Most of the historical facts relative to the extermination of the

Abnaquis will be found condensed in the subjoined extract from a late

valuable work.

"Determined on destroying this assemblage of Indians, which was the

headquarters of the whole eastern country at this time, the English,

in 1724, sent out a force, consisting of 208 men and three Mohawk

Indians, under Captains _Moulton_, _Harman_, and _Bourne_, to humble

them. They came upon the village the 23d August, when there was not a

man in arms to oppose them. They had left 40 of their men at Teconet

Falls, which is now within the town of Winslow, upon the Kennebeck,

and about two miles below Waterville College, upon the opposite side

of the river. The English had divided themselves into three squadrons:

80, under _Harman_, proceeded by a circuitous route, thinking to

surprise some in their cornfields, while _Moulton_, with 80 more,

proceeded directly for the village, which, being surrounded by trees,

could not be seen until they were close upon it. All were in their

wigwams, and the English advanced slowly and in perfect silence. When

pretty near, an Indian came out of his wigwam, and, accidentally

discovering the English, ran in and seized his gun, and giving the

warwhoop, in a few minutes the warriors were all in arms, and

advancing to meet them. _Moulton_ ordered his men not to fire until

the Indians had made the first discharge. This order was obeyed, and,

as he expected, they overshot the English, who then fired upon them in

their turn, and did great execution. When the Indians had given

another volley, they fled with great precipitation to the river,

whither the chief of their women and children had also fled during the

fight. Some of the English pursued and killed many of them in the

river, and others fell to pillaging and burning the village. _Mogg_,

their chief, disdained to fly with the rest, but kept possession of a

wigwam, from which he fired upon the pillagers. In one of his

discharges he killed a Mohawk, whose brother, observing it, rushed

upon and killed him; and thus ended the strife. There were about 60

warriors in the place, about one half of whom were killed.

"The famous _Rasle_ shut himself up in his house, from which he fired

upon the English; and, having wounded one, Lieutenant _Jaques_, of

Newbury, burst open the door, and shot him through the head, although

_Moulton_ had given orders that none should kill him. He had an English

boy with him, about 14 years old, who had been taken some time before

from the frontiers, and whom the English reported _Rasle_ was about to

kill. Great brutality and ferocity are chargeable to the English in this

affair, according to their own account; such as killing women and

children, and scalping and mangling the body of Father _Rasle_.

"There was here a handsome church, with a bell, on which the English

committed a double sacrilege, first robbing it, then setting it on

fire; herein surpassing the act of the first English circumnavigator

in his depredations upon the Spaniards in South America; for he only

took away the gold and silver vessels of a church, and its crucifix,

because it was of massy gold, set about with diamonds, and that, too,

upon the advice of his chaplain. 'This might pass,' says a reverend

author, 'for sea divinity, but justice is quite another thing.'

Perhaps it will be as well not to inquire here what kind of _divinity_

would authorize the acts recorded in these wars, or, indeed, any wars.

"Upon this memorable event in our early annals, Father _Charlevoix_

should be heard. There were not, says he, at the time the attack was

made, above 50 warriors at Neridgewok; these seized their arms, and

run in disorder, not to defend the place against an enemy who was

already in it, but to favour the flight of the women, the old men, and

the children, and to give them time to gain the side of the river,

which was not yet in possession of the English. Father RASLE, warned

by the clamours and tumult, and the danger in which he found his

proselytes, ran to present himself to the assailants, hoping to draw

all their fury upon him, that thereby he might prove the salvation of

his flock. His hope was vain; for hardly had he discovered himself,

when the English raised a great shout, which was followed by a shower

of shot, by which he fell dead near to the cross which he had erected

in the centre of the village: seven Indians who attended him, and who

endeavoured to shield him with their own bodies, fell dead at his

side. Thus died this charitable pastor, giving his life for his sheep,

after 37 years of painful labours.

"Although the English shot near 2000 muskets, they killed but 30 and

wounded 40. They spared not the church, which, after they had

indignantly profaned its sacred vases and the adorable body of Jesus

Christ, they set on fire. They then retired with precipitation, having

been seized with a sudden panic. The Indians returned immediately into

the village; and their first care, while the women sought plants and

herbs proper to heal the wounded, was to shed tears upon the body of

their holy missionary. They found him pierced with a thousand shot,

his scalp taken off, his skull fractured with hatchets, his mouth and

eyes filled with dirt, the bones of his legs broken, and all his

members mutilated in a hundred different ways.

"Such is the account of the fall of _Rasle_, by a brother of the

faith; a deplorable picture, by whomsoever related! Of the truth of

its main particulars there can be no doubt, as will be seen by a

comparison of the above translation with the account preceding it.

There were, besides _Mogg_, other chief Indians who fell that day:

'BOMAZEEN, MOGG, WISSEMEMET, JOB, CARABESETT, and BOMAZEEN'S

son-in-law, all famous warriors.' The inhumanity of the English on

this occasion, especially to the women and children, cannot be

excused. It greatly eclipses the lustre of the victory." _Drake's Book

of the Indians_, b. iii., c. 9.--FLAGG.

_Comment by Ed._ Instead of the French and Indian War (1754-1763),

Flagg is doubtless referring to Queen Anne's War (1702-1713).

A large amount of valuable but scattered documentary and secondary

information concerning this massacre and the causes leading to it may

be found under captions "Norridgewock" and "Rasle" in indexes to Maine

Historical Society _Collections_, and _Documents relative to Colonial

History of State of New York_ (Albany, 1854-61). See also William

Allen, _History of Norridgewock_ (Norridgewock, 1849).

[42] _Prunus Americana._--FLAGG.

[43] Indian Date, by the French called Placminier, _Diosporus

Virginiana_.--FLAGG.

[44] _Morus Rubra_ and _Alba_.--FLAGG.

[45] _Prunus Cerasus Virginia._--FLAGG.

[46] Custard apple, _Annona glabra_.--FLAGG.

[47] Breckenridge.--FLAGG.

_Comment by Ed._ Henry Marie Brackenridge, _Views of Louisiana_, p. 60.

[48] For a sketch of Prairie du Rocher, see A. Michaux's _Travels_, in

our volume iii, p. 70, note 133.--ED.

[49] This tradition does not appear to have been noticed in the local

histories of the region.--ED.

XXXVIII

"I have seen the walls of Balclutha, but they were desolate. The

thistle shook there its lonely head: the moss whistled to the

wind. The fox looked out from the windows; the rank grass of the

wall waved round his head."--OSSIAN.

"We do love these ancient ruins:

We never tread upon them but we set

Our foot upon some reverend history."

To those of the present day who are in some degree acquainted with the

extent of the vast Western Valley, it is not a little surprising to

observe how inadequate the conception with which, by its early

proprietors, it was regarded, and the singular measures which their

mistaken estimates originated. It is but within a very few years that

the extent and resources of this country have become sufficiently

developed to be at all appreciated. That the French government was

wholly unaware of its [CLXXXIII] true character in the cession of old

Louisiana to Mr. Jefferson in the early part of the present century,

and that our own people were at that time little less ignorant of the

same fact, need hardly be suggested to one acquainted with the

diplomatic negotiations of the day, or with the views and the feelings

of the respective powers then expressed.

But there are few circumstances which more definitely betray the

exceedingly inadequate idea entertained by France respecting her

possessions in North America, than that early article of her policy, of

uniting her Canadian colonies, by a continuous chain of military posts,

with those upon the Gulf of Mexico. That any ministry should seriously

have entertained the idea of a line of fortifications _four thousand

miles_ in extent, through a waste, howling wilderness such as this

valley then was, and along the banks of streams such as the Ohio and

Mississippi yet continue to be; and that the design should not only have

been projected, but that measures should actually have been entered upon

for its accomplishment, seems, at the present day, almost incredible.

And yet, from the very discovery of the country, was this scheme

designed, and ever afterward was steadily pursued by the government of

France. La Salle, in his last visit to Paris, suggested the policy of a

_cordon_ of posts from the St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico, and urged

the measure upon Colbert as affording a complete line of defence to the

French settlements against those of the English along the Atlantic

shore. In furtherance of this design, he sailed to establish a [CLXXXIV]

colony at the mouth of the Mississippi, in prosecution of which

expedition he lost his life. A line of fortifications was, however,

commenced, and gradually extended along the southern shore of Lake Erie:

one stood on the present site of the village of that name; another

between that point and the Ohio; a third on the present site of

Pittsburgh, named Du Quesne; a fourth at the mouth of the Kentucky

River; a fifth on the south bank of the Ohio below; a sixth on the

northern bank at the mouth of the Wabash; a seventh at the confluence

with the Mississippi; half a dozen others on the latter stream below the

junction, and several above upon its banks and along those of the

Illinois. Among these last, and the most extensive of the fortifications

then erected, was FORT CHARTRES, long the most celebrated military post

in North America, now a pile of ruins.[50]

It was a beautiful afternoon, when, leaving the little French hamlet

_La Prairie du Rocher_, after a delightful ride of three or four miles

through rich groves of the persimmon, the wild apple, and the

Chickasaw plum,[51] I began to believe myself not far from the ruins

of this famous old fort. Accosting a French villager whom I chanced to

meet, I inquired the site of the ruins. He turned on me his glittering

dark eye for a moment, and, pointing away to the dense belt of forest

upon the left in a direct line with an enormous black-locust on the

right of the pathway, passed on. Not the slightest indication of the

object of my inquiry was to be [CLXXXV] seen; but deeming it fruitless

to attempt gathering farther information from the dark-browed

villager, who was now some distance on his way, I turned my horse's

head from the path, and, after labouring several rods through the

deep, heavy grass of the prairie, entered the wood. The dense

undergrowth of bushes and matted vines was undisturbed, and there was

not an indication of visiters at the spot for months. All seemed

deserted, and silent, and drear. The ruins were completely shrouded in

foliage, and gigantic trees were rearing their huge shafts from amid

the crumbling heaps of rubbish. Wild grape-vines and other parasites

were creeping in all directions over the trembling structures; or,

drooping forth in pensile gracefulness from the disjointed walls,

seemed striving to bind up the shattered fragments, and to conceal the

pitiless ravage of time. The effect of this noble old pile of

architecture, reposing thus in ruins, and shrouded in the cathedral

duskiness of the forest, was singularly solemn.

"The trees, though summer, yet forlorn and lean,

O'ercome with moss and baleful mistletoe.

Here never shines the sun; here nothing breeds

Unless the nightly owl or fatal raven."

Securing my horse to the trunk of a young sapling rearing up itself

beneath the walls, I at length succeeded, by dint of struggling

through the rough thickets and the enormous vegetation, in placing

myself at a point from which most of the ruins could be taken at a

_coup d'œil_. Some portions of the exterior wall are yet in good

preservation, and [CLXXXVI] the whole line of fortification may be

easily traced out; but all the structures within the quadrangle are

quite dilapidated, and trees of a large size are springing from the

ruins: an extensive powder-magazine, however, in a gorge of one of the

bastions, yet retains its original form and solidity. The western

angle of the fort and an entire bastion was, about fifty years since,

undermined and thrown down by a slough from the Mississippi; but the

channel is now changed, and is yearly receding, while a young belt of

trees has sprung up between the ruins and the water's edge. The

prairie in front of the fort was in cultivation not many years since,

and was celebrated for its blue grass.

Fort Chartres was erected by the French in 1720, as a link in the

chain of posts which I have mentioned, uniting New-Orleans with

Quebec; and as a defence for the neighbouring villages against the

Spaniards, who were then taking possession of the country on the

opposite side of the Mississippi, as well as against the incursion of

hostile Indian tribes. The expense of its erection is said to have

been enormous, and it was considered the strongest fortification in

North America. The material was brought from the bluffs, some four or

five miles distant over the bottom by boats across a considerable

intervening sheet of water, and from the opposite side of the

Mississippi. In 1756 it was rebuilt; and in 1763, when France ceded

her possessions east of the Mississippi to England, the adjoining

village embraced about forty families, and a church dedicated to St.

