The history of Illinois : from its first discovery and settlement to the present time

Front matter

JffiJJf a i£f Limn

»«HAM YOUNG UNIYERSITY

PfiOVO, UTAH

Preface

The position now occupied by the State of Illinois, in the American Confederacy — its present importance — its future hopes, and ultimate consequence— render an excuse unnecessary for attempting its history. Whether the attempt shall succeed or not, remains to be seen.

Many have supposed, that a State so young can furnish nothing of interest deserving the historian. They seem, however, not to consider, that Illinois was settled at an early day — that the Spaniards once claimed — that the French once occupied — that the English once conquered — and the Americans afterward held “ this proud domain” by right of conquest ; that the Gaul, the Saxon, and the savage — the Protestant, the Jesuit, and the Pagan — for more than a century here struggled for mastery. They have also forgotten, or never knew, that John Law and his associates, in “the Mississippi Scheme,” once claimed the whole territory as theirs — that Fort Chartres was built by them at an expense of several millions, and that a portion of its soil is now held and occupied, under titles derived from that “ eminent speculator.”

Considerations, growing out of the above circumstances, will explain the reason in part, why the author has introduced some apparently irrelevant matter into his narrative. It will be discovered, however, upon reflection, that no such irrelevant matter has found a place in the volume now offered to the public ; but, on the contrary, that the History of Illinois (as Sterne says in the middle of some one of his iucerminable digressions in Tristam Shandy,) has “ all the while been px-ogressing.”

Should our explanation be thought defective, we, in that case, assure our readers, as the Roman pontiff* did Bonaparte, the young conqueror of Italy, when the former was about to give the latter his blessing — on perceiving an air of incredulity lurking in “the young conqueror’s eye,” he at once changed his discourse, and dexterously observed ; “ the blessing of an old man can do you no harm.” It is just so with our book. These digressions are not intended for the perusal of those who read merely to criticise, but for those who read for information. Such will derive “no harm,” and may, perhaps, derive some benefit from their perusal. By beginning however at the end^ and reading backward,

PREFACE.

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(as the lobster travels,) the whole difficulty will be obviated, and the connection between all its parts distinctly perceived.

There is, in Illinois proper, much good historical matter. Some of the most thrilling scenes in the history of our race have occurred in Illinois. Its early settlement by the French — the narratives of their first Missionaries thither — the expedition of Colonel Clarke to Kaskaskia, and afterward to Vincennes — the account given by him of the savages, and of his mode and manner of treating them, are nowhere else surpassed. The massacre at Chicago — the Black Hawk war — the Mormon Prophet — the history of the Illinois Banks — its Canal and internal improvements — and lastly, of its credit, cannot fail (if properly told,) to interest both the citizen and the stranger.

The author regrets his inability to do them more ample justice. He also regrets, that in the hurry of the moment, he has not more frequently given credit ; and on some occasions, done better justice to those from whose works he has so liberally extracted. Professional avocations, and the hurry and confusion incident thereto, together with the necessity imposed on him of employing others to transcribe his manuscripts for the press, are the only apologies he can offer. A poor excuse is better than none. The following work was written at a distance from well-assorted libraries. The means of information, at his disposal, were defective upon many subjects of which he treats. He has endeavored, however, to avail himself of all the resources in his power ; and although he is aware of its defects, the work, he hopes, will be thought by some worthy of perusal.

In order to make it readable , he has now and then borrowed an Indian massacre from some of the adjacent States. This license is, perhaps, mere poetical than historical. Inasmuch, however, as it has been taken for the sole benefit of the reader, “the theft,” he apprehends, “ will not be deemed profane.”

Chicago, Illinois, May 22nd, 1844.

