Francis Parkman, 1823-1893, the son of a clergyman of the same name, was
born in Boston, and graduated at Harvard University in 1844. He spent more
than twenty years in a careful study of the early French explorations and
settlements in America; and he published the fruits of his labor in twelve
large volumes. Although troubled with an affection of the eyes, which
sometimes wholly prevented reading or writing, his work was most carefully
and successfully done. His narratives are written in a clear and animated
style, and his volumes are a rich contribution to American history.
###
The cliff called "Starved Rock," now pointed out to travelers as the chief
natural curiosity of the region, rises, steep on three sides as a castle
wall, to the height of a hundred and twenty-five feet above the river. In
front, it overhangs the water that washes its base; its western brow looks
down on the tops of the forest trees below; and on the east lies a wide
gorge, or ravine, choked with the mingled foliage of oaks, walnuts, and
elms; while in its rocky depths a little brook creeps down to mingle with
the river.
From the rugged trunk of the stunted cedar that leans forward from the
brink, you may drop a plummet into the river below, where the catfish and
the turtles may plainly be seen gliding over the wrinkled sands of the
clear and shallow current. The cliff is accessible only from the south,
where a man may climb up, not without difficulty, by a steep and narrow
passage. The top is about an acre in extent.
Here, in the month of December, 1682, La Salle and Tonty began to entrench
themselves. They cut away the forest that crowned the rock, built
storehouses and dwellings of its remains, dragged timber up the rugged
pathway, and encircled the summit with a palisade. Thus the winter was
passed, and meanwhile the work of negotiation went prosperously on. The
minds of the Indians had been already prepared. In La Salle they saw their
champion against the Iroquois, the standing terror of all this region.
They gathered around his stronghold like the timorous peasantry of the
Middle Ages around the rock-built castle of their feudal lord.
From the wooden ramparts of St. Louis,--for so he named his fort,--high
and inaccessible as an eagle's nest, a strange scene lay before his eye.
The broad, flat valley of the Illinois was spread beneath him like a map,
bounded in the distance by its low wall of wooded hills. The river wound
at his feet in devious channels among islands bordered with lofty trees;
then, far on the left, flowed calmly westward through the vast meadows,
till its glimmering blue ribbon was lost in hazy distance.
There had been a time, and that not remote, when these fair meadows were a
waste of death and desolation, scathed with fire, and strewn with the
ghastly relics of an Iroquois victory. Now, all was changed. La Salle
looked down from his rock on a concourse of wild human life. Lodges of
bark and rushes, or cabins of logs, were clustered on the open plain, or
along the edges of the bordering forests. Squaws labored, warriors lounged
in the sun, naked children whooped and gamboled on the grass.
Beyond the river, a mile and a half on the left, the banks were studded
once more with the lodges of the Illinois, who, to the number of six
thousand, had returned, since their defeat, to this their favorite
dwelling place. Scattered along the valley, among the adjacent hills, or
over the neighboring prairie, were the cantonments of a half score of
other tribes, and fragments of tribes, gathered under the protecting aegis
of the French.
NOTES.--The curious elevation called Starved Rock is on the south side of
Illinois River, between La Salle and Ottawa. There is a legend according
to which it is said that over one hundred years ago, a party of Illinois
Indians took refuge here from the Pottawatomies; their besiegers, however,
confined them so closely that the whole party perished of starvation, or,
as some say, of thirst. From this circumstance the rock takes its name.
La Salle (b. 1643, d. 1687) was a celebrated French explorer and fur
trader. He established many forts throughout the Mississippi Valley,--
among them, Fort St. Louis, in 1683.
Tonty was an Italian, who formerly served in both the French army and
navy, and afterwards joined La Salle in his explorations.