Chapter Four of the History of Southern Illinois

P. 38 June the 17th their canoes shot out into the broad Mississippi. The voyagers were filled with a joy unspeakable. The journey now began down the stream without any ceremony. Marquette made accurate observations of the lay of the land, the vegetation, and the animals. Among the animals he mentions are deer, moose, and all sorts of fish, turkeys, wild cattle, and small game.

Somewhere, probably below Rock Island, the voyagers discovered footprints and they knew that the Illinois were not far away. Marquette and Joliet left their boats in the keeping of the five Frenchmen and after prayers they departed into the interior, following the tracks of the Indians. They soon came to an Indian village. The chiefs received the two whites with very great ceremony. The peace pipe was smoked and Joliet, who was trained in all the Indian languages, told them of the purpose of their visit to this Illinois country. A chief responded and after giving the two whites some presents, among which were a calumet and an Indian slave boy, the chief warned them not to go further down the river for great dangers awaited them. Marquette replied that they did not fear death and nothing would please them more than to lose their lives in God’s service.

After promising the Indians they would come again, they retired to their boats, accompanied by 600 warriors from the village. They departed from these Indians about the last of June and were soon on their journey down the river.

As they moved southward the bluffs became quite a marked feature of the general landscape. After passing the mouth of the Illinois river, they came to unusually high bluffs on the the Illinois side of the Mississippi. At a point about six miles above the present city of Alton, they discovered on the high smooth-faced bluffs a very strange object, which Marquette describes as follows:

As we coasted along the rocks, frightful for their height and length, we saw two monsters painted on these rocks, which startled us at first, and on which the boldest Indian dare not gaze long. They are as large as a calf, with horns on the head like a deer, a frightful look, red eyes, bearded like a tiger, the face somewhat like a man’s, the body covered P. 39 with scales, and the tail so long that it twice makes the turn of the body, passing over the head and down between the legs, and ending at last in a fish’s tail. Green, red, and a kind of black are the colors employed. On the whole, these two monsters are so well painted that we could not believe any Indian to have been the designer, as good painters in France would find it hard to do as well; besides this, they are so high upon the rock that it is hard to get conveniently at them to paint them. This is pretty nearly the figure to these monsters as I drew it off.

In an early day in Illinois, the description of these monsters was quite current in the western part of the state. So also was a tradition that these monsters actually inhabited a great cave near. (This tradition described but a single monster and but a single picture.) The tradition said that this monster was a hideous creature with wings, and great claws, and great teeth. It was accustomed to devour every living thing which came within its reach; men, women, and children, and animals of all kinds. The Indians had suffered great loss of their people from the ravages of this monster and a council of war was held to devise some means by which its career might be ended. Among other schemes for its extermination was a proposition by a certain young warrior. It was to the effect that upon the departure of the beast on one of his long flights for food that he would volunteer to be securely tied to stakes on the ledge in front of the mouth of the cave, and that a sufficient number of other warriors of the tribe should be stationed near with their poisoned arrows so that when the bird should return from its flight they might slay the monster.

This proposition was accepted and on a certain day the bird took its accustomed flight. The young warrior who offered to sacrifice his life was securely bound to strong stakes in front of the mouth of the cave. The warriors who were to slay the beast were all safely hidden in the rocks and debris near. In the afternoon the monster was seen returning from its long journey. Upon lighting near its cave, it discovered the young warrior and immediately attacked him, fastening its claws and teeth in his body. The thongs held him securely and the more the monster strove to escape with its prey The more its claws became entangled in the thongs.

At a concerted moment the warriors all about opened upon the monster with their poisoned arrows, and before the beast could extricate itself, its life blood was ebbing away. The death of the dreaded monster had been compassed.

The warriors took the body of the great monster and stretching it out so as to get a good picture of it, marked out the form and painted it as it was seen by Marquette. Because the tribes of Indians had suffered such destruction of life by this monster, an edict went forth that every warrior who went by this bluff should discharge at least one arrow at the painting. This the Indians continued religiously to do. In later years when guns displaced the arrows among the Indians, they continued to shoot at the painting as they passed and thus it is said the face of the painting was greatly marred.

