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06 - Starved Rock- A Historical Sketch by Eaton G. Osman · Starved Rock- A Historical Sketch

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  Speaker 1: Section six of Starved Rock, a historical sketch by Eton
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  Speaker 1: g Ossman. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain
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  Speaker 1: recording by Veronica Jenkins. Section six LaSalle's Successors the Missions
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  Speaker 1: LaSalle's successors. His step is firm, his eye is keen.
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  Speaker 1: Nor years in brawl and battle spent, nor toil, nor
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  Speaker 1: wounds nor pain have bent the lordly frame of old
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  Speaker 1: castein scott two hundred years ago. Henri de Tonti, a
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  Speaker 1: veteran of the Sicilian Wars, in which he had a
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  Speaker 1: hand blown off by a grenade, whom lesal met in
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  Speaker 1: Paris in sixteen seventy eight, is one of the most
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  Speaker 1: superb figures in the annals of the Mississippi Valley. His
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  Speaker 1: industry and energy, his bravery in his tact, his integrity
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  Speaker 1: and his faithfulness, his honorable character and ammiable disposition unite
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  Speaker 1: to differentiate him from all those whose names, as the
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  Speaker 1: lesser stars crowd the earlier pages of those annals. Parkman
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  Speaker 1: calls him that brave, loyal and generous man, always vigilant
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  Speaker 1: and always active, beloved and feared alike by white men
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  Speaker 1: and by red Missus. Catherward says, LaSalle is a definite
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  Speaker 1: figure in the popular mind, but LaSalle's greater friend is
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  Speaker 1: known only to historians and students. To me, the finest
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  Speaker 1: fact in the Norman explorer's career is the devotion he
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  Speaker 1: commanded in Henri de Tonti. No stupid dreamer, no ruffian
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  Speaker 1: at heart, no betrayer of friendships, no mere blundering woodsman,
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  Speaker 1: as LaSalle has been outlined by his enemies, could have
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  Speaker 1: bound to himself such a man as Tonti. The love
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  Speaker 1: of this friend and the words this friend have left
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  Speaker 1: on record. Thus honor lofle Rosal, and we who like
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  Speaker 1: courage and steadfastness and gentle courtesy in man owe much
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  Speaker 1: honor which has never been paid to Henri de Tonti. Tonti,
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  Speaker 1: while La Salle was making his last voyage to France,
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  Speaker 1: was removed from the command of Fort Saint Louis by
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  Speaker 1: order of Labarre, who was determined to ruin Lassalle, but
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  Speaker 1: he remained to keep watch and ward over Le Sal's
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  Speaker 1: interests at La Rochet. The next year, however, the king
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  Speaker 1: reinstated him as Lassalle's commandant at the Rock. He no
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  Speaker 1: sooner heard at mackinaw of Lesalle's landing and earlier disasters
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  Speaker 1: on the Gulf than he prepared at his own cost.
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  Speaker 1: An expedition for his relief. Composed of twenty five Frenchmen
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  Speaker 1: and eleven Indians, he went to the mouth of the Mississippi, but,
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  Speaker 1: finding no trace of the colony, returned to the Arkansas,
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  Speaker 1: where six of his men volunteered to remain, two of
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  Speaker 1: whom afterwards rescued Lassalle's brother Caviller Choutel, and others, who
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  Speaker 1: with unpardonable ingratitude, carefully concealed the fact of LaSalle's death,
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  Speaker 1: even while they accepted for months Tonti's hospitality on starved
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  Speaker 1: Roc and took from him on LaSalle's contingent order, written
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  Speaker 1: before his death, first sufficient to carry Caviller, at least
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  Speaker 1: in good circumstances, back to France. Tonti, after Lesal's death,
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  Speaker 1: remained some time in command of Fort Saint Louis as
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  Speaker 1: Lesalle's representative. In sixteen ninety, however, he addressed a petition
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  Speaker 1: to Pontchatraine, the minister at Paris, reciting that though he
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  Speaker 1: was commissioned and had served as captain for many years,
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  Speaker 1: he had received no pay. Frontenac, who by this time
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  Speaker 1: was again Governor of Canada endorsed Tonti's petition, in consequence
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  Speaker 1: of which he and la Forest, another faithful lieutenant and
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  Speaker 1: of LaSalle, were granted the proprietorship of Fort Saint Louis,
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  Speaker 1: where they carried on a trade in firs. The station
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  Speaker 1: was a most important one, as we have seen, both
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  Speaker 1: politically and commercially. It was the most considerable Indian village
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  Speaker 1: in the Illinois country, having a population ranging, according to
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  Speaker 1: circumstances from nothing to twenty thousand souls, but averaging at
