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

316 ST LOUTS OF THE ILLINOIS. [1682.place. Scattered along the valley, among the adjacenthills, or over the neighboring prairie, were thecantonments of a half-score of other tribes and fragmentsof tribes, gathered under the protecting aegis ofthe French, — Shawanoes from the Ohio, Abenakisfrom Maine, Miamis from the sources of the Kankakee,with others whose barbarous names are hardly worththe record. 1 Nor were these La Salle's only dependiThis singular extemporized colony of La Salle, on the banks ofthe Illinois, is laid down in detail on the great map of La Salle'sdiscoveries, by Jean Baptiste Franquelin, finished in 1684. Therecan be no doubt that this part of the work is composed fromauthentic data. La Salle himself, besides others of his party, camedown from the Illinois in the autumn of 1683, and undoubtedlysupplied the young engineer with materials. The various Indianvillages, or cantonments, are all indicated, with the numberof warriors belonging to each, the aggregate corresponding verynearly with that of La Salle's report to the minister. The Illinois,properly so called, are set down at 1,200 warriors ; the Miamis, at1,300; the Shawanoes, at 200; the Ouiatnoens (Weas), at 500; thePeanqhiehia (Piankishaw) band, at 150 ; the Pepikokia, at 160 ; theKilatica, at 300; and the Ouabona, at 70, — in all, 3,880 warriors.A few others, probably Abenakis, lived in the fort.The Fort St. Louis is placed, on the map, at the exact site ofStarved Rock, and the Illinois village at the place where, as alreadymentioned (see 239), Indian remains in great quantities are yearlyploughed up. The Shawanoe camp, or village, is placed on thesouth side of the river, behind the fort. The country is here hilly,broken, and now, as in La Salle's time, covered with wood, which,however, soon ends in the open prairie. A short time since, theremains of a low, irregular earthwork of considerable extent werediscovered at the intersection of two ravines, about twenty-fourhundred feet behind, or south of, Starved Rock. The earthworkfollows the line of the ravines on two sides. On the east, there isan opening, or gateway, leading to the adjacent prairie. The workis very irregular in form, and shows no trace of the civilized engineerIn the stump of an oak-tree upon it, Dr. Paul counted a