BUSHNELL] NATIVE VILLAGES AND VILLAGE SITES 4] 
is necessary for Man and Beasts, so that being amused by that 
agreeable variety, we spent six days from the Portage (that is the 
place where we Embarked) to the first village of the Jllinois, called 
Pontdalamia, consisting of above 500 Cabins, where we found no | 
Inhabitants. We went ashore, and viewed their Cabbins or Cottages, 
which are made with great pieces of Timber, interlac’d with Branches, 
and cover’d with Bark. The inside is more neat, the Walls or sides, 
as well as the Floor, being finely matted. Every Cottage has two 
Appartments, wherein several Families might lodge, and under 
every one of them there is a Cave or Vault, wherein they preserve 
their Jndian-corn, of which we took a sufficient quantity, because 
we wanted Provisions.” (Tonti, (1), pp. 28-29.) 
This was the village of the Kaskaskia, although from the large 
number of wigwams encountered by the French it would be reason- 
able to suppose that some other tribes had gathered here. It was 
evidently a gathering place for the Illinois, one of the most important 
centers in the entire valley of the Mississippi. The reference to a 
“Cave or Vault” within every wigwam, where corn, and undoubtedly 
other possessions as well, were preserved, is of special interest as it 
tends to prove the permanent nature of the village of Pontdalamia; 
it likewise recalls the act of the Pilgrims, some sixty years earlier, 
when they discovered corn in pits or caches near the scattered native 
dwellings on Cape Cod. 
* The great village of the Illinois was occupied until about the year 
1703, when the Kaskaskia, moving southward, stopped and reared a 
new town near the banks of the Mississippi, a short distance above 
the stream which perpetuates their tribal name, in the present 
Randolph County, Illinois. But between the time of the arrival of 
- La Salle, during the winter of 1679, and the removal some years later, 
the settlement was often visited by missionaries and traders. But 
even earlier, in 1673, it was a resting place for Marquette during his 
journey up the Illinois River, just after having met the Peoria for 
the second time, and on his map the village was given the name 
Kachkaskia. At that time it consisted of 74 houses. _Allouez gave 
the number of wigwams standing there at the time of his visit, in 
1677, as 351, and Hennepin three years later increased the number 
to 460. All were probably correct, as it is well known that the Indians 
were accustomed to move from place to place, and seldom would 
all have been gathered in the village at the same time. 
In the spring of the year 1692 Pére Sébastien Rasles having left 
his winter encampment at Missilimakinak, started for the ‘‘country 
of the Illinois,”’ and wrote: 
“After forty days of travel I entered the river of the Illinois, and, 
after voyaging fifty leagues, I came to their first Village, which had 
three hundred cabins, all of them with four or five fires. One fire 