Anne.[52] [CLXXXVII] When the English troops took possession of the

country, the villagers all removed to the hamlets across the river,

then under the French government, having been previously ceded, in the

treaty of St. Ildefonso, by Spain to France. The fort was not

evacuated, however, until July, 1765, when its commandant, _M. de St.

Ange de belle rive_, proceeded to St. Louis with his forces.[53]

While Fort Chartres belonged to France, it was the seat of government

for all the neighbouring region; and in 1765, when taken possession of

by Captain Sterling, of the Royal Highlanders, it continued to retain

its arbitrary character. It was here that the first court of justice,

established by Lieutenant-colonel Wilkins, held its sessions.[54] Seven

judges were appointed, who came together monthly at the fortress; but

their decisions were very ill received by a people who, until then, had

been released from all but _arbitrary_ restriction.[55]

The original form of Fort Chartres was an irregular quadrangle, with

four bastions; the sides of the exterior polygon being about five

hundred feet in extent. The ditch and scarp were commenced, but left

uncompleted. The walls, massively constructed of stone, and stuccoed

with lime, were upward of two feet in thickness and fifteen feet in

height. They still retain this altitude in some portions which are

uninjured; and many of the loopholes and the ports for cannon, in the

face of the wall and in the flanks of the bastions, are yet to be

seen entire. The elegantly dressed freestone, however, which

[CLXXXVIII] was employed about them, as well as for the cornices and

casements of the gate and buildings, has long since been removed.

Specimens are to be seen incorporated in some of the elegant

structures which have since gone up in the neighbouring city.[58]

The military engineering of the early French fortifications in North

America was of the school of Vauban; and the massive structures then

erected are now monuments, not less of the skill of their founders

than of departed time. The almost indestructible character of their

masonry has long been a subject of surprise. The walls of Fort

Chartres, though half a century has seen them abandoned to the ravages

of the elements and of time, yet remain so imperishable, that in some

instances it is not easy to distinguish the limestone from the cement;

and the neighbouring villagers, in removing the materials for the

purposes of building, have found it almost impossible to separate them

one from the other.

The buildings which occupied the square area of Fort Chartres were of

the same massive masonry as the walls. They consisted of a

commandant's and commissary's residence, both noble structures of

stone, and of equal size: two extensive lines of barracks, the

magazine of stores, with vaulted cellars, and the _corps de guarde_.

Within the gorges of the eastern bastions were the powder-magazine and

a bakehouse; in the western, a prison, with dungeons and some smaller

buildings. There were two sally-ports to the fortification in the

middle of opposite faces of the wall; and a broad avenue passed from

one to the other, directly through the square, [CLXXXIX] along the

sides of which were ranged the buildings. A small banquette a few feet

in height ran parallel to the loopholes, for the purpose of elevating

the troops when discharging musketry at an enemy without.

Such was Fort Chartres in the pride of its early prime; the seat of

power, festivity, and taste; the gathering-spot of all the rank, and

beauty, and fashion the province could then boast. Many a time,

doubtless, have the walls of this stern old citadel rung to the note

of revelry; and the light, twinkling footstep of the dark-eyed creole

has beat in unison with a heart throbbing in fuller gush from the

presence of the young, martial figure at her side! Fort Chartres, in

its early years, was doubtless not more the headquarters of

arbitration and rule than of gentility and etiquette. The settlers of

the early French villages, though many of them indigent, were not all

of them rude and illiterate. Induced by anticipations of untold

wealth, such as had crowned the adventurers of Spain in the southern

section of the Western Continent, grants and charters of immense

tracts of territory in these remote regions had been made by the crown

of France to responsible individuals; and thus the leaders in these

golden enterprises were generally gentlemen of education and talent,

whose manners had been formed within the precincts of St. Cloud, then

the most elegant court in Europe. Many of these enthusiastic

adventurers, it is true, returned to France in disappointment and

disgust; and many of them removed to the more genial latitude of Lower

Louisiana: [CXC] yet a few, astonished at the fertility and extent of

a country of which they had never dreamed before; delighted with the

variety and delicacy of its fruits, and reminded by the mildness of

the climate of the sweetest portions of their own beautiful France,

preferred to remain. By the present degenerate race of villagers,

those early days are referred to as a "golden age" in their history,

and the "old residenters" as _wonderful_ beings. Consider the singular

situation of these men--a thousand miles from the Atlantic shores,

surrounded by savages and by their own countrymen scarce less

ignorant, and separated by pathless mountains from a community of

civilized man. The higher stations in the French army were at that

era, too, more than at present, occupied by men of genius and

information, while the Catholic priesthood was equally distinguished

for literary attainment. Under circumstances like these, was it other

than natural that reciprocity of feeling and congeniality of taste

should have sought their gratification by mutual and frequent

intercourse? Fort Chartres must, therefore, have been the seat of

hospitality, religious celebration, and kindly feeling. Here the

fleshy old _habitans_ of the neighbouring villages dozed away many an

hour of sober jovialness with their "droughty cronies" over the pipe

and the claret of their own vineyards; while their dark-haired

daughters tripped away on the green sward before them in the balmy

moonlit summer eve with the graceful officers of the fortress.

Here, too, has been witnessed something of "the pride, and pomp, and

circumstance of glorious war." [CXCI] The _fleur-de-lis_ of the

Fifteenth Louis has rolled out its heavy folds above these stern old

towers; the crimson Lion of England has succeeded; and the stripes and

stars of our own republic have floated over both in triumph. The

morning gun of the fortress has boomed across the broad prairie, and

been reverberated from yonder cliffs: the merry reveille has rose upon

the early breeze, and wakened the slumbering echoes of the forest; and

the evening bugle from the walls has wailed its long-drawn, melancholy

note along those sunset waters of the _Eternal River_!

Such, I repeat, was Fort Chartres in its better days, but such is Fort

Chartres no more. I lingered for hours with saddened interest around

the old ruins, until the long misty beams of the setting sun,

streaming through the forest, reminded me that I had not yet secured a

shelter for the coming night. Remounting my horse, I left the spot at

a brisk pace, and a ride of a few miles brought me to a dwelling

situated upon a mound somewhat elevated from the low, flat bottom-land

around, about one mile from the Mississippi, and commanding a view of

the distant lake and bluffs to the north. Here, then, I affix the name

by which is known all the surrounding region.

_Fort Chartres, Ill._

FOOTNOTES:

[50] For sketches of Forts Presqu' Isle (present site of Erie),

Machault (on Allegheny River), Duquesne (present site of Pittsburg),

Le Bœuf (near the present town of Waterford, Pennsylvania), St. Joseph

(Michigan), and Ouiatonon (on the Wabash), Detroit, and the fort on

the Maumee River, see Croghan's _Journals_, in our volume i, p. 101,

note 62; p. 102, note 64; p. 85, note 45; p. 102, note 65; p. 117,

note 85; p. 55, note 18; and p. 122, note 87, respectively. On Forts

Chartres (on the Mississippi) and Massac (on the Ohio), see A.

Michaux's _Travels_, in our volume iii, p. 71, note 136, and p. 73,

note 139, respectively. Fort Massac was the only one upon the Ohio.

Juchereau's post was erected (1702) at the confluence of the Ohio and

the Mississippi, but was soon abandoned.--ED.

[51] _Prunus Angustifolia._--FLAGG.

[52] Immediately after the erection of Fort Chartres (1720), a village

sprang up and the Jesuits established there the parish of Ste. Anne de

Fort Chartres. The earliest records of this parish now extant, bear

the date 1721.--ED.

[53] Philip Pittman, who visited Fort Chartres in 1766, says in his

_Present State of the European Settlements on the Missisippi_ (London,

1770), p. 46, concerning Fort Chartres: "In the year 1764 there were

about forty families in the village near the fort, and a parish

church, served by a Franciscan friar, dedicated to St. Anne. In the

following year, when the English took possession of the country, they

abandoned their houses, except three or four poor families, and

settled at the villages on the west side of the Missisippi, chusing to

continue under the French government."

In a personal letter dated November 3, 1762, Louis XV deeded to

Charles III of Spain all of the French territory in North America

lying to the west of Mississippi River; see Shepherd, "Cession of

Louisiana to Spain," in _Political Science Quarterly_, xix, pp.

439-458; also Thwaites, _France in America_ (New York, 1905), pp.

272-275. Napoleon coerced Charles IV to retrocede Louisiana to France,

by the secret treaty of St. Ildefonso, signed October 1, 1800. Three

years later (April 30, 1803), Napoleon sold Louisiana to the United

States for $15,000,000.

Captain Louis St. Ange de Bellerive formally surrendered Fort Chartres

to Captain Sir Thomas Sterling on October 10 (not July), 1765, went to

St. Louis, and entering the Spanish service was placed in command of the

little garrison there, composed almost wholly of his French compatriots

who had removed thither from the Illinois. For a sketch of St. Ange, see

Croghan's _Journals_, in our volume i, p. 138, note 109.--ED.

[54] Sir Thomas Sterling (1733-1808), commissioned captain of the 42nd

Highlanders (1757), served with his men in the conquest of Canada, and

the capture of Martinique (1759) and Havanna (1762). Having taken

command of Fort Chartres in October, 1765, he was relieved of this

unpleasant duty, December 4 of the same year, by Major Robert Farmer,

heading a detachment of British foot from Mobile. Sterling and his

regiment set sail from America (1767), but returned (1776) and served

with distinction at the storming of Fort Washington (1776) and of

Elizabethtown (1779). He was wounded at Springfield (Massachusetts) in

June, 1780. Promoted through the various ranks, he was made a royal

aide-de-camp of the king and in turn a colonel (February 19, 1779),

major-general (November 20, 1782), and general (January 1, 1801). He

became baronet of Andoch on his brother's death, July 26, 1799.

Several Illinois historians strangely persist in killing Sterling in

1765, shortly after he took command at Fort Chartres. See _Dictionary

of National Biography_; and _Documents relative to Colonial History of

New York_, vii, p. 786.

Lieutenant-Colonel John Wilkins, appointed captain of the 55th foot

(1755) and then major (1762), commanded at Niagara. In 1763, while

marching to relieve Detroit, he was attacked by Indians and forced

after heavy losses to retreat to Fort Schlosser. Later, he made an

unsuccessful attempt by water, but was caught in a disastrous storm.

In August, 1764, Wilkins was promoted to the majorship of the 60th,

and in the following January was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the

18th Royal Irish with seven companies. In May, 1768, he was ordered

from Philadelphia to Fort Pitt, and thence to Fort Chartres. His

administration was unpopular, and grave charges--notably

misappropriation of land and funds--were brought against him. He was

suspended in 1771, set sail for Europe the following year, and either

died or left the army (1775). See _Historical Magazine_, viii, p. 260;

and _Documents relative to Colonial History of New York_, viii, p.

185.--ED.

[55] Subjoined is a copy of the preliminary proceedings of the first

regular court of justice held in Illinois while under the British

government. It purports to be transcribed from the state records, and

first appeared in a Western newspaper. It lays before the reader a view

of the subject, which the most graphic description would fail to

present.

"At a Court held at CHARTRES Village, in the Illinois, this sixth day

of November, in the eighth year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord,

George the Third, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and

Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c., &c., &c., in the year of

our Lord Christ one thousand seven hundred and sixty-eight, 1768.

"Present, George Morgan, James Remsey, James Campbell, James M'Millar,

Jean Baptist Barbeau, and Peter Girardot, Esqrs., Justices.

Commissions of the peace granted by John Wilkins, Esqr., Governor and

Commandant of the said country, and directed to the gentlemen named,

were produced and read.

"Whereupon the said Justices took the several _oaths_ of allegiance to

his Majesty's person and government, and also the oaths of Justices of

the peace; which oaths were administered to them by the Governor and

Commandant aforesaid.

"A commission from the said Governor to Dennis M'Croghan, Esq., to be

Sheriff of the country aforesaid, was produced by the said Dennis

M'Croghan, Esq., and read, who took and subscribed the usual oaths of

allegiance to his Majesty's person and government, and also the oath

of sheriff for said country.

"The Governor and Commandant aforesaid entered into a recognizance in

the sum of five hundred pounds lawful money of Great Britain for the

said Sheriff's due performance of his office."

