A brief history of Peoria - University Library

12. ..PEORIA
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journey, and Marquette already' stricken with the malarial disease
that was to wear him out at last, early in September 1673, pushed
their canoes across the surface of our lake, first of all white men to
set fo t upon the shores where we now dwell.
Tl, e following paragraph contains the only allusion to our Peoria
in the pious father's narrative: "Had all this voyage caused
but the salvation of a single soul, I should deem all my fatigue well
repaid, and this I have reason to think, for when I was returning, I
passed by the Indians of Peoria. I was there three days announcing
the faith in all their cabins, after which, as we were embarkicg,
they brought me on the waters edge a dying child, which I baptized
a little before it expired, by an admirable Providence, for the salva-
tion of that innocent soul."
From Peoria the little band of explorers proceeded up the Illinois
to the head of Lake Michigan and thence to Green Bay, whence
Ihey had started in the spring, having made the journey of twentyseven
hundred miles by canoe in four months.
Seven years later in 1680 the second visit of white men was made
"by IvaSalle, Father Hennepin and Lieut. Tonti.
Robert Cavalier de La Salle was born at Rouen, France in 1643,
of an old and wealthy family. He, too, received his education at the
hands of the Jesuits, whose early instructions and training done
much towards strengthening his steadiness of purpose and sustaining
him through his many sufferings and hardships, while carving
for himself undying fame in the annals of this great State. He had
a reputation for excellent requirements, unimpeachable morals and
dauntless courage.
Henry de Tonty, who wrote his name Tonti, was also among the
followers of La Salle in the expedition and worth all the rest combined.
He had been an Italian officer and had his hand blown off in
the Sicilian wars, which he replaced with an iron one. He was
brave, fertile in resources, and a faithful and reliable follower of
La Salle, even until the later's untimely and cruel death.
There were also in this expedition three Recollect friars of the
order of St. Francis, Louis Hennepin, born about 1640 in Flanders;
Zenobe Membre and Gabriel Ribourde, a hale and cheerful old man
of sixt3--four, all of Flemish birth and zealous to preach the faith
among the tribes of the West.
The Illinois Indians were at this time an aggregation of distinct
though kindred tribes— the Kaskaskias, the Peorias, the Cahokias,
the Tamaroas and others. The Miamis and Pinkishaws were
in close affinity of language and habits with the Illinois and all belonged
to the great Algonquin family. Their central gathering
place was on the broad bottom lands between Ottawa and La Salle,
where Utica now stands, with the historic Starved Rock in the distance.
Here they had a home with a population of six or seven
thousand or, possibly, twenty thousand souls.
It was late in the month of December, 1679, that La SiUe and-
his party of thirty-three in eight canoes, impelled by three principal
motives: the spirit of adventure, the spirit of trade, and the spirit of
the missionary, descended the Illinois river. They passed the future
sight of Ottawa, a few miles below the lofty cliff, to become famous
later as Starved Rock, which rose at their left from the water's edge.