Judge Joseph Gillespie, of Edwardsville, Illinois, a prolific writer and a man of unimpeachable character wrote in 1883 as follows:

I saw what was called the picture sixty years since, long before it was marred by quarrymen or the tooth of time, and I never saw anything which would have impressed my mind that it was intended to P. 40 represent a bird. I saw daubs of coloring matter that I supposed exuded from the rocks that might, to very impressible people bear some resemblance to a bird or a dragon, after they were told to look at it in that light, just as we fancy in certain arrangements of the stars we see animals, etc., in the constellations. I did see the marks of the bullets shot by the Indians against the rocks in the vicinity of the so-called picture. Their object in shooting at this I never could comprehend. I do not think the story had its origin among the Indians or was one of their superstitions, but was introduced to the literary world by John Russell, of Bluff Dale, Illinois, who wrote a beautiful story about it.

The bluff has long since disappeared from the use of the stone for building purposes.

As Marquette and Joliet passed on down the river they passed the mouth of the Missouri which at that time was probably subject to a great flood. When considerably below the mouth of the Kaskaskia river they came to a very noted object—at least the Indians had many stories about it. This is what we know today as the Grand Tower. This great rock in the Mississippi causes a great commotion in the water of the river and probably was destructive of canoes in those days.

On they go down the river past the mouth of the Ohio, into the region of semi-tropical sun and vegetation. The cane-brakes lined the banks, and the mosquitoes became plentiful and very annoying. Here also probably in the region of Memphis they stopped and held councils with the Indians. They found the Indians using guns, axes, hoes, knives, beads, etc., and when questioned as to where they got these articles, they said to the eastward. These Indians told the travelers that it was not more than ten days' travel to the mouth of the river. They proceeded on down the river till they reached Choctaw Bend, in latitude 33 degrees and 40 minutes. Here they stopped, held a conference, and decided to go no further.

They justified their return in the following manner:

First, they were satisfied that the Mississippi emptied into the Gulf of Mexico, and not into the Gulf of California, nor into the Atlantic ocean in Virginia. Second, they feared a conflict with the Spaniards who occupied and claimed the Gulf coast. Third, they feared the Indians of the lower Mississippi, for they used firearms and might oppose their further progress south. Fourth, they had acquired all the information they started out to obtain.

And so, on the 17th of July, 1673, they turned their faces homeward. They had been just two months, from May 17, to July 17. on their journey. They had traveled more than a thousand miles. They had faced all forms of danger and had undergone all manner of hardships. Their provisions had been obtained en route. France owed them a debt of gratitude which will never be fully paid. Indeed not only France, but the world is their debtor.

Nothing of interest occurred on their return journey until they reached the mouth of the Illinois river. Here they were told by some Indians that there was a much shorter route to Green Bay than by way of the upper Mississippi and the Wisconsin and Fox portage. This shorter route was up the Illinois river to the Chicago portage and then along Lake Michigan to Green Bay.

Marquette and Joliet proceeded up the Illinois river. When passing by Peoria lake they halted for three days. While here Marquette P. 41 preached the gospel to the natives. Just as Marquette was leaving they brought him a dying child which he baptized. When in the vicinity of Ottawa, they came to a village of the Kaskaskia Indians. Marquette says there were seventy-four cabins in the village and that the Indians received them kindly. They tarried but a short time and were escorted from this point up the Illinois and over the Chicago portage by one of the Kaskaskia chiefs and several young warriors.

While in the village of the Kaskaskias, Marquette told the story of the Cross to the natives, and they were so well pleased with it that they made him promise to return to teach them more about Jesus. Marquette and Joliet reached Green Bay in the month of September, 1673. Probably they both remained here during the ensuing winter. In the summer of 1674, Joliet returned to Quebec to make his report to the governor. On his way down the St. Lawrence, his boat upset and he came near losing his life. He lost all his maps, papers, etc., and was obliged to make a verbal report to the governor.

Father Marquette remained in the mission of St. Francois Xavier through the summer of 1674, and late in the fall started on his journey back to Kaskaskia. The escort consisted of two Frenchmen and some Indians. They reached the Chicago portage in the midst of discouraging circumstances. The weather was severe and Father Marquette, sick unto death, was unable to proceed further. On the banks of the Chicago river they built some huts and here the party remained till spring. During the winter Father Marquette did not suffer for want of attention, for he was visited by a number of Indians and by at least two prominent Frenchmen.

