Ogle County, Illinois - Chapter 3, 1859

Although La Salle came very far short of a realization of his ambitious dreams-,, he played no insignificant part in the early settlement of the Northwest. He established several permanent forts, and thus opened the gateway for the tide of immigration, so that as early as 1693 we hea of mission stations among the Illinois which were so permanent as to identify the places of their location, and many of them are now flourishing cities. Kaskaskia, Cahokia and Peoria were prominent points at the above date, although the precise time of their first settlement is not positively known, except it be that of Pe> oria, which is situated on the site of the old Fort Crevecoour, which La Salle built.

as we have said, in the early part of 1680. 'These, however, must be regarded as mission stations, where a few priests, under the supervision of Father Gravier, who was the first to reduce the languao'e of the Indians to grammatical order, ministered to the spiritual wants of the natives, until the year 1712, when they became known as French settlements. Whatever be the time of the first settlement of the three pla2es named above, it is evident that Kaskaskia comes first in order; very soon -after, Cahokia; and next Peoria.

La Salle's project, to discover and settle Louisiana by sea, was next undertaken by D'Iberville in 1697. Like his predecessor, he met favor in the court of France, and with two ships, on the 17th of October, 1698, he left the court of France, and on the 2d of March, 1699, he entered the mouth of the Mississippi having accomplished with little difficulty what had long been regarded as almost an impossibility. After dispatching one of his vessels to France with the news of his success, he began slowly to ascend the vast river ; and after gaining a limited acquaintance with its appearance for a short distance above its mouth, he built a fort near the mouth of the Mobile, and leaving a suitable garrison, returned to France. While he was gone, the commander of the fort, being absent on an expedition about the mouth of the Mississippi, met a British vessel carrying twelve cannon. Assuming an imposing authority, he informed his rivals that if they did not leave the river immediately he would bring to bear his forces, which were amply sufficient to oblige them to do so. This had its desired effect, and the Britons left the French in quiet possession for the time being only, for they believed th«ir claim was paramount, and they afterwards supported it with more courage than upon this occasion, and it was settled only at the conclusion of the French war of 1756. D'Iberville returned from France in January, 1700, and having heard of the advances of the British, he formally took possession of the great valley of the West, and built a fort on the bank of the river. He then proceeded up the river and laid the corner stone of Fort Eosalie, where the city of Natchez, Miss., now stands. Leaving a mining company to search for copper, which company was not very successful, he returned to France, but visited this country again on the following year. Excepting a settlement on the Mobile, he effected very little. In the year 1708 he died, having written his name among the successful adventurers of his age. ^ The French government, losing very much of its confidence in these modes of procedure to establish actual settlements, and thinking that a single man, who had his own pecuniary interests at stake, would do more for her advancement, gave the actual possession of Louisiana to Crozat for fifteen years. Meeting with nothing but loss, he surrendered his privi-, ( ^ lege i^ 1797, having kept it five years. \ ^

West. The government nourished with -every possible care this element of ruin, authorizing it to sell its shares for publicstock taken at par, which was selling at 60 to 70 per cent, discount, giving exclusive right of the Mississippi country trade for twenty-five years, the monopoly of the CtnadiAn beaver trade and the tobacco trade, the exclusive right of trading in Asia and the East Indies, the farming of the public revenues, the exclusive right of coining for nine years, &c., &c., until in April, 1720, the stock of the Company had risen to 2050 per cent., while it had in circulation notes for §200,000,000. . Then the bubble burst. The decline of stocks began in April, and in spite of the government, the company was bankrupt in May. Yet this strange mania was not without some benefits. It introduced the cultivation of tobacco, indigo, rice and silk; it opened the lead mines of Missouri, in the hope of finding silver, and wheat, in the Northern portions of the country, began to assume a place among the commodities of the day, and withal the French settlements were considerably extended. "Law's Mississippi Scheme" is now almost proverbial for the magnitude of its promises and the Barrowness of the basis on which it rested.

When the Company of the West gave up Louisiana again to the French government, it was determined to strike terror into the Chickasaws, who constantly interfered with the trade on the Mississippi. On the 10th of May, 1736, D'Artaguette, governor of Illinois, and Vincennes, appeared in the Chickasaw country, leading a, small body of French and more than a thousand northern Indians; but they weredisappointed in not meeting Bienville, the king's lieutenant, whom they expected- They waited ten days for his appearance, when, fearf j1 of exhausting the patienc* of his red allies, D'Artaguette ordered ai> onset. Two Chickasaw station* were auoeessfully carried, but in attacking th©' third, the French leader fell, when thfr Illinois fled, leaving D'Artaguette and Vincennes, who would not leave him, in the hands of the Chickasaws. Five days; afterwards, Bienville appeared, but it wastoo late; the Chickasaws were on their guard, and had so fortified their position that the French attacked them in vain. On the 20th of May, D'Artaguette had fallen; on the 27th, Bienville had failed in his assault; on the Slst, throwing his cannon into the river, he and his white companions turned to the southward. The successful Chickasaws danced around the flames in which they burned D'Artaguette,. Vincennes and the Jesuit Senat, a priest who stayed and died of his own free w'lly because duty bade him.*

In the year 1729 Louisiana became thetheater of a succeseion of tragedies at once both sickening and appalling, and between the inimical Indians and the French, many scalps were caken, and much. blood was shed, until 1740, when a treaty of peace was concluded..

Very little is told us as happening between the years 1740 and 1750 in Western history. Wc give below some extracts from letters written by a missionary among the Illinois, which will serve to show the advancement of civilization in

1750. Writing from " Aux Illinois," eighteen miles from Fort Rosalie, on the 8th of June, 1750, Vivier 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 21 leagues, situated between the Mississippi and another river called the Karkadiad (Kaskaskia.) In the five French villages are perhaps eleven hundred whites, three liundred blacks, and some sixty red slaves or savages. The three Illinois towns do not contain more than eight hundred souls, all told."

Vivier mentions in another part of the same letter Peoria, which probably contained as many inhabitants as the other three towns together. " Most of the French till the soil," he continues; "they raise wheat, cattle, pigs and horses, and live like princes. Three times as much is produced as can be consumed, and great quantities of grain and flour are sent to New-Orleans." Under date of November 17th of the same year, be writes : "For fifteen leagues above the mouth of the Mississippi one sees no dwellings, the ground being too low to be inhabited. Thence to New-Orleans the lands are only partially occupied. New- Orleans contains, black, white and red, not more, I think, than twelve hundred persons. To this point come all kinds of lumber, brick, salt beef, tallow, tar, skins and bear's grease, and above all, pork and flour from Illinois. These things create some commerce; fortv vessels, and more, have come here this season. Above New-Orleans, plantations are again met with; the most considerable is a colony of Germans, some tea leagues up the river. At Point Coupee, thirty-five leagues above the Geiman 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 who are kept prisoners by their fear of the Chickasaws and other savages Here at Point Coupee, they raise excellent tobacco. Another hundred leagues brings us to the Arkansas, where we have also a fort and garrison for the benefit of river traders. There were some inhabitants about here formerly, but in 1748 the Chickasaws attacked the post, slew many,, took thirteen prisoners, and drove the rest into the fort. From the xirkansas. tO' the Illinois, nearly five hundred leagues,* there is not a settlement. There shouii, however, be a good fort on the Ouabache, (Wabash,) the only path by which the English can reach the Mi-sissippi. In the Illinois are numberless mines, but no one to work them as they deserve. 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 thut if wo would dig deeper we would find silver under the lead. At any rate, the lead is excellent. There are also in this country copper mines beyond doubt, as from time to time large pieces are found in the streams.