CHICAGO TO DAVENPORT. 389 



sissippi. Between its verdant banks, Joliet, Mar- 

 quette, La Salle and others glided on their way to the 

 great stream. How the lover of history and adven- 

 ture thrills at the accounts of La Salle's Fort Creve- 

 Coeur, and his colony scattered over this same region 

 of country ! 



Probably none of these historic men paid a more 

 flattering tribute to " La Riviere des Illinois " than 

 Hennepin, the priest, who, when passing down it to 

 the Mississippi was not too much oppressed with anx- 

 iety to admire its charms. What a different appear- 

 ance its shores presented in 1680 to that of 1876! In 

 place of the forest, waving corn fields under high cul- 

 tivation attracted my attention on every hand, and in 

 contrast to the wilderness inhabited by the savages 

 whom Hennepin encountered, I saw an emigrant train 

 peaceably moving along on its way from the East to 

 the promising country west of the Mississippi. 



Harrison House, 



La Salle, Illinois, 



September Twenty-second. 



The equinoctial storms were now at their height and 

 as my lecture at Davenport was not to be delivered for 

 some days, I decided to spend a day or two in this 

 pleasant little city, until "Old Sol'' had '^crossed the 

 line." 



I found that this is the centre of important coal and 

 lead mines, which I should have visited and examined, 

 superficially at least, had not the inclement weather 