By the last of March he was able to travel. He reached the Kaskaskia village Monday, April 8, 1675. He was received with great joy by the Indians. He established the mission of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin. Seeing he could not possibly live long, he returned to St. Ignace by way of the Kankakee portage. He never lived to reach Mackinaw. He died the 18th of May, 1675.

This expedition by Marquette and Joliet had carried the Lilies of France nearly to the Gulf of Mexico. The Indians in the great plains between the Great Lakes and the Gulf had been visited and the resources of the country noted. There remained but a slight strip of territory over which the banner of France had not floated, from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico. If this short distance were explored, then the French government would have completely surrounded the English colonies in North America. This is the next movement for the French as we shall see.

THE TRIUMPHS AND DEATH OF LASALLE

Chevalier de La Salle came to America in the year 1667. Shortly after arriving in this country he established himself as a fur trader at a trading post called La Chine, on the island of Montreal. Here he came in contact with the Indians from the far west. Within two years he had departed on an exploration, For the next two or three years he had probably visited the Ohio river and had become quite familiar with the country to the south and west of the Great Lakes.

Count Frontenac built a fort on the shore of Lake Ontario where the lake sends its waters into the St. Lawrence river. La Salle was P. 42 put in charge of this fort. He named it Fort Frontenac. The purpose of this fort was to control the fur trade, especially that from up the Ottawa, and prevent it from going to New York. In 1674 La Salle went to France and while there was raised to the rank of a noble. The king was greatly pleased with the plans of La Salle and readily granted him the seigniory of Fort Frontenac, together with a large quantity of land. For all this La Salle promised to keep the fort in repair, to maintain a garrison equal to that of Montreal, to clear the land, put it in a state of cultivation, and continually to keep arms, ammunition, and artillery in the fort. He further agreed to pay Count Frontenac for the erection of the fort, to build a church, attract Indians, make grants of land to settlers, and to do all for the ultimate purpose of furthering the interests of the French government.

La Salle returned from France and was perhaps at Fort Frontenac when Joliet passed down the lakes in the summer of 1674. The next year he began the improvement of his fort. For two years he prosecuted a thriving trade with the Indians and also engaged in farming, shipbuilding, cattle-raising, and study.

The fall of 1678 found him in France with a request that the king grant him permission to explore the western part of New France and if possible find the mouth of the Mississippi river. La Salle had matured plans by which New France was to be connected with the western country by a line of strong fortifications. Fort Frontenac was the first step in this plan. He there explained how easy it would be to reach the region of the Great Lakes by the St. Lawrence route or by the Mississippi. There is no doubt that both Frontenac and La Salle wished to transfer the emphasis from the conversion of the Indians to that of conquest of territory for France, and to the more profitable business, as they saw it, of commerce. Frontenac had therefore strongly endorsed La Salle and his plans. Through Colbert and his son, La Salle succeeded in getting his patent from the king.

HIS BRAVE LIEUTENANT, TONTI

While in France La Salle met Henri de Tonti, an Italian who had just won distinction in the French army. His father had been engaged in an insurrection in Italy and had taken refuge in France where he became a great financier, having originated the Tontine system of life insurance. Henri de Tonti had lost a hand in one of the campaigns, but he was nevertheless a man of great energy, and destined to win for himself an honored name in the New World.

La Salle returned to New France in 1678, bringing with him about thirty craftsmen and mariners, together with a large supply of military and naval stores. It can readily be seen that La Salle would be opposed by the merchants and politicians in the region of Quebec and Montreal. He had risen rapidly and was now ready to make one of the most pretentious efforts at discovery and exploration that had been undertaken in New France.

Late in the fall of 1678, probably in December, he sent Captain LaMotte, and sixteen men to select a suitable site for the building of a vessel with which to navigate the upper lakes. Captain LaMotte stopped at the rapids below Niagara Falls and seems to have been indifferent to his mission. La Salle and Tonti arrived the 8th of January, 1679. P. 43

The next day La Salle went above the falls and selected a place to construct the vessel. (The exact place is in doubt, probably at Tonawanda creek.)

Tonti was charged with building the vessel. It was launched in May, 1679, and was christened the Griffin (Griffon). It was of forty-five to fifty tons burden and carried a complement of five cannon, and is supposed to have cost about $10,000.

