General Lafayette was not expected at Kaskaskia, and nothing had been prepared for this unforeseen visit. While we were landing some one ran to the village, which stands a quarter of a mile from the shore, and quickly returned with a carriage for the general, who, an instant after, was surrounded by many citizens, who ran before to receive him. In the escort which formed itself to accompany him, we saw neither military apparel nor the splendid triumphs we had perceived in the rich cities; but the accents of joy and republican gratitude which broke upon his ear, was grateful to his heart, since it proved to him that wherever American liberty had penetrated, there also the love and veneration of the people for its founders were perpetuated.
We followed the general on foot, and arrived almost at the same time at the house of General Edgar, a venerable soldier of the revolution, who received him with affectionate warmth, and ordered all the doors to be kept open, that his fellow citizens might enjoy, as well as himself, the pleasure of shaking hands with the adopted son of America. After a few minutes had been accorded to the rather tumultuous expression of the sentiments which the presence of the general inspired, Governor Coles requested silence, which was accorded with a readiness and deference that proved to me that his authority rested not only on the law, but still more on popular affection. He advanced towards Lafayette, about whom the crowd had increased, and addressed him with emotion in a discourse in which he depicted the transports his presence excited in the population of the state of Illinois, and the happy influence which the remembrance of his visit would produce hereafter on the youthful witnesses of the enthusiasm of their fathers, for one of the most valiant founders of their liberty.
During an instant of profound silence, I cast a glance at the assembly, in the midst of which I found myself, and was struck with astonishment in remarking their variety and fantastic appearance. Beside men whose dignity of countenance, the patriotic exaltation of expression, readily indicated them to be Americans, were others whose coarse dresses, vivacity, petulance of movement, and the expansive joy of their visages, strongly recalled to me the peasantry of my own country; behind these, near to the door, and on the piazza which surrounded the house, stood some immovable, impassable, large, red, half naked figures, leaning on a bow or a long rifle: these were the Indians of the neighbourhood.
After a pause of some seconds, the governor resumed his address, which he concluded by presenting, with great eloquence, a faithful picture of the benefits which America had derived from its liberty, and the happy influence which republican institutions would one day exercise on the rest of the world. When the orator had finished, a slight murmur of approbation passed through the assembly, and was prolonged until it was perceived that General Lafayette was about to reply, when an attentive silence was restored.
After these reciprocal felicitations, another scene not less interesting commenced. Some old revolutionary soldiers advanced from the crowd, and came to shake hands with their old general; while he conversed with them, and heard them, with softened feelings, cite the names of those of their ancient companions in arms, who also fought at Brandywine and Yorktown, but for whom it was not ordained to enjoy the fruits of their toils, nor to unite their voices with that of their grateful country. The persons whom I had remarked as having some likeness in dress and manners to our French peasants, went and came with vivacity in all parts of the hall, or sometimes formed little groups, from the midst of which could be heard, in the French language, the most open and animated expressions of joy. Having been introduced to one of these groups by a member of the committee of Kaskaskia, I was received at first with great kindness, and was quickly overwhelmed with a volley of questions, as soon as they found I was a Frenchman, and accompanied general Lafayette. “What! are you also come from France? Give us then some news from that fine, that dear country. Are people happy there? Are they free as they are here? Ah! what pleasure to see our good Frenchmen from grand France!” and the questions followed with such rapidity, that I knew not which to understand. I was not long in perceiving that these good men were as ignorant of the things which concerned their mother country, as they were enthusiastic. They are acquainted with France only by tradition from the reign of Louis XIV. and they have no idea of the convulsions which, during the last forty years, have torn the country of their fathers. “Have you not had,” said one of them to me, who had just asked me many questions about General Lafayette, which would not have been asked by an American child ten years of age, “have you not had another famous general, called Napoleon, who has made