they returned to their village with stores of furs and peltries, prepared to narrate their hardy adventures and the thrilling incidents of their perilous voyage. Their return was greeted with smiling faces, and signalized by balls and dances, at which the whole village assembled to see the great travelers, and hear the fertile rehearsal of wonderful adventures and strange sights in remote countries. Such were the scenes at "Old Kaskaskia," at Cahokia, Prairie du Rocher, and a few other points on the Upper Mississippi, from the year 1720 to the year 1765; and, in later times, at the villages of Fort Chartres, St. Genevieve, St. Louis, and St. Charles, and at St. Vincent on the Wabash, as well as many other points on the Lower Mississippi, at the Post of Natchitoches on Red River, and the Post of Washita on the Washita River; as well as upon the La Fourche, Faussee Riviere, and the coast above New Orleans. Their settlements were usually in the form of small, compact patriarchal villages, like one great family assembled around their old men and patriarchs. Their houses were simple, plain, and uniform. Each homestead was surrounded by its own separate inclosure of a rude picket fence, adjoining or contiguous to others on the right and left. The houses were generally one story high, surrounded by sheds or galleries; the walls were constructed of a rude framework, having upright corner-posts and studs, connected horizontally by means of numerous cross-ties, not unlike the rounds. in a ladder. These served to hold the "cat and clay" with which the interstices were filled, and with which the walls were made, and rudely plastered with the hand. These abodes of happiness were generally situated on the margin of a beautiful prairie, and beside some clear stream of running water, or on the bank of a river or bayou, near some rich, alluvial bottom, which supplied the grounds for the "common field" and commons." 66 The "common field" consisted of a large contiguous inclosure, reserved for the common use of the village, inclosed by one common fence for the benefit of all. In this field, which sometimes consisted of several hundred acres, each villager and head of a family had assigned to him a certain portion of ground, for the use of himself and family, as a field and garden. Near the village and around the common field, was an extensive open scope of lands reserved for "commons," or a common pasture-ground. This consisted of several hundreds, and often of thousands, of acres uninclosed and free for the use of all as a common pasture, as well as for the supply of fuel and timber. Care was a stranger in the villages, and was rarely entertained many days as a guest. Amusements, festivals, and holydays were frequent and served to dispel dull care, when an unwelcome visitor. In the light fantastic dance, the young and the gay were active participants, while the serene and smiling countenance of the aged patriarch and his companion in years, and even of the this was the peculiar province of the missionaries; and there is evidence of an Iroquois warrior, who threatened the life of a Catholic priest who ministered beside the mat of an aged savage on' the verge of death, unless he should rescue the dying Indian from the grave. The fur trade was the principal subject of mercantile traffic upon the coast of Michigan, and its central point was the shores of the northwestern lakes. Large canoes laden with packs of European merchandise, advanced periodically through the upper lakes, for the purpose of trading for peltries with the Indians; and these made their principal depots at Michilimackinac and Detroit. In order to advance the interests of the trade, licenses were granted by the French king, and unlicensed persons were prohibited from trading with the Indians in their own territory under the penalty of death. The progress of the country under the French government was obstructed by the fact that this region was long under the monopoly of exclusive companies chartered by the French crown. The design of these companies, especially the governors and intendants, was to enrich themselves by the fur trade; and accordingly they had little motive to encourage agriculture or general settlement. By that policy the intendants accumulated large fortunes by the trade, while they averted from the observation of the French crown the actual condition of the colonies in Canada. They much preferred that the French inhabitants should undergo the labor of procuring furs, while they might reap the profits, rather than that these tenants should become the free husbandmen of a fertile soil. It was reverence for rank, ignorance of the true principles of republican freedom, and in some measure perhaps, a virtuous loyalty which they felt toward their monarch, that induced them to yield their allegiance to the colonial administration. The early French in the Illinois country, as well as those elsewhere, were remarkable for their talent of ingratiating themselves with the warlike tribes around them, and for their easy amalgamation in manners, and customs, and blood. Unlike most other European emigrants, who commonly preferred to settle in sparse settlements, remote from each other, the French manifested in a high degree, at the same time, habits both social and vagrant. They settled in compact villages, although isolated, in the midst of a wilderness a thousand miles remote from the dense settlements of Canada. On the margin of a prairie, or on the bank of some gentle stream, their villages sprung up in long, narrow streets, with each family homestead so contiguous that the merry and sociable villagers could carry on their voluble conversation, each from his own door or balcony. The young men and voyageurs, proud of their influence among the remote tribes of Indians, delighted in the long and merry voyages, and sought adventures in the distant travels of the fur-trade. After months of absence upon the sources of the longest rivers and tributaries among their savage friends, they returned to their village with stores of furs and peltries, prepared to narrate their hardy adventures and the thrilling incidents of their perilous voyage. Their return was greeted with smiling faces, and signalized by balls and dances, at which the whole village assembled to see the great travelers, and hear the fertile rehearsal of wonderful adventures and strange sights in remote countries. Such were the scenes at "Old Kaskaskia," at Cahokia, Prairie du Rocher, and a few other points on the Upper Mississippi, from the year 1720 to the year 1765; and, in later times, at the villages of Fort Chartres, St. Genevieve, St. Louis, and St. Charles, and at St. Vincent on the Wabash, as well as many other points on the Lower Mississippi, at the Post of Natchitoches on Red River, and the Post of Washita on the Washita River; as well as upon the La Fourche, Faussee Riviere, and the coast above New Orleans. Their settlements were usually in the form of small, compact patriarchal villages, like one great family assembled around their old men and patriarchs. Their houses were simple, plain, and uniform. Each homestead was surrounded by its own separate inclosure of a rude picket fence, adjoining or contiguous to others on the right and left. The houses were generally one story high, surrounded by sheds or galleries; the walls were constructed of a rude