It would appear from the following deed, made by a _military

sergeant_, executing the office of sheriff under the style of Provost

under Commandant Hugh Lord, in 1772, that the government in Illinois

was then purely _military_.

"Be it remembered that on this nineteenth day of December, in the year

of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-two, by virtue of a

writ unto me directed, I, Andrew Hoy, Provost, did seize, levy, and

distrain upon the dwelling-house and lot of John Baptist Hubardeau,

situated in the village of Kaskaskia, for a debt due as _per_ note of

hand, of the signature of the aforesaid Hubardeau, for the sum of two

thousand and forty _livres,_ with interest and _damages._ Now, know

ye, that the aforesaid writ of _Fieri Facias_ was issued by Hugh Lord,

Esq., Captain in his Majesty's 18th or Royal Regiment of Ireland, in

manner and form following:

"George the Third, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France,

and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c.

"To Sergeant Hoy, Provost.

"We command you that you cause to be made of the (goods) and

chattels of John Baptist Hubardeau, in your bailiwick, two

thousand and forty _livres,_ which Franks & Company, lately, in

our court, before us, at Kaskaskia, recovered against him by

virtue of a power of attorney, for a debt, with lawful interest,

and damages which they have sustained, occasioned as well by the

detaining of the said debt, as for their expenses and costs by

them laid out in and about their suit in that behalf, whereof the

said Hubardeau is convicted, and have you the money before us at

Kaskaskia as soon as the sale of said effects shall admit, to

render to the said Franks & Company their debt and damages

aforesaid, and have then there this writ.

"Given at Fort Gage, this 19th day of December, 1772.

"HUGH LORD, Commandant of Illinois.

"ANDREW HOY, Provost.

"Moreover, that in consequence of further orders from the

commandant aforesaid, I did give general notice of the sale

thereof by the following advertisement, which was publicly placed

for perusal and knowledge of the inhabitants in general, both here

and at the village of CAHO.[56]

"PAR AUTORITE.

"Vendredi, à onse heur du Matin le 29th du mois prochain, sera

vendu au porte de L'Eglise, la Maison et Terrain du Sieur Jean

Baptist Hubardeau, qui est puis en exêcution, payable en

Pèlletrie, Bon Argent, lettres de change, ou la bon esclaves, dans

le moi de Mai qui vient.

"Au Kas,[57] Decembre 29 [19] th, 1772.

"ANDREW HOY, Provost."

Making allowances for bad French, the following is a translation

of this notice:

"BY AUTHORITY.

"Wednesday, at eleven o'clock in the morning of the 29th of next

month, I shall sell at the gate of the church, the House and lot

of Mr. Jean Baptist Hubardeau, which is taken in execution,

payable in peltry, good silver, bills of exchange, or in good

slaves, in the month of May coming.

"Kaskaskia, Dec. 19th, 1772."

"At the expiration of which time, the aforesaid house was,

agreeable to law, justice, and equity, exposed to sale, first at

the church gate, and afterwards at different parts of the village,

to prevent as much as possible, any persons pleading ignorance of

the sale thereof. Now, know ye, in discharge of the duty of my

office and the trust reposed, after having kept up the said house

and lot from the hours of ten to two at the sum of 3200 _livres_,

and no person bidding higher, or likely so to do, that the same

was struck off to James Remsey, inhabitant of Kaskaskia, who, by

these presents, is invested with full right and title thereto, to

have and to hold the said messuage and tenements, and all and

singular of the premises above mentioned and every part and parcel

thereof, with the appurtenances unto the said James Remsey, his

heirs and assigns forever: and I, the said Andrew Hoy, Provost,

from myself my heirs, the said messuage and tenement and premises

and every part thereof against him and his heirs, and against all

and every other person and persons whatever, to the said James

Remsey, his heirs and assigns shall and will warrant and forever

defend by these presents. In witness whereof I have hereunto set

my hand and seal.

"ANDREW HOY, Provost. (L.S.)

"Fort Gage, 29th Dec., 1772.

"Signed, sealed, and delivered in presence of

"WILLIAM DUNBAR,

"ISAAC JOHNSON."

"By virtue of the power and authority in me invested, I do hereby

grant unto Mr. James Remsey, late Lieut. of his Majesty's 34th

Regiment, a certain tract of land containing--acres in part from

the river Kaskaskia to the Mississippi, once the property of one

La Bacchou, whereon formerly did stand a water mill, the remains

of which are now to be seen. The whole being agreeable to his

Majesty's proclamation, confiscated to the King, and is hereby

given to said James Remsey, in consideration of His Excellency

Gen. Gage's recommendation and for the speedy settlement of his

majesty's colony, as likewise the frame of a house with a lot of

land thereunto appertaining, opposite the Jesuit's College in the

village of Kaskaskia.

"Given under my hand, at Fort Chartres, Nov. 12th, 1767.

"GORDON FORBES,

"Capt. 34th regiment."

This grant of land where the _old mill_ stood, is now the site of a

speculative _city_ called "_Decoigne_," and is about five miles from

Kaskaskia on the road to St. Louis.--FLAGG.

[56] Cahokia.

[57] Kaskaskia.

[58] Flagg's description agrees in the main with that given by Philip

Pittman (see _ante_, p. 77, note 53), save that the latter is more

detailed. Judging from the phraseology, Flagg must have read Pittman's

description.--ED.

XXXIX

"I know not how the truth may be,

I tell the tale as told to me."

"Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war."

_Othello._

Fort Chartres has already detained me longer than was my design. My

pen has been unconsciously led on from item to item, and from one

topic to another; and now, in leaving this celebrated fortress, I

cannot forbear alluding to a few incidents connected with its origin

and early history, which have casually presented themselves to my

notice. Selection is made from many of a similar character, which at

another time and in a different form may employ the writer's pen. The

conclusion of my last number attempted a description of the spot from

which it was dated; and, reader, a beautiful spot it was, beneath the

soft, gentle radiance of a summer evening. Not soon, I ween, shall I

forget the wild romance of that moonlit scene as I reclined upon the

gray old bench at the door of the farmhouse after the evening meal was

over, and listened to the singular events of which that region had

been the theatre in other days. More than forty years had seen mine

host a resident of the spot, and no one, with diligence more exemplary

[CXCIII] than his own, had gathered up the curious legends of the

place, many of them from aged men who had themselves been witnesses of

the events they chronicled. By these traditions, whatever may be our

inclination to yield them credence at this late period, the origin and

history of the fortification of Fort Chartres is by no means devoid of

interest. In 1720, when it was resolved on by the crown of France to

erect a fortress at this point upon the Mississippi, in continuation

of her line of posts uniting Quebec with New-Orleans, and for the

defence of her colonies, a military engineer of the school of the

celebrated Sebastian Vauban was sent over to project and accomplish

the design.[59] To his own discretion, within prescribed limits--so

goes the story--was confided the whole undertaking. Far and wide

throughout the province resounded the note of preparation. The

peaceful villager was summoned from his pipe and his plough; the din

of steel and stone broke in upon the solitudes; and at length, at the

enormous expenditure of nine millions of livres, arose Fort Chartres;

and its battlements frowned over the forests and cast their shadows

along the waters of the _Eternal River_! The work was completed, and

fondly believed its architect that he had reared for his memory a

monument for the generations of coming time. A powerful battery of

iron ordnance protruded from the ports, and every department of the

fortress was supplied with the most extensive munitions of war. A

large number of cannon for many years were laying beneath the walls of

the fort, in the early part [CXCIV] of the present century, buried in

matted vines and underbrush. The fortress was completed, and the

_silver lilies_ floated over the walls; but the engineer had far

exceeded the limits prescribed in erecting a work of such massive and

needless strength, and a missive royal summoned him to St. Cloud. The

miserable man, aware that little was to be hoped from the clemency of

the warlike Louis XV., poisoned himself upon arriving in his native

land, to escape the indignation of his sovereign. Previously, however,

to his departure for France, immense sums in gold for defraying the

expenses of the fortress had been forwarded him to New Orleans and

sent up the river, but, owing to his subsequent arrest, were never

distributed to the labourers. Tradition averreth these vast treasures

to have been buried beneath the foundations of the fort. However the

truth may be, the number of those who have believed and searched has

not been inconsiderable: but unhappily, as is ever the case with these

"hidden treasures," the light has gone out just at the critical

moment, or some luckless wight, in his zeal, has thought proper to

_speak_ just as the barrel of money has been struck by the mattock, or

some other untoward event has occurred to dissolve the charm of the

witch-hazel, and to stir up the wrath of those notable spirits which

are always known to stand guard over buried gold! And thus has it

happened that the treasure yet reposes in primeval peace; and the big

family Bible, always conveyed to the spot on such inquisitorial

occasions, has alone prevented consequences most [CXCV] fatal! Whether

the good people of the vicinity in the present unbelieving generation

have faith to dig, I know not; but, when I visited the spot, the earth

of the powder-magazine to which I have alluded exhibited marvellous

indication of having been disturbed at no distant period previous. So

much for the origin of Fort Chartres. The story _may_ be true, it may

_not_. At all events, it will be remembered I do not endorse it.

There is also a tradition yet extant of a stratagem of war by which Fort

Chartres was once captured, worthy the genius of Fabius Maximus, and

partaking, moreover, somewhat of history in character. The name of

George Rogers Clarke is familiar to every one who can claim even

indifferent acquaintance with the early border warfare of the West. This

extraordinary man, having satisfied himself, like Hannibal of Carthage,

that the only way decisively to conquer a crafty and powerful foe was by

carrying the war to his own altars and hearths, placed himself at the

head of a few hundred of the Virginia militia in 1778, and set forth

upon one of the most daring enterprises ever chronicled on the page of

military history--the celebrated expedition against the distant post of

Fort Vincent, now Vincennes. Our country was then at war with Great

Britain, and this fort, together with those upon the lakes and the

Mississippi, were in possession of the enemy and their savage allies.

Colonel Clarke crossed the mountains with his little band; descended the

Monongahela and the Ohio to within sixty miles of the mouth of [CXCVI]

the latter, and there concealing his boats, he plunged with his

followers through swamps, and creeks, and marshes almost impassable, a

distance of one hundred and thirty miles, and in a space of time

incredibly short, arrived at night opposite the village of Kaskaskia. So

overwhelming was the surprise, that the town, though fortified, was

taken without a blow. History goes on to tell us that a detachment of

troops, mounted on the horses of the country, was immediately pushed

forward to surprise the villages of Fort Chartres and Cahokia, higher up

the Mississippi; and that they were all taken without resistance, and

the British power in that quarter completely destroyed.[60] So much for

History, now for Tradition. When the little band arrived beneath the

walls of Fort Chartres, the numbers of the garrison far exceeding those

of the besiegers, the latter, as if in despair of success, shortly took

up the line of march and disappeared behind the distant bluffs. Days

passed on; diligent examination of the heights was kept up with glasses

from the walls, but no enemy returned. At length, when apprehension had

begun to die away, early one morning a troop of cavalry appeared winding

over the bluffs, their arms glittering in the sunlight, and descended

from view apparently into the plain beneath. Hour after hour the march

continued; troop after troop, battalion upon battalion, regiment after

regiment, with their various ensigns and habiliments of warfare,

appeared in lengthened files, wound over the bluffs, and disappeared.

Alarmed [CXCVII] and astonished at the countless swarms of the invaders,

the garrison hastily evacuated the fortress, and for dear life and

liberty, soon placed the broad Mississippi between themselves and the

cloud of locusts! Hardly was this precipitate manœuvre well

accomplished, when the alarum of drum and fife was heard, and the

identical force which but a few days before had raised the siege, and in

despair had retreated from beneath the walls, now paraded through the

open sally-ports, their rags and tatters fluttering by way of "pomp and

circumstance" in the evening breeze. This fortunate _ruse du guerre_ had

been accomplished through the favourable nature of the ground, a few

extra stand of colours manufactured for the occasion, and a variety of

uniforms and arms of like character. After winding over the bluffs into

the plain beneath, they again ascended through a defile unobserved by

the garrison, and once more appeared in different guise and order in

rear of their comrades. "Distance," too, cast doubtless not a little

"enchantment" over "the view;" and then the fear and trepidation of the

worthy garrison probably sharpened their optics to detect all the peril

in store for them, and, perchance, somewhat more. Now, reader, you can

do as you choose touching belief of all this. And while you are making

up a decision on the point, permit me to furnish yet another scrap of

_History_, which may, peradventure, assist.