many glorious wars?” I think if Napoleon had heard such a question asked, his vanity would have been somewhat shocked by it. He, who believed he filled the universe with his name, because he had overturned some old thrones of Europe, and destroyed the liberty of France, was yet hardly known on the banks of the Mississippi; not more than two thousand leagues from the theatre of his glory, his name is pronounced with an expression of doubt! Indeed, there is in this something to damp the most ardent passion for celebrity: I did my best to reply to the question of my Canadian, to make him comprehend, as well as those who surrounded him, who was this famous General Napoleon. At the recital of his exploits, they at first clapped their hands, and assumed an air of superiority, in saying, “These are our brave Frenchmen. It is only among them that men like these are to be found!” But when I came to tell them how this famous general caused himself to be made consul; how he made himself emperor; how he had successively destroyed our liberty, and paralyzed the exercise of our rights; how, finally, he had himself fallen, leaving us, after twenty years of war, nearly at the same point whence we had started at the commencement of our revolution, they all became sad as if about to weep, and exclaimed: “And you have suffered all that! How, in beautiful France, and grand France, are they not free as in the state of Illinois? Good heavens! is it possible? What, can you not write whatever you please? Cannot you go every where without passports? Is it not you who nominate the mayors of your towns and villages? Is it not you who choose your governors, or your prefects of departments or provinces? Have you not the right to elect your representatives to the national assembly? Are none of you called to the election of the chief of the government, although you pay the whole of such heavy taxes? Alas! our good Frenchmen of grand France are then more to be pitied than the negro slaves of Louisiana, who are, indeed, miserable enough! for if these exercise none of the rights which we all exercise here, they at least pay no money, and have masters that support them.” During these exclamations, I did not know what to say. The colour mounted to my cheeks, and I confess that my national vanity suffered singularly to hear ignorant Canadians express sentiments of pity for my countrymen, and draw a parallel to their disadvantage between them and miserable slaves; but these sentiments were too well founded to admit of my complaining, and I was silent. I only made a promise to myself to be more discreet for the future, and not to speak with so much freedom of the political situation of my country before freemen.
While I was occupied with the Canadians, the crowd, influenced by a feeling of delicacy and kind attention, insensibly withdrew, to leave General Lafayette time to take a few moments’ repose while waiting for the banquet which the citizens had hastily prepared. Wishing to profit by the short time we had to remain at Kaskaskia, Mr. George Lafayette and myself went out to view the environs of the village, in company with some of the inhabitants, and left the general with our other travelling companions and some old revolutionary soldiers, at Colonel Edgar’s. At the public square we found nearly all the citizens walking about, and joyously conversing upon the event of the day. We found in their groups the same variety of physiognomy that had struck me in the hall. While Mr. George gathered from an American, the details of the origin and present situation of Kaskaskia, I approached a small circle of Indians, in the centre of which was a man of high stature and singular aspect. His face, without being coppery like that of the Indians, was still very swarthy. His short dress, his long belt, to which hung a powder-horn, his long leather leggings, extending above his knees, and all his equipage, announced a hunter of the forest. He was leaning on a long rifle, and appeared to inspire by his discourse a lively interest in his hearers. When he observed me, he came to me without forwardness, but with marked kindness. He extended his hand, and I gave him mine, which he shook cordially. I had a moment’s hesitation in addressing him, not knowing whether he understood English or French; but he spoke to me first in French, and I soon found myself quite at ease with him. He informed me that he was of mixed blood, that his mother was of the Kickapoos tribe, and that his father was a Canadian. He lives among the Indians of the neighbourhood, who have a great friendship and respect for him, because, notwithstanding fifty years and fatigue have begun to whiten his head, he yet equals them in hunting and all the exercises of the body, and because he often serves them as a mediator between them and the whites, whose language he perfectly understands, although his common language is Indian. Those who surrounded him were not all similarly clothed, nor similarly painted. It