framework, having upright corner-posts and studs, connected horizontally by means of numerous cross-ties, not unlike the rounds in a ladder. These served to hold the "cat and clay" with which the interstices were filled, and with which the walls were made, and rudely plastered with the hand. These abodes of happiness were generally situated on the margin of a beautiful prairie, and beside some clear stream of running water, or on the bank of a river or bayou, near some rich, alluvial bottom, which supplied the grounds for the "common field" and "commons." The "common field" consisted of a large contiguous inclosure, reserved for the common use of the village, inclosed by one common fence for the benefit of all. In this field, which sometimes consisted of several hundred acres, each villager and head of a family had assigned to him a certain portion of ground, for the use of himself and family, as a field and garden. Near the village and around the common field, was an extensive open scope of lands reserved for "commons," or a common pasture-ground. This consisted of several hundreds, and often of thousands, of acres uninclosed and free for the use of all as a common pasture, as well as for the supply of fuel and timber. Care was a stranger in the villages, and was rarely entertained many days as a guest. Amusements, festivals, and holydays were frequent and served to dispel dull care, when an unwelcome visitor. In the light fantastic dance, the young and the gay were active participants, while the serene and smiling countenance of the aged patriarch and his companion in years, and even of the "reverend father," lent a sanction and a blessing upon the innocent amusement and useful recreation. The amusements past, all could cheerfully unite in offering up to God the simple gratitude of the heart for his unbounded mercies. Nor were these festive enjoyments confined to any sex or condition. In the dance all participated from the youngest to the oldest, the bond and the free; even the black slave was equally interested in the general enjoyment, and was happy because he saw his master happy; and the master, in turn, was pleased to witness the enjoyment of the slave. The mutual dependence of each upon the other, in their respective spheres, contributed to produce a state of mutual harmony and attachment. It has been almost a proverb, that the world did not exhibit an example of a more contented and happy race than the negro slaves of the early French in the Illinois country. The common people, in their ordinary deportment, were often characterized by a calm, thoughtful gravity, and the saturnine severity of the Spaniard, rather than the levity characteristic of the French; yet in their amusements and fetes, they exhibited all the gayety of the natives of France. Their saturnine gravity was probably a habit adopted from the Indian tribes with whom they held daily intercourse, and in whose sense of propriety levity of deportment on ordinary occasions is esteemed not only unbecoming, but unmanly. The calm, quiet tenor of their lives, remote from the active bustle of civilized life and business, imparted to their character, to their feelings, to their general manners, and even to their very language, a languid softness which contrasted strongly with the anxious and restless activity of the Anglo-Saxon race, which is fast succeeding to the occupancy of their happy abodes. With them hospitality was hardly esteemed a virtue, because it was a duty which all cheerfully performed. Taverns were unknown, and every house supplied the deficiency. The statute-book, the judiciary, and courts of law, with their prisons and instruments of punishment, were unknown; as were also the crimes for which they are erected among the civilized nations of Europe. On politics and the affairs of the nation, they never suffered their minds to feel a moment's anxiety, believing implicitly that France ruled the world, and all must be right. Worldly honors and distinctions were bubbles unworthy of a moment's consideration or a moment's anxiety. Without commerce, they knew not, nor desired to know, the luxuries and the refinements of civilized communities. Thus day after day passed by in contentment and peaceful indolence. The distinction of wealth or rank was almost unknown; all were upon a natural equality, all dressed alike, and all met as equals at their fetes and in their ball rooms. The virtues of their primitive simplicity were many. Punctu ality and honesty in their dealings, politeness and hospitality to strangers, were habitual; friendship and cordiality toward neigh bors was general; and all seemed as members of one great family connected by the strong ties of consanguinity. Wives were kind and affectionate; in all respects they were equal to their husbands, and held an influence superior to the females in most civilized countries. They had entire control in all domestic concerns, and were the chief and supreme umpires in all doubtful cases. Did a case of casuistry arise, who so well able to divine the truth, or so well qualified to enforce the decision, as the better half? Mechanic trades, as a means of livelihood, were almost unknown; the great business of all was agriculture and the care of their herds and flocks, their cattle, their horses, their sheep, and their swine, and each man was his own mechanic. The peculiar manners and customs of these French settlements, isolated a thousand miles from any other civilized community, became characteristic and hereditary with their descendants even to the present time. In 1765, when the English dominion was extended over the Illinois country, many of them, rather than submit to the hated dominion of England, emigrated to the west side of the Mississippi, within the present limits of Missouri, which, in 1763, had been ceded to Spain. The French settlements there increased, while those in Illinois began to decline. THE WESTERN WILDERNESS. To A person who has witnessed all the changes which have taken place in the western country since its first settlement, its former appearance is like a dream or romance. He will find it difficult to realize the features of that wilderness which was the abode of his infant days. The little cabin of his father no longer exists; the little field and truck patch which gave him a scanty supply of coarse bread and vegetables, have been swallowed up in the extended meadow, orchard, or grain field. The rude fort, in which his people had resided so many painful summers, has vanished, andlike the baseless fabric of a vision, left not a wreck behind." Every where surrounded by the busy hum of men, and the splendor, arts, refinements and comforts of civilized life, his former state and that of his country have vanished from his memory; or if sometimes he bestows a reflection on its original aspect, the mind seems to be carried back to a period of time much more remote than it really is. The immense changes which have taken place in the physical and moral state of the country have been gradual and, therefore, scarcely perceived from year to year; but the view from one extreme to the other is like the prospect of the opposite shore over a vast expanse of water, whose hills, valleys, mountains, and forests present a confused and romantic scenery, which loses itself in the distant horizon. One advantage at least results from having lived in a state of |