Vermilion County, Illinois - La Salle's Return, and His Death in Attempting a Settlement on the Gulf, 1879

La Salle's Return, and His Death in Attempting a Settlement on the Gulf

Dispatching Tonti ahead to Mackinaw, he remained there under the care of Father Meinbre. Abolit the end of July he was enabled to proceed, and joined Tonti at Mackinaw, in September. Owing to the threatened invasion of the Iroquois, La Salle postponed his projected trip to France, and passed the winter at Fort St. Louis. From Fort St. Louis, it would seem, La Salle directed a letter to Count Frontenac, divino- an account of his voyage to the Mississippi. It is short and historicallv interesting, and was first published in that rare little volume, Thevenot's "Collection of Voyages,'' published at Paris in 1687. This letter contains, perhaps, the first description of Chicago Creek and the harbor, and as everything pertaining to Chicago of a historical character is a matter of public interest, we insert La Salle's account. It seems that, even at that early day, almost two centuries ago, the idea of a canal connecting Lake Michigan and the Illinois was a subject of consideration :

'- The creek (Chicago Creek) through which we went, from the lake of the Illinois into the Divine River (the Au Plein, or Des Plaines) is so shallow and so greatly exposed to storms that no ship can venture in except in a great calm. Neither is the country between the creek and the Divine River suitable for a canal ; for the prairies between them are submerged after heavy rains, and a canal would be immediately filled up with sand. Besides this, it is not possible to dig into the ground on account of the water, that country being nothing but a marsh. Supposing it were possible, however, to cut a canal, it would be useless, as the Divine River is not navigable for forty leagues together; that is to say, from that place (the portage) to the village of the Illinois, except for canoes, and these have scarcely water enough in summer time."

The identity of the " River Chicago," of early explorers, with the modern stream of the same name, is clearly established by the map of Franquelin of 1684, as well, also, as by the Memoir of Sieur de Tonti.

The latter had occasion to pass through the Chicago River more frequently than any other person of his time, and his intimate acquaintance with the Indians in the vicinity would necessarily place his declarations beyond the suspicion of a mistake. Referring to his being sent in the fall of 1687, by La Salle, from Fort Miamis, at the mouth of the St. Joseph, to Chicago, already alluded to, he says: "We went in canoes to the ' River Chicago,' where there is a portage which joins that of the Illinois." ::'

The name of this river is variously spelled by early writers, " Chicagon,"f " Che-ka-kou," \ "Chikgoua."§ In the prevailing Algonquin language the word signifies a polecat or skunk. The Aborigines, also, called garlic by nearly the same word, from which many authors have inferred that Chicago means "wild onion." |

"While La Salle was in the west, Count Frontenac was removed, and M. La Barre appointed Governor of Canada. The latter was the avowed enemy of La Salle. He injured La Salle in eveiw possible

|| A writer of a historical sketch, published in a late number of " Potter's Monthly," on the isolated statement of an old resident of western Michigan, says that the Indians living1 thereabouts subsequent to the advent of the early settlers called Chicago "Tuck-Chicago," the meaning of which was, "a place without wood," and thus investing a mere fancy with the dignity of truth. The great city of the west has taken its name from the stream along whose margin it was first laid out, and it becomes important to preserve the origin of its name with whatever certainty a research of all accessible authorities may furnish. In the first place, Chicago was not a place "without wood," or trees; on the contrary, it is the only locality where timber was anything like abundant for the distance of miles around. The north and south branches westward, and the lake on the east, afforded ample protection against prairie fires; and Dr. John M. Peck, in his early Gazetteer of the state, besides other authorities, especially mention the fact that there was a good quality of timber in the vicinity of Chicago, particularly on the north branch. There is nowhere to be found in the several Indian vocabularies of Sir Alexander Mackenzie, Dr. Edwin James, and the late Albert Gallatin, in their extensive collections of Algonquin words, any expressions like those used by the writer in Potter's Monthly, bearing the signification' which he attaches to them. In Mackenzie's Vocabulary, the Algonquin word for polecat is "Shi-kak." In Dr. James' Vocabulary, the word for skunk is "She-gahg (shegag); and Shig-gau-ga-winzheeg is the plural for onion or garlic, literally, in the Indian dialect, "skunk-weeds." Dr. James, in a foot-note, says that from this word in the singular number, some have derived the name Chi-ka-go, which is commonly pronounced among the Indians, Shit/- gaii-go. and Shi-gau-go-ong (meaning) at Chicago.

