the district of Louisiana, which was annexed to the domain by General Harrison.

On the 11th of January, 1805, the territory of Michigan was formed, and Wm. Hull was appointed governor, with headquarters at Detroit, the change to take effect June 30th. Onthe 11th of that month a fire occurred at Detroit, which destroyed almost every building in the place. When the officers of the new territory reached the post, they found it in rnins, and the inhabitants scattered throughout the country. Rebuilding, however, was commenced at once. While this was being done, Indiana had passed to the second grade of government. In 1809 Indiana territory was divided, and the territory of Illinois was formed, the seat of government being fixed at Kaskaskia, and through her General Assembly had obtained large tracts of land from the Indian tribes. To all this the celebrated Indian Tecumthe or Tecumseh, vigorously protested,* and it was the main cause of his attempts to unite the various Indian tribes in a conflict with the settlers. He visited the principal tribes and succeeded in forming an alliance with most of the tribes, and then joined the cause of the British in the memorable war of 1812. Tecumseh was killed at the battle of the Thames. Tecumseh was in many respects a noble character, frank and honest in his intercourse with General Harrison and the settlers: in war brave and chivalrous. His treatment of prisoners was humane. In the summer of 1813, Perry's victory on Lake Erie occurred, and shortly after active preparations were made to capture Fort Malden. On the 27th of September, the American army, under command of General Harrison, set sail for the shores of Canada, and in a few hours stood around the ruins of Malden, from which the British army under Proctor had retreated to Sandwich, intending to make its way to the heart of Canada by the valley of the Thames. On the 29th General Harrison was at Sandwich, and General McArthur took possession of Detroit and the territory of Michigan. On the 2d of October following, the American army began their pursuit of Proctor, whom they overtook on the 5th, and the battle of the Thames followed. The victory was decisive, and practically closed the war in the north-west. In 1806 occurred Burr's insurrection. He took possession of an island in the Ohio, and was charged with treasonable intentions against the Federal government. His capture was effected by General Wilkinson acting under instrection of Presideat- Jefferson. Burr was brought to trial on a charge of treason, and after a prolonged trial, during which he defended himself with great ability, he was acquitted of the charge of treason. _

His subsequent career was obscure, and he died in 1836. Had his scheme succeeded, it would be interesting to know what effect it would have had on the north-western territory. The battle of the Thames was fought October 6th, 1813; it effectually closed hostilities in the north-west, although peace was not restored until July 22d, 1814, when a treaty was made at Greenville, by General Harrison, between the United States and the Indian tribes. On the 24th of December, the treaty of Ghent was signed by the representatives of England and the United States. This treaty was followed the next year by treaties with various Indian tribes throughout the north-west, and quiet was again restored.

Present Condition Of The North-West

In the former chapters we have traced briefly the discoveries, settlements, wars, and most important events which have occurred in the large area of country denominated the north-west, and we now turn to the contemplation of its growth and prosperity. Its people are among the most intelligent and enterprising in the Union. The population is steadily increasing, the arts and sciences are gaining a stronger foothold, the trade area of the region is becoming daily more extended, and we have been largely exempt from the financial calamities which have nearly wrecked communities on the sea-board, dependent wholly on foreign commerce or domestic manufacture. Agriculture is the leading feature in our industries. This vast domain has a sort of natural geographical border, save where it melts away to the south-ward in the cattle raising districts of the south-west. The leading interests will be the growth of the food of the world, in which branch it has already outstripped all competitors, and our great rival will be the fertile fields of Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Texas and New Mexico.

To attempt to give statistics of grain productions for 1878 or '79, would require more space than our work would permit of. Manufacturing has now attained in the chief cities a foothold that bids fair to render the northwest independent of the outside world. Nearly our whole region has a distribution of coal measure which will in time support the manufactures necessary to our comfort and prosperity. As to transportation, the chief factor in the production of all articles except food, no section is so magnificently endowed, and our facilities are yearly increasing beyond those of any other region.

The principal trade and manufacturing centres of the great north-west are Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Detroit, Cleveland and Toledo, with any number of minor cities and towns doing a large and growing business. The intelligence and enterprise of its people; the great wealth of its soil and minerals; its vast inland seas and navigable rivers; its magnificent railroad system ; its patriotism and love of country will render it ever loyal in the future as in the past. The people of the Mississippi Valley are the keystone of the national union and national prosperity.

