CHAPTER VIII.

TONTI'S ENCOUNTER WITH THE IROQUOIS.

Only two days afterward, another parting occurred at the river. It was now LaSalle's time to bid adieu to the scenes where, during the winter, his motives had been so often misrepresented and impugned. Leaving Tonti in command of the fort, garrisoned with three or four honest men and a dozen knaves, he set out for Fort Frontenac with four men and his Mohegan hunter, whose faithfulness was a perpetual rebuke to French fickleness and treachery. The winter had been severe, and his progress up the river was greatly retarded by drifting sheets of ice. Reaching Peoria Lake, the ice was unbroken from shore to shore, and the party was compelled to land and make sledges on which to drag their canoes to a point in the river above, where the swiftness of the current kept the channel open. Little thought these lonely wanderers that the desolate spot where this incident transpired, was one day to resound with the tramp of the multitude which now throngs the streets of Peoria. A laborious march of four leagues, through melting snows, placed them above the icy barrier of the lake, and they launched their canoes. Thence, to the great town of the Illinois, they found the river at different points blocked with ice, and their journey was made alternately by land and water, in the drenching rains of opening spring. They found the village without inhabitants, and its lodges crested with snow. The adjacent meadows were still locked in the fetters of winter, and the more distant forests, bearded with crystals, flashed in the morning sun like a sea of diamonds. Yet the frozen landscape was not without life. The impress of moccasined feet could be traced in the snow, and occasionally a straggling buffalo could be seen, and one of them was shot. While his men were smoking the meat of the animal, LaSalle went out to reconnoitre the country, and soon fell in with 3 Indians, one of whom proved to be the principal chief of the Illinois. Inviting him and his associates to his camp, he made them presents, and refreshed them with the best food his scanty larder could furnish. He then informed the chief that he was on his way east to procure arms and ammunition for the defense of his tribes, and obtained from him a promise that he would send provisions to his men in the fort during his absence. While here, he visited Starved Rock, the remarkable cliff previously alluded to, a mile or more above the village, on the southern bank of the river. He afterwards sent word to Tonti to examine and fortify it, in case an outbreak of the Indians rendered it necessary.*

*Several years since, it was selected by some enterprising Yankees as a site for a town, which they very appropriately called Gibraltar; but now it remains houseless, as in the time of the great explorer.

On the 15th of March LaSalle left the village, and continued his journey as before, partly by land and in part by water, till within two miles of the site of Joliet. Here, in consequence of the ice, they found the further ascent of the river impossible, and, concealing their canoes, prepared to make a march directly across the country to Lake Michigan. Journeying lakeward, they found the country a dreary waste of mud and half-melted snow, intersected here and there by swollen streams, some of which they waded, and others they crossed on rafts. On the 23d they were gladdened by the distant surface of the lake glimmering through the openings of the forest, and at night stood on its bank, thankful that they were safe, and that their hardships had been no worse. The next day they followed its winding shores to the mouth of the St. Joseph, and rested at night in the fort. Here LaSalle found the two men whom he had sent to look for the Griffin, and learned from them that they had made the circuit of the lake without learning any tidings of her fate. Deeming it useless to further continue the search, he ordered the men to report themselves to Tonti, and started himself across the trackless wilds of Southern Michigan, to avoid the delay attending the indirect route by way of the lakes.

It was the worst of all seasons for such a journey, and almost every league traversed, brought with it some new hardship. Now they were lascerated by brambly thickets, now they plunged up to their waists in the mud of half-frozen marshes, and now they were chilled in wading swollen streams. Dogged by a pack of savages, they were compelled to pass the nights without fire, to escape their murderous attacks. At length, with two of their number sick, they arrived at the head of a stream supposed to be the Huron, which, after making a canoe, they descended to the Detroit. Thence, marching eastward to the lake, 30 miles distant, they embarked in a canoe and pushed across the lake for the falls of Niagara, whither they arrived on Easter Monday, 1680. Here he found the men left at the cataract the previous autumn, who not only confirmed the loss of the Griffin, but informed him that a cargo of merchandise belonging to him, valued at 2200 livres, had recently been swallowed up in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Leaving the weary companions of his previous journey at Niagara, he set out with fresh men for Fort Frontenac, and on the 6th day of May discovered through the hazy atmosphere, the familiar outlines of his seigniory. He had now traveled within 65 days the distance of 1000 miles, which, considering the circumstances, was one of the most remarkable journeys ever made by the early French explorers. Possessing an invincible determination and a frame of iron, he surmounted obstacles from which a person less favorably endowed would have turned away in dispair. How changed has since become the wilderness through which he wandered. Its dark forests have become a region of harvests, and the traveler of to-day accomplishes in less than two days the journey which required of him more than two months.