For sixteen days was Col. Clarke employed in his march from Kaskaskia to

Vincennes, after the [CXCVIII] capture of the military posts upon the

Mississippi. At length, after toils incredible, he reached the Wabash.

High upon the eastern bank, its base swept by the rolling flood, stood

Fort Vincent, the British fortress, at that period garrisoned by a

superior corps of soldiery, with an auxiliary force of six hundred

Indian warriors, and under the command of a skilful officer, Gov.

Hamilton. On the western bank was spread out a broad sheet of alluvion

five miles in breadth, completely inundated by the swollen stream. After

five days of toil this wilderness of waters was passed; the rolling

current of the Wabash was crossed in the night, and the morning sun

beheld these daring men before Vincennes. As they approached the

town--history goes on to relate--over the broad and beautiful prairie

upon which it stands, at the moment his troops were discovered by the

enemy, Clarke found himself near a small ancient mound, which concealed

part of his force from the foe. Under this covert he countermarched his

men in so skilful a manner, that the leading files, which had been seen

from the town, were transferred undiscovered to the rear, and made to

pass again and again in sight of the enemy, until his whole force had

several times been displayed, and his little detachment of jaded troops

assumed the appearance of an extended column greatly superior to its

actual strength. The garrison was promptly summoned to surrender, and,

after a brief defence, Gov. Hamilton struck his flag to a body of men

not half as powerful as his own.[61]

[CXCIX] Next in importance to Fort Chartres, of that chain of military

posts commenced by the French in the Valley of the Mississippi, was

FORT DU QUESNE;[62] and of this celebrated fortress, so notorious in

the bloody annals of border warfare, it may not be irrelevant, in

concluding the present subject, to add a few sentences. This post was

erected on that low tongue of land, at the head of the Ohio and

confluence of the Alleghany and Monongahela rivers, where Pittsburgh

now stands, commanded on all sides by lofty bluffs. It was built by M.

de la Jonquier, at command of the Marquis du Quesne, governor of

Canada. In 1754 the bold Contrecœur came down the Alleghany, with a

thousand Frenchmen in canoes, and eighteen pieces of artillery; and,

dispersing the small colonial force, intrenched himself upon the spot.

This was the prologue to that bloody drama, the catastrophe of which

deprived France of all her possessions east of the Mississippi. In

1758 Fort du Quesne was taken by Gen. Forbes; a more scientific and

extensive fortress was erected on the spot, at an expense of sixty

thousand pounds sterling, and, in honour of William Pitt, then

Premier of England, named Fort Pitt. It is difficult to conceive what

could have been the design of these commanders in erecting such a

massive fortress on such a spot, unless to impress the minds of their

savage but simple neighbours; for resistance to artillery planted upon

the neighbouring heights would have been quite as vain as any attack

of the Indians upon its walls with their primitive weapons. The same

may be said of [CC] nearly all the early fortifications in the West,

and of some of more modern date upon our frontier. Subsequently Fort

Pitt came into the possession of our government as part of the estate

of the Penn family, and is now only a heap of rubbish. Thus much for

early military posts in the Valley of the Mississippi.

So deeply interested was I in listening to the "legendary lore"

associated with the spot upon which I was sitting, that hours glided

unobserved away, and the full moon was culminating in cloudless

splendour from the zenith when we retired.

Early the following morning I was in the saddle. The heavy night-mists

lay wavering, like a silvery mantle, all over the surface of that

broad plain; and the crimson clouds, rolling up the eastern sky,

proclaimed the rising sun. After a short ride I reached the former

site of St. Philippe, a settlement of the French, since called _Little

Village_. Its "common field" is now comprised in the single plantation

of Mr. M'David. It was at this point that Philippe Francis

Renault--from whom the village received its name, as well as a large

section of the neighbouring region, known to this day as "Renault's

Tract"--established himself in 1719, with two hundred miners from

France, in anticipation of discovering gold and silver.[63] He was

disappointed; but is said to have obtained large quantities of lead

from the region along the opposite bank of the Mississippi, in the

vicinity of Ste. Genevieve; and to have discovered, moreover, a copper

mine near Peoria. St. Philippe was once a considerable village.

Previous to 1765--when possession of the country was claimed [CCI] by

the English government, and, like the other French settlements, it was

abandoned by the villagers--it is said to have comprised twenty or

thirty families, a Catholic church, and a water-mill; while the

surrounding meadow afforded pasturage for extensive herds of cattle.

Leaving St. Philippe, the winding pathway in a few miles had conducted

me into the depths of a forest of gigantic cotton-trees upon the left,

encircled by enormous grape-vines, and the ground beneath entangled by

a wilderness of underbrush and thickets of wild fruit. In a few

moments the forest opened unexpectedly before me, and at my feet

rolled on the turbid floods of the Mississippi, beyond which went up

the towering cliffs of limestone, hoar and ragged, to the sheer height

of some hundred feet from the water's edge. They were the cliffs of

Herculaneum, with their shot-towers.[64] For the first time I

discovered that I had mistaken my way. Perceiving the low log-cabin of

a woodcutter among the trees, I had soon obtained the requisite

information, and was retracing my steps; but a weary plod through the

deep black loam, and the tall grass weltering in the night-dews, and

the thickets of the dripping meadows, was anything but agreeable.

There were but few farms along my route, and the tenants of those with

whom I chanced to meet betrayed too plainly, by their ghastly visages,

and their withered, ague-racked limbs, the deadly influences of the

atmosphere they inhaled. As I wandered through this region, where

vegetation, towering in all its rank [CCII] and monstrous forms, gave

evidence of a soil too unnaturally fertile for culture by man, whose

bread must be bought by "the sweat of his brow," I thought I could

perceive a deadly nausea stealing over my frame, and that every

respiration was a draught of the floating pestilence. I urged onward

my horse, as if by flight to leave behind me the fatal contagion which

seemed hovering on every side; as if to burst through the poisonous

vapours which seemed distilling from every giant upas along my path.

That this region should be subject to disease and death is a

circumstance by no means singular. Indeed, it seems only unaccountable

to the traveller that it may be inhabited at all. A soil of such

astonishing depth and fertility, veiled from the purifying influences

of the sun by the rank luxuriance of its vegetation, in the stifling

sultriness of midsummer sends forth vast quantities of mephitic vapour

fatal to life; while the decay of the enormous vegetables poisons the

atmosphere with putrid exhalations. Cultivation and settlement will,

of course, as in the older states, remedy this evil to some extent in

time. It is said that the southern border of a lake in this region is

less unhealthy than the northern, on account of the prevalence of

winds from the former quarter during the summer months; and that the

immediate margin of a river, though buried in vegetation, is less

liable to disease than the neighbouring bluffs, upon which hang the

night and morning vapours. A dry and somewhat elevated spot is

preferable to either for a cabin; and it should be well ventilated,

and never closely surrounded by [CCIII] cornfields. The rank and

massive foliage shields the earth from the sunbeams, which exhale its

poisonous damps; and in its rapid growth, the plant abstracts from the

surrounding atmosphere one of its vital ingredients. Indeed, most of

the diseases peculiar to the West are superinduced by imprudence,

ignorance, or negligence in nursing. Let the recent emigrant avoid the

chill, heavy night-dews and the sickening sultriness of the noontide

sun; provide a close dwelling, well situated and ventilated, and

invariably wear thicker clothing at night than in the day, and he may

live on as long and as healthily in the West as in his native village.

Bilious intermittents are the most prevalent and fatal diseases in the

sickly months of August, September, and October; and in the winter and

spring pleurisies are frequent. The genuine phthisic, or pulmonary

consumption of New-England, is rarely met. A mysterious disease,

called the "_milk_ sickness"--because it was supposed to be

communicated by that liquid--was once alarmingly prevalent in certain

isolated districts of Illinois.[65] Whole villages were depopulated;

and though the mystery was often and thoroughly investigated, the

cause of the disease was never discovered. By some it was ascribed to

the milk or to the flesh of cows feeding upon a certain unknown

poisonous plant, found only in certain districts; by others, to

certain springs of water, or to the exhalations of certain marshes.

The mystery attending its operations and its terrible fatality at one

period created a perfect panic in the settlers; nor was this at all

wonderful. The disease appears [CCIV] now to be vanishing. But, of all

other epidemics, the "fever and ague" is the scourge of the West. Not

that it often terminates fatally, except by superinducing a species of

consumption; but, when severe and protracted, it completely shatters

the constitution; and, like Mezentius, the victim ever after bears

about him a living death. In its lighter form, most of the settlers at

some time or other experience it, as it is brought on by exposure: and

when I consider that, during my ramble in the West, I have subjected

myself to every variety of climate and circumstance; have been

drenched by night-dews and morning-dews; by the vapours of marshes and

forests, and by the torrents of summer showers; have wandered day

after day over the endless prairies beneath a scorching sun, and at

its close have laid myself anywhere or nowhere to rest; when I

consider this, I cannot but wonder at the escape of a constitution

naturally feeble from complete prostration. Yet never was it more

vigorous than during this tour on the prairies.

At length, after a ride which seemed interminable, I found myself at

the foot of the bluffs; and, drawing up my horse, applied at a cabin

attached to an extensive farm for refreshment. A farmer of

respectable garb and mien came tottering towards the gateway; and, to

my request, informed me that every individual of his family was ill of

the "fever and ague." I inquired for the state of his own health,

remarking his _shattered_ appearance. "Yes, I am shattered," he

replied, leaning heavily against the rails for support; "the agues and

fevers have terribly [CCV] racked me; but I am better, I am _better_

now." Ah, thought I, as, returning his kind good-morning, I resumed my

route, you think, poor man, that health will revisit your shattered

frame; but that pallidness of brow, and those sunken temples, tell me

that you must die. Consumption's funeral fires were already kindling

up in the depths of his piercing eye. At the next cabin, where I was

so fortunate as to succeed in obtaining refreshment, I was informed

that the poor fellow was in the last stages of a decline brought on by

undue exposure to the chill, poisonous night-dews of the bottom. The

individual from whom this information was received was himself far

from enjoying uninterrupted health, though thirty-five years had seen

him a tenant of the spot upon which I met him.

_Monroe County, Ill._

FOOTNOTES:

[59] Relative to Fort Chartres, see _ante_, p. 75, note 50.--ED.

[60] Hall.--FLAGG.

_Comment by Ed._ Flagg's authority is James Hall, _Sketches of

History, Life, and Manners in the West_ (Philadelphia, 1835).

Owing to the encroachments by the Mississippi, Fort Chartres was

abandoned in 1772, and was never again used as a garrison. The legend

given by Flagg is somewhat exaggerated. The French settlements

adjacent to Kaskaskia readily accepted the situation on being invited

by Clark's representatives, who were accompanied by Kaskaskians as

friendly interpreters.

[61] Hall.--FLAGG.

_Comment by Ed._ Compare with R. G. Thwaites, _How George Rogers Clark

won the Northwest_, pp. 52-62.

[62] A fort was begun by Charles Trent, with a few Virginia troops, in

February, 1754. On April 17, Contrecœur took the place, completed the

fort, and named it Duquesne in honor of the then governor of New France.

See Croghan's _Journals_, in our volume i, p. 85, note 45; also F. A.

Michaux's _Travels_, in our volume iii, p. 156, note 20.--ED.

[63] Renault sailed from France in 1719, but did not reach Illinois

until 1721. For a short sketch of Renault, see _ante_, p. 42, note 18.

St. Philippe, five miles from Fort Chartres on the road to Cahokia, was

founded about 1725 by Renault, on a tract granted to him in 1723. Philip

Pittman, who visited the place in 1766, wrote that there were about

sixteen houses and a small church left standing, although all the

inhabitants save the captain of the militia had crossed the Mississippi

the preceding year. In 1803, John Everett was the sole inhabitant.--ED.