CHAPTER i

Introduction — Discovery — Columbus — His difficulties — His squadron — His death — His poverty — His descendants — Respect to his memory

Chapter II

Indian Character — Unacquainted with Iron — Unused to labor — Unacquainted with any but the simplest Arts — Skilled in hunting — Eloquent — Fond of gambling — Dancing — Addicted to drunkenness — Is superstitious — Logan — Philip — Tecumseh — Red Jacket - . - - -

Chapter VIII

Dutch in America — English Revolution in 1688 — Wars consequent thereupon— Iroquois, or Six Nations — Western New-York rescued from the French by their bravery — Jesuit Missionaries — Quebec taken — Restored — Sir Hoveden Walker’s Expedition to Quebec, under the auspices of Bolingbroke — Spaniards seize upon Texas — Illinois granted to Crozat

Chapter IX

Illinois granted to the Company of the Indies — John Law — Mississippi Scheme — Fort Chartres built — South-Sea Bubble — Fort Massac built — Fort Massac taken

Chapter X

War of 1756 — Its origin — Progress— Ohio Company — Braddock’s defeat — Colonel Washington — Virginia — Oswego — Ticonderoga — Crown Point — Louisburgh — William Pitt — Quebec taken — General Wolf killed — Montcalm — Respect to the dead — Pontiac War— Illinois ceded to England

Chapter XVII

Harrison’s Campaign — General Hopkins’s Expedition to Illinois — Governor Edwards’ and Colonel Russel’s Expedition — River Raisin — Fort Meigs besieged — Fort Stephenson also — Major Croghan — Battle of Lake Erie — Battle of the Thames — General Proctor defeated — Tom Higgins — Peace, 1815 -

Death of Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet .... - 486

Mississippi Flood do.

THE

HISTOEY OF ILLINOIS.

Chapter I

Columbus arrives in Spain — Is denied an audience with the king — Is afterward admitted into his presence — Council of Salamanca — Columbus appears before it — His theory is rejected — Returns to the convent of La Rabida — Martin Alonzo Pinzon — Columbus is again invited to court — The queen espouses his cause-^Negotiation concluded — Sets out for Palos — Difficulties in fitting out his squadron — Its description — Embarks — Discovers land — Origin of the term Indian.

Problems, incapable once of being solved by the aid of science, are now easily explained. Knowledge, which gave formerly to its possessor the rank of a philosopher, is now the common property of school-boys — and experiments that, in the last century, would have brought their operator to the stake for witchcraft, are now mere juvenile recreations.

Some curious phenomena, exhibited by a piece of iron ore, before our nation had an existence, led a philosopher of Amalfi, in Italy, to inquire into the cause. Particles of the same kind he perceived were mutually attracted. In one of his experiments, he saw it, when suspended by a thread, point directly to the northern star, and being turned in another direction and set free, it resumed its former position. The result of his experiment was sent to the academicians of Florence, and their curiosity was aroused. They tried similar experiments, and it was finally discovered that its magnetic properties were transferable to hardened steel. Hence the mariner’s compass, which guided Columbus across the ocean, and led to the discovery of another world. Our nation now extends its arms from the St. Croix to the Capes of Florida, and from the Atlantic, westward, to the Rocky mountains and the Columbia river, embracing in its ample folds, a large portion of the American Continent. Eighteen

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millions of people, governed by similar laws, and speaking the language of Shakespere and Milton, are a part only, of its fruit. Were we permitted to lift the curtain, and unfold the glories that await the future, a population equal to the whole of Europe at no very distant period, would in all probability meet our view. With such speculations, however, we have nothing at present to do : — facts, and facts only, become the historic page.

Although recent discoveries in South America conclusively show, that a living multitude of civilized inhabitants thronged this Western world, when the British Isles were unknown ; that the arts and sciences were here taught in great perfection, when our ancestors were wrandering in the woods ; those discoveries have not as yet been sufficiently developed, to make them the basis of an historic record. We will, therefore, for the present pursue the accustomed track; and suppose, what is generally believed, that the Eastern and Western Continents, till recently, were strangers, and that the latter, at the time of its first discovery, was of but little or no importance.

If facts, says Mr. Irving, in his life of Columbus, are to be inferred from no other than authentic records, the Eastern and Western hemispheres, previous to the fifteenth century, were strangers to each other. Some wandering bark, driven by tempests, without compass, across the ocean, may have reached by accident the opposing shore. It revealed, however, if such was the fact, no secrets of the deep, and no one ventured to spread a sail in pursuit of land, wrapped in mystery and peril. The wide waste of waters that intervened was regarded as before, with awe and wonder, and bound the world as with a chaos, which conjecture sought not to penetrate, and enterprise feared to adventure.