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  Speaker 1: times of peace about eight thousand. The lodges were built
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  Speaker 1: along the river bank for a distance of a mile
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  Speaker 1: or more, while the meadows were extensively cultivated, yielding large crops,
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  Speaker 1: chiefly of Indian corn. In sixteen ninety six, the King
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  Speaker 1: issued in order abandoning Macalamackinac and other outposts on the lakes,
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  Speaker 1: as well as all other advanced posts except Fort Saint
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  Speaker 1: Louis in the Illinois, which the King wishes maintained on
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  Speaker 1: condition that Surs de la Forest and Tonti, to whom
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  Speaker 1: he reserves the concession, should not bring or cause to
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  Speaker 1: be brought any beaver into the colony. Charlevois says, I
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  Speaker 1: have been unable to ascertain on whose advice the King's
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  Speaker 1: Council adopted this resolution. The excursions of the Canadians into
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  Speaker 1: new countries certainly ruined the commerce of New France. Canada
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  Speaker 1: introduced frightful libertinage, rendered the nation contemptible among all the
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  Speaker 1: tribes on the continent, and raised insurmountable obstacles to the
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  Speaker 1: progress of religion. Whatever the cause of the above order,
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  Speaker 1: it is true that during the few years after LaSalle's death,
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  Speaker 1: the influence and trade of the Rock declined, both because
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  Speaker 1: of the dispersion of the resident tribes by Indian raids,
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  Speaker 1: and also because the influences at work in Canada against
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  Speaker 1: LaSalle and his project had succeeded in changing the route
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  Speaker 1: to the Mississippi from the Illinois to that via the
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  Speaker 1: Fox River portage to the Wisconsin. In seventeen o two,
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  Speaker 1: Tonti was directed to join de Bourville in Lower Louisiana,
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  Speaker 1: while a forest was recalled to Canada. Then, for the
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  Speaker 1: first time, the fort was officially abandoned. It was reoccupied
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  Speaker 1: from time to time by Courouse de Bois as an
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  Speaker 1: illicit trading post, and formerly again in seventeen eighteen, when
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  Speaker 1: a number of traders resided there, But when Charlevois passed
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  Speaker 1: down the river in seventeen twenty one, he found it abandoned,
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  Speaker 1: only the ruins of its palisades remaining. But little is
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  Speaker 1: known of Tonty after he joined Debourville and Charlevois, as
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  Speaker 1: he died at Fort Saint Louis on the Mobile River
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  Speaker 1: at about the age of fifty four. Ann Manson of
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  Speaker 1: Princeton in his lifetime, a collector of India and French
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  Speaker 1: Indian reminiscences, has printed a tradition which he says he
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  Speaker 1: heard from descendants of the old Coyiores old residence now
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  Speaker 1: on the American Bottom, who had it as it was
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  Speaker 1: handed down from father to son, as was the custom
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  Speaker 1: among primitive peoples everywhere. The story is that Tonty, years
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  Speaker 1: after seventeen o two, returned to the Rock an old
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  Speaker 1: and broken man, where he died, revealing his identity at
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  Speaker 1: the supreme moment to the awe struck Indians and traders
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  Speaker 1: who had borne him to the summit where he had
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  Speaker 1: so long commanded, let us hope if Tonti's brave heart
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  Speaker 1: and gentle spirit could find solace and rest dying here
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  Speaker 1: that it was so. But if, as this legend further says,
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  Speaker 1: Tonti's body was buried at the foot of starved Rock,
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  Speaker 1: where the waters of the quiet Illinois would wash its
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  Speaker 1: southern segment, the living of to day have still a
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  Speaker 1: duty to perform the erection of a stone to mark
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  Speaker 1: his last resting place. The missions, oh the generations old,
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  Speaker 1: over whom no church bells told christless, lifting up blind
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  Speaker 1: eyes to the silence of the skies, the bells of
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  Speaker 1: the Roman mission that call from their turrets twain, to
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  Speaker 1: the boatmen on the river, to the hunter on the plain,
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  Speaker 1: Whittier the Immaculate Conception. The earlier American Catholic missionaries to
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  Speaker 1: the Indians of North America were to a degree distinguished
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  Speaker 1: for heroic self devotion, energy of purpose, purity of motives,
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  Speaker 1: holiness of design. Nowhere can be found more than is sublime,
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  Speaker 1: even to eyes blinded by the glare of human greatness,
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  Speaker 1: than the biographies of these martyrs of the American wilderness.