An association of English traders, styling themselves the " Illinois Land Company," on the 5th of July, 1773, obtained from ten chiefs of the Kaskaskia. Cahokia and Peoria tribes, a deed for two large tracts of land. The second tract, in the description of its boundaries, contains the following expression: "and thence up the Illinois River, by the several courses thereof, to Chicago, or Garlic Creek:" and it may safely be assumed that the parties to the deed knew the names given to identify the grant. Were an additional reference necessary. "Wan Bun," the valuable work of Mrs. John H. Kinzie, might also be cited, p. 190. The Iroquois, who made frequent predatory excursions from their homes in New York to the Illinois country, called Chicago Kanera-ghik; ride Cadwalder Colden's " History of the Five Nations."

Misfortunes Of La Salle'S Colony

way, and finally seized upon Fort Frontenae. To obtain redress, La- Salle went to France, reaching Rochelle on the 13th of December, 1683. Seignelay (young Colbert), Secretary of State and Minister of the Marine, was appealed to by La Salle, and became interested and furnished him timely aid in his enterprise.

Before leaving America La Salle ordered Tonti to proceed and finish '- Fort St. Louis," as the fortification at Starved Rock, on the Illinois River, was named. " He charged me," says Tonti, " with the duty to go and finish Fort St. Louis, of which he gave me the government, with full power to dispose of the lands in the neighborhood, and left all his people under my command, with the exception of six Frenchmen, whom he took to accompany him to Quebec. We departed from Mackinaw on the same day, he for Canada and I for the Illinois.* On his mission to France La Salle was received with honor by the king and his officers, and the accounts which he gave relative to Louisiana caused them to further his plans for its colonization. A squadron of four vessels was fitted out, the largest carrying thirty-six guns. About two hundred persons were embarked aboard of them for the purpose long projected, as we have foreseen, of establishing a settlement at the mouth of the Mississippi. The fleet was under the command of M. de Beaujeu, a naval officer of some distinction. lie was punctilious in the exercise of authorit}', and had a wiry, nervous organization, as the portrait preserved of him clearly shows, f La Salle was austere, and lacked that faculty of getting along with men, for the want of which many of his best-laid plans failed. A constant bickering and collision of cross purposes was the natural result of such repellant natures as he and Beaujeu possessed.

After a stormy passage of the Atlantic, the fleet entered the Gulf of Mexico. Coasting along the northern shore of the gulf, they failed to discover the mouths of the Mississippi. Passing them, they finally landed in what is now known as Matagorda Bay, or the Bay of St. Barnard, near the River Colorado, in Texas, more than a hundred leagues westward of the Mississippi. The whole number of persons left on the beach is not definitely known. M. Joutel, one of the survivors, and the chronicler of this unfortunate undertaking, mentions one hundred and eighty, besides the crew of the " Belle," which was lost on the beach, consisting of soldiers, volunteers, workmen, women and children.:}: The colony being in a destitute condition, La Salle,

\ A fine steel engraving copy of Mons. Beaujeu is contained in Dr. Shea's translation of Charlevoix's " History of New France." JSpark's " Life of La Salle."

accompanied by Father Anastius Douay and twenty others, set out to reach the Mississippi, intending to ascend to Fort St. Louis, and there obtain aid from Tonti. They set out on the 7th of January, and after several days' journey, reached the village of the Cenis Indians. Here some of La Salle's men became dissatisfied with their hardships, and determined to slay him and then join the Indians. The tragic tale is thus related by Father Douay : " The wisdom of Monsieur de La Salle was unable to foresee the plot which some of his people would make to slay his nephew, as they suddenly resolved to do, and actually did, on the 17th of March, by a blow of an ax, dealt by one Liotot. They also killed the valet of the Sieur La Salle and his Indian servant, Kika, who, at the risk of his life, had supported them for three years. The wretches resolved not to stop here, and not satisfied with this murder, formed a design of attempting their commander's life, as they had reason to fear his resentment and chastisement. As M. La Salle and myself were walking toward the fatal spot where his nephew had been slain, two of those murderers, who were hidden in the grass, arose, one on each side, with guns cocked. One missed Monsieur La Salle ; the other, firing at the same time, shot him in the head. He died an hour after, on the 19th of March, 1687.