Not far from the little town of Palos, in Spain, containing at the present time, about four hundred inhabitants, which subsist chiefly by labor in its neighboring vineyards ; there was in 1485, and still is, an ancient convent dedicated to Santa Maria de Rabida. A stranger on foot, in humble guise, but of a distinguished air, accompanied by a small boy, stopped one day at its gate, and asked of the porter a little bread and water for his child. That stranger was Columbus. He had fled from Portugal for debt, whither he had been to tender its monarch the discovery of a world.

To trace the progress of the illustrious stranger in quest of a patron, from the quiet cloisters of La Rabida to the palace of Castile’s haughty queen, or to the “ ancient and warlike city of Cordova, where prelates and friars mingled in martial conflict, and cardinals and bishops in helm and corslet, laying aside the crozier for the lance, sought new and hitherto untrodden paths to Heaven through heaps of the slain,” is not consistent with our design.

His story, however, though oft-repeated, has still its charms. The force of talents — the effect of perseverance, and the result of moral and political integrity, are so strikingly exhibited in the life and conduct of this

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daring adventurer, at courts, in palaces, in tempests and in chains, that its relation interests alike the student and the philosopher.

Excluded at Cordova from the brilliant crowd which filled every avenue to the throne, in consequence of the humble garb in which his poverty compelled him to appear, and driven by necessity to the making of maps and charts for a subsistence, he felt, notwithstanding, the dignity of his race, and the importance of his errand ; and at last, by some happy efforts, found his way into the presence of the king. He there plead the cause of a hitherto undiscovered world. The sincerity of his conversation, the elevation of his views, and the practical shrewdness of his arguments, commanded the respect of Ferdinand, though failing to produce conviction. The subject matter, however, of his singular enterprise, was referred to the ablest and most learned men in the realm ; and as the treasures of human wisdom were at that time locked up principally in monasteries, and the university of Salamanca was its principal residence, a council of clerical sages composed of its professors, with various dignitaries of the church and learned friars, was convened in its convent by order of the king.

Before this council Columbus appeared. An obscure navigator, destitute of those circumstances which make dullness somewhat oracular, it could hardly be expected would produce a serious or lasting impression on such a mass of inert bigotry and learned pride, as was there assembled. His theory, we need not therefore remark, was of course rejected.

When Columbus had a fair opportunity of being heard, his commanding person, (as we are informed,) his elevated demeanor, his air of authority, his kindling eye, and the persuasive intonations of his voice, gave power to his words ; and when the doctrinal objections of his adversaries were set in battle-array against him in the council at Salamanca, his visionary spirit it is said took fire, and casting aside his maps and charts, and discarding for a time his practical and scientific lore, he met them upon their own grounds, and pouring forth “ those magnificent texts of Scripture, and those mysterious predictions of the prophets, which in his enthusiastic moments he considered as types and annunciations of the sublime discovery he proposed,” he overwhelmed his learned and prejudiced examiners, with a torrent of words and arguments, which nothing save bigotry could resist.

Ignorance and stupidity, however, for a while prevailed. Other military movements succeeded, and Columbus was forgotten. Regarded by many as a lunatic, the children, we are told, pointed to their foreheads as he passed by, and his theory being at last rejected by the king and queen, he turned his back on Seville, (where the court then resided,) regretting that he had wasted so many years of his life in useless solicitations.

Having sought in vain the patronage of dukes and princes, who had possessions on the coasts, and ports and ships at their command, he returned at last to the humble convent of La Rabida, to take from thence his son, (where, during his absence, its worthy prior had kindly entertained him,) and repair to France, whose king had invited him thither.

