%^ 0> »o. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) y A ^ // pious companions began a novena, or nine days' devotion, to the Klessed Virgin Immaculate. From its close he began to gain strength, and, when the freshet compelled them to remove their cabin, on the 29th of March he set out airain on his long interrupted voyage, the river being now open. His last entry is of the '>th of April, when the wind and cold compelled them to halt. He never found time to ccmtinue nis journal ; and his last words are a playful allusion to the hardships undergone by the traders, in which he sympathized, whil • insensible of his own — Shea. He set .)ut for this purpose in tiic montli of November, 1674, from the Hay of the Fetid, with two men, one of whom had already made that voyage with him. During a month's naviga- tion on the Ilinois Lake he was pretty well ; but, as soon as the snow began to fall, he was again seized with the dysentery, which forced him to stop in the river wiiich leads to the Ilinois. There they raised a cabin, and spent the winter in such want of every comfort that his illness constantly increased. He felt that Ciod had granted him the grace he had so often asked, and lie even plainly told his companions so, assuring them that he would die of that illness and on that voyage. To prepare his soul for its departure, he began that rude wintering by the exercises of Saint Ignatius, which, in spite of his great bodily weakness, he performed with deep sentimtjnts of devotion and great heavenly consolation; and tlien spent the rest of his time in colloquies with all heaven, having no more intercourse with earth amid these deserts, e.\ce])t with his two companions, whom he confessed and communicated twice a week, and e.v- horted as much as his strength allowed. Some time after Christmas, in order to obtain the grace not to die without having taken possession of his beloved mission, he invited his companions to make a novena in honor of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin. Contrary to all human e.xpectation, he was heard, and, recovering, found himself able to proceed to the Ilinois town as soon as navigation was free. This i'.e accomplished in great joy, setting out on the 29th of March. He was eleven days on the way, where he had ample matter for suffering, both from his still sickly state and from the severity and inclemency of tie weather. Having at last readied the town on the 8th of April, he was received there as an angel from heaven ; and after having sev- eral times assembled the chiefs of the nation with all the old men (jincicn?,), to sow in their minds the first seed of the gospel, after carrying his instructions into the cabins, which were always filled with crowds of people, he resolved to speak to all publicly in general assembly, which he convoked in the open fields, the cabins being too small for the meeting. A beautiful prairie near the town was chosen for the great coun- cil. It was adorned in the fashion of the country, being spread with mats and bear-skins ; and the father, having hung on cords some pieces of India tatTety, attached to them four large pict- ures of the Blessed Virgin, which were thus visible on all sides. The auditory was composed of five hundred chiefs and old men, seated in a circle around the father, while the youth stood with- out to the number of fifteen hundred, not counting women and children who arc very numerous, the town being composed of five or .lix hundred fires. The father spoke to all this gathering, and addressed them ten words by ten presents which he made them; he explained to them the principal mysteries of our religion, and the end for which he had come to their country ; and especially he preached to them Christ crucified, for it was the very eve of the great dav on which he died on the cross for them, as well as for the rest of men. He then said mass. Three days after, on [master Sunday, things being arranged in the same manner as on Thursday, he celebrated the holy mysteries for the second time ; and by these two sacrifices, the first ever offered therti to Oo.l, he took possession of that land in the name of Jesus Christ, and gave this mission the name of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed V^irgin. He was listened to with universal joy and approbation by all this people, who earnestly besought him to return as soon as possible among them, since his malady obliged him to leave them. The father, on his part, showed them the affection he bore them, his satisfaction at their conduct, and gave his word that he or some other of our fathers would return to con- tinue this mission so happily begun. This promise he repeated again and again, on parting with them to begin his journey. He set out amid such marks of friendship from these good people that they escorted him with pomp more than thirty leagues of the way, contending with one another for the honor of carrying his little baggage. After the Ilinois had taken leave of the father, filled with a great idea of the gospel, he continued his voyage, and soon after reached the Ilinois Lake, on which he had nearly a hun- dred leagues to make by an unknown route, because he was side of the lake, having His strength, however, obliged to take the southern [eastern gone thither by the northern [western failed so much that his men despaired of being able to carry him alive to their journey's end; for, in fact, he became so weak and exhausted that he could no longer help himself, nor even stir, and had to be handled and carried like a child. He nevertheless maintained in this state an admirable equa- nimity, joy, and gentleness, consoling his beloved companions and encouraging them to suffer courageously all the hardships of the way, assuring them that our Lord would not forsake them pre pa quies guardi t hese mothe spiritu asked death, every strengi of his 1 shortei A w( holy w agony, to use i The radiant ing the his buri i^e selec liands, J his grav hours b was dea ill this thought not of h Thus till, perc bank wh it was tf pass on, advance( to return They raised fo little unc by sadne they were The U Francis I alone am 5 them when he was jjone. Durinj; this navigation he began to prepare more particularly for death, passing his time in collo- (piies with our Lord, with His lioly mother, with iiis angel- guardian, or with all heaven. He was often heard pronouncing these words: " 1 believe that niv Redeemer liveth," or "Mary, mother of grace, mother of (lod, remember me." Besides a spiritual reading made for him every day, he toward the close asked them to read him his meditation on the pre[)araiion of death, which he carried about him. He recited his breviary every day ; and, although lie was so low that both sight and strength had greatly failed, he did not omit it till the last day of his life, when his companions induced him to cease, as it was shortening Ins days. A week before his death he had the precaution to bless some holy water, to serve him during the rest of his illness, in his agony, and at his burial ; and he instructed his companions how to use it. The eve of his death, which was a Friday, he told them, all radiant with joy, that it would take place on the morrow. Dur- ing the whole day he conversed with them about the manner of his burial, the way in which he should be laid out, the place to be selected for his interment; he told them how to arrange his hands, feet, and face, and directed them to raise a cross over his grave. He even went so far as to enjoin them, only three hours before he expired, to take his chapel-bell, as soon as he was dead, and ring it while they carried him to the grave. Of ill this he spoke so calmly and collectedly that you would have thought that he spoke of the death and burial of another, and not of his own. Thus did he speak with them as they sailed along the lake, till, perceiving the mouth of a river with an eminence on the bank which he thought suited for his burial, he told them that it was the place of his last repose. They wished, however, to pass on, as the weather permitted it and the day was not far advanced; but God raised a contrary wind which obliged them to return and enter the river pointed out by Father Marquette. They then carried him ashore, kindled a little fire, and raised for him a wretched bark cabin, where they laid him as little uncomfortably as they could ; but they were so overcome by sadness that, as they afterward said, they did not know what they were doing. The father being thus stretched on the shore, like Saint Francis Xavier, as he had always so ardently desired, and left alone amid those forests, — for his companions were engaged in 6 unloading, lie liad leisure to repeat all the acts in which he had employed liimscit durin;; the preceding; days. When his dear companions afterward came up all dejected, he consoled them, and gave them hopes that Ood would take care of them after his death in those new and unknown coun- tries. He gave them his last instructions, thanked them for all the charity they had shown him during the voyage, begged their pardon for the trouble he had given them, and directed them also to ask pardon in his name of all our fathers and brothers in the Ottawa country, and then disposed them lu receive the sacrament of penance, which he administered to them for the last time. He also gave them a paper on which he had written all his faults since his last confession, to be given to his superior to oblige him to pray more earnestly for him. In fine, he promised not to forget them in heaven ; and. as he was very kind-hearted and knew them to be worn out with the toil of the preceding days, he bade them go and take a little rest, assuring them that his hour was not yet so near but that he would wake them when it was time, as in fact he did two or three hours after, calling them when about to enter his agony. When they came near, he embraced them for the last time, while they melted in tears at his feet. He then asked for the holy water and his reliquary, and, taking off his crucitix, whicii he wore around his neck, he placed it in the hands of one, ask- ing him to hold it constantly opposite him, raised before his eyes. Then, feeling that he had but a little time to live, he mack- a last effort, clasped his hands; and, with his eyes fixed sweetl\- on his crucifix, he pronounced aloud his profession of faith, and thanked the Divine Majesty for the immense grace he did him in allowing him to die in the society of Jesus, — to die in it as ,i missionary of Jesus Christ, and. above all, to die in it. as he had always asked, in a wretched cabin amid the forests, destitute ut all human aid. On this he became silent, conversing inwardly with God ; yet from time to time words escaped him: " Sustinuit anima mea in verba ejus," or " Mater Dei; memento mei," which were the last words he uttered before entering on his agony, which was very calm and gentle. He had prayed his companions to remind him, when they saw him about to expire, to pronounce frequently the nanus of Jesus and Mary. When he could not do it himself, they did it for him ; and, when they thought him about to pass, one cried aloud, Jesus Maria, which he several times repeated distinctly, and to h; tliein with smile sunk Hi his b( devoi tion, ; passei From , It is place, that it ago. ' of post( Could r the site that upc to rise t he woul very be< earth's s in remer VV'e Cc but high man wh pioneer, that two and his c in the po disappear to contaii related b; set forth c of Macki Bay, and and then, as if at those sacred names something had appeared to him, he suddenly raised his eyes above his crucifix, tixin;; them a|)parenily on some object which he seemed to re<;ard with pleasure, and thus with a countenance all radiant with smiles he expired without a struggle, as gently as if he had sunk into a quiet sleep. His two poor companions, after shedding many tears over his body, and having laid it out as he had directed, carried it devoutly to the grave, ringing the bell according to his injunc- tion, and raised a large cross near it to serve as a mark for passers-by. FathiiR MAkcjutniK at Ciiicaoo. From an Artidc on "'Early Visitors to Cliiiaj^o," in the Ne7U A'w.i.'- lanv Ei/uuird (r. .]/^tison, 1' resident of the Chicui^o //istorica/ Society. It is customary to speak of Chicago as a comparatively new place, but it assumes a respectable anti(|uity when we remember that it was known to white men more than two hundred years ago. Those who saw it then were so regardless of the curiosi'y of posterity as to leave but scanty mementoes of their presence. Could any one of them have imagined that he was standing on the site of a city destined to be the second in size in our land, that upon the marsh and sand bank which lay before him was to rise the metro]")olis of the (Jreat West, we may be sure that he would have taken pains to let us know of his being at the very beginning of human association with this portion of the earth's surface, and to ask us, for that reason, to hold his name in remembrance. We cannot possibly identify the earliest visitor to Chicago, but high authority is inclined to hold that the first civili/ed man who crossed the Chicago Portage was the dauntless pioneer, Rene Robert Cavelier Sieur de la Salle. We know that two years of his life in America are involved in obscurity; and his own journal and maps relating to this period, though in the possession of one of his relatives a century later, have disappeared, liut an anonymous manuscript exists purporting to contain an account of his explorations during these years, related by La Salle himself. This states that in 167 1 La Salle set forth on Lake Erie, crossed Lake Huron, passed the Straits of Mackinac and La Baye des Puants, which we call (ireen Bay, and discovered an incomparably larger bay, which doubt- 8 less was the southern part of Lake Michigan. At its foot towards the west he found "a very good port," and at the end of this a stream going from the east to the west. 'J'his port, it is thought by Francis I'arkman, wliose opinion is of the utmost wtight, m:iy have been the entrance to the Chicago Ki'.cr, and the stream the 1 )es IMaines branch of the IHiuois. If ihis manuscript is correct, la Salle was at the site of (Chicago two )ears beff)re joliet and Maripiette. lie was the real dis- coverer of the (Ircat West, for he planned its occupation and began its settlement ; and he alone of the men ot his time appreciated its boundless possibilities, and with prophetic eye saw in the future its wide area peopled by his own race. It seems very tilting that a city which is the incarnation of the energy, the courage, and the enterj)rise which animated his iron frame should begin its annals with the splendiil name of l,a Salle. Assuming, then, that he war. the tirst, the next visitors to Chicago, who are usually spoken of as the earliest, were Louis lolliet, usually written Joliet, and jaccpies (James) Marcjuette. Returning from their famous journey on the Mississippi Kiver, they doubtless crossed the portage from the Des IMaines River to the south branch, and went by way of the Chicago River to Lake Michigan, and along its western shore to the jjresent Green Hay, in the late summer or early fall of the year 1673. Father Marquette in h's narrative of this journey mentions the river — that is, the Illinois — which brought them with little trouble to the Lake of Illinois (now Lake Michigan). He says, ■" We have seen nothing like this river for the fertility of its land, its prairies, woods, wild cattle, stag, deer, wild-cats, bustards, swans, clucks, ])arrots, and even beaver, its many little hikes and rivers." He speaks of the portage of half a league and of the escort which one of the native chiefs gave them to the Like of the Illinois. These friendly Indian hosts accompanied Joliet and Marquette from the town of Kaskaskia, which was situated on the broad meadow opposite Starved Rock, or, as some think, nearer to the present town of Juliet, and probably bade them good by upon what is now the Chicago River. It is curious to notice that Joliet, who was the leader of the party and especially charged by the government with the dis- covery of the great river, has had less of the resulting honor than Marquette, though the larger part was rightfully his share. Marquette himself says : — ('clLi ted lor tliL- trittrprisf ihf Sicur |o||yti, \vlii>m tin. y ili tnied cuinintcnt for .so prtat .i diM^n, wislun).; to «.fi' K.ither M.ir(|tiitte iwidinp.mv him. 'They wen: not mi^iaktn in tinir chum of tlie Sn-nr Jolliet ; for he was ;i youn^i man liorn in ihc lonniry, ami endow ud wiili e\i'ry ipi.ditv that i onld l)e desiri'd in .such an enterprise, lie |)()sso>se(l e.xpirience and a knnwlednc of the lanuuaj^is of the < Mi.iwa Coimtry, wlu-rc he h.id >\)v\n .>cviral vears; lie h.id the tail and priidene so luicssaiy for the sin ( I'ss of ;i voyani- eqiiallv d.inm'nnis and dittieiilt; ami, lastly, he h.id courage to fear iiolhinj.', where ail is to \h- leancl. Joliet's failure to receive hi.s tlin' nu'cd of fame results etitirely from the fact that Mar(|iiettc's nairativc of tlieir voya<;t' was preserved; while all of Joliet's papers, including his carefully prepared re|)ort to his j^overuinent, and a very e.xact map, were lost by the upsetting of his canoe in the rapids above Montreal, when he had almost completed his return trip. Joliet prepared from rectdlection an account of his voyage, and sketrhed a map, both of which {''rontenac sent to I'rance. This map, and perhaps others from iiis hand, have recently come to light ; and we have also a statement prepared by Father Claude l)ab!on, Superior (leneral of the Jesuit Missions in Atnerica, from information furnished him by Joliet, who speaks in it as enthusiastically as did I-'ather Marquette about the Illinois River, which, he says, "is large and deep, full of barbels and sturgeon ; game is found in abutidance on its banks; the wild cattle, cows, stags, turkeys, ai^pear more there than elsewhere. . . . There are prairies there si.x, ten, and twenty leagues long, and three wide, surrounded by forests of equal extent, beyond which the prairies begin again." Certainly, no State in the Union has received more complimentary mention from its first visitors than Illinois. It further appears from this statement that either Joliet or Father Dablon himself, but probably the former, was the first to suggest a ship canal from Lake Michigan to the Illinois River. P'or the good father, in his remarks upon the utility of Joliet's discovery, says : — A very important advant.i^e (of it), and which some will perhaps find it hard to credit, is that \vf can tjuitc easily go to Florida in boats, and by a very good navigation. There would be but one canal to make by cutting only one-half a league of ])rairie to i)ass from the lake of the '.llinois (.Michig.m) into St. Louis River (Des Plaincs). The route to be taken is this: the bark should be built in Lake Krie which is near L.ike ()ntaiio; it would pa>.s easily from Lake Krie to Lake Huron, from which it would enter the Lakc- of the Illinois. At the e.xtreinity of this lake would be the cut or canal of which I have spoken to have a passage to St. Louis River, which empties into the Mississippi. The bark having thus entered this river would sail easily to the Gulf of Mexico. 10 If ever the proposed ship canal from Lake Michigan to the Illinois River is constructed, it will not l)e amiss to associate with it the name of the first projector of such a work, Louis Juliet. Onint I'>ontenac wrote the French government in 1674 that Joliei left with the missionaries at Sault Ste. Marie coj^ies of his journals. "These," he says, "we cannot get before next year ' ; and Father Dablon, speaking of the loss of Joliet's narraiive and map, says, " I'.uher Marquette kept a copy of that which has been lost." Thus far neither of these copies has come to light, but 1 do not despair of the finding of one or both. The joy of the discovery is, 1 trust, reserved for some ardent anti(|narian, who will eagerly unroll the time-stained pages and find in them something more than we now know of the CJIiicago of 1673. Perhaps he will thus reveal the names of the five other French men who accompanied Joliet and Mar- quette through their entire voyage, and were with them here, and one of whom revisited Chicago with Marquette in the fol- lowing year. Of these five men we know nothing more, save that it is probable that one of them was a victim of the catas- trophe at the Sault Ste. Louis, just by La Salle's old seignory of j.a Chine, which put such a luckless ending to this otherwise successful exploration. We may be proud to inscribe the name of Louis Joliet upon the muster-roll of the early visitors to Chi( ago, for he would have been no mean citizen of any city. History accords to the brave young priest Marquette the right to be called the earliest resident of Chicago, because of his dreary encampment by the banks of the Chicago River in the winters of 1674-75 on his second journey to the Illinois. He was attended by two faithful French voyageurs, Pierre Por- teret and Jaccfues , whose last name is unknown. Father Dablon says th.at one of these men, but does not tell us which, was with Marquette on his former voyage. I am aware that S iiith Chicago, P^vanston, and possibly other places, are in- clined to dispute with Chicago the honor of this visit from Marquette; but Chicago will not yield to any of them her first City Father, without a struggle. An attempt has been made to show, from Marquette's journal of his journey, that he wintered upon the Calumet River, and not upon the Chicago. We learn from this document that he set out from the Mission of St. Francis, which was on the site of the town of Green Bay, October 25, 1674, crossed the portage from Sturgeon Bay to Lake Michigan, and followed its western shore southward; and after various detentions, on December 4, he say; frozen i where ( necessa from th niii'es, o: to hisar i>e\en m assume and the went up town of the "Sao has never on any m I should Ciiicago J line of thi which it fort, that ■stream, th. that Fath( therefore ( gieatly int( lead an ex, con\incin<'- of Marquet i->ablon's St '^iit a little Michigan tf ^i^e route b a twelve-mi pass, and is i^outh L'ran been the re sec(jnd jouri ^t was tht face th. vali, ft was on its Jess was the and which gi ism, and the Father Marc amongst the II he says: "We startea well to reach Portage River, which was frozen half a foot thick. There was more snow there than any- where else." To identify Portage River wiih the Caluniet,'it is necessary to assume that iMarquette spent nine days in going from the Chicago River to the ("alumet, a distance of twelve miles, or an average of one and one-third miles per day ; while, up to his arrival at the Chicago River, he had travelled at the rate of sewn miles a day, including all delays. It is also necessary to assume that he made a portage between the (Irand Calumet, and the Little Calumet, where there is no portage now, and went up the Little Calumet to Stony Ihook, near the present town of Blue Island, then up Stony Prook, and by way of the " Sag " to the Des Plaines, — a route which, so far as known, has never been followed by any other traveller, is not laid down on any map, and there is no evidence ot its use at any time. I shijuld except, perhaps, an account in the possession of the Cliicago Historical Society of the ruins of an old fort, on the line of the " Sag " in the town of Palos, in Cook County, from which it has been argued that this must have been a French fort, that the P>ench would not have had a fort except upon a stream, that a stream is of no use iin'ess it is navigable, and that Father Marquette was the best man to navigate it, and therefore did so. I cannot accept the argument; but I am greatly interested in the fort, and should l)e glad some day to lead an exploring party in search of it. To my mind, the most convincing proof that the Chicago River is the Portage River of Marquette and Joliet is the account which the latter gives in Uablon's statement that the cutting of half a league of prairie, but a little over a mile, would enable a bark to pass from Lake Michigan to the Des Plaines River. This could not be true of the route by the Calumet, Stony Prr)ok, and the "Sag," where a twelve-mile canal would be necessary for a small vessel to pass, and is applicable only to the short portage between the South Pranch and the Des Plaines. wliich must therefore have been the route followed by Joliet and by Marquette on his second journey. It was the Chicago River, therefore, over whose frozen sur- face tl: . valiant missionary toiled on that bleak December day. It was on its banks that he penned that journal, which doubt- less was the first literary production ever written in Chicago, and which gives us such a picture of the unselfishness, the hero- ism, and the sanctity of that lovely soul. We cannot give up Father ALarquette ; for his association with Chicago's site is amongst the most precious of its early memories. The feeling 12 that he in some measure belongs to Chicago lends a ne « interest to that brief but beautiful life which began in 1637 in the little city of Laon, in Northern France, and ended in 1675 on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. Father Marquette's Narrative of his Voyages and Discoveries in 1!. Valley of the Mississippi, from which the passage in the present leatl. t - taken, is given entire in John G. Shea's Discovery and Exploration cj ■ Mississippi Valley. This narrative was jjrepared for publication in 1678 I . Father Claude Dablon, Superior of the missions of the Society of Je- :- in Canada, who added the account of Marquette's second voyage, death, a; burial. The unfinished letttr of Father Martpiette to Father Dablon, 11:; taining a journal of his last visit to the Illinois, is given (in the origin., French) in the appendix to Shea's svork. Marquette's account of his d> covery of the MississipjM, taken from the same work as the present leaflet was given in one of the leaflets (No. 2) of the Old South series for iSS.j There are very full notices of Marquette and the writings concerning him ii the Narrative and Critical History of America, vol. iv. There is a biogra]'! ;. in Sparks's series of American Biograj^hies; and a full and graphic accoui;! in Parkman's Discovery of tlic Great West.