[64] For location and settlement of Herculaneum, see Maximilian's

_Travels_, in our volume xxii, p. 212, note 122; for the shot-towers

there, see our volume xxvi, p. 103, note 66.--ED.

[65] Milk-sickness, no longer so diagnosed by medical authorities, is

described by early writers in the Middle West as a malignant disease

attacking both men and stock. It was supposed that the disease was

contracted by eating the flesh or dairy products of animals that had

grazed on a certain weed. In the case of the human being the symptoms

were intolerable thirst, absolute constipation, low temperature, an

extreme nervous agitation, but with an absence of chills and

headaches. Recovery seemed to be the exception. Although no specific

remedy was used, the best results were thought to be obtained by

judicious stimulation and careful nursing. The same disease among

stock was usually known as "trembles." The symptoms were the same as

with men, and death followed, generally within eight or ten days. A

farm where this dreaded disease had come was called a "milk-sick

farm," and was rendered almost unsalable. For a later and more

detailed account, see Thomas L. M'Kenney, _Memoirs, official and

personal, with Sketches of Travels among the Northern and Southern

Indians_, etc. (New York, 1846), p. 141. Dr. William M. Beach, a

pioneer physician in Ohio, who had had much experience with milk

sickness, wrote an article for Albert H. Buck, _Reference Handbook of

Medical Science_ (New York, 1884-87), volume v. An abstract of the

above article by Beach is given in the edition for 1902.--ED.

XL

"'Tis many moons ago--a long--long time."

R. H. WILDE.

"Rich, silent, deep, they stand; for not a gale

Rolls its light billows o'er the bending plain:

A calm of plenty! till the ruffled air

Falls from its poise, and gives the breeze to blow."

_The Seasons._

In the course of my journeying in the regions of the "FAR WEST," it

has more than once chanced to me to encounter individuals of that

singular class commonly termed "Squatters;" those sturdy pioneers who

formed the earliest American settlements along our western frontier.

And, in my casual intercourse with them, I have remarked, with not a

little surprise, a decision of character, an acuteness of penetration,

and a depth and originality of thought betrayed in their observations,

strangely enough contrasting with the rude solitude of their life. For

more than half a century, mayhap, Nature

"Had been to them a more familiar face

Than that of man;"

and whether, in the present exhibition of intellectual energy, we are

to claim an argument for the influence of natural scenery upon

character, or may find a corroboration of the theory of diversity of

mental ability; or to whatever circumstance it may be attributed,

[CCVII] very assuredly it owes not its origin to the improvements of

education or the advantages of society. There is also remarked in

these rude men a susceptibility and refinement of feeling, and a

delicacy of sentiment, which one would suppose hardly compatible with

a protracted continuance of their semi-savage life.

It was at the frugal, though well-spread board of an individual of

this class that I was pleased to find myself seated, after my tedious

morning ramble of several hours through the weltering vegetation of

the prairie. Mine host was a man of apparently forty, though in

reality some eight or ten years in advance of that age: his form, of

medium stature, was symmetrical, erect, and closely knit, betraying

considerable capability of endurance, though but little of muscular

strength: his countenance, at first sight, was by no means

prepossessing; indeed, the features, while in repose, presented an

aspect harsh--almost forbidding; but, when lighted up by animation,

there was discoverable in their rapid play a mildness which well

compared with the benevolent expression of a soft blue eye. Such was

the _physique_ of my backwoods pioneer, who for forty years had been a

wanderer on the outskirts of civilization, and had at length been

overtaken by its rapid march.

As I had before me but an easy ride for the day, I proposed to mine

host, when our repast was over, that he should accompany me to the

summit of the range of bluffs which rose behind his cabin, towering to

the height of several hundred feet above the roof. To this he readily

assented, and well did [CCVIII] the magnificent view commanded from

the top compensate for the toil of the ascent. The scene was grand.

"Yonder," said my companion, seating himself on the earth at my side,

and stretching out his arm to the southeast, "yonder lies the village

of old Kaskaskia, with the bluffs of the river beyond, rising against

the sky; while a little to the left you catch the white cliffs of

Prairie du Rocher. In that heavy timber to the south are the ruins of

Fort Chartres, and to the right, across the lake, fifty years ago

stood St. Philippe. The Mississippi is concealed from us, but its

windings can be traced by the irregular strip of forest which skirts

its margin. Beyond the stream, stretching away to the northwest, the

range of heights you view are the celebrated _cornice-cliffs_[66]

above Herculaneum; and at intervals you catch a glimpse of a

shot-tower, resting like a cloud against the sky, upon the tallest

pinnacles. The plain at our feet, which is now sprinkled with

cornfields, was once the site of an Indian village. Forty years ago,

the ruins of the wigwams and the dancing circle surrounding the

war-post could be distinctly traced out: and even now my ploughshare

every spring turns up articles of pottery which constituted their

domestic utensils, together with axes and mallets of stone, spear and

arrow heads and knives of flint, and all their rude instruments of

war. Often of a fine evening," continued my companion, after a pause,

"when my work for the day is over, and the sun is going down [CCIX] in

the west, I climb up to this spot and look out over this grand

prospect; and it almost makes me sad to think how the tribes that once

possessed this beautiful region have faded away. Nearly forty years

ago, when I came with my father from old Virginia, this whole state,

with its prairies, and forests, and rich bottoms, was the

hunting-ground of the Indians. On this spot we built our cabin; and

though I have since lived far off on the outskirts of the Missouri

frontier, I always had an affection for this old bottom and these

bluffs, and have come back to spend here the rest of my days. But the

Indians are gone. The round top of every bluff in yonder range is the

grave of an Indian chief."

While my singular companion was making these observations, somewhat in

the language I have attempted to give, interrupted from time to time

by my inquiries, I had myself been abstractedly employed in thrusting

a knife which was in my hand into the yielding mould of the mound upon

which we sat, when, suddenly, the blade, striking upon a substance

somewhat harder than the soil, snapped into fragments. Hastily

scraping away the loose mould to the depth of some inches, the _femur_

of a human skeleton protruding from the soil was disinterred, and, in

a few minutes, with the aid of my companion, the remnants of an entire

skeleton were laid bare. Compared with our own limbs, the bones seemed

of a size almost gigantic; and from this circumstance, if from no

other, it was evident that our melancholy moralizing upon the

destinies of the Indians had been indulged upon a very fitting

spot--[CCX] the grave of one of its chieftains. Originally, the body

had no doubt been covered to the depth of many feet, and the

shallowness of soil at the present time indicates a lapse of

centuries. Still these graves of the bluffs, which doubtless belonged

to the ancestors of the present aborigines, will neither be confounded

nor compared with the gigantic earth-heaps of the prairies. Strangely

enough, this _has_ been the case, though a moment's reflection must

convince one that they are the monuments of a far later race.

Descending the bluffs by an ancient path in a ravine, _said_ to have

been made in conveying oak timber to Fort Chartres at the period of its

erection, my host conducted me into one of the enclosures of his farm, a

spot which had evidently once been the ordinary burial-place of the

ancient Indian village. Graves, sufficient, apparently, for hundreds of

individuals, were yet to be seen upon every side. They were arranged

parallel to each other in uniform ranges, and were each formed by a

rough slab of limestone upon either side, and two at the extremities,

terminating in an obtuse angle. From several of these old sepulchres we

threw out the sand, and, at the depth of about four feet, exhumed

fragments of human remains in various stages of preservation, deposited

upon a broad slab of limestone at the bottom. When taken together, these

slabs form a complete coffin of stone, in which the body originally

reposed; and this arrangement, with the silicious nature of the soil,

has probably preserved the remains a longer period than would otherwise

have been the case. But the circumstance respecting [CCXI] these ancient

graves which chiefly excited my astonishment was their marvellous

littleness, none of them exceeding a length of four feet; and the

wondrous tales of a "pigmy race of aborigines" once inhabiting the West,

which I had often listened to, recurred with considerable force to my

memory. Resolved to decide this long-mooted question to my own

satisfaction, if possible, the earth from one of the graves, the most

perfect to be found, was excavated with care, and upon the bottom were

discovered the _femur_ and _tibia_ of a skeleton in a state of tolerable

preservation, being parallel to each other and in immediate proximity.

Proof incontestible, this, that the remains were those of no Lilliputian

race four feet in stature, and affording a fair presumption that the

limbs were forcibly bent in this position at the time of burial,

occupying their stone coffin much as the subject for scientific

dissection occupies a beef-barrel. In this manner may we satisfactorily

account for the ancient "pigmy cemetery" near the town of Fenton, on the

Merrimack in Missouri, as well as that on the _Rivière des Pères_, in

the same vicinity, already referred to, and those reported to exist in

various other sections of the West, in which, owing to the dampness of

the soil, the remains have been long resolved to dust, and only the

dimensions of the grave have remained.[67]

Among the articles which my host had procured from these old graves, and

deemed worthy of preservation, was a singular species of pottery,

composed, as appeared from its fracture, of shells calcined and

pulverized, mixed with an equal quantity [CCXII] of clay, and baked in

the sun. The clay is of that fine quality with which the waters of the

Missouri are charged. The vessels are found moulded into a variety of

forms and sizes, capable of containing from a quart to a gallon.[68] One

of these, which my host insisted upon hanging upon the bow of my

Spanish saddle as I mounted, was fashioned in the shape of a _turtle,_

with the form and features very accurately marked. The handle of the

vessel, which was broken off, once formed a tapering tail to the animal,

presenting a _rare_ specimen of a turtle with that elegant appendage.

Ascending the bluffs by a tortuous though toilsome pathway through

the ravines, my route for some miles wound away through a sparse

growth of oaks, and over a region which seemed completely excavated

into _sink-holes_. Some of these tunnel-shaped hollows were several

hundred feet in diameter, and of frightful depth, though of regular

outline, as if formed by the whirl of waters subsiding to the level of

the plain beneath. They were hundreds in number, yet each was as

uniformly circular as if excavated by scientific skill. I have met

with none so regular in outline, though I have seen many in the course

of my journeyings.

The puissant little village of Waterloo furnished me a very excellent

dinner, at a very excellent tavern. The town appeared, from a hasty view

in passing through its streets, remarkable for nothing so much as for

the warlike _soubriquet_ attached to it, if we except a huge _windmill_,

which, [CCXIII] like a living thing, flings abroad its gigantic arms,

and flaunts its ungainly pinions in the midst thereof. The place,

moreover, can boast a courthouse, indicative of its judicial character

as seat of justice for the county of Monroe; and, withal, is rather

pleasantly located than otherwise. About five miles north of the village

is situated a large spring, and a settlement called Bellefontaine. This

spot is celebrated as the scene of some of the bloodiest atrocities of

the Kickapoo Indians and predatory bands of other tribes some fifty

years since. Many of the settlers were killed, and others carried into a

captivity scarce to be preferred.[69]

An evening ride of a dozen miles, interesting for nothing but a

drenching shower, succeeded by a glare of scorching sunshine, which,

for a time, threatened perfect fusion to the traveller, or, more

properly, an unconditional resolution into fluidity; such an evening

ride, under circumstances aforesaid, brought me at sunset to the town

of Columbia, a place, as its name denotes, redolent of patriotism.[70]

"Hail Columbia!" was the exhilarated expression of my feelings, if not

of my lips, as I strode across the threshold of a log-cabin, the

appurtenance of a certain worthy man with one leg and the moiety of

another, who united in his calling the professions of cobbler and

publican, as intimated by the sign-board over his door. Hail Columbia!

All that it is possible to record touching this patriotic village

seems to be that it adds one more to the five hundred previous

villages of the selfsame appellation scattered over the land, whose

chief [CCXIV] consequence, like that of a Spanish grandee, is

concentrated and consists in a title. Every county of almost every

state of the Union, it is verily believed, can boast a Columbia.

Indeed, the name of the Genoese seems in a fair way of being honoured

as much as is that of George Washington; a distinction we are sure to

find bestowed upon every bullet-pated, tow-haired little rascal, who,

knowing not who his father was, can claim no patronymic less general,

having been smuggled into the world nobody can tell when or how:

George Washington, "_Father_ of his _country_," indeed, if the

perpetration of a very poor pun on a venerated name may be pardoned.