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  Speaker 1: Parkman's volume The Jesuits in North America is one continuous
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  Speaker 1: tale of Christian heroism and zeo which has not been
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  Speaker 1: surpassed by any age of the Church in any clime.
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  Speaker 1: The missionaries who sacrificed all things, suffered, all things endured,
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  Speaker 1: all things had not all passed from earth until these
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  Speaker 1: men at least had met death for Christ's sake and
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  Speaker 1: his church. We have seen how in sixteen seventy five,
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  Speaker 1: the Gentle Marquette, the last of this line of Jesuit martyrs,
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  Speaker 1: established at the Illinois town the mission, which he called
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  Speaker 1: the Immaculate Conception. How reaching the village April eighth, he
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  Speaker 1: went from cabin to cabin, instructing the inmates. Then, when
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  Speaker 1: all were sufficiently aware of the doctrines of the Cross
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  Speaker 1: to follow his discourse, he convoked a general meeting on
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  Speaker 1: a beautiful prairie. There before their wondering eyes, he raised
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  Speaker 1: his altar, and they beheld him offer the holy sacrifice
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  Speaker 1: of the Mass on the very day when, over sixteen
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  Speaker 1: centuries before, the God he preached had instituted it in
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  Speaker 1: the Upper Room in Jerusalem. Thus, on Monday Thursday was
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  Speaker 1: possession taken of Illinois in the name of Catholicity, of
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  Speaker 1: Jesus and of Mary. Two years later, the indefatigable Cloud
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  Speaker 1: Alois was sent to Kaskaskia as this great town was
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  Speaker 1: known to the churchmen. He arrived April twenty seventh, sixteen
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  Speaker 1: seventy six, and was immediately lodged in Marquette's cabin. He
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  Speaker 1: worked hard, and on May third, the feast of the
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  Speaker 1: Invention of the Holy Cross, he erected in the midst
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  Speaker 1: of the village across twenty five feet high, But though
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  Speaker 1: he baptized thirty six infants and one adult, his mission
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  Speaker 1: at that time has not been counted a success. He
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  Speaker 1: was again at Kaskaskia in sixteen seventy eight, remaining until
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  Speaker 1: sixteen seventy nine, when he retired before the approach of Lassalle.
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  Speaker 1: Though LaSelle had an aversion to the Jesuits in general,
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  Speaker 1: who he always believed and with some reason, were his enemies,
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  Speaker 1: and a dislike to Alouis in particular, he was still
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  Speaker 1: a profound life religious man, and was invariably accompanied in
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  Speaker 1: his expeditions by the Black Gowns, notably the Recollette fathers,
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  Speaker 1: Gabriel de la Reboard, Zenobius Membre and Louis Hennepin. In
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  Speaker 1: the year sixteen eighty, the two former took up the
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  Speaker 1: work abandoned by Alois and were with Tonty on the
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  Speaker 1: memorable day described on pages twenty six and twenty seven.
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  Speaker 1: After their escape from the Iroquois, Tonti and his frenchmen
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  Speaker 1: and the two fathers embarked September eighteenth for Green Bay.
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  Speaker 1: On the next day, when the men were repairing their
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  Speaker 1: injured canoe, the aged father reboard retired apart to say
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  Speaker 1: his brevery. While thus engaged, he was met by a
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  Speaker 1: party of kickapoos out against the Iroquois, who ruthlessly murdered him. Thus,
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  Speaker 1: in his seventieth year and in the fortieth of his priesthood, perished,
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  Speaker 1: this last scion of a noble Burgundian house who had
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  Speaker 1: renounced the world and its honor and the comforts of
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  Speaker 1: Europe for the wilds of Canada and a martyr's death.
