Families from all of the tribes of the Illinois Confederacy now gathered in the village, ready to join hands in a common cause with the Shawnees and other nations from the south, and eager to ally themselves once more with the fickle Miamis who were still at their villages to the east.
Only the return of La Salle to the Illinois country had kept the Miamis from leaving their villages near the foot of the Lake and fleeing to the Mississippi; and even now, with Fort St. Louis built and garrisoned and with the Illinois and Shawnees gathered in the vicinity, they were thrown into a panic by news from the St. Lawrence River that the Iroquois were on their way to the valley of the Illinois.
The French and Indians at La Salle’s colony having learned of the Miami alarm, La Salle made ready to go at once to their villages to reassure them. The Illinois, however, looked with dread upon his going, and they tried to dissuade him. Perhaps they recalled too vividly the disasters that followed his departure three years before. Then, too, they had heard evil rumors. The French at Green Bay had told their traders that if the Illinois settled near La Salle, he would abandon them to the Iroquois. The Indians frankly recounted these tales, and La Salle patiently told them of his enemies at Green Bay who wished him ill,—perhaps because they were jealous of his beaver trade,—and he promised them that, although it was important for him to go on from the Miami villages to Canada, he would come back at once if the Iroquois should approach.
Partly reassured they let him go. They did not know what grievous burdens weighed upon La Salle as he took his way eastward. At the fort in charge of Tonty he had left only twenty Frenchmen, with hardly a hundred rounds of powder and ball. Again and again he had sent men down to the Canadian settlements to bring back supplies and ammunition and French volunteers for his garrison. But they had not come back; and La Salle rightly suspected that the new governor, La Barre, who had succeeded Frontenac at Quebec, was in league with his enemies and willing to wreck his colony by preventing his men from returning with supplies and reinforcements. His only hope was to go in person to Canada to secure aid; and this he intended to do after seeing the Miamis.
Finding the Miamis full of terror and ready to fly, he immediately called the chiefs and elders in to a council. If the Miamis, instead of fleeing to the Mississippi, would move over and join his colony at the fort, they would all fight their battles together. He was going East now for reinforcements; but if he should hear of the near approach of the Iroquois, he would join them at Fort St. Louis at once. The Miamis gave attentive ear to La Salle. Was he not their brother Ouabicolcata, raised from the dead to protect them? The next day they began to move in three great armies toward Fort St. Louis, while La Salle went on toward the Lake.
From the Miami camp a hunter started out one day accompanied by his dog. Following a roebuck, he strayed off from his band and was suddenly attacked by four Iroquois and fatally wounded. The dog, seeing his master shot down, began to bark at the top of his lungs. The Iroquois, in alarm, took to their heels. At once the Miamis were hot upon their trail. They followed their tracks until they came to a trail so broadly beaten as to indicate a large army of the enemy. Realizing their lack of numbers, the Miamis retraced their steps and made haste to combine their three armies into one before continuing the journey.
The alarm, meanwhile, had reached the colony about the fort, and war parties of Illinois left their village to meet the oncoming foe. Soon they encountered an Iroquois party of forty and took one of them prisoner. With savage glee they brought him into camp. Perhaps he was one of the hated band that had despoiled their village. It was their turn now for vengeance. They presented the captive to Tonty to be put to death. But Tonty replied that it was not the custom of his people to kill their prisoners of war. Then they offered him to their allies, the Shawnees, who with savage ceremonies burned him to death.
The Illinois had won a victory over the invaders, but it did not bring them security. They wished for the return of La Salle; and Tonty sent off two runners at top speed to tell his chief that if he did not return at once the tribes were likely to melt away to the Far West and out of reach of the Iroquois.
It was not long until the army of the Miamis arrived. A league above the fort, on the north side of the river, was a long rock bluff, and here they settled and put up their lodges. La Salle, true to his promise, soon came back to the colony, much to the joy of both Indians and whites. From his high fort on the rock he now looked down upon Indian villages, with their thousands of Indian braves gathered like the army of a mediæval baron, and rejoiced in the thought that a long step had been made toward the realization of his dream of the Great Valley.