An expedition of traders had been dispatched into the Illinois country for the purpose of traffic, in the fall of 1678. Tonti and a small party went up Lake Erie and were to await the coming of the Griffin at the head of the lake. The Griffin weighed anchor August 7, 1679, amid the booming of cannon and the chanting of the Te Deum. It arrived at what is now Detroit on the 10th, and there found Tonti and his party. The vessel reached Mackinaw on the 27th of August. Here La Salle found the men whom he had dispatched the year before to traffic with the Indians. He found they had been dissuaded from proceeding to the Illinois country by the report that La Salle was visionary and that his ship would never reach Mackinaw. Tonti was given the task of getting these men together, and while he was thus engaged, La Salle sailed in the Griffin for Green Bay.

Green Bay had been for several years a meeting place between white traders and explorers, and the Indians. When La Salle reached the point, he found some of the traders whom he had sent ahead the year before. These traders had collected from the Pottowatomies large quantities of furs. For these furs La Salle exchanged a large stock of European goods with which the Griffin was loaded. It is said that he made a large sum of money in this transaction. The Griffin was loaded with these furs and made ready to return to the warehouses at Niagara.

On September the 18th, the Griffin, in charge of a trusted pilot, a supercargo, and five sailors, started on the return voyage. La Salle on the 19th of September, 1679, with a company of fourteen persons, in four birch bark canoes, loaded with a blacksmith’s forge, carpenter’s tools, merchandise, arms, provision, etc., started on his journey for the Illinois country. He coasted along the western shore of Lake Michigan. Their provision was exhausted before they reached the present site of Milwaukee. They had been forced ashore three times to save their boats and their lives. They now went in search of food and fortunately found a deserted Indian village with plenty of corn. They appropriated the corn, but left some articles as pay. The next day the Indians returned and followed the whites to their boats and it was only by presenting the calumet that La Salle was able to appease them.

From Milwaukee they coasted south past the mouth of the Chicago river and following the southerly bend of the lake reached the mouth of the St. Joseph river November 1, 1679. This had been appointed as the meeting place of the two expeditions—the one under La Salle and the one under Tonti. La Salle was anxious to get to the Illinois country, but he also desired the help of Tonti and as the latter had not yet arrived, La Salle occupied the time of his men in building a palisade fort which he named Fort Miami. Near by, he erected a bark chapel for the use of the priests, and also a storehouse for the goods which the Griffin was to bring from Niagara on its return.

Tonti arrived at Fort Miami on the 12th of November with only a portion of his company, the rest remaining behind to bring word of the P. 44 Griffin. La Salle was now impatient to proceed, and dispatching Tonti for the rest of his crew waited for his return. The ice began to form and fearing the freezing over of the river, La Salle ascended the St. Joseph in search of the portage between the Kankakee and the St. Joseph. He went up the St. Joseph beyond the portage and while searching for it, was overtaken by a courier who told him Tonti and his party were at the portage farther down the river. This point is supposed to have been near the present city of South Bend, Indiana. Here was now assembled the party which was to become a very historic one. There were in all twenty-nine Frenchmen and one Indian. Among them were La Salle, De Tonti, Fathers Louis Hennepin, Zenobe Membre, and Gabriel de La Ribourde, and La Metairie, a notary, and De Loup, the Indian guide. They crossed the portage of three or four miles under great difficulties, dragging their canoes and their burdens. on sledges. The ice was getting thick and a heavy snow storm was raging. By the 6th of December, 1679, they were afloat on the Kankakee. For many miles the country was so marshy that scarcely a camping place could be found, but soon they emerged into an open region of the country with tall grass and then they knew they were in the Illinois country. They suffered from lack of food, having killed only two deer, one buffalo, two geese, and a few swans. As they journeyed on they passed the mouths of the Iroquois, the Des Plaines, and the Fox. They passed the present site of Ottawa and a few miles below they came to the Kaskaskia village where Marquette had planted the mission of the Immaculate Conception in the summer of 1675. Father Allouez had succeeded Marquette and had spent some time at the Kaskaskia village in 1676, and in 1677 he came again. But on the approach of La Salle Allouez had departed for it was understood that almost all of the Jesuit priests were opposed to La Salle’s plans of commercializing the interior of North America, The Kaskaskia Indians were themselves absent from the village on an expedition to the southland as was their winter custom.