" Thus,1' says Father Douay, " died our commander, constant in adversity, intrepid, generous, engaging, dexterous, skillful, capable of everything. He who for twenty years had softened the fierce temper of countless savage tribes was massacred by the hands of his own domestics, whom he had loaded with caresses. He died in the prime of life, in the midst of his course and labors, without having seen their success."*

The colony which La Salle had left in Texas was surprised and destroved by the Indians. Not a soul was left to give an account of the massacre. Of the twenty who accompanied him in his attempt to reach the Mississippi, Joutel, M. Cavalier, La Salle's brother, and four others determined to make a last attempt to find the Mississippi ; the others, including La Salle's murderers, became the associates of the less brutal Indians, and of them we have no farther account. After a long and toilsome journey Joutel and his party reached the Mississippi near the mouth of the Arkansas. Here they found two men who had been sent by Tonti to relieve La Salle. Embarking in canoes, they went up the Mississippi, arrived at Fort St. Louis in safety, and finally returned to France by way of Quebec.

Biloxi And Mobile Founded

Realizing the great importance of retaining possession of the Mississippi valley, the French court fitted out an expedition which consisted of four vessels, for the purpose of thoroughly exploring the mouth of the Mississippi and adjacent territory. Le Moyne Iberville was put in command of the expedition. lie was the third of the eleven sons of Baron Longueil. They all held commissions from the king, and constituted one of the most illustrious of the French Canadian families. The fleet sailed from Brest, France, on the 21th of October, 1698. They came in sight of Florida on the 27th of January, 1699. They ran near the coast, and discovered that they were in the vicinity of Pensacola Bay. Here they found a colony of three hundred Spaniards. Sailing westward, they entered the mouth of the Mississippi on Quinquagesima Monday, which was the 2d of March. Iberville ascended the river far enough to assure himself of its being the Mississippi, then, descending the river, he founded a colony at Biloxi Bay. Leaving his brother, M. de Sauvole, in command of the newly erected fort, he sailed for France. Iberville returned to Biloxi on the 8th of January, and, hearing that the English were exploring the Mississippi, he took formal possession of the Mississippi valley in the name of the French king. He, also, erected a small four-gun fort on Poverty Point, 38 miles below New Orleans. The fort was constructed very rudely, and was occupied for only one year. In the year 1701 Iberville made a settlement at Mobile, and this soon became the principal French town on the gulf. The unavailing efforts of the king in the scheme of colonization induced a belief that a greater prosperity would follow under the stimulus of individual enterprise, and he determined to grant Louisiana to Monsieur Crozat, with a monopoly of its mines, supposed to be valuable in gold and silver, together with the exclusive right of all its commerce for the period of fifteen years. The patent or grant of Louis to M. Crozat is an interesting document, not only because it passed the title of the Mississippi valley into the hands of one man, but for the reason that it embraces a part of the history of the country ceded. We, therefore, quote the most valuable part of it. The instrument bears date September 12th, 1712:

" Louis (the fourteenth), King of France and Navarre ; To all who shall see these presents, greeting: The care we have always had to procure the welfare and advantage of our subjects, having induced us, notwithstanding the almost continual wars which we have been engaged to support from the beginning of our reign, to seek all possible opportunities of enlarging and extending the trade of our American colonies, we did, in the year 1683, give our orders to undertake a discovery of the countries and lands which are situated in the northern parts of America, between New France (Canada) and New Mexico. And the Sieur de La Salle, to whom we committed that enterprise, having had success enough to confirm the belief that a communication might be settled from New France to the Gulf of Mex»ico by means of large rivers; this obliged us, immediately after the peace of Eyewick (in 1607), to give orders for the establishment of a colony there (under Iberville in 1699), and maintaining a garrison, which has kept and preserved the possession we had taken in the year 1683, of the lands, coasts and islands which are situated in the Gulf of Mexico, between Carolina on the east, and old and New Mexico on the west. But a new war breaking out in Europe shortly after, there was no possibility till now of reaping from that new colony the advantages that might have been expected from thence ; because the private men who are concerned in the sea trade were all under engagements with the other colonies, which they have been obliged to follow. And whereas, upon the information we have received concerning the disposition and situation of the said countries, known at present by the name of the province of Louisiana, we are of opinion that there may be established therein a considerable commerce, so much the more advantageous to our kingdom in that there has been hitherto a necessity of fetching from foreigners the greatest part of the commodities that may be brought from thence ; and because in exchange thereof we need carry thither nothing but the commodities of the growth and manufacture of our own kingdom ; we have resolved to grant the commerce of the country of Louisiana to the Sieur Anthony Crozat, our counsellor, secretary of the household, crown and revenue, to whom we intrust the execution of this project. We are the more readilv inclined thereto because of his zeal and the singular knowledge he has acquired of maritime commerce, encourages us to hope for as good success as he has hitherto had in the divers and sundry enterprises he has gone upon, and which have procured to our kingdom great quantities of gold and silver in such conjectures as have rendered them very welcome to us. For these reasons, being desirous to show our favor to him, and to regulate the conditions upon which we mean to grant him the said commerce, after having deliberated the affair in our council, of our own certain knowledge, full power and royal authority, we by these presents, signed by our hand, have appointed and do appoint the said Sieur Crozat to carry on a trade in all the lands possessed by us, and bounded by New Mexico and by the English of Carolina, all the establishments, ports, havens, rivers, and particularly the port and haven of Isle Dauphin, heretofore called Massacre; the river St. Louis, heretofore called Mississippi, from the edge of the sea as far as the Illinois,* together with the river St. Philip, heretofore called Missouris, and St. Jerome, heretofore called the Ouabache (the Wabash), with all the countries, territories, lakes within land, and the rivers which fall directly or indirectly into that part of the river St. Louis. Our pleasure is, that all the aforesaid lands, countries, streams, rivers and islands, be and remain comprised under the name of the Government of Louisiana, which shall be dependent upon the general government of New France, to which it is subordinate."

Crozat was permitted to search and open mines, and to pay the king one-fifth part of all the gold and silver developed. Work in developing the mines was to be begun in three years, under penalty of forfeiture. Crozat was required to send at least two vessels annually from France to sustain the colonies already established, and for the maintenance of trade.

Crozat himself did little to increase the colony, the time of his subordinates being spent in. roaming over the country in search of the precious metals. Pie became wearied at the end of three years spent in profitless adventures, and, in 1717, surrendered his grant back to the crown. In August of the same year the French king turned Louisiana over to the " Western Company," or the " Mississippi Company," subsequently called " The Company of the Indies," at whose head stood the famous Scotch banker, John Law. The rights ceded to Law's company were as broad as the grant to Crozat. Law was an inflationist, believing that wealth could be created without limit by the mere issuing of paper money, and his wild schemes of finance were the most ruinous that ever deluded and bankrupted a confiding people. Louisiana, with its real and undeveloped wealth a hundred times mag-