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  Speaker 1: In sixteen eighty, Alouis returned to the mission, remaining there
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  Speaker 1: until Cavier J'aoutel, Father Dewey, and the other survivors of
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  Speaker 1: Losalle's ill fated colony arrived from Texas As. These men
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  Speaker 1: falsely said that LaSalle was still alive and on his
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  Speaker 1: way to the Rock, Alouis again retired. Little is known
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  Speaker 1: of him after this time, except that he died at
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  Speaker 1: Lo Sal's Fort Miami in sixteen ninety, leaving a name
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  Speaker 1: imperishably connected with the discovery of the Great West. The
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  Speaker 1: year Alouis left Keskaskia, Father James Gravier visited Illinois, but
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  Speaker 1: at that time his mission did not become a permanent one,
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  Speaker 1: and the real successor of Alouis was the famous Sebastian Ral,
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  Speaker 1: who was sent thither from Quebec. Arriving in the spring
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  Speaker 1: of sixteen eighty two, he found a town of three
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  Speaker 1: hundred cabins of four to five fires each. Two families
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  Speaker 1: to a fire, and a banquet in his honour was
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  Speaker 1: given by the head chief. Yet, though he was heartily welcomed,
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  Speaker 1: the faith he preached made but slow progress. After a
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  Speaker 1: two years stay with the Illinois Father Raw was recalled
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  Speaker 1: to his original charge, the Abenakis on the Kennebec River
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  Speaker 1: in Maine. Father Gravier came a second time to the
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  Speaker 1: Kaskaskia mission in March sixteen ninety four and built a
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  Speaker 1: chapel within the fort on starved Rock by Tonty's permission.
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  Speaker 1: He also built a second chapel outside the fort among
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  Speaker 1: the Indians, and planted before it a towering cross amid
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  Speaker 1: the shouts and musketry of the French. He remained in
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  Speaker 1: general charge of the mission until sixteen ninety seven, when
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  Speaker 1: he was recalled to Mackinaw. He was succeeded by fathers
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  Speaker 1: Julius Bennettau and James Pinney. Father Gravier's mission seems to
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  Speaker 1: have been the most so successful of all, in which
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  Speaker 1: work he was not a little assisted by Mary, daughter
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  Speaker 1: of the chief and wife of Michael Acco or Dacho.
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  Speaker 1: Acho was probably one of Hennepin's companions in his voyage
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  Speaker 1: up the Mississippi, who, on his return to the Illinois,
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  Speaker 1: wished to marry the Indian maiden. Against her will, but
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  Speaker 1: with the consent of her father. Father Gravier sided with
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  Speaker 1: the maiden, who at length yielded to her parents wish,
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  Speaker 1: in the hope that she might, by this self sacrifice,
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  Speaker 1: be the means of bringing both Acho and her parents
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  Speaker 1: into the fold of Christ. Ultimately, her wish, we are
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  Speaker 1: told by Doctor Shea in a sympathetic chapter, was fully gratified,
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  Speaker 1: she having been the means of bringing many souls to
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  Speaker 1: the Church. Father Gravier was the first to analyze the
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  Speaker 1: Illinois language and compile its grammar. And its dictionary. But
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  Speaker 1: none of his words are said now to exist except
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  Speaker 1: in bare fragments. In sixteen ninety eight came Father Mayor,
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  Speaker 1: under whose guidance and direction the mission was removed to
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  Speaker 1: the new cas Caskia, the cast Caskia of our time,
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  Speaker 1: the first capital of the state of Illinois, on the
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  Speaker 1: banks of the Mississippi. This migration of missionaries and Indians,
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  Speaker 1: which took place in the year sixteen ninety nine, was
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  Speaker 1: the natural result of the decay of the Rock's importance
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  Speaker 1: as a military and commercial point, and of a desire
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  Speaker 1: for consolidation by the Western or Illinois tribes against the
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  Speaker 1: Iroquois and those fire brands of the West, the Foxes.
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  Speaker 1: And of section six recorded by Veronica Jenkins in Ottawa, Illinois,