At the fort he learned that his agents had treated him with bad faith; that his creditors had seized his property, and that several canoes belonging to him, loaded with valuables, had been lost in the rapids of the St. Lawrence. Without useless repining, he hastened to Montreal, where his presence excited the greatest sur

prise, and where, notwithstanding his great financial losses, his personal influence enabled him to obtain the necessary supplies. Again he directed his course westward, to succor the forlorn hope under Tonti, isolated from the rest of mankind on the distant banks of the Illinois. At Frontenac he received intelligence of another of those crushing blows which both nature and man seemed to be aiming at the success of his enterprise. Two messengers came with a letter from Tonti, stating that soon after his departure, nearly all his men had deserted, and that, before leaving, they had destroyed the fort, and thrown away stores they were unable to carry. The news of this disaster had hardly been received, before two traders arrived from the upper lakes, and further stated that the deserters had destroyed the fort on the St. Joseph, seized a great quantity of furs belonging to him at Mackinaw, and then, with others, descending the lakes, had plundered his magazine at Niagara. And now, they added, some of them are coming down the northern shore of the lake to murder him, as a means of escaping pnnishment, while others are coasting the south shore, with a view of reaching Albany, and getting beyond his jurisdiction. On receipt of this information, LaSalle chose 9 of his trustiest men, and sallied forth to meet them. Coming upon them by surprise, he killed 2 of their number and captured 7, whom he imprisoned in the fort to await the sentence of a civil tribunal. It might be supposed that LaSalle had reached the utmost limits of human endurance, on seeing the hopes of his enterprise so frequently levelled to the ground. While, however, weaker men would have turned away in dispair, no eye could detect in his stern demeanor an altered purpose or a shaken resolve. His only hope now seemed to be in Tonti, and could that faithful officer preserve the vessel commenced on the Illinois, and the tools which had been conveyed thither with so much labor, it might constitute an anchor to which he could attach the drifting wreck of his fortunes.

men.

Having procured supplies and everything needful for the outfit of a vessel, without further delay he set out, on the 10th of August, for Illinois, accompanied by his lieutenant, LaForest, and 25 He ascended the river Humber, crossed Simcoe Lake, and descended the Severn into Lake Huron, over which he passed to the Straits of Mackinaw. At the station he found it difficult to replenish his provisions, and, not to be delayed for this purpose, he pushed forward with 12 men, leaving LaForest and the remainder to follow as soon as they could procure supplies. November 24th he arrived at the St. Joseph, and, anxious to push forward more rapidly, he left the greater part of the stores, with 5 men, at the ruined fort, and with the remainder ascended the river, crossed the portage and commenced the descent of the Kankakee. Not meeting with any traces of Tonti and his men, he concluded they must still be at the fort on the river below, and hastened thither, greatly relieved of the anxiety he had felt for their safety. Rumors for some time had prevailed that the Iroquois were meditating a descent on the Illinois, and should it prove true, it might, after all his labors, involve his enterprise in ruin. On entering the Illinois, he found the great prairies, which he had left the previous spring sheeted in ice now alive with buffalo. Some were sleeping on the sward, many were cropping the tall grass, while

groups, to slake their thirst, were moving toward the river, where they looked with strange bewilderment at the passing canoes. Wherever a squad appeared, it was guarded by bulls, whose formidable manes and unsightly forms might well have inspired an approaching foe with terror. But it was rather with domestic rivals than foreign enemies they performed the greatest feats of prowess. Battered heads and splintered horns told of many battles fought among themselves as the result of gallantry, or perhaps the more ambitious motive becoming the champions of their shaggy herds. The party wishing a supply of buffalo meat, landed and commenced a warfare on the tempting game. Some dragged themselves through the thick grass and with unerring aim brought down their favorite animals, while others, with less labor and greater success, concealed themselves behind the banks of the river and shot such as came to drink. Twelve huge carcasses rewarded the labors of the hunt, which the men cut into thin flakes and dried in the sun for future use.

