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

1682.] LA SALLE'S COLONY. 317ante.By the terms of his patent, he held seigniorialrights over this wild domain; and he now began togrant it out in parcels to his followers.These, however,were as yet but a score, — a lawless band,trained in forest license, and marrying, as theirdetractors affirm, a new squaw every day in theweek.This was after their lord's departure, for hispresence imposed a check on these eccentricities.La Salle, in a memoir addressed to the Minister ofthe Marine, reports the total number of the Indiansaround Fort St.Louis at about four thousand warriors,or twenty thousand souls. His diplomacy hadhundred and sixty rings of annual growth. The village of theShawanoes (Chaouenons), on Franquelin's map, corresponds withthe position of this earthwork. I am indebted to the kindness ofDr. John Paul and Col. D. F. Hitt, the proprietor of StarvedRock, for a plan of these curious remains and a survey of theneighboring district. I must also express my obligations to Mr. W.E. Bowman, photographer at Ottawa, for views of Starved Rockand other features of the neighboring scenery.An interesting relic of the early explorers of this region wasfound a few years ago at Ottawa, six miles above Starved Rock, inthe shape of a small iron gun, buried several feet deep in the driftof the river. It consists of a welded tube of iron, about an inchand a half in calibre, strengthened by a series of thick iron rings,cooled on, after the most ancient as well as the most recent methodof making cannon. It is about fourteen inches long, the part nearthe muzzle having been burst off. The construction is very rude.Small field-pieces, on a similar principle, were used in the fourteenthcentury. Several of them may be seen at the Musee d'Artillerie atParis. In the time of Louis XIV., the art of casting cannon wascarried to a high degree of perfection. The gun in question mayhave been made by a French blacksmith on the spot. A far lessprobable supposition is, that it is a relic of some unrecorded visitof the Spaniards ; but the pattern of the piece would have beenantiquated, even in the time of De Soto.