Chapter 2

Chapter 2
(pages 5 - 7)

EARLY HISTORY OF PEORIA.

     So much, by way of introduction, for the geography of Peoria. Now for its history. And here I find, as Mr. Lincoln said of the rebellion, I have 'a big job on hand': not big because of the difficulty of arranging materials so extensive and voluminous, but big because of the difficulty of composing a readable history out of materials so very scant. Had I the organ of marvelousness strongly developed, I might, like the Roman, Chinese and Hindoo historians, grope into the dark ages of antiquity, and gather up the absurd, and often impossible, traditions of the ancestors of our Indians, concerning their wars and their miracles, and the dealings of the Great Spirit with them; or gravely quote from the Book of Mormon, concerning the wars and wanderings of the ten lost tribes; or I might, in imitation of this fast age, dig into some mound, or stroll into some of the many cellars being dug, in Peoria, and gather up some fragments of human bones, beads—perhaps a copper coin, or some scraps of porcelain, or of a broken whisky-jug, as evidence 'strong as proofs from Holy Writ' that, in untold ages, a highly-civilized people had inhabited this beautiful place. Or I might run mad searching for some Rosetta Stone, that would reveal the wonders of those times. But the trouble about this business is, I have not the organ of marvelousness very well developed. I can
not believe without evidence; and should some evidence be produced in favor of a proposition, I would still not believe it, as long as better evidence was at hand to counteract it.
     I therefore commence my history of Peoria only about 196 years ago, the date of the arrival of the first white man at this place. But about this we know but little. It is said that Father Marquette, on the 10th of June, 1673, accompanied by a gentleman from Canada by the name of Joliet, five Frenchmen, and two Algonquin Indians, as guides, passed from Green Bay across to the Mississippi river, by the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, and, after having descended the Mississippi as far down as the mouth of the Arkansas, ascended by way of the Illinois to Lake Michigan, and part of them to Canada; but the object of Joliet being merely to ascertain whether the Mississippi entered into the Pacific Ocean or the Gulf of Mexico, he returned as soon as he ascertained that fact, by the easiest route; and it being the sole object of Marquette to preach to the Indians, and neither of them desiring to plant a colony, they probably kept a very meagre journal respecting this country, and what they did keep was lost, so that the world was but little benefited by their discoveries.
     Marquette was a religious enthusiast, a devotee, perhaps I might say a misanthrope. He would not go home, but preached to the Indians about the head of Lake Michigan, for two years. For some reason, after he had preached in that region for about that time, he went about three hundred miles north, and entered a little river, in the now State of Michigan, not far from Mackinaw, which river has since been called by his name. On its bank he erected a rude altar, and, prevailing on the canoe-men who accompanied him to leave him alone, he said mass according to the rites of the Catholic church, of which he was a priest, and prayed and died. After his fellow travelers had given him sufficient time for his devotions, as they supposed, they returned and found him dead, and buried him in the sand, where he had died. The cause of his death is not known. He had probably lived as long as life was desirable.

     Either of those men might have been of great service to the world, by carefully describing this country and its inhabitants, and then preserving their journal; but we have nothing from them but the great truth that the Mississippi does not run into the Pacific Ocean and that Illinois is a rich country.

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