With abundant supplies they again started down the river, pleased with the prospect of rejoining the men under Tonti and relieving their wants. Soon loomed up before them the rocky citadel to which LaSalle had directed the attention of Tonti, but they found on a near approach its lofty summit unfortified. At the great town of the Illinois they were appalled at the scene which opened to their view. No hunter appeared to break its death-like silence with a salutatory whoop of welcome. The plain on which the town had stood was now strewn with the charred fragments of lodges, which had so recently swarmed with savage life and hilarity. To render more hideous the picture of desolation, large numbers of skulls had been placed on the upper extremities of lodge poles, which had escaped the devouring flames. In the midst of the horrors was the rude fort of the spoilers, rendered frightful with the same ghastly relics. A near approach showed that the graves had been robbed of their bodies, and swarms of buzzards were discovered glutting their loathsome stomachs on their reeking corruption. To complete the work of destruction, the growing corn of the village had been cut down and burnt, while the pits containing the products of previous years had been rifled and their contents scattered with wanton waste. It was evident the suspected blow of the Iroquois had fallen with relentless fury. No other denizens of the wilderness were capable of perpetrating such acts of barbarity and unhallowed desecration. LaSalle carefully examined the scene of these hellish orgies, to ascertain whether Tonti and his men had become the victims of savage vengeance. Nightfall terminated his labors, and no certain traces of their presence were discovered. The nightly camp fire was kindled, and the men now listened with rueful faces at the discordant chorus of wolves, each striving to get his share of the putrid bodies which had been resurrected from the vilage graveyard. Sleep at length came to their relief, but LaSalle, perplexed with uncertainty and filled with anxiety, spent the whole night in pondering over the proper course to pursue in future. In his search the previous day he had discovered 6 posts near the river, on each of which was painted the figure of a man with bandaged eyes. Surmising that the figures might represent 6 French prisoners in the custody of the Iroquois, at daylight he made known

his intention of further descending the river to unfold the mys tery.

Before his departure he ordered 3 of his men to conceal themselves and baggage in the hollow of some rocks situated on a neighboring island, and keep a sharp lookout for furthor develop. ments. They were instructed to refrain from the use of fires, whereby they might attract the attention of enemies; and should others of the men arrive they were to secrete themselves in the same place and await his return. He now set out with the 4 remaining men, each properly armed and furnished with merchandise to conciliate the Indians who might be met on the way. Sev eral leagues below the town they landed on an island, near the western shore, where the fugitive Illinois had taken refuge. Directly opposite, on the main shore was the deserted camp of the Iroquois enemy. Each chief had carved on trees of the forest the totem of his clan, and signs indicating the strength of the forces he had led to the war and the number of the Illinois he had killed and captured. From these data LaSalle concluded that the entire strength of the invaders could not have been less than 580 warriors. Nothing was found to indicate the presence of Frenchmen, and LaSalle again fell down the river, and passed in one day 6 additional camps of the Illinois and as many more belonging to their enemy. Both parties seemed to have retreated in compact bodies toward the mouth of the river. Passing Peoria Lake they found the fort destroyed, as stated in the letter of Tonti, but the vessel was still on the stocks and only slightly injured. Further on they discovered 4 additional camps of the opposing armies, and near the mouth of the river met with the usual sequel of an Iroquois invasion. On the distant verge of a meadow they discovered the half-charred bodies of women and children still bound to the stakes, where they had suffered all the torments that hellish hate could devise. The men, regardless of their helpless charges, had evidently fled at the first approach of danger to save themselves. Their wives and children, unprotected, fell into the hands of the enemy, who, in addition to those who had been burnt, thickly covered the place with their mangled bodies, many of which bore marks of brutality too horrid for record. Helpless innocence, instead of exciting compassion in the hearts of these monsters, had only nerved them for the fiendish task of indiscriminate slaughter. LaSalle, seeing no traces of his lost men, proceeded to the mouth of the river, where he saw the great highway. which for years had been the object and hopes of his ambition. Its vast floods rolled mysteriously onward to an unknown bourne, for the discovery of which, with new resolves, he determined to devote his life. His men proposed, without further delay, to proceed on the long contemplated voyage, but LaSalle, hedged in by untoward complications, was compelled to await a more favorable time. Thinking that Tonti might still be in the nighborhood, he fastened to a tree a painting representing himself and party sitting in a canoe, and bearing the pipe of peace. To the painting he attached a letter, addressed to Tonti, the purport of which was that he should hasten up the river and join him at the great town of the Illinois. The party next commenced the ascent of the river to the same place, and vigorously plying their paddles night and day, arrived at their destination in 4 days. During the upward voyage,