CHAPTER XXVIII. 



1764, 

 THE ILLINOIS. 



We turn to a region of which, as yet, we have 

 caught but transient glimpses ; a region which to 

 our forefathers seemed remote and strange, as to 

 us the mountain strongholds of the Apaches, or the 

 wastes of farthest Oregon. The country of the Illi- 

 nois was chiefly embraced within the boundaries 

 of the state which now retains the name. Thither- 

 ward, from the east, the west, and the north, three 

 mighty rivers rolled their tributary waters ; while 

 countless smaller streams — small only in compar- 

 ison — traversed the land with a watery network, 

 impregnating the warm soil with exuberant fecun- 

 dity. From the eastward, the Ohio — La Belle 

 Hiviere — pursued its windings for more than a 

 thousand miles. The Mississippi descended from 

 the distant north ; while from its fountains in the 

 west, three thousand miles away, the Missouri 

 poured its torrent towards the same common cen- 

 tre. Born among mountains, trackless even now, 

 except by the adventurous footstep of the trapper, — 

 nurtured amid the howling of beasts and the war- 