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The good friar, Juan Perez, was exceedingly moved at Columbus’s return, and sent, as he had done before, for his friend, Garcia Fernandez, the physician, and Martin Alonzo Pinzon, a wealthy and distinguished navigator of Palos, (whose subsequent destiny no one can fail to regret,) by whom a council was held. The latter offered to engage in the expedition, and to defray Columbus’s expenses to court, for the purpose of renewing, under the auspices of Juan Perez, an application which had just been rejected. This was the first, and at that time, the only pecuniary assistance received by the latter in aid of his great and glorious undertaking. Juan Perez hastened himself to Grenada, whither the royal court had then removed, and had an interview with the queen. The latter, after several years’ solicitations, bethinking herself, for the first time, of Columbus’s poverty, sent him twenty thousand maravedis, in florins, (equal to seventy -two silver dollars,) to bear his travelling expenses to Grenada, to provide him with a mule for his journey, and decent apparel to appear at court.

Animated by hope, he set out at once to meet his patron, and arrived at Grenada just in time to witness its surrender. “ He saw the last of the Moorish kings sally forth from the Alhambra, and yield up to his conqueror the keys of that favorite residence of Moslem power.” The war which had now raged for seven hundred years between the Christian and the Moor, had ceased ; the crescent was prostrate, the cross was exalted, and the standard of Spain floating on its ramparts.

A negotiation was thereupon immediately opened. Unexpected difficulties, however, arose ; Columbus would listen to none but princely conditions, and these were inadmissible. Others were proposed, and being rejected by the latter, the negotiation was, of course, terminated, and to all appearance, for ever.

The loftiness of spirit displayed by Columbus on this occasion, cannot be sufficiently admired. Eighteen years had elapsed since he first published to the world his theory, and announced his intention, by some voyage of discovery, to test its correctness ; that period had been spent in painful but ineffectual efforts, and nothing but necessity could for a moment shake his purpose, or induce him to accept of terms beneath his dignity. He seemed to forget his own obscurity, to overlook his present indigence, and to negotiate, as it were, for empire.

These negotiations, however, being closed, he took leave of his friends at Grenada, early in February, 1492, and mounting his mule, started for Cordova, intending to abandon a country which had made him her sport, and in which he thought he had been treated with indignity. Having pursued his lonely way across the Vega, and passed the bridge of Pinos, about two leagues from Grenada, and begun to ascend the mountain of Elvira, a pass famous in Moorish story, he was overtaken by a messenger from the queen, who informed him that Isabella had espoused his cause, and pledged her jewels to raise the necessary funds.

After hesitating for a moment, he turned the reins of his mule, and

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sought her presence. Articles of agreement were immediately drawn up by the royal secretary, and signed on the 17th of April, 1492. The sum of seventeen thousand florins, or about three thousand dollars, was afterward advanced, to defray its expenses.

Columbus was now in the fifty-sixth year of his age ; disappointments that would have reduced an ordinary man to despair, had hitherto been his lot. His wishes, however, were now attained, and, on the 12th of May, 1492, he set out joyfully for Palos.

The difficulties attending his expedition were now about to commence. The little town of Palos, on the announcement of his mission thither, was filled with consternation ; the ships demanded by the royal edict, were regarded in the light of sacrifices, and their crews as so many victims. The order of the sovereign was, therefore, ineffectual ; a more absolute mandate, sent thither by an officer of the royal household, fared no better ; and, but for the exertions of Martin Alonzo Pinzon, the whole expedition at that time, unquestionably would have failed. The example of the latter was, however, contagious ; and in less than four weeks after he had tendered his services and agreed to accompany it, the whole armament was equipped and ready for sea.

It consisted of three small vessels ; two of them light barques, or cara,- vals, open and without decks in the centre, high at the prow and stern, with forecastles and cabins for the crew — the other was entirely decked. The largest vessel was of less than a hundred tons burden, and would compare, though imperfectly, with one of the second-rate schooners that navigate our inland seas — the other two would suffer in comparison with the humble craft that bring lumber to Chicago. They were manned with ninety men, and victualled for a year.

Such was the armament provided by a once powerful nation and the most accomplished princess in Europe, for the discovery of a world.

Columbus, having confessed himself and partaken of the sacrament, in which his officers and crew participated, on Friday the 13th day of August, 1492, about half an hour before sunrise, committed himself and his little armament, under the guidance and direction of Heaven, to the open sea.

On arriving at the Canaries, three weeks and upward were consumed in repairs. From thence he embarked, on the 6th of September, when the voyage of discovery in fact was commenced.