The earliest peep of dawn lighted me into the saddle; for, with the

unhappy Clarence, _feelingly_ could I ejaculate,

"Oh, I have pass'd a miserable night!"

In sober sadness, sleep, gentle sleep, had visited not my eyes, nor

slumber mine eyelids; though, with the faith of a saint and the

perseverance of a martyr, I had alternated from _bed_ to board and

from _board_ to bed. And throughout that livelong night, be it

recorded, even until the morning dawned, did a concert of

whippoorwills and catydids keep up their infernal oratorio, seemingly

for no other reason than for my own especial torment; until, sinner as

I am, I could not but believe myself assoilzed of half the

peccadilloes of a foregone life. Happy enough to find myself once more

in the saddle, the morning breeze, as I cantered through the forest,

fanned [CCXV] freshly a brow fevered by sleeplessness and vexation.

The early beams of the day-god were flinging themselves in lengthened

masses far athwart the plains at my feet as I stood upon the bluffs.

Descending, I was once more upon the AMERICAN BOTTOM.[71] This name,

as already stated, was a distinction appropriated to that celebrated

tract so long since as when it constituted the extreme limit in this

direction of the Northwestern Territory. Extending northwardly from

the embouchure of the Kaskaskia to the confluence of the great rivers,

a distance of about one hundred miles, and embracing three hundred

thousand acres of land, of fertility unrivalled, it presents, perhaps,

second only to the Delta of Egypt, the most remarkable tract of

country known. Its breadth varies from three miles to seven. Upon one

side it is bounded by a heavy strip of forest a mile or two deep,

skirting the Mississippi; and upon the other by an extended range of

bluffs, now rising from the plain in a mural escarpment of several

hundred feet, as at the village of Prairie du Rocher, and again, as

opposite St. Louis, swelling gracefully away into rounded sand-heaps,

surmounted by Indian graves. At the base of the latter are exhaustless

beds of bituminous coal, lying between parallel strata of

limestone.[72] The area between the timber-belt and the bluffs is

comprised in one extended meadow, heaving in alternate waves like the

ocean after a storm, and interspersed with island-groves, sloughs,

bayous, lagoons, and shallow lakes. These expansions of water are

numerous, and owe their origin [CCXVI] to that geological feature

invariable to the Western rivers--the superior elevation of the

immediate bank of the stream to that of the interior plain. The

subsidence of the spring-floods is thus precluded; and, as the season

advances, some of the ponds, which are more shallow, become entirely

dry by evaporation, while others, converted into marshes, stagnate,

and exhale _malaria_ exceedingly deleterious to health. The poisonous

night-dews caused by these marshes, and the miasm of their decomposing

and putrefying vegetation, occasion, with the sultriness of the

climate, bilious intermittents, and the far-famed, far-dreaded "_fever

and ague_," not unfrequently terminating in consumption. This

circumstance, indeed, presents the grand obstacle to the settlement of

the American Bottom. It is one, however, not impracticable to obviate

at slight expense, by the construction of sluices and canals

communicating with the rivers, and by the clearing up and cultivation

of the soil. The salubrious influence of the latter expedient upon the

climate has, indeed, been satisfactorily tested during the ten or

twelve years past; and this celebrated alluvion now bids fair, in

time, to become the garden of North America. A few of its lakes are

beautiful water-sheets, with pebbly shores and sparkling waves,

abounding with fish. Among these is one appropriately named "Clear

Lake," or the _Grand Marais_, as the French call it, which may be seen

from St. Louis of a bright morning, when the sunbeams are playing upon

its surface, or at night when the moon is at her full. The [CCXVII]

earliest settlements of the Western Valley were planted upon the

American Bottom, and the French villagers have continued to live on in

health among the sloughs and marshes, where Americans would most

assuredly have perished. Geologically analyzed, the soil consists of a

silicious or argillaceous loam, as sand or clay forms the

predominating constituent. Its fertility seems exhaustless, having

continued to produce corn at an average of seventy-five bushels to the

acre for more than a hundred years in succession, in the neighbourhood

of the old French villages, and without deterioration. Maize seems the

appropriate production for the soil; all of the smaller grains, on

account of the rank luxuriance of their growth, being liable to

_blast_ before the harvesting.

_Cahokia, Ill._

FOOTNOTES:

[66] Two ranges of cliffs are known by this name. One is below Ste.

Genevieve.--FLAGG.

[67] For further information on the pigmy cemetery in the Meramec, see

our volume xxvi, p. 105.--ED.

[68] Mr. Flint's remarks respecting the Ancient Pottery found in the

West coincides so well with the result of my own more limited

observation, that I subjoin them in preference to extended description

myself. Preceding these remarks is an interesting notice of the

Lilliputian graves on the Merrimac, to which allusion has several

times been made.

"At the time the Lilliputian graves were found on the Merrimac, in the

county of St. Louis, many people went from that town to satisfy their

curiosity by inspecting them. It appears from Mr. Peck that the graves

were numerous; that the coffins were of stone; that the bones in some

instances were nearly entire; that the length of the bodies was

determined by that of the coffins which they filled, and that the

bodies in general could not have been more than from three feet and a

half to four feet in length. Thus it should seem that the generations

of the past in this region were mammoths and pigmies.

"I have examined the pottery, of which I have spoken above, with some

attention. It is unbaked, and the glazing very incomplete, since oil

will soak through it. It is evident, from slight departure from

regularity in the surface, that it was moulded by the hand and not by

anything like our lathe. The composition, when fractured, shows many

white floccules in the clay that resemble fine snow, and this I judge

to be pulverized shells. The basis of the composition appears to be

the alluvial clay carried along in the waters of the Mississippi, and

called by the French 'terre grasse,' from its greasy feel. Samples of

this pottery, more or less perfect, are shown everywhere on the river.

Some of the most perfect have been dug from what are called the

'chalk-banks,' below the mouth of the Ohio. The most perfect that I

have seen, being, in fact, as entire as when first formed, was a

vessel in my possession. It was a drinking jug, like the 'scyphus' of

the ancients. It was dug from the chalk-bank. It was smooth,

well-moulded, and of the colour of common gray stoneware. It had been

rounded with great care, and yet, from slight indentations on the

surface, it was manifest that it had been so wrought in the palm of

the hand. The model of the form was a simple and obvious one--the

bottle-gourd--and it would contain about two quarts. This vessel had

been used to hold animal oil; for it had soaked through, and varnished

the external surface. Its neck was that of a squaw, known by the

clubbing of the hair, after the Indian fashion. The moulder was not an

accurate copyist, and had learned neither statuary nor anatomy; for,

although the finish was fine, the head was monstrous. There seemed to

have been an intention of wit in the outlet. It was the horrible and

distorted mouth of a savage, and in drinking you would be obliged to

place your lips in contact with those of madam the squaw."--_Flint's

Recollections_, p. 173-4.--FLAGG.

COMMENT BY ED. For bibliography on Indian antiquities, see our volume

xxvi, p. 69, note 33; p. 159, note 111; and p. 184, note 128.

[69] Waterloo, in Monroe County, about thirty miles northwest of

Kaskaskia, was incorporated in 1848. In 1818 George Forquer purchased

the land on which the village now stands, and in the same year he and

Daniel P. Cook (later a member of Congress) laid out and named the

town. In 1825 the county seat was changed from Harrisonville to

Waterloo. About 1830, John Coleman erected a large wind-mill, later

changed to an ox-mill (1837).

Bellefontaine is the name applied by the early French to a large

spring a mile south of the present site of Waterloo. In 1782 Captain

James Moore, who had served under George Rogers Clark, settled at this

spring, and in accordance with orders from the Virginia government

built a blockhouse fort as a protection against the Indians. Owing to

his tact and good judgment, amicable relations with the Indians were

maintained until 1786, when serious trouble really began. During the

next decade the Indians killed several whites.--ED.

[70] Columbia, eight miles north of Waterloo, and fifteen miles south of

St. Louis, was laid out in 1820 on land belonging to Louis Nolan.--ED.

[71] With reference to the American Bottom, see Ogden's _Letters from

the West_, in our volume xix, p. 62, note 48.--ED.

[72] See our volume xxvi, p. 263, note 163.--ED.

XLI

"Gramercy, Sir Traveller, it marvels me how you can carry between

one pair of shoulders the weight of your heavy wisdom. Alack, now!

would you but discourse me of the wonders you saw ayont the

antipodes!"

"Peace, ignoramus! 'tis too good for thy ass's ears to listen to.

The world shall get it, caxtonized in a GREAT BOOK."--_Traveller

and Simpleton._

"Farewell! a word that must be, and hath been;

A sound which makes us linger--yet--farewell!"

_Childe Harold's Pilgrimage._

Of the alluvial character of the celebrated American Bottom there can

exist no doubt. Logs, shells, fragments of coal, and pebbles, which

have been subjected to the abrasion of moving water, are found at a

depth of thirty feet from the surface; and the soil throughout seems of

unvarying fecundity. Whether this alluvial deposition is to be

considered the result of annual floods of the river for ages, or whether

the entire bottom once formed the bed of a vast lake, in which the

waters of the Mississippi and Missouri mingled on their passage to the

Gulf, is a question of some considerable interest. The latter seems the

more plausible theory. Indeed, the ancient existence of an immense lake,

where now lies the American Bottom, upon the east side of the

Mississippi, and the Mamelle Prairie upon the west side, extending

seventy [CCXIX] miles northwardly from the mouth of the Missouri where

the Bottom ends, appears geologically demonstrable. The southern limit

of this vast body of water seems to have been at that remarkable cliff,

rising from the bed of the Mississippi about twenty miles below the

outlet of the Kaskaskia, and known as the "Grand Tower." There is every

indication from the torn and shattered aspect of the cliffs upon either

side, and the accumulation of debris, that a grand parapet of limestone

at this point once presented a barrier to the heaped-up waters, and

formed a cataract scarcely less formidable than that of Niagara. The

elevation of the river by this obstacle is estimated at one hundred and

thirty feet above the present ordinary water-mark. For more than an

hundred miles before reaching this point, the Mississippi now rolls

through a broad, deep valley, bounded by an escarpment of cliffs upon

either side; and, wherever these present a bold façade to the stream,

they are grooved, as at the _cornice-rocks_, by a series of parallel

lines, distinctly traced and strikingly uniform. As the river descends,

these water-grooves gradually rise along the heights, until, at the

Grand Tower, they attain an altitude of more than an hundred feet;

below this point the phenomenon is not observed.[73] This circumstance,

and the disruption of the cliffs at the same elevation, clearly indicate

the former surface of the lake. Organic remains, petrifactions of

madrepores, corallines, concholites, and other fossil testacea, are

found imbedded in a stratum [CCXX] nearly at the base. Similar phenomena

of the water-lines exist upon the cliffs of the Ohio, and a barrier is

thought once to have obstructed the stream at a point called _the

Narrows_, sixty miles below Louisville, with the same result as upon the

Mississippi. The eastern boundary of the expansion of the latter stream

must have been the chain of bluffs now confining the American Bottom in

that direction, and considered a spur of the Ozark Mountains. This

extends northeasterly to the "confluence;" thence, bending away to the

northwest, it reaches the Illinois, and forms the eastern bank of that

river. Upon the western side, the hills along the Missouri are

sufficiently elevated to present a barrier to the lake until they reach

the confluence of the rivers. At this point spreads out the Mamelle

Prairie, sixty or seventy miles in length, and, upon an average, five

or six in breadth. West of this plain, the lake was bounded by the range

of bluffs commencing with the celebrated "Mamelles," and stretching

north until they strike the river; while the gradual elevation of the

country, ascending the Upper Mississippi, presented a limit in that

direction.