Brief Historical Sketch Of Illinois

-|T is necessary to treat the history of this great State briefly. And first we direct attention to the discovery and exploration of the Mississippt. Hernando De Soto, cutting his way through the wilderness from Florida, had discovered the Mississippi in the year 1542. Wasted with disease and privation, he only reached the stream to die upon its banks, and the remains of the ambitous and iron-willed Spaniard found a fitting resting-place beneath the waters of the great river. The chief incitement to Spanish discoveries in America was a thirst for gold and treasure. The discovery and settlement of the Mississippi Valley on the part of the French must, on the other hand, be ascribed as religious zeal. Jesuit missionaries, from the French settlements on the St. Lawrence, early penetrated to the region of Lake Huron. It was from the tribes of Indians living in the West, that intelligence came of a noble river flowing south. Marquette, who had visited the Chippewas in 1668, and established the mission of St. Mary, now the oldest settlement within the present commonwealth of Michigan, formed the purpose of its exploration.

In company with Joliet, a fur-trader of Quebec, who had been designated by M. Talon, Intendent of Canada,as chieftain of the exploring party, and five French voyageurs, Marquette, on the 10th of June, 1673, set out on the expedition. Crossing the water-shed dividing the Fox from the Wisconsin rivers, their two canoes were-soon launched on the waters of the latter. Seven days after, on the 17th of June, they joyfully entered the broad cur- rent of the Mississippi. Stopping six days on the western bank, near the mouth of the Des Moines River, to enjoy the hospitalities of the Llinois Indians, the voyage was resumed, and after passing the perpendicular rocks above Alton, on whose lofty limestone front are painted frightful representations of monsters, they suddenly came upon the mouth of the Missouri, known by its Algonquin name of Pekitanoni, whose swift and turbid current threatened to engulf their frail canoes. The site of St. Louis was an unbroken forest, and further down, the fertile plain bordering the river reposed in peaceful solitude, as, early in July, the adventurers glided past it. They continued their voyage to a point some distance below the mouth of the Arkansas, and then retraced their course up the river, arriving at the Jesuit Mission at the head of Green Bay, late in September.

Robert, Cavalier de La Salle, whose illustrious name is more intimately connected with the exploration of the Mississippi than that of any other, was the next to descend the river, in the early part of the year 1682. At its mouth he erected a column, and decorating it with the arms of France, placed upon it the following inscription:

Le Neuvieme Avril, 1682

Thus France, by right of discovery, lay claim to the Mississippi Valley, the fairest portion of the globe, an empire in extent, stretching from the Gulf to the Lakes, and from the farthest sources of the Ohio to where the head waters of the Missouri are lost in the wild solitudes of the Rocky Mountains. La Salle bestowed upon the territory the name of Louisiana, in honor of the King of France, Louis XIV.

The assertion has been made that on La Salle's return up the river, in the summer of 1682, a portion of the party were left behind, who founded the villages of Kaskaskia and Cahokia, but the statement rests on no substantial foundation.

The First Settlements In Illinois

The gentle and pious Marquette, devoted to his purpose of carrying the gospel to the Indians, had established a mission among the Illinois, in 1675, at their principal town on the river which still bears their name. This was at the present town of Utica, in La Salle County. In the presence of the whole tribe, by whom, it is recorded, he was received as a celestial visitor, he displayed the sacred pictures of the Virgin Mary, raised an altar, and said mass. On Easter Sunday, after celebrating the mystery of the Eucharist, he took possession of the land in the name of the Saviour of the world, and founded the " Mission of the Immaculate Conception." The town was called Kaskaskia, a name afterwards transferred to another locality.

La Salle, while making preparations to descend the Mississippi, built a fort, on the Illinois River, below the Lake of Peoria, in February, 1680, and in commemoration of his misfortunes; bestowed upon it the name of Creveceur, "broken-hearted." Traces of its embankments are yet discernible. This was the first military occupation of Illinois. There is no evidence, however, that settlement was begun there at that early date.

On La Salle's return from this exploration of the Mississippi, in 1682, he fortified " Starved Rock," whose military advantages had previously attracted his attention. From its summit, which rises 125 feet above the waters of the river, the valley of the Illinois speeds out before the eye in a landscape of rarest beauty. From three sides it is inaccessible. This stronghold received the name of the Fort of St. Louis. Twenty thousand allied Indians gathered around it on the fertile plains. The fort seems to have been abandoned soon after the year 1700.