On the 9th, the heights of Farro vanished from their view, and everything dear to them on earth was left behind — friends, country, and home. Chaos, mystery, and peril, were alone before them.

Of Columbus’s difficulties with his crew — the means to which he had recourse, in order to allay their fears, and his numerous perplexities on the voyage, and afterward, by sea and land, we forbear to speak. They have all been frequently told, and are, or ought to be, familiar to our readers.

Suffice it then, to remark, that on the evening of the 11th of October,

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1492, thirty-five days only after leaving the Canaries, when the mariners had sung their usual hymn to the Virgin, indications of land were so apparent, that Columbus ordered his sails to be furled, and a strict watch to be kept — and when the shades of evening had set in, he took his station on the top of the forecastle or cabin, from whence, at about 10 o’clock, he thought he beheld a light. His suspicions were afterward confirmed, and continuing on his course until about two in the morning, a gun from the Pinta (one of the vessels in his little fleet) announced the signal of land.

In spite of every obstacle, he had now accomplished his object. The mystery of the ocean was at once revealed. The truth of his theory, which had been the sport even of sages, was confirmed, and he was immortal.

As the morning dawned, an island of surpassing beauty,* verdant with forests, and loaded with fruits of a tempting hue, spread its treasures before him. Its inhabitants, issuing from the woods and running to all parts of the shore, were seen gazing on his fleet, and from their attitudes and gestures, appeared to be amazed. They had seen his vessels with their sails spread, hovering on their coast, and advancing in solemn majesty to their shores, and “ had an army of Milton’s celestial angels, robed m light, sporting in the bright beams of the sun, redoubling their splendor, and making divine harmony with their golden harps,” issued from the deep, it would have excited no other or greater surprise.

On the 11th of October, 1492 — a day ever memorable in the annals of our race — Columbus landed, with a drawn sword in his hand, (the fit emblem, though at that time undesigned, of what succeeded,) and took possession of the country in the names of Ferdinand and Isabella. Supposing he had landed on an island at the extremity of India, he called the inhabitants by the appellation of Indians, which has since universally been adopted, and extended to the aboriginal inhabitants of the whole Western Continent.

In contemplating the effects of this discovery, the human imagination is perfectly bewildered. The emotions it created, no language can express. The consequences which followed, no pen can describe. Its original inhabitants have not been the only parties in interest. The inhabitants of other realms, and of other continents, sometimes with, and sometimes without their consent, have participated therein, either for weal or for wo.

The character and habits, origin and destination, of the aborigines, being at all times subjects of interest, and especially at the present time, demand, and of course will next receive, our attention.

NOTE.

Mr. Irving, in his biography of Columbus, having taken him up in boyhood, or as soon as he could find him — having sailed with him to the uttermost parts of the earth — having watched over him at sea, and messed with him on shore — having stood by him through

* St. Salvador, one of the Bahama islands.

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all his crosses and losses, perplexities and achievements, great and small, even to his dying day — having also witnessed his last will and testament, and attended to all the ceremonies of his funeral, like an affectionate brother, or, as Grattan once said of Ireland, having “ sat by its cradle, and followed its hearse :” — The American reader who has perused Mr. Irving’s admirable work, who feels, or ought to feel a deep interest in all that appertains to Columbus’s buffeting, toilipg, and begging his way to success and glory, may desire, perhaps, to know something further in relation to the family and descendants of the great “ Discoverer.”

Columbus, broken down by age and infirmity, worn out by toil and hardship, and having, as he says himself. “ no place to resort to but an inn, and frequently, not wherewithal to pay his bill,” died a “ broken down and shipwrecked man,” at Valladolid, in Spain, ©n the 20th of May, 1506, in the seventieth year of his age, ignorant of the real grandeur of his discovery.

His body was deposited in the convent of Saint Francisco, and his obsequies celebrated with funeral pomp, at Valladolid, in the^arochial church of Santa Maria de la Antiqua. His remains were afterward, in 1513, conveyed to the Carthusian monastery of La Cuevas of Seville ; and in 1536, they were removed from thence to Hispaniola, and interred in the principal chapel of the Cathedral, of the city of St. Domingo.

