Putnam-Marshall County IL Archives History - Books .....Chapter I - European Discovery In The West 1860
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/il/ilfiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com April 24, 2006, 1:02 am

Book Title: History Of Putnam & Marshall Counties

CHAPTER I.

EUROPEAN DISCOVERY IN THE WEST.

On an Easter Sunday, in the twentieth year after Columbus first moored his 
caravals on the shores of the New World, his old comrade, Juan Ponce de Leon, 
in search of the "Fountain of Youth" fabled to exist far within the recesses 
of American forests, and also in quest of gold to gratify the insatiable 
passion of the age, landed in the beautiful peninsula of the South, and named 
the new-discovered country Florida—"the land of flowers." The gold procured in 
this region by subsequent adventurers stimulated a desire to penetrate the 
interior, in hope of finding the boundless wealth believed to be hidden there.—
 But a few years passed before European discovery in the great Valley of the 
West was begun by the Spanish under Pamphilo de Narvaez, who perished in the 
wilderness before he reached the "Great River."— His treasurer, Cabeza de 
Yaca, assuming the command of the expedition, pushed the perilous enterprise 
forward; and in September, 1534, they, "first of men from the Old World," 
crossed the Mississippi as far north as Tennessee. Pursuing their difficult 
journey westward, many of the wanderers falling under the fatigues and 
sufferings of the way, a wretched few reached Sonora, near the Pacific shore, 
whence they were conducted to the city of Mexico, and at length returned to 
Spain.*

Seven years later, followed the ill-starred expedition of Fernando de Soto, a 
Spanish soldier who had assisted Pizarro in the conquest of Peru. With a 
numerous and brilliant band of cavaliers, he struck into the wilderness near 
Tampa Bay, in Florida, and for many weary months toiled through the tangled 
forests and deep morasses of the South, until the 1st of May, 1841, when his 
reduced and dispirited followers stood upon the banks of the Mississippi, at 
about the 35th parallel of latitude. Crossing the river at this point, they 
pursued their march northward to the neighborhood of New Madrid, passing 
thence to the highlands of White river, and descending the Washita to its 
junction with the Mississippi, Here the stout heart of De Soto gave way 
beneath its disappointments and burdens; and he found a

*Bancroft’s Hist. U.S., Vol. 1, p. 41.

grave where he had thought to conquer an empire. Only half his glittering 
troop, after untold sufferings in their devious wanderings amid hostile 
Indians and through trackless woods, ever reached their homes.

These explorations in search of the Fountain of Youth, of gold and wide 
dominion, were barren of results to the West. They founded no settlements, 
left no traces, produced no effect, unless to excite the hostility of the red 
against the white men, and to dishearten such as might otherwise have tried to 
follow up the career of discovery to better purpose.* But, according to the 
semi-barbaric code of international law recognized at that period, the title 
of Spain to the whole territory watered by the Mississippi and its tributaries 
was established by the discoveries of De Vaca and De Soto. Under the name of 
Florida, the Spanish crown set up a vague claim to the whole of North America 
south of the great lakes; and even Canada, in Spanish geography, was included 
in the vast domains of Philip II. The Illinois country appears on some maps of 
the sixteenth century as a part of Florida. As will be seen in the sequel, the 
magnificent assumptions of Spain were little regarded by subsequent explorers 
in the West and North.

For a hundred and thirty years after the disastrous termination of De Soto's 
enterprise, the Valley of the Mississippi was undisturbed by the European.—

*Western Annals, p. 28.

Meanwhile, the French had not been idle. They entered without delay into the 
competition for the commerce and the soil of America. Within seven years of 
the discovery of the continent, the fisheries of Newfoundland were known to 
the hardy mariners of Brittany and Normandy.* In 1534, Cartier discovered the 
St. Lawrence, and took possession of the country through which it flows, by 
raising a lofty cross upon the shore, surmounted by a shield bearing, the 
emblems of French dominion and an appropriate inscription. This territory was 
soon known as New France, a name eventually applied to the immense semi-circle 
stretching from the Gulf of St. Lawrence around the great lakes and rivers of 
the West to the delta of the Mississippi. The same year that Jamestown was 
settled, and twelve years before the Pilgrims touched the snow-clad rock of 
Plymouth, the foundations of Quebec were laid by Champlain, who is regarded as 
the father of the French settlements in America. In 1616, a Franciscan friar 
had penetrated deep into the wilderness, and was preaching to the Indians near 
the shores of Lake Huron; and in 1634 the two Christian villages of St. Louis 
and St. Ignatius rose amid the forests of Upper Canada. By the middle of the 
seventeenth century, the French were vigorously pushing their colonies up the 
valley of the St. Lawrence, and looking toward