* The expression, " as far as the Illinois," did not refer to the river of that name, but to the country generally, on both sides of the Mississippi, above the mouth of the Ohio, which, under both the French and Spanish governments was denominated "the country of the Illinois," and this designation appeared in all their records and official letters. For example, letters, deeds, and other official documents bore date, respectively, at Kaskaskia, of the Illinois; St. Louis, of the Illinois; St. Charles, of the Illinois; not to identify the village where such instruments were executed merely, but to denote the country in which these villages were situated. Therefore, the monopoly of Crozat, by the terms of his patent, extended to the utmost limit of Louisiana, northward, which, by the treaty of Utrecht in 1713, was fixed at the 49th ° of latitude; vide Stoddard's " Sketches of Louisiana," Brackenridge's "Views of Louisiana." From the year 1700 until some time subsequent to the conquest of the country by the British, in 1763, a letter or document executed anywhere within the present limits of the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, or Missouri, would have borne the superscription of "Les IUinoix," or "the Illinois.'1'' nified, became the basis of a fictitious value, on which an enormous volume of stock, convertible into paper money, was issued. The stock rose in the market like a balloon, and chamber-maids, alike with wealthy ladies, barbers and bankers, - indeed, the whole French people, - gazing at the ascending phenomenon, grew mad with the desire for speedy wealth. The French debt was paid off; the depleted treasury filled ; poor men and women were made rich in a few days by the constantly advancing value of the stocks of the " Company of the West/' Confidence in the ultimate wealth of Louisiana was all that was required, and this was given to a degree that would not now be credited as true, were not the facts beyond dispute.

After awhile the balloon exploded ; people began to doubt ; they realized that mere confidence was not solid value ; stocks declined ; they awoke to a sorrowful contemplation of their delusion and ruin. Law, from the summit of his glory as a financier, fell into ignominy, and to escape bodily harm fled the country ; and Louisiana, from being the source of untold wealth, sunk into utter ruin and contempt.

It should be said to the credit of " the company " that they made some efforts toward the cultivation of the soil. The growth of tobacco, sugar, rice and indigo was encouraged. Negroes were imported to till the soil. New Orleans was laid out in 1718, and the seat of government of lower Louisiana subsequently established there. A settlement was made about Natchez. A large number of German emigrants were located on the Mississippi, from whom a portion of the Mississippi has ever since been known as the " German coast." The French settlements at Kaskaskia and Cahokia, begun, as appears from most authentic accounts, about the year 1700, - certainly not later, - were largely increased by emigration from Canada and France. In the year 1718 the " Company of the West " erected a fortification near Kaskaskia, and named it Fort Chartes, having a charter from the crown so to do. It is situated in the northwest corner of Randolph county, Illinois, on the American bottom. It was garrisoned with a small number of soldiers, and was made the seat of government of "the Illinois." Under the mild government of the " Company,''1 the Illinois marked a steady prosperity, and Fort Chartes became the center of business, fashion and gaiety of all "the Illinois country." In 1756 the fort was reconstructed, this time with solid stone. Its shape was an irregular quadrangle, the exterior sides of the polygon being four hundred and ninety feet, and the walls were two feet two inches thick, pierced with port-holes for cannon. The walls of the fort were eighteen feet high, and contained within, guard houses, government house, barracks, powder house, bake house, prison and store room. A very minute description is given of the whole structure within and without in the minutes of its surrender, October 10, 1765, by Louis St. Ange de Belrive, captain of infantry and commandant, and Joseph Le Febvre, the king's storekeeper and acting commissary of the fort, to Mr. Sterling, deputed by Mr. De Gage (Gage), governor of New York and commander of His Majesty's troops in America, to receive possession of the fort and country from the French, according to the seventeenth article of the treat}r of peace, concluded on the 10th of February, 1763, between the kings of France and Great Britain.* Fort Chartes was the strongest and most elaborately constructed of any of the French works of defense in America. Here the intendants and several commandants in charge, whose will was law, governed " the Illinois," administered justice to its inhabitants, and settled up estates of deceased persons, for nearly half a century. From this place the English commandants governed "the Illinois,'' some of them with great injustice and severity, from the time of its surrender, in 1765, to 1772, when a great flood inundated the American Bottom, and the Mississippi cut a new channel so near the fort that the wall and two bastions on the west side were undermined and fell into the river. The British garrison then abandoned it, and their headquarters were afterward at Kaskaskia.

Dr. Beck, while collecting material for his " Gazetteer of Illinois and Missouri," in 1820, visited the ruins of old Fort Chartes. At that time enough remained to show the size and strength of this remarkable fortification. Trees over two feet in diameter were growing within its walls. The ruin is in a dense forest, hidden in a tangle of undergrowth., furnishing a sad memento of the efforts and blasted hopes of La Belle France to colonize "Les lUinoix"