4() BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 69 
The coming of the French was hailed with joy by the Illinois, 
and as they entered the village and approached a cabin, they saw 
an old man standing at the door who greeted them in these words: 
“How beautiful the sun is, O Frenchman, when thou comest to 
visit us! All our village awaits thee, and thou shalt enter all our 
Cabins in peace.” 
After the visit of the French the Peoria did not remain long on 
the western bank of the Mississippi. They removed to the [linois 
River, where they were again met, some two months later, by Mar- 
quette on his journey northward. Here they were visited by a 
French officer, in the year 1756, who left an interesting account of 
his experiences, together with a brief description of the settlement: 
“The village of the Peorias is situated on the banks of a little river, 
and fortified after the American manner, that is surrounded with 
great pales and posts. When we were arrived there I enquired for the 
hut of the grand chief; they brought me to a great hut, where the 
whole nation was assembled, on account of a party of their warriors, 
who had been beaten by the Fozes, their mortal enemies.” (Bossu, 
(1), I, pp. 188-191.) 
The following day Bossu encountered a great gathering on the 
plain, ‘‘making a dance in favour of their new Manitou,” and later 
he entered ‘‘at the door of the temple of this false deity.”” Quite 
similar to this must have been the ceremony mentioned by Mar- 
quette among the same people 83 years before. 
Thus it would seem that a “‘temple’’ and a large wigwam occupied 
by the chief were the principal structures in the village of the Peoria, 
standing on or near the banks of the Illinois River, about the middle 
of the eighteenth century. The town was protected by palisades, 
but the older village, visited by Marquette, may not have been so 
guarded. And this brief description is suggestive of the appearance 
of ancient Pomeioc with its palisade, surrounding a group of houses, 
including a ‘‘temple’’ and the larger wigwam occupied by the chief. 
The great town of the Illinois, visited by the French under La 
Salle about the last days of the year 1679, may have been typical 
of the open settlements of the western Algonquian. It stood on the 
right bank of the Illinois River, in the present La Salle County, 
above the mouth of the Big Vermilion, the Aramoni of the French 
explorers, which enters the Illinois from the south. Just above, 
but on the opposite side of the Illinois, rises the steep cliff, Starved 
Rock, La Rocher of the early French. The village, which was soon 
to be destroyed by the Iroquois, later to rise again, was thus described: 
“We fell down the said River, by easie Journeys, the better to 
observe that countrey, and supply our selves with Provisions. The 
Banks of that River are very charming to the Eye, as useful for Life. 
The Meadows, Fruit-Trees, and Forests, affording every thing that 