*Bancroft’s Hist. U. S.

the unknown West with expectant eye, to find the long-sought shorter passage 
to China and the East Indies. Louis XIV., "Le Grande Monarque," was on the 
French throne, and the spirit of enterprise was rife among his ambitious 
subjects. Two Canadian envoys, named Charles Raymbault and Isaac Jogues, were 
the first to explore the North-west as far as the Falls of St. Mary, which 
they reached in 1641. No permanent settlement resulted until 1660, when the 
first missionary station in the Western wilds was established by Father Rene 
Mesnard, who was lost in the woods a few months after, while bearing the story 
of the cross to the Indian tribes further west. Five years passed, and Father 
Claude Allouez came, the first successful missionary to the West, to found a 
mission at the Bay of St. Theresa, on Lake Superior. Here he lived and labored 
for two years, opening the way of future discovery, and gathering, at 
different points, little colonies of French and Indian converts. He was the 
first European to hear of the great prairies and fertile resources of the 
Illinois country, through the Indian tribe of that name, who journeyed from 
their distant homes to see and hear him. In his Journal he writes:

"I have here made known the name of Jesus Christ to eighty persons of this 
nation; they have carried it, and published it with applause to all the 
countries of the South. I confess that this appears to me to be the finest 
field for the gospel; if I had had leisure and opportunity, I would have 
visited their country, to see with my own eyes all the good that they have 
told me of it. There are no forests with them, but many large prairies."*

The Mission of St. Mary was founded shortly after at the Falls where the 
waters of Lake Superior have their outlet, by Claude Dablon and James 
Marquette, the latter destined to be renowned through all time as the pioneer 
of French discovery in the Mississippi Valley. In 1670, under instruction from 
the Government of France, Nicolas Perrot explored Lake Michigan and visited 
the Miami Indians at Chicago, himself and party being the first white men to 
tread the soil of Illinois. The succeeding year he summoned an assemblage of 
all the Indian tribes of the surrounding country at the Falls of St. Mary, 
when he took formal possession of the whole North-west, in the name of his 
master, the King of France, and a cedar column was planted in the earth, with 
the Bourbon arms engraved upon it, in token of his dominion over this vast 
empire.

Father Marquette had long entertained the design of exploring the "Land of the 
Great River," of which he had often heard through his Indian visitors, and of 
carrying the gospel to the distant savages who had never heard its gladsome 
tidings. His project had the countenance of M. Talon, the Intendant (or

*Jesuit Relations, in Documentary Hist, of Wisconsin, Vol. III.

Governor) of New France, by whom the Sieur Joliet, a gentleman of Quebec, was 
deputed to accompany him, and  represent the Government. "My companion," said 
the good Father, referring to Joliet, "is an envoy from the King of France, 
and I am an humble minister of God." In the spring of 1673, with five French 
boatmen and two Indian guides, they left Mackinac in two bark canoes, on their 
voyage toward unknown climes. Passing up Green Bay and the Fox river, their 
canoes and little-cargo were borne across the narrow ridge of land which 
divides the waters of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, where their guides left 
them; "alone amid that unknown country, in the hand of God." Down the sand-
barred Wisconsin they floated unti the 17th of June, when they reached its 
junction with the "Father of Waters," and sailed out upon the broad bosom of 
the long-desired river "with a joy that could not be expressed." Proceeding on 
their voyage southward, after four days they discovered an Indian trail 
leading back from the river, which they followed some six mile's, where they 
were welcomed by an embassy of four old men, who offered the pipe of peace, 
and conducted them to a village of the Illinois Indians, situated, it is 
supposed, on the Des Moines River, in Iowa. The travelers were entertained 
with many compliments and presents, and a grand feast of hominy, fish, dog 
meat, and roast buffalo. In return Marquette instructed them in the precepts 
of Christianity, and promised them the protection of his King against the 
cruel Iroquois, who had extended their warlike incursions from Western New 
York to the tribes on the Mississippi. Remaining six days among the kindly 
Illinois, they departed and continued their journey down the river, past the 
muddy and rushing Missouri, the Piasa rocks near Alton, the Grand Tower, and 
the Oua-bouskigou or Ohio—all of which were noticed and described by Marquette—
but meeting with no adventure until they arrived at the Akamscas, or Arkansas. 
A great number of hostile warriors rushed to attack them as they approached; 
but Marquette held aloft the peace-pipe, which checked the onset, and the 
Frenchmen were hailed as friends, and hospitably treated during their stay. 
They found axes of steel and fragments of armor among the natives, indubitable 
proofs of the Spanish expeditions to the same country nearly a century and a 
half before.

The circle of European discovery was now complete, extending from the Gulf of 
St. Lawrence to Lake Superior, down the Mississippi to the 33d parallel of 
latitude, thence across the Southern States to Florida, and completely hemming 
in the English possessions on the Atlantic seaboard.

Marquette had supposed that he should reach the Pacific Ocean through the 
Mississippi, and thus discover the shorter route to the East Indies. But 
learning from the natives of Arkansas that the river emptied into the Gulf and 
not into the Pacific, and fearing to brave the dangers of the season, he 
determined to turn back at this point. On his return, he entered the Illinois 
river, whose waters now first reflected the face of the white man, and 
followed its course to the portage between the Des Plaines and Chicago rivers, 
thence to the lake, along the shore of which he finished his return voyage, 
reaching Green Bay about the end of September. The beauty of the Illinois 
country, up whose principal river he sailed, made a lively impression upon his 
observant mind. He writes:

"I never saw a more pleasant Country than the Banks of that River. The Meadows 
are cover'd with Oxen, Stags, Wild-Goats; and the Rivers and Lakes with 
Bustards, Swans, Ducks, Beavers. We saw also abundance of Parrots. Several 
small Rivers fall into this, which is deep and broad for 65 Leagues, and 
therefore navigable almost all the Year long."*

Marquette afterwards returned to Illinois, and preached to the Indians in the 
region of Chicago.— The manner of his death was singular and romantic. As he 
was passing up Lake Michigan with his boatmen, he landed at the mouth of the 
stream which now bears his name, to perform mass. Retiring a little way in the 
woods, he erected a rude altar, and 

*Marquette's Narrative, in Hennepin's New Discovery, English edition, London, 
1689, p. 349.

kneeling beside it, yielded up his spirit while in the act of prayer. He was a 
pure-minded, self-denying, devoted, and heroic man.

Joliet conveyed intelligence of their discoveries to Quebec, and reported it 
to the Government. Among those who were excited by their success, and spurred 
by ambition to follow in their wake, was a young adventurer, Robert Cavalier 
de la Salle, celebrated in the annals of European discovery in the West. Still 
deceived by the phantom of a short cut to China, he thought his object might 
be attained by following the Mississippi northward, or turning up one of the 
streams which flow into it from the west.— Fully impressed with this idea, he 
visited France, secured the sanction of the King, and a commission for 
perfecting the discovery of the Mississippi. On his return to Canada, he at 
once commenced preparation. Building a vessel of sixty tons, called the 
Griffin, he embarked from Fort Frontenac, near Niagara, on the 7th of August, 
1679, accompanied by an Italian named Tonti, his lieutenant, and Father Louis 
Hennepin, a Franciscan friar of the Recollet order, and the historian of the 
expedition. With them he sailed through Lakes Erie, St. Clair, and Huron, and 
reached Green Bay about the middle of September. The Griffin was sent back 
with a cargo of skins and furs, and La Salle pursued his voyage in canoes to 
the St. Joseph's river, in Michigan, from which he crossed to the The-au-ki-ki 
(Kankakee), and dropped down that stream to the Illinois river. Six miles 
below Ottawa he fell in with an Indian village, which was at that time 
deserted by its inhabitants. Being in want of provision, he supplied himself 
from the large quantities of corn stored beneath the cabins. On the 4th of 
January, 1680, the voyagers entered Peoria Lake, meeting friendly Indians in 
large numbers. At the foot of the Lake, near the present site of Peoria, they 
halted, and commenced building a fort, which, in view of his disappointments, 
the probable loss of the Griffin with its rich freight, and the murmurs of his 
men, La Salle named Fort Creve Coeur (broken heart.) Early the next spring, he 
despatched Hennepin on a voyage of exploration toward the South, and leaving 
Tonti in command of the Fort, with orders to erect Fort St. Louis on Buffalo 
Bock, a lofty and singular promontory below Ottawa, he started alone and on 
foot for Fort Frontenac, a distance of at least twelve hundred miles, to look 
after his interests in Canada. Hennepin reached the Mississippi in seven days 
after his departure, and turned his canoes up the stream. On the 11th of 
April, he reached the Wisconsin river, where himself and companions were made 
prisoners by a party of savages, who took them far to the north-west. While on 
their journey Hennepin discovered a large cataract in the Mississippi, which 
he named in honor of his patron saint—St. Anthony of Padua. The French were 
kindly treated, and three months afterwards met with a hand of their 
countrymen in pursuit of trade and game, by whom they were rescued.*

In the winter of 1680-1, La Salle returned to his fort on the Illinois, and 
found it deserted through fear of the Indians. Nothing daunted, he retraced 
his steps, found Tonti at Mackinac, and began his enterprises anew. In 
January, 1682, he appears again upon the Illinois, with a large company of 
natives and French, en route for the Mississippi. During their progress down 
the latter river, a fort was built at the Chickasaw Bluffs, named Fort 
Prudhomme, in memory of a man who was lost in that neighborhood. La Salle 
reached the mouth of the Great River on the 6th of April, and with much 
ceremony took possession of the country, which he named Louisiana, in honor of 
the reigning monarch. Though delayed for some time by sickness, he reached the 
lake country again in safety, where he remained a year, engaged in the fur 
traffic, and completing his fort on Buffalo Rock. He sailed

*Hennepin afterwards claimed to have been the first to descend the Mississippi 
to its mouth—an assumption which has been effectually refuted by Sparks and 
others. He was an ambitious and unscrupulous priest, jealous of La Salle's 
hard-earned fame—"who, had he but loved truth, would have gamed a noble 
reputation, and who is now remembered not merely as a light-hearted, 
ambitious, daring discoverer, but also as a beautiful liar." Bancroft.

once more from France in 1684, with a colony destined for Louisiana. Through 
difficulties between himself and the naval commander, they failed to find the 
mouth of the Mississippi, and landed at Matagorda Bay, in Texas. Here La Salle 
endured the most appalling reverses and sufferings in the vain endeavor to 
found a colony. On the 17th of March, 1687, he was basely murdered by two of 
his own men, while striving to make his way to the French settlements in 
Canada.* He will be remembered through all time as the father of colonization 
in the great central valley of the West.**

With the death of La Salle ends the record of all that is most important in 
the history of European discovery in the West. A vast country had been opened 
to the knowledge of the civilized world, and the eyes of monarchs and nations 
were turned to it, as the seat of future empire.

*See Sparks' Life of La Salle. 
**Bancroft.

Additional Comments:
HISTORY OF PUTNAM & MARSHALL COUNTIES; Embracing an Account of the Settlement, 
Early Progress, and Formation of Bureau and Stark Counties; With an Appendix, 
Containing Notices of Old Settlers and of the Antiquities of Putnam and 
Marshall, Lists of Officers of Each County from its Organization to the 
Present Time, etc., etc.; By Henry A. Ford, Corresponding Member of the 
Chicago Historical Society; Lacon, ILL.: Published for the Author; 1860.


File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/il/putnam/history/1860/historyo/chapteri27nms.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/ilfiles/

File size: 18.6 Kb