HISTORY. 71 



ing through the great raarshes already mentioned, near the 

 sources of the Theakeke, they came to a vast plain^ on 

 which nothing grows but grass and weeds, which at that 

 time were dry and burnt, it being the custom of the Miamis 

 to set them on fire every year for hunting the buffalo. From 

 this, it appears that the annual burning of the prairies is an 

 ancient practice of the Indians. It is supposed to be ow4ng 

 to this custom that those lars^e tracts in the west are desti- 

 tute of timber. 



The travellers embarked again at the Illinois village, and 

 continued to fall down the river for four days longer, when, 

 on the first day of January, 1680, they came into and 

 passed through a lake which is described as seven leagues in 

 length and one broad, and was called by the Indians " Pimi- 

 teoui" (pimitewi), that is, a 'place where there is an abun- 

 dance of fat beasts — a common way of describing a place by 

 them ; as Missi limachinac, a great plenty of turtle. This 

 lake is that enlar2:ement of the river now known to the 

 western settlers and travellers as Lake Peoria. It is said in 

 the narrative that the river never freezes below the lake. 



There was a village of the Illinois Indians at this lake, 

 who endeavored to dissuade the travellers from their design 

 of descending the Missisippi and navigating that stream ; — 

 representing it as inhabited by very ferocious tribes of savages, 

 filled with formidable animals, full of rocks and rapids to- 

 wards its mouth, which falls into a hideous and bottomless 

 gulf, and horrid whirlpool, that swallows up everything com- 

 ing within reach of its force. The travellers remained with 

 these Indians some time, and at the foot of the lake they 

 built a fort, which La Sale called Crevecoeur, and to which 

 the Indians gave the name of Chicago. Terror of the 

 Indians, and the hardships and perils of the travel, had caused 

 the desertion of several of his men. He had lost his ves- 