Marquette's mission (1675), Crevecceur (1680), and the Fort of St. Louis (1682), embrace, so far, all the attempts made toward effecting anything like a permanent settlement in the Illinois country. Of the second few traces remain. A line of fortifications may be faintly traced, and that is all. The seed of civilization planted by the Jesuit, Marquette, among the Illinois Indians, was destined to produce more enduring fruit. It was the germ of Kaskaskia, during the succeeding years of the French occupation - the metropolis of the Mississippi Valley The southern Kaskaskia is merely the northern one transplanted. The Mission of the Immaculate Conception is the same.

Founding Of Kaskaskia

On the death of Marquette, he was succeeded by Allotiez, and he by Father Gravier, who respectively had charge of the Mission on the Illinois River. Gravier is said to have been the first to reduce the principles of: the Illinois language to rules. It was also he who succeeded in transferring Marquette's Mission from the banks of the Illinois south to the spot where stands the modern town of Kaskaskia, and where it was destined to endure. The exact date is not known, but the removal was accomplished some time prior to the year 1690, though probably not earlier than 1686.

Father Gravier was subsequently recalled to Mackinaw, and his place was supplied by Bineteau and Pinet. Pinet proved an eloquent and successful minister, and his chapel was often insufficient to hold the crowds of savages who gathered to hear his words. Bineteau met with a fate similar to that which befell many another devoted priest in his heroic labors for the conversion of the savages. He accompanied the Kaskaskias on one of their annual hunts to the upper Mississippi, that his pastoral relations might not suffer intermission. His frame was poorly fitted to stand the exposure. Parched by day on the burning prairie, chilled by heavy dews at night, now panting with thirst and again aching with cold, he at length fell a victim to a violent fever, and '"'left his bones on the wilderness range of the buffaloes." Pinet shortly after followed his comrade.

Father Gabriel Morrest had previously arrived at Kaskaskia. He was a Jesuit. He had carried the emblem of his faith to the frozen regions of Hudson's Bay, and had been taken prisoner by the English, and upon his liberation returned to America, and joined the Kaskaskia Mission. After the deaths of Bineteau and Pinet, he had sole charge until joined by Father Mermet shortly after the opening of the eighteenth century.

The devotion and piety of Mermet fully equalled those of his companion. He had assisted in collecting a village of Indians and Canadians, and had thus founded the first French port on the Ohio, or, as the lower part of the river was then called, the Wabash. At the Kaskaskia Mission his gentle virtues and fervid eloquence seem not to have been without their influence. "At early dawn his pupils came to church dressed neatly and modestly, each in a large deer-skin, or in a robe stitched together from several skins. After receiving lessons they chanted canticles; mass was then said in presence of all the Christians in the place, the French and the converts - the women on one side and the men on the other. From prayer and instruction the missionaries proceeded to visit the sick and administer medicine, and their skill as physicians did more than all the rest to win confidence. In the afternoon the catechism was taught in the presence of the young and the old, when every one, without distinction of rank or age, answered the questions of the missionary. At evening all would assemble at the chapel for instruction, for prayer, and to chant the hymns of the church. On Sundays and festivals, even after vespers, a homily was pronounced ; at the close of the day parties would meet in houses to recite the chaplet in alternate choirs, and sing psalms until late at night. These psalms were often homilies with words set to familiar tunes. Saturday and Sunday were days appointed for confession and communion, and every convert confessed once in a fortnight. The success of the mission was such that marriages of French immigrants were sometimes solemnized with the daughters of the Illinois according to the rites of the Catholic Church. The occupation of the country was a cantonment of Europeans among the native proprietors of the forests and the prairies.* A court of law was unknown for nearly a century, and up to the time of Boisbriant there was no local government. The priests possessed the entire confidence of the community, and their authority happily settled, without the tardy delays and vexations of the courts, the minor difficulties which threatened the peace of the settlement. Of the families which formed part of the French population in the early history of Kaskaskia, there is some uncertainty. There is, however, authority for believing that the following were among the principal settlers: Bazyl La Chapelle, Michael Derouse (called St. Pierre), Jean Baptiste St. Gemme Beauvais, Baptiste Montreal, Boucher de Montbrun, Charles Danie, Francois Charlesville, Antoine Bienvenu, Louis Bruyat, Alexis Doza, Joseph Paget, Prix Pagi, Michael Antoyen, Langlois De Lisle, La Derroutte and Noval.

As Part Of Louisiana

The settlements of Illinois had been a separate dependency of Canada. In 1711, together with the settlements on the Lower Mississippi, which had been founded by D'Iberville and Bienville, they became united in a single province under the name of Louisiana, with the capital at Mobile.