The event by which this great lake was drained appears to have been of

a character either convulsive or volcanic, or to have been the result

of the long-continued abrasion of the waters, as at Niagara. The rocks

at the Grand Tower are limestone of secondary formation--the stratum

being several hundred feet in depth, and imbedding hornstone and

marine petrifactions throughout. They [CCXXI] everywhere exhibit

indications of having once been subjected to the attrition of rushing

water, as do the cliffs bounding the Northern lakes, which have long

been chafed by the waves. The evidence of volcanic action, or violent

subterranean convulsion of some kind, caused by heat, seems hardly

less evident. The former workings of a divulsive power of terrific

energy is betrayed, indeed, all over this region. In the immediate

vicinity of the Grand Tower, which may be considered the scene of its

most fearful operations, huge masses of shattered rock, dipping in

every direction, are scattered about; and the whole stratum for twenty

miles around lies completely broken up. At the point in the range of

bluffs where this confusion is observed to cease, the mural cliff

rises abruptly to the altitude of several hundred feet, exhibiting

along the façade of its summit deep water-lines and other evidence of

having once constituted the boundary of a lake. At the base issues a

large spring of fresh water, remarkable for a regular ebb and flow,

like the tides of the ocean, once in twenty-four hours.[74] At this

spot, also, situated in the southeastern extremity of St. Clair

county, exists an old American settlement, commenced a century since,

and called the "_Block-house_," from the circumstance of a stoccade

fort for defence against the [CCXXII] Indians.[75] By a late

geological _reconnoissance_, we learn that, from this remarkable

_tide-spring_ until we reach the Grand Tower, the face of the country

has a depressed and sunken aspect, as if once the bed of standing

water; and was evidently overlaid by an immense stratum of calcareous

rock. A hundred square miles of this massive ledge have, by some

tremendous convulsion of Nature, been thrown up and shattered in

fragments. The confused accumulation of debris is now sunken and

covered with repeated strata of alluvial deposite. Evidence of all

this is adduced from the circumstance that huge blocks of limestone

are yet frequently to be encountered in this region, some of them

protruding twenty or thirty feet above the surface. As we approach the

Grand Tower--that focus, around which the convulsed throes of Nature

seem to have concentrated their tremendous energy--the number and the

magnitude of these massive blocks constantly increase, until, at that

point, we behold them piled up in mountain-masses as if by the hand of

Omnipotent might. Upon all this vast Valley of the West the terrible

impress of Almighty power seems planted in characters too deep to be

swept away by the effacing finger of time. We trace them not more

palpably in these fearful results of the convulsions of Nature,

agonized by the tread of Deity, than in the eternal flow of those

gigantic rivers which roll their floods over this wreck of elements,

or in those ocean-plains which, upon either side, in billowy grandeur

heave away, wave after wave, till lost in the magnificence of

[CCXXIII] boundless extent. And is there nothing in those vast

accumulations of organic fossils--spoils of the sea and the land--the

collected wealth of the animal, vegetable, and mineral worlds,

entombed in the heart of the everlasting hills--is there naught in all

this to arouse within the reflecting mind a sentiment of wonder, and

elicit an acknowledgment to the grandeur of Deity? Whence came these

varied productions of the land and sea, so incongruous in character

and so diverse in origin? By what fearful anarchy of elements were

they imbedded in these massive cliffs? How many ages have rolled away

since they were entombed in these adamantine sepulchres, from which

Nature's convulsive throes in later times have caused the

resurrection? To such inquiries we receive no answer. The secrecy of

untold cycles veils the reply in mystery. The _effect_ is before us,

but the _cause_ rests alone with Omniscience.

How wonderful are the phenomena betrayed in the geological structure of

our earth! And scarcely less so are the ignorance and the indifference

respecting them manifested by most of our race. "It is marvellous," says

the celebrated Buckland,[76] "that mankind should have gone on for so

many centuries in ignorance of the fact, which is now so fully

demonstrated, that so small a part of the present surface of the earth

is derived from the remains of animals that constituted the population

of ancient seas. Many extensive plains and massive mountains form, as it

were, the great charnel-houses of preceding generations, in which the

petrified exuviæ [CCXXIV] of extinct races of animals and vegetables are

piled into stupendous monuments of the operations of life and death

during almost immeasurable periods of past time." "At the sight of a

spectacle," says Cuvier,[77] "so imposing, so terrible as that of the

wreck of animal life, forming almost the entire soil on which we tread,

it is difficult to restrain the imagination from hazarding some

conjectures as to the cause by which such great effects have been

produced." The deeper we descend into the strata of the earth, the

higher do we ascend into the archæological history of past ages of

creation. We find successive stages marked by varying forms of animal

and vegetable life, and these generally differ more and more widely from

existing species as we go farther downward into the receptacle of the

wreck of more ancient creations.

That centuries have elapsed since that war of elements by which the

great lake of the Mississippi was drained of its waters, the aged

forests rearing themselves from its ancient bed, and the venerable

monuments resting upon the surface, satisfactorily demonstrate.

Remains, also, of a huge animal of graminivorous habits, but differing

from the mastodon, have, within a few years, been disinterred from the

soil. The theory of the Baron Cuvier, that our earth is but the wreck

of other worlds, meets with ample confirmation in the geological

character of the Western Valley.

As to agricultural productions, besides those of the more ordinary

species, the soil of the American Bottom, in its southern sections,

seems eminently [CCXXV] adapted to the cultivation of cotton, hemp,

and tobacco, not to mention the castor-bean and the Carolina potato.

The tobacco-plant, one of the most sensitively delicate members of the

vegetable family, has been cultivated with more than ordinary success;

and a quantity inspected at New-Orleans a few years since was

pronounced superior to any ever offered at that market.

As I journeyed leisurely onward over this celebrated tract, extensive

and beautiful farms spread out themselves around me, waving in all the

gorgeous garniture of early autumn. The prairie was carpeted with the

luxuriant richness of the _golden rod_, and all the gaudy varieties of

the _heliotrope_ and _asters_, and the crimson-dyed leaves of the

dwarf-sumach; while here and there upon the extended plain stood out in

loneliness, like a landmark of centuries, one of those mysterious tombs

of a departed race of which I have already said so much. Some of them

were to be seen rearing up their summits from the hearts of extensive

maize-fields, crowned with an exuberance of vegetation; and upon one of

larger magnitude stood a white farmhouse, visible in the distance for

miles down the prairie. The number of these ancient mounds upon the

American Bottom is estimated at _three hundred_; far more than are to be

found upon any other tract of equal extent.

At the old French village of _Prairie du Pont_,[78] situated upon a

creek of the same name, I made the necessary tarry for some refreshment,

upon which breakfast or dinner might have laid nearly equal [CCXXVI]

claim to bestow a name. The most striking circumstance which came under

my observation during my delay at this place was a very novel mode of

producing the metamorphosis of cream into butter pursued by these

villagers; a manœuvre executed by beating the cream with a spoon in a

shallow basin. This operation I beheld carried on by the dark-browed

landlord, much to my ignorance and wonder, with not an idea of its

nature, until the substance produced was placed upon the board before

me, and called _butter_. Prairie du Pont is one of the dampest,

filthiest, most disagreeably ruinous of all the old villages I have ever

visited. A few miles to the north is situated Cahokia,[79] one of the

earliest settlements in the state, and the ancient residence of the

_Caoquias,_ one of the tribes of the Illini Indians. The place is

supposed to have been settled by the followers of La Salle during his

second expedition to the West in 1683, on his return from the mouth of

the Mississippi. More than a century and a half has since elapsed; and

the river, which then washed the foot of the village, is now more than a

mile distant. This removal commenced, we are told, shortly after the

first settlement, and well exemplifies the arbitrary character of the

Western waters. Formerly, also, a considerable creek, which yet retains

the name of the village, passed through its midst, discharging itself

into the Mississippi not far below. The outlet is now several miles

higher up; and tradition attributes the change to the pique of an

irritated villager, who, out of sheer spite to the old place and its

inhabitants, [CCXXVII] cut a channel from the creek to the river, and

turned the waters from their ancient course.

As French immigration at Cahokia increased, the Indian tribe receded,

until the last remnant has long since disappeared. Yet it is a

singular fact in the history of this settlement, that, notwithstanding

the savages were forced to abandon a spot endeared to them by

protracted residence and the abundance of game in the neighbouring

prairies and lakes, they have ever regarded their successors with

feelings of unchanging friendliness. How different, under the same

circumstances, was the fate of the settlements of Plymouth and

Jamestown; and even here, no sooner did the American race appear

among the French, than hostilities commenced.

For many years Cahokia, like old Kaskaskia, was the gathering-spot of

a nomadic race of trappers, hunters, miners, voyageurs, engagés,

_couriers du bois_, and adventurers, carrying on an extensive and

valuable fur-trade with the Indian tribes of the Upper Mississippi.

This traffic has long since been transferred to St. Louis, and the

village seems now remarkable for nothing but the venerableness of age

and decay. All the peculiarities of these old settlements, however,

are here to be seen in perfection. The broad-roofed, whitewashed, and

galleried cottage; the picketed enclosure; the kitchen garden; the

peculiar costumes, customs, poverty, ignorance, and indolence of the

race, are here met, precisely as has more than once already been

described in these volumes. Here, too, is the gray old Catholic

church, in which service is still regularly [CCXXVIII] performed by

the officiating priest. Connected with it is now a nunnery and a

seminary of education for young ladies. The villagers still retain

their ancient activity of heel and suppleness of elbow; and not a week

is suffered to pass without a merry-making and a dance. The old

"common field" is still under cultivation; and, uncurtailed of its

fair proportions, stretches away up the bottom to the village opposite

St. Louis. This valuable tract, held in common by the villagers of

Cahokia and Prairie du Pont, has been confirmed to them by act of

Congress; and, so long since as fifty years, four hundred acres

adjoining the former village were, by special act, granted to each

family.[80] The number of families is now, as has been the case this

century past, about fifty, neither diminishing nor increasing. Very

few of the inhabitants are of American origin, and these are liable to

annual attacks of fever, owing to the damp site of the place and the

noxious effluvia of the numerous marshes in the vicinity. Upon the

French villagers these causes of disease exert no effect, favourable

or unfavourable. A few acres of corn; a log cabin; a few swarthy

responsibilities, and a few cattle; a cracked fiddle, and a few

cartloads of prairie-grass-hay in autumn, seems the very ultimatum of

his heart to covet or his industry to obtain.

The road from Cahokia to the city, inasmuch as it is not often

conscious of a more dignified equipage than the rude market-cart of

the French villager, is of no wonderful celebrity for breadth, or

uniformity of track, or excellence of structure. It extends [CCXXIX]

along the bank of the Mississippi, and is shaded on either side by the

strip of forest which skirts the margin. After a tarry of several

hours at Cahokia, and an excursion among the mounds of the

neighbouring prairie, near sunset I found myself approaching

"Illinois-town," opposite St. Louis.[81] It was the calm, soft evening

hour; and, as I now advanced briskly over the prairie, the cool breeze

was whispering among the perfumed grass-tops, and "night's silvery

veil" was slowly gathering along the retreating landscape. The sun

went down like a monarch, robed in purple, and the fleecy clouds which

had formed his throne rolled themselves in rich luxuriance along the

horizon, suffused in the beautiful carmine of the heavens. At

intervals an opening in the forest laid bare the scene of splendour as

I hastened onward, and then all was dusk again. Winding among the

group of mounds reposing in the deepening twilight, and penetrating

the grove of pecans, the moon was just beginning to gild the gliding

wave at my feet as my horse stood out upon the bank of the stream.

Clear and distinct beyond, against the crimson back-ground of the

evening sky, were cut the towers, and cupolas, and lofty roofs of the

city; while in front, the lengthened line of white warehouses gleamed

from the shade along the curving shore: and the eye, as it glanced up

the far-retreating vistas of the streets, caught a glimpse of deeper

glories along the narrow zone of horizon beyond. The broad sheet which

I was now crossing seemed, with the oily gliding of its ripples,

completely died in the tender roseate of the [CCXXX] sunset sky. As

the shades of evening deepened into night, one after another these

delicate hues faded gently away: and the moonlight streamed in full

floods of misty magnificence far over the distant forests; the

evening-bells of the city pealed out merrily over the waters; the many

lights of the steamers cheerfully twinkled along the landing; and, as

the last faint glimmer of day had gone out, and night had resumed her

sable reign, I found myself once more amid the "crowd and shock of

men," threading the long, dusty streets of St. Louis....

* * * * *

GENTLE READER, the tale is told--our task is ended--

"And what is writ, is writ;

Would it were worthier!"