The island of Hispaniola having been ceded to France in 1795, the Duke of Veragua, the lineal successor of Columbus, on the 20th of December, in that year, caused his remains to be removed from thence, with military pomp, to the Island of Cuba, and deposited with reverence in the wall, on the right side of the grand altar in the Cathedral church, at Havana.

“ When we reflect,” says Mr. Irving, “ that it was from this very port, Columbus was carried off in his life-time, loaded with ignominious chains, blasted apparently in fame and fortune, and followed by the revilings and hootings of a fickle populace, we cannot fail to perceive, how triumphantly merit outlives detraction, and to observe that the removal of his remains, as national relics, after an interval of more than two hundred years, with civil and military pomp, (the most dignified and illustrious men, vieing with each other in manifestations of reverence,) speaks comfort to the illustrious, yet slandered and persecuted living.”

The latter part of his life was full of peril. His last voyage, in particular, had shattered a frame, worn out by hardships in the service of an ungrateful king. The suspension of his honors — the violation of the articles of agreement between him and his sovereign — the enmity of his adversaries — the envy to which he was exposed, and the defamation which followed him at every turn, threw a dark and impenetrable shadow over that glory which had for years been the object of his ambition. Well might the most illustrious man of the age,

“Ask from a thankless world a peaceful tomb.”

On the death of Columbus, his son Diego succeeded, nominally, to his rights as viceroy and governor of the New World. Don Diego urged the restitution of the family offices and privileges which, during the latter part of his father’s life, had been suspended. Ferdinand, however, turned a deaf ear to his solicitations. The young admiral, finding all appeals to equity and generosity unavailing, sought permission to pursue his claims in a court of law. This, the king could not reasonably deny. A suit was therefore commenced by Diego Columbus, against the king, before the council for the Indies. This memorable action was brought in 1508, and continued for several years. A unanimous decision of the court was at length obtained in favor of Columbus ; still, the wily monarch Sought and found a pretext for refusing to carry it into execution, and the young admiral was finally indebted for success in this suit, to success in another suit of a different character. Donna Maria de Toledo, a young lady of rank and fortune, niece of the celebrated Duke of Alva, afterward so distinguished in the reign of Charles V., and cousin german of

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the king, was at that time a favorite at the Spanish court. The glory which Columbua the elder, had acquired, rested upon his son. The claims of Don Diego, confirmed by the council of the Indies, raised him to a level with the proudest aristocracy in the land — he sought and obtained this lady in marriage, and the family of Columbus was thus ingrafted on one of the oldest and most respectable families in Spain. Diego, having in this manner secured that magical power, called “ connections,” the imperial favor withheld from the son of Columbus, fell in showers upon a relative of the Duke of Alva. In 1509, the young admiral embarked with his bride and a numerous retinue of cavaliers, for Hispaniola. The vice-queen, who was a lady of extraordinary intelligence, on her arrival thither, established a sort of court, which threw a degree of lustre over this then, semi-barbarous island, and contributed materially to soften the rude manners which had grown up in a state of society destitute of those salutary restraints which are produced by female influence.

Don Diego, however, inherited not only the rank, but the troubles of his father. Involved in difficulties with the fiscal, he repaired t^court in 1515, and was received with great honor by the king. On the 23rd of January, 1516, Ferdinand died, and was succeeded by his grandson, the celebrated Charles Y. The emperor, after considerable delay, acknowledged Don Diego’s right to exercise the office of viceroy and governor of Hispaniola, and in 1520 he returned thither, found its affairs in confusion, and in 1523, was informed that his presence was necessary in Spain. He repaired again to court, and plead his cause so well, that the sovereign and council acknowledged at once his innocence. The dispute, however, between the admiral and the fiscal, was protracted to such a length, that he, like his father, died in the pursuit. He left Toledo in a litter on the 21st of Feb. 1526, for Seville, and on the 23rd died at Montalvan, “ worn out by following up his claims, and defending himself from the calumnies of his competitors, who, with stratagems and devices, sought to obscure the glory of the father, and the virtue of the son.”