was easy to distinguish some differences in their features and manners. I concluded that they were not all of the same tribe. The hunter confirmed me in this opinion by telling me that at this moment, there were about Kaskaskia three or four camps of Indians, come to sell the furs obtained by their great hunting during the winter. He named the different tribes who occupied the camps; but their names were so barbarous, or so badly pronounced, that I could not comprehend them; I understood distinctly only that of Miami, which, repeated three or four times, roused from his apathy a little man, who until then stood motionless before me, wrapped in a blanket; his face, bloated by intemperance, was painted red, blue, and yellow. At the name of Miami, he raised his head, assumed an air of ridiculous dignity, and said, “I should be the chief of the Miami nation. My grandfather was chief, my father was chief; but the Miami have unjustly decided that I should not succeed my father, and now, instead of having a great quantity of furs to sell, I have none; I shall quit Kaskaskia without being able to buy arms, powder, or tobacco.” While he thus spoke, a man painted in the same way, but of a very lofty stature and athletic form, regarded him with a disdainful air, and said, after tapping him on the shoulder, “Dare you to complain of the justice of the Miami? Thy grandfather was our chief, sayest thou? thy father was also? But hast thou then forgotten that thy grandfather was the bravest of our warriors, and that the wisdom of thy father was heard in our councils as the voice of the Great Spirit? But, by what title wouldst thou command among men? Feeble as an old woman, thou hast not even the courage to hunt to satisfy thy wants, and thou wouldst sell us to the whites for a bottle of whiskey.” A contemptuous gesture terminated this rude apostrophe, which was translated into French for me at the time by the stout hunter; and the fallen prince, sadly leaning on a small bow, similar to those with which the Indian boys exercise, kept silence. His fate seemed to me truly deserving of pity; I could not, however, avoid feeling a sentiment of esteem for the Miami nation, who do not believe that legitimacy in a prince can supply the place of all the virtues.
I was still among the Indians, questioning the hunter as to the situation and force of their tribes, which civilization is rapidly diminishing, when I saw the secretary of the governor of Louisiana, Mr. Caire, approach, who came to propose that I should go with him to visit an Indian encampment, at a very short distance from the village. I consented, and we set off immediately, in order to return by the dinner hour. Leaving Kaskaskia, we crossed a river of the same name, on a wooden bridge solidly built and firmly connected. We then marched about twenty minutes on the plain, to the entrance of a forest, which we penetrated by a straight path traced along a rivulet. As we advanced, the ground suddenly elevated itself to the right and left, and we quickly found ourselves in a kind of pass, formed by a succession of small hills, covered with thickets. After about a quarter of an hour’s walk, we arrived at a fence, which we climbed, and behind which two horses attracted our attention by the noise of the bells hung round their necks. A little further on, the pass enlarging, formed a delightful little valley, in the middle of which some huts of bark were raised in a half circle; this was the Indian camp we sought. The openings of these huts were all towards the centre of the circle, and the planks elevated about three feet from the ground, were slightly inclined, like the cover of a field bed. With the exception of a very old woman cooking at a fire in the open air, we found no person in the camp. Either from spite, or because she neither comprehended French nor English, this woman would reply to none of our questions, and saw us with the greatest indifference, look at, and even handle, all the objects which attracted our curiosity in the huts. All was arranged with sufficient order, and it was easy to recognize the places occupied by the women, by the little utensils of the toilet, such as looking-glasses, pins, bags of paint, &c. which we remarked there. After a minute examination of this little camp, we were about to leave it, when I was arrested on the border of the streamlet which ran through it, by the sight of a small mill-wheel, which appeared to have been thrown on the bank by the rapidity of the current. I took it up and placed it where I thought it had originally been put by the children, on two stones elevated a little above the water; and the current striking the wings, made it turn rapidly. This puerility, (which probably would have passed from my memory, if, on the same evening, it had not placed me before the Indians, in a situation sufficiently extraordinary,) greatly excited the attention of the old woman, who, by her gestures, expressed to us a lively satisfaction.