Our pilgrimage is over, fellow-wanderer. Full many a bright day have

we trod together the green prairies, and glided over the far-winding

waters of the fair Valley. Together have we paused and pondered beside

the mysterious mausoleum of a race departed. We have lingered among

the time-stained dwellings of an ancient and peculiar people, and with

kindling interest have dwelt upon the early chronicles and the wild

legends of the "far off," beautiful West. But autumn is upon

us--shadowy autumn, dark on the mountain-brow. Her purple mistiness is

deepening over the distant landscape; and the chill rustle of her

evening wind, in melancholy whisperings, wanders among the pennoned

[CCXXXI] grass-tops. Our pilgrimage ceases, yet with no unmingled

emotions do I say to thee "_pax vobiscum_!"

"Ye! who have traced the Pilgrim to the scene

Which is his last, if in your memories dwell

A _thought_ which once was his, if on ye swell

A _single_ recollection, not in vain

He wore his sandal-shoon and scallop-shell:

Farewell!"

_St. Louis, Oct._, 1837.

FOOTNOTES:

[73] The passage subjoined relative to the _Geological Transformations_

which have taken place in the Mississippi Valley, is extracted from

"Schoolcraft's Travels in its central portions," and will be found

abundantly to corroborate my own observations upon the subject.

"It seems manifest, from various appearances, that the country we have

under consideration has been subjected to the influence of water at a

comparatively recent period; and it is evident that its peculiar

alluvial aspect is the distinct and natural result of the time and the

mode in which these waters were exhausted. One striking fact, which

appears to have escaped general observation, is, that at some former

period there has been an obstruction in the channel of the Mississippi

at or near Grand Tower, producing a stagnation of the current at an

elevation of about one hundred and thirty feet above the present

ordinary water-mark. This appears evident from the general elevation

and direction of the hills, which, for several hundred miles above,

are separated by a valley from twenty to twenty-five miles wide, which

now deeply imbosoms the current of the Mississippi. Wherever these

hills disclose rocky and precipitous fronts, a series of

distinctly-marked antique water-lines are to be observed. These

water-lines preserve a parallelism which is very remarkable, and, what

we should expect to find, constantly present their greatest depression

towards the sources of the river. At Grand Tower they are elevated

about one hundred and thirty feet above the summit level, at which

elevation we observe petrifactions of madrepores and various other

fossil organic remains which belong to this peculiar era. Here the

rocks of dark-coloured limestone, which pervade the country to so

great an extent, project towards each other as if they had once

united; but, by some convulsion of nature, or, what is still more

probable, by the continued action of the water upon a secondary rock,

the Mississippi has effected a passage through this barrier, and thus

producing an exhaustion of the stagnant waters from the level prairie

lands above."--_Schoolcraft's Travels_, p. 218, 219.--FLAGG.

_Comment by Ed._ This hypothesis, in the main formulated by H. R.

Schoolcraft, is still in its general features accepted by many

geologists. See also Elisée Reclus, _The Earth and its Inhabitants_

(New York, 1893), article "North America," iii, pp. 224, 225.

[74] A similar spring is said to issue from _debris_ at the foot of

the cliffs on the Ohio, in the vicinity of Battery Rock. Its stream is

copious, clear, and cold, ebbing and flowing regularly once in six

hours. This phenomenon is explained on the principle of the syphon.

Similar springs are found among the Alps.--FLAGG.

[75] Flagg is somewhat mistaken concerning the age of the block-house

settlement. Previous to 1800, the only American settlement in St.

Clair County was Turkey Hill, which at that date numbered twenty

souls. William Scott, the first settler, moved thither with his family

from Kentucky in 1797, and became a permanent resident. About 1810,

Nathaniel Hill, Joshua Perkins, Reuben Stubblefield, James and Reuben

Lively, and Richard Bearley settled in the southeastern corner of St.

Clair County, and for protection against the Indians built a

block-house near the present city of Hillstown on Dosa Creek (a

tributary of the Kaskaskia). The fort was later abandoned, and the

settlers moved to other parts of the state. For a description of the

fort, see _History of St. Clair County, Illinois_ (Philadelphia,

1881), pp. 261, 262.--ED.

[76] William Buckland (1784-1856), a distinguished English geologist,

who was as well canon of Christ College, Oxford (1825), and dean of

Westminster Abbey (1845), contributed many valuable papers to

geological publications. The Royal Society's _Catalogue of Scientific

Papers_ shows that Buckland was the author of fifty-three memoirs. His

most important publication, _Geology and Mineralogy Considered with

Reference to Natural Theology_ (a Bridgewater thesis, 1836), attempts

to prove by aid of science, "the Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of God,

as manifested in the Creation."--ED.

[77] George Leopold Crétien Frédéric Dagobert, baron de Cuvier

(1769-1832), a French naturalist, was founder of the science of

comparative anatomy. He was chosen as one of the original members of

the Institute, organized in 1795. After holding various administrative

offices under Napoleon, he was appointed (1814) a councilor of state,

which position he held under Louis XVIII. In 1819 he was made

president of the committee of the interior, and chancellor of the

University of Paris. Louis Phillipe made him a peer of France.

Cuvier's scientific work falls into three divisions--paleontology,

systematic zoology, and comparative anatomy. He wrote extensively in

all these fields, and in each achieved high recognition. Consult:

Sarah Lee, _Memoirs of Baron Cuvier_ (London, 1833), and Ducrotay de

Blainville, _Cuvier et Geoffrey Saint Hilaire_ (Paris, 1890).--ED.

[78] Prairie du Pont (Prairie Bridge), located upon a creek of the

same name, was so christened for a log bridge which in early times

crossed the creek at this point. The settlement was first made about

1760 by people from Cahokia who, according to tradition, fled thither

from the floods; the site is ten or twelve feet higher than that of

Cahokia. The Sulpician missionaries had built a mill there in 1754. In

1844 the place was nearly destroyed by floods.--ED.

[79] For a short historical sketch of Cahokia, see A. Michaux's

_Travels,_ in our volume iii, p. 70, note 135. Flagg, in common with

the earlier writers, places the date of Cahokia too early.--ED.

[80] By act of Congress approved March 1, 1791, "a tract of land

including the villages of Cohos [Cahokia], and Prairie du Pont, and

heretofore used by the inhabitants of the said village as a common,"

was, "appropriated to the use of the inhabitants ... to be used by

them as a common, until otherwise disposed of by law." By the same

act, four hundred acres were ordered to be laid out, and "given to

each of those persons who in the year one thousand seven hundred and

eighty-three were heads of families at Vincennes, or in the Illinois

country, on the Mississippi, and who, since that time, have moved from

one of the said places to the other."--ED.

[81] In 1815 Etienne Pinçoneau (now spelled Pensoneau) laid out a town

on the present site of East St. Louis, and named it Jacksonville. His

efforts proving unsuccessful, he sold the land to McKnight and Brady,

who in May, 1818, platted the site and named it Illinoistown. During

the succeeding autumn, the citizens of Cahokia appointed five agents

to lay out a town site on the Cahokia commons. Illinois City thus came

into existence, and the action of the citizens was legalized by

Congress (May 1, 1820). Illinoistown, Illinois City, and other small

villages were later united to form East St. Louis, which was

incorporated in 1861 and chartered four years later.--ED.

DE SMET'S LETTERS AND SKETCHES, 1841-1842

Reprint of original English edition: Philadelphia, 1843

[Illustration: Allegorical Sketch]

LETTERS AND SKETCHES:

WITH

A NARRATIVE OF A YEAR'S RESIDENCE

AMONG

THE INDIAN TRIBES

OF

=The Rocky Mountains.=

BY

P. J. DE SMET, S. J.

=Philadelphia:=

PUBLISHED BY M. EATHIAN, 61 N. SECOND STREET.

1843.

PREFACE

To those who love their country, and their fellow men, we present this

interesting Narrative, with the hope, we might say, the certainty,

that its perusal will afford them some moments of the purest

gratification. We have seldom met any thing more entertaining. Its

simple, manly eloquence enchants the attention. The facts it makes

known to us of the "far, far West," the dispositions and habits of the

Indian Tribes who roam over the vast region of the Oregon, their

present state and future prospects, are such as cannot fail to awaken

lively interest in all who love to look around them beyond the narrow

horizon of every-day scenes, and learn what the holy servants of God

are doing for His sake and in His name in distant parts of the world.

We have conversed with the apostolic man from whose pen we receive

this narrative; and as we listened we felt at once honoured and

delighted to be so near one who in our days and in his own person

brings before us that lofty spirit of missionary devotedness--those

thrilling scenes of Indian life and adventure which we so much admire

in the pages of Charlevoix and Bancroft.

[vi] Truly our country is full of interest to those who watch its

progress, and compare it with the past. Who, for example, could have

dreamt that the Iroquois, the savage Mohawk,--under which name we best

know the tribe, and whose startling yell so often made our forefathers

tremble,--would have been chosen to kindle the first faint sparks of

civilization and Christianity among a large portion of the Indian

tribes beyond the Rocky Mountains? This is one of the singular facts

which these pages present to us. They abound in others not less

singular and interesting. Many of these Indian nations actually thirst

after the waters of life--sigh for the day when the real "Long Gown"

is to appear among them, and even send messengers thousands of miles

to hasten his coming. Such longing after God's holy truth, while it

shames our colder piety, should also enflame every heart to pray

fervently that laborers may be found for this vast vineyard--and open

every hand to aid the holy, self-devoted men, who, leaving home and

friends and country, have buried themselves in these wilds with their

beloved Indians, to live for them and God. One of their favourite

plans at this moment is to introduce among them a taste for

agriculture, with the means to pursue it. They believe it to be the

speediest, perhaps the only way by which the Indians may be won from

the wandering life they now [vii] in general lead and from the idle

habits it engenders. To aid them in this philanthropic object is our

sacred duty as men, as Americans, as Christians. It is at least one

method of atonement for the countless wrongs which these unfortunate

races have received from the whites. We should be grateful to have

such an opportunity of doing good: let none suffer the occasion to

pass unhonoured by some tribute to the noble cause--some evidence of

their love for God, their country and their fellow man.

The frontispiece is from the pencil of one of the Indian Missionaries.

It blends the skill of the artist with the fancy of the poet, and will

hardly be understood without a word of explanation. In the foreground

we see several of the gigantic trees of the Oregon forests, fallen and

crossing each other. On these repose two wolves, a squirrel and

several serpents. Above, two Indian chiefs, surnamed in baptism after

the great Apostles of the Gentiles, Peter and Paul, are supporting a

large basket of hearts,--an offering to heaven from the grateful

wilderness. On the right are the emblems of Indian life and warfare:

the bow and arrows, battle-axe and shield. Below and above these are

seen some of the most remarkable animals of the country--the bear, the

[viii] wild horse, the badger, the graceful antelope, intermingled

with the plover, the pigeon, the wood-cock, the bittern, and other

birds of the region. On the left are the peaceful symbols of

Christianity--the Bible and the Cross, the chalice and altar

lights--the anchor, symbol of faith and hope--the trumpet, to proclaim

the word of God and bid the desert bless His holy name. Here too we

behold several of the noble animals of the territory--the buffalo, the

deer and elk, the mountain sheep and different birds. In the distance

are seen on the right, Indian mounds, and a water-spout rising from

the river Platte, and on the left, the Rocky Mountains surmounted by

the Cross. Festoons, composed of the various flowers the Fathers have

met on their way over mountains and prairies and through lonely

vallies, complete the picture--the whole supported at the extremities

by different birds of the country, and in the centre by the American

eagle,--fit emblem, we may say, of their own dauntless faith, as well

as of the heroic spirit of the nation within whose borders they have

their principal station, and from whose genuine piety they have

received the most consoling assurances of final success, viz: the Flat

Head Indians and the Pends-d'oreilles, who are styled, even by their

foes, the "nation of chiefs."

[ix] Once more we earnestly commend the noble cause of these devoted

Missionaries to the charity of every sincere Christian. The short

time allowed to prepare the work for the press must be our apology for

several imperfections or errors which may meet the eye of the reader.