164 EXPEDITION TO THE 



with pleasure. There is too much uniformity in the 

 scenery ; the extensive water prospect is a waste uncheck- 

 ered by islands, unenlivened by the spreading canvass, and 

 the fatiguing monotony of which is increased by the 

 equally undiversified prospect of the land scenery, which 

 aflbrds no relief to the sight, as it consists merely of a plain 

 in which but few patches of thin and scrubby woods are 

 observed scattered here and there. 



The village presents no cheering prospect, as, notwith- 

 standing its antiquity, it consists of but few huts, inhabit- 

 ed by a miserable race of men, scarcely equal to the In- 

 dians from whom they are descended. Their log or bark 

 houses are low, filthy and disgusting, displaying not the 

 least trace of comfort. Chicago is perhaps one of the 

 oldest settlements in the Indian country ; its name, derived 

 from the Potawatomi language, signifies either a skunk, or 

 a wild onion; and either of these significations has been oc- 

 casionally given for it. A fort is said to have formerly exist- 

 ed there. Mention is made of the place as having been visited 

 in 1671 by Perot, who found "Chicagou" to be the resi- 

 dence of a powerful chief of the Miamis. The number of 

 trails centring all at this spot, and their apparent antiquity, 

 indicate that this was probably for a long while the site of 

 a large Indian village. As a place of business, it offers no 

 inducement to the settler ; for the whole annual amount of 

 the trade on the lake did not exceed the cargo of five or six 

 schooners even at the time when the garrison received its 

 supplies from Mackinaw. It is not impossible that at some dis- 

 tant day, when the banks of the Illinois shall have been cover- 

 ed with a dense population, and when the low prairies which 

 extend between that river and Fort Wayne, shall have ac- 

 quired a population proportionate to the produce which they 

 can yield, that Chicago may become one of the points in 