On returning to Kaskaskia, we found Mr. de Syon, an amiable young Frenchman of much intelligence, who, on the invitation of General Lafayette, left Washington city with us to visit the southern and western states. Like us he had just made an excursion into the neighbourhood, and appeared quite joyous at the discovery he had made; he had met, in the midst of the forest, at the head of a troop of Indians, a pretty young woman, who spoke French very well, and expressed herself with a grace at which he appeared as much astonished as we were. She had asked him if it was true, that Lafayette was at Kaskaskia, and on his replying affirmatively, she manifested a great desire to see him. “I always carry with me,” said she to Mr. de Syon, “a relique, that is very dear to me; I would wish to show it to him; it will prove to him that his name is not less venerated in the midst of our tribes, than among the white Americans, for whom he fought.” And in speaking thus, she drew from her bosom a little pouch which enclosed a letter carefully wrapped in several pieces of paper. “It is from Lafayette,” said she, “he wrote it to my father a long time since, and my father, when he died, left it to me as the most precious thing he possessed.” At the sight of this letter, Mr. de Syon proposed to the Indian girl to go with him to Kaskaskia, assuring her that General Lafayette would be very much pleased to see her; but this proposition seemed to embarrass her, and under various pretexts, she refused to come. “However,” she added, “if you have any thing to say to me this evening, you will find me in my camp, which is close by the village; any one can direct you the way, for I am well known at Kaskaskia. My name is Mary.”
This recital of Mr. de Syon excited my curiosity keenly, and I would have willingly returned with him immediately to search for Mary; but, at this moment, a member of the committee of Kaskaskia came to inform me that they were about to sit down to dinner, and we saw General Lafayette going out of Colonel Edgar’s, escorted by many citizens and crossing to Colonel Sweet’s house where we were to dine. We joined the procession and took our places at table, where the general was seated under a canopy of flowers prepared by the ladies of Kaskaskia, with much skill and taste; and which produced, by the blending of the richest and most lively colours, the effect of a rainbow.
I spoke to General Lafayette of the meeting with the young Indian girl; and from the desire he manifested to see her, I left the table with Mr. de Syon, at the moment when the company began to exchange patriotic toasts, and we sought a guide to Mary’s camp. Chance assisted us wonderfully, in directing us to an Indian of the same tribe that we wished to visit. Conducted by him, we crossed the bridge of Kaskaskia, and notwithstanding the darkness, soon recognized the path and rivulet I had seen in the morning with Mr. Caire. When we were about to enter the enclosure, we were arrested by the fierce barking of two stout dogs which sprang at, and would probably have bitten us, but for the timely interference of our guide. We arrived at the middle of the camp, which was lighted by a large fire, around which a dozen Indians were squatted, preparing their supper; they received us with cordiality, and, as soon as they were informed of the object of our visit, one of them conducted us to Mary’s hut, whom we found sleeping on a bison skin. At the voice of Mr. de Syon, which she recognized, she arose, and listened attentively to the invitation from General Lafayette to come to Kaskaskia; she seemed quite flattered by it, but said before deciding to accompany us she wished to mention it to her husband. While she was consulting with him, I heard a piercing cry; and turning round I saw near me the old woman I had found alone in the camp in the morning: she had just recognized me by the light of the fire, and designated me to her companions, who, quitting immediately their occupations, rushed round me in a circle, and began to dance with demonstrations of great joy and gratitude. Their tawny and nearly naked bodies, their faces fantastically painted, their expressive gesticulations, the reflection of the fire, which gave a red tinge to all the surrounding objects, every thing gave to this scene something of an infernal aspect, and I fancied myself for an instant in the midst of demons. Mary, witnessing my embarrassment, put an end to it, by ordering the dance to cease, and then explained to me the honours which they had just rendered me. “When we wish to know if an enterprize we meditate will be happy, we place in a rivulet a small wheel slightly supported on two stones; if the wheel turns during three suns, without being thrown down, the augury is favourable: but if the current carry it away, and throws it upon the bank, it is a certain proof that our project is not approved by the Great Spirit, unless however a stranger comes to replace the little wheel before the end of the third day. You are this stranger who have restored our manitou and our hopes, and this is your title to be thus celebrated among us.” In pronouncing these last words, an ironical smile played on her lips, which caused me to doubt her faith in the manitou. “You do not appear to be very much convinced,” said I to her, “of the efficacy of the service which I have rendered you in raising the manitou?” She silently shook her head; then raising her eyes, “I have been taught,” said she, “to place my confidence higher;—all my hopes are in the God I have been taught to believe in; the God of the Christians.”