on their spears and in their sashes, which they had taken from the heads of Americans in the war with Great Britain, from 1812 to 1815. They were dancing, rehearsing their deeds of bravery, etc. These were the only people then there or in that vicinity. I never knew of a place called Creve-Cœur.

I have a vivid recollection of my first arrival there. A warrior, noticing me (then a boy of 16), asked Mr. DesChamps, the chief of our expedition, who I was. He replied that I was his adopted son, just from Montreal; but this was not credited. The Indian said I was a young American, and seemed disposed to quarrel with me. Des Champs, wishing to mix with the Indians, left a man on the boat with me, telling him not to leave, but take care of me, not to go out. Through this man, I learned what the purport of the conversation was. The Indian remained at the bow of the boat, talking to me through this man, who interpreted, saying, among other things, that I was a young American. and taking from his sash scalp after scalp, saying they were my ration's, he saw I was frightened. I was never more so in my life, fairly trembling with fear. His last effort to insult me was taking a long-haired scalp, (Here the Colonel describes the particular way in which the Indian made it very wet, and then proceeds) and then shaking it so that it sprinkled me in the face. In a moment all fear left me, and I seized Mr. DesChamp's double-barreled gun, took good aim, and fired. The man guarding me was standing about half way between us, and, just as I pulled the trigger, he struck up the gun, and thereby saved the life of the Indian, and perhaps mine also. It produced great confusion. Des Champs and all our men running to their boats. After a short consuitation among the old traders, Des Champs ordered the boats to push out, and we descended the stream and went down three or four miles, and camped on the opposite side of the river. That was the first experience of hostile array with my red brethren. Yours, etc.,

G. S. HUBBARD.

After each party of Mr. De Champ's men had distributed themselves at various stations, which were generally on the bank of some stream, the first business was to secure their goods in a kind of store built of logs, in the rear of the building in which they lived. This done, all but two or three sallied forth into the back country, in squads of two or more, to seek the locality where the Indians were transiently encamped for a hunt. Having found them, the bartering began. Blankets, knives, vermilion and trinkets were spread in tempting display, as a shopman would exhibit his goods in show windows. The furs obtained for these were carried back to the stations, and a new recruit of goods brought out for exchange. In this way the winter was spent, and when spring opened, the whole corps of traders returned to Mackinaw, with their batteaux loaded with the results of their winter's trade.

The Indians gave up the fur hunting, and betook themselves to their lodges in time to dig up the ground with sharp sticks and plant a crop of the ever essential corn for subsistence. This routine was repeated annually by the traders and Indians, till the beaver and other fur-bearing animals vanished before the plow and spade of civilization.

Besides the garrison and the American Fur Company at Chicago, was the Indian agency, an indispensible institution wherewith to settle disputes which might arise between them and the whites,

and to keep them in good humor by the judicious distribution of occasional presents. This was established in 1817, shortly after the completion of the fort, and Charles Jowett, of Kentucky, appointed to its charge with a salary of one thousand dollars per year. The factory system established at various places on the frontier had for its principal object the fulfillment of such clauses in Indian treaties as bound the United States to supply them with goods for sale, but the energy and thrift of private enterprise always outrivals any project undertaken by the unwieldly machinery of government. Hence the establishment of the American Fur Company soon made the U. S. factory at Chicago a useless institution; for although the factor, Jacob Varnum, was instructed to sell goods to the Indians for ten per cent. less than the price of the same to white men, yet the Fur Company, by their superior facilities for sending goods into the depths of the forest, were able to monopolize the trade by underselling the factor, and as a consequence, his duties as agent for the Government were assigned to the authorized Indian agent, and the factors' offices were always discontinued soon after private enterprise had fulfilled the necessary conditions of supplying the Indians with goods.

The following letter from Mr. Varnum to the superintendent of Indian affairs at Washington, was evidently written with a commendable desire to enlarge the sphere of his usefulness to the Government at a time when the American Fur Co. were monopolizing the trade with the Indians;

UNITED STATES FACTORY, CHICAGO, June 20th, 1819. The exclusion of foreigners (the Hudson Bay Co.) from the Indian trade will it is believed, justify the extension of the operation of this establishment. This together with the consideration of the large supply of blankets and cloths now on hand, induces me to recommend a distribution of the goods of this fact.ry among the adjacent villages for trade, to such an extent as will insure the sale of nearly all by the expiration of the trading season. Such a measure, I am well convinced will be highly gratifying to the Indians, as a great number by this means will be enabled to supply themselves with goods on more reasonabl terms than could otherwise be done; nor do I apprehend any difficulty in effecing it to the advantage of the Government, as gentlemen of unquestionable integrity have already applied for such outfits. JACOB R. VARNUM.

The above proposition was declined in a respectful letter from the Supt. at Washington. See Am. State Papers, Vol. II, p. 361.

Mr. Hubbard, after his return to Mackinaw in the spring of 1819, was the next winter detailed to Michigan, and did not pass through Chicago again till the fall of 1820, at which time he was on his way back to his old trading ground in Illinois, with the same companions.

No change had taken place in Chicago; the same garrison was there and Mr. Kinzie's and Ouilimette's families still lived in contentment amidst their wild associations, hardly dreaming of

*His name is spelled Jowett in the State Papers but in the histories of the day incorrectly spelled Jewett.

what was soon to become a reality around them in the way of settlements.

In the year 1816, Alexander Wolcott, of Connecticut, succeeded Mr. Jewett as Indian agent. Miss Eleanor Kinzie was then a blooming miss of twelve. She certainly had no rival charmers to alienate the affections of her suitor, Mr. Wolcott; or if she had, it is fair to assume that she would have eclipsed them, for the happy couple were married, Mr. John Hamlin, a justice of the peace from Fulton county, Illinois, officiating on the occasion, the two lovers, with commendable serenity, waiting many days for him to be sent for for that purpose. This may be set down as the first wedding ever celebrated in Chicago according to the approved style of modern days. Its date was 1820.

The next year, 1821, an event took place which was significant of the progress of settlements in the country, as well as of the waning fortunes of the Indians. The country on the east bank of Lake Michigan was in undisputed possession of the Pottawatomis, the Ottawas and Chippewas, each holding their respective portions; but the settlements of Michigan were rapidly trenching on their grounds, and the Indians were not unwilling to sell out to the United States, under an assurance that west of the lake an asylum was open to them. A treaty was therefore proposed for the purpose of purchasing their lands, and Chicago selected as the place for it, and the time appointed for its session was late in August, 1821. Lewis Cass, governor of Michigan, and Solomon Sibley, acted in behalf of the United States; and a large band of Indian chiefs (among whom Metea, the Pottawatomie, was conspicuous) united their wisdom to make the best terms they could with the United States in parting with their country.

At the time of this treaty, Henry R. Schoolcraft was on his way from St. Louis to his headquarters, as Indian Agent, near the outlet of Lake Superior, and his account of this great Indian council at Chicago, which place he passed while it was in session, is detailed in his usual lucid style in his book entitled "Travels in the Central Portions of the Mississippi Valley," published in

1825.

But first, let us listen to his description of the great fossilized tree, which was found in this early day in the Desplaines river, a little above its junction with the Kankakee. Of it he says: The part which is exposed, according to our measurement, is fifty-one feet and a few inches in length, and its diameter at the largest end three feet. But there is apparently a considerable portion of its original length concealed in the rock.' After ex

Thomas Tousey, Esq., of Virga, visited that locality the next year, and verifies Schoolcraft's description of this remarkable petrifaction.