The exclusive control of the commerce of this region, whose boundless resources, it was believed, were to enrich France, was granted to Anthony Crozat, a merchant of great wealth. '" We permit him," says the king in his letters patent, "to search, open, and dig all mines, veins, minerals, precious stones and pearls, and to transport the proceeds thereof into any part of

France for fifteen years." La Motte Cadillac, who had now become royal Governor of Louisiana, was his partner. Hopes of obtaining great quantities of gold and silver animated the proprietors, as well as agitated France. Two pieces of silver ore, left at Kaskaskia by a traveler from Mexico, were exhibited to Cadillac as the produce of a mine in Illinois. Elated by this prospect of wealth, the Governor hurried up the river to find his anticipations fade away in disappointment. Iron ore and the purest lead were discovered in large quantities in Missouri, but of gold, and silver, and precious stones not a trace was found. After Crozat had expended 425,000 livres, and realized only 300,000, he, in 1717, petitioned the king for the revocation of his charter. The white population had slowly increased; and at the time of his departure it was estimated that the families comprising the Illinois settlements, now including those on the Wabash, numbered three hundred and twenty souls.

The commerce of Louisiana was next transferred to the Mississippi Company, instituted under the auspices of the notorious John Law. The wild excitement and visionary schemes which agitated France during Law's connection with the Company of the West, and while at the head of the Bank of France, forms the most curious chapter in the annals of commercial speculations, These delusive dreams of wealth were based mainly upon the reports of the fabulous riches of the Mississippi Valley. Attempts to colonize the country were conducted with careless prodigality. Three ships landed eight hundred emigrants in August, 1718, near Mobile, whence they were to make their way overland to the Mississippi. Bienville, on the banks of that river, had already selected the spot for the Capital of the new Empire, which, after the Regent of France, was named New Orleans. From among the emigrants, eighty convicts from the prisons of France were sent to clear away the coppices which thickly studded the site. Three years after, in 1721, the place was yet a wilderness, overgrown with canebrakes, among which two hundred persons had encamped.

Phillip Renault was created Director-General of the mines of the new country, and an expedition was organized to work them. Renault left France, in 1719, with two hundred mechanics and laborers. Touching at San Domingo, he bought five hundred negro slaves for working the mines. On reaching the Mississippi, he sailed to Illinois, the region in which gold and silver were supposed to abound. A few miles from Kaskaskia, in what is now the southwest corner of Monroe County, was the seat of his colony. | The village which he foundcd received the name of St. Phillip's. From this point various expeditions were sent out in search of the precious metals. Drewry's Creek, in Jackson County, was explored; St. Mary's, in Randolph ; Silver Creek, in Monroe; and various parts of St. Clair County, and other districts of Illinois. On Silver Creek, tradition has it that considerable quantities of silver were discovered and sent to France, and from this the stream has its name. By the retrocession of the territory to the crown, Renault was left to prosecute the business of mining without-means. His operations proved a disastrous failure

Fort Chartres

Meanwhile war had sprung up between France and Spain, and to protect. the Illinois settlements from incursions of Spanish cavalry across the Great Desert, it was thought advisable to establish a fort in the neighborhood of Kaskaskia. A Spanish expedition had, indeed, been fitted out at Santa Fe, but their guides, leading it by mistake to the Missouri Indians, instead of the Osages, enemies instead of friends, the whole party was massacred, with the exception of a priest who escaped to relate the fate of his unfortunate comrades. Previous to this La Salle, on the occasion of his visit to Paris, had shown the necessity of building a chain of forts from Canada to the Gulf, in order to secure the territory to the crown of France. In 1720, Boisbriant was despatched to Illinois. He began the building of Fort Chartres, long the strongest fortress on the Western Continent, and of wide celebrity in the subsequent history of Illinois.

Fort Chartres stood on the east bank of the Mississippi, seventeen miles north-west of Kaskaskia, and between three and four miles from the location of the present village of Prairie du Rocher. The Company of the West finally built their warehouses here. In 1721, on the division of Louisiana into seven districts, it became the headquarters of Boisbriant, the first local Governor of Illinois. Fort Chartres was the seat of the goyernment of IIlinois, not only while the French retained possession of the country, but after it passed under English control. When the fort was built, it stood about one mile distant from the river. In the year 1724 an inundation of the Mississippi washed away a portion of bank in front of the fort.

Captain Philip Pitman visited Illinois in 1766. He was an engineer in the British army, and was sent to Illinois to make a survey of the forts, and report the condition of the country, which had recently passed under British control. He published in London, in 1770, a work entitled, "'The present State of the European Settlements on the Mississippi,'' in which he gives an accurate description of Fort Chartres: