La Salle and the discovery of the great West - North Central ...

1682.] LA SALLE'S COLONY. 315of negotiation went prosperously on. The minds ofthe Indians had been already prepared. In La Sallethey saw their champion against the Iroquois, thestanding terror of all this region. They gatheredround his stronghold like the timorous peasantry ofthe middle ages around the rock-built castle of theirfeudal lord. From the wooden ramparts of St.Louis, — for so he named his fort, — high and inaccessibleas an eagle's nest, a strange scene lay before hiseye.The broad, flat valley of the Illinois was spreadbeneath him like a map, bounded in the distance byits low wall of woody hills. The river wound at hisfeet in devious channels among islands bordered withlofty trees ; then, far on the left, flowed calmly westwardthrough the vast meadows, till its glimmeringblue ribbon was lost in hazy distance.There had been a time, and that not remote, whenthese fair meadows were a waste of death and desolation,scathed with fire, and strewn with the ghastlyrelics of an Iroquois victory. Now all was changed.La Salle looked down from his rock on a concourseof wild human life. Lodges of bark and rushes, orcabins of logs, were clustered on the open plain oralong the edges of the bordering forests. Squawslabored, warriors lounged in the sun, naked childrenwhooped and gambolled on the grass.Beyond theriver, a mile and a half on the left, the banks werestudded once more with the lodges of the Illinois,who, to the number of six thousand, had returned,since their defeat, to this their favorite dwelling-