72 NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 



sel, and the lives of otlicrs had been sacrificed with tliat acci- 

 dent, and lie was surrounded with perils and difficulties. 

 These circunmstances of grief and disappointment may have 

 suggested the name which he gave to his fort.* 



Thus far, however, though having had perils to encounter, 

 and having experienced some disappointments, they were not 

 greater than might be anticipated in such an undertaking. It 

 was now, also, mid winter, and they had to encounter the 

 rigors of a northern climate. Yet their undertaking was not 

 frustrated, and they had information of a better state of things 

 before them. They learned, by conversation with other In- 

 dians, that the dangers of which they had been told by the 

 Illinois did not exist, but that the Missisippi was in fact navi- 

 gable from its source, and was inhabited by well disposed 

 Indians who would offer them the pipe of peace. 



La Sale therefore resolved on pursuing his enterprise, and 

 took his measures accordingly. He directed father Henne- 

 pin to proceed to the Missisippi with two of the company, 



* Fort Crevecceur was built upon an elevated site on the bank of the 

 river, the exact location of which may be determined by the following ex- 

 tract, which probably has relation to the same spot, from Mr. Patrick 

 Kennedy's Journal of an expedition undertaken by himself and several 

 coureurs de bois, in the year 1773. The journal is a circumstantial ac- 

 count of a progress up the Illinois River. He says : — 



" August 7. This morning being very foggy, and the river overgrown 

 with weeds along its sides, we could make but little way. About 12 o'clock 

 we got to the old Pioria Fort and village, on the Western shore of the river, 

 and at the southern end of the lake called the Illinois Lake, which is nine- 

 teen miles and a half in length, and three miles in breadth. It has no 

 rocks, shoals, or perceivable current. We found the stockades of this 

 Pioria Fort destroyed by fire, but the houses standing. The summit on 

 which the fort stood, commands a fine prospect of the country to the east- 

 ward, and up the lake to the point where the river comes in at the north 

 end." He gives the distance from the mouth at 210 miles, and above Lake 

 Demi Quian 39 miles. 