This Kaskaskia village of four hundred lodges was uninhabited. The huts were built by covering a long arbor-like frame work with mats of woven rushes. In each lodge there was room for as many as ten families. In their hiding places, the Indians had secreted large quantities of corn for the spring planting and for sustenance till another crop could be raised. La Salle’s party was so sorely in need of this corn that he decided to appropriate as much as they needed. This he did, taking 30 minots. On January 1, 1680, after mass by Father Hennepin, they departed down the Illinois river. On the morning of the 5th they had arrived at the outlet of what we call Peoria lake. Here they saw large numbers of boats and on the banks wigwams and large numbers of Indians. The Indians were much disconcerted upon seeing La Salle’s party land, and many fled while a few held communication with the newcomers. La Salle held a consultation with the chiefs and told them of his taking their corn. He offered to pay for the corn and said that if he were compelled to give up the corn he would take his blacksmith and his tools to the next tribe, the Osages, whereupon the Indians gladly accepted payment they must not expect him to engage in conflicts with the Iroquois whom his king regarded as his children. But if they would P. 45 allow him to build a fort near, that he would defend them, the Kaskaskias, against the Iroquois if they were attacked. He also told them he wished to know whether he could navigate a large boat from that point to the mouth of the Mississippi river, since it was very difficult as well as dangerous to bring such European goods as the Indians would like to have from New France by way of the Great Lakes, and that it could not well be done by coming across the Iroquois country as they would object since the Illinois Indians and the Iroquois were enemies.

The Kaskaskia chiefs told La Salle that the mouth of the Mississippi was only twenty days travel away and that there were no obstructions to navigation. Certain Indian slaves taken in battle said they had been at the mouth of the river and that they had seen ships at sea that made noises like thunder. This made La Salle the more anxious to reach the mouth of the river and take possession of the country. The chiefs gave consent to the construction of the fort and La Salle had a bright vision before him. This vision was sadly clouded on the morrow when an Indian revealed to him the visit to the chiefs, on the night before, of a Miami chief by the name of Monso who tried to undermine the influence of La Salle. He said La Salle was deceiving them. In a council that day he revealed his knowledge of the visit of Monso and by great diplomacy won the Kaskaskia chiefs to his cause the second time. It was supposed this chief Monso was sent at the suggestion of Father Allouez. Four of La Salle's men deserted him and returned to the region of Lake Michigan.

La Salle, fearing the influence of the stories among the Indians, upon his men, decided to separate from them and go further down the river where he could construct his fort and built his boat. On the evening of the 15th of January, 1680, La Salle moved to a point on the east side of the river three miles below the present site of Peoria. There on a projection from the bluffs he built with considerable labor a fort which received the name of Crevecoeur. This was the fourth of the great chains of forts which La Salle had constructed, namely: Fort Frontenac at the outlet of Lake Ontario; Fort Conti on the Niagara river; Fort Miami at the mouth of St. Joseph river, and Crevecoeur below Lake Peoria on the Illinois river.

Fort Crevecoeur is currently believed to have been so named because of the disheartened frame of mind of La Salle, but this would not be complimentary to the character of the man. It is now rather believed to have been named in honor of Tonti, since as a soldier in the Netherlands he took part in the destruction of Fort Crevecoeur near the village of Bois le Due in the year 1672.

In addition to the building of the fort, La Salle began the construction of a vessel with which to complete his journey to the mouth of the river. The lumber was sawed from the timber and rapid progress was made. The keel was 42 feet long, and the beam was 12 feet. While this work was in progress and during the month of February, several representatives of tribes from up the Mississippi and down the Mississippi, as well as from the Miamis to the northeast, came to consult with La Salle. His presence in the Illinois country was known far and near. The Indians from the upper Mississippi brought tempting descriptions of routes to the western sea and also of the wealth of beaver with which their country abounded.

La Salle desired to make a visit to Fort Frontenac for sails, cordage, iron, and other material

P. 46 for his boat, besides he was very anxious to hear something definite about the Griffin and its valuable cargo. But before embarking on his long journey, he fitted out an expedition consisting of Michael Ako, Antony Auguel, and Father Hennepin, to explore the upper Mississippi. Michael Ako was the leader. They started February the 29th, passed down the Illinois river and thence up the Mississippi. They carried goods worth a thousand lives, which were to be exchanged for furs. Father Hennepin took St. Anthony for his patron saint and when near the falls which we know by that name, he set up a post upon which he engraved the cross and the coat of arms of France. He was shortly captured by the Indians and was later released by a French trader, De Lhut. He then returned to France.