THE DARK BEFORE THE DAWN.
EARLY JESUIT.
RESOLUTELY, though unwillingly, I pass over the romantic history of the first century of Chicago's annals, the French period beginning about 1678, embracing the thrilling story of La Salle, Marquette and their brave fellow Catholics. Let us take up the tale when, in 1778, during the Revolutionary war; just as the great George Rogers Clark was capturing Indiana, Illinois and in fact the whole Northwest, from the English; one Colonel Arent Schuyler de Peyster (a New York officer of the British army, in command of Fort Mackinac) wrote some doggerel verses which bring Chicago into modern history and literature.[L] In one of his poems he speaks of "Eschikagou" and of Jean Baptiste Pointe de Saible who lived there, and in a footnote he describes the place as "a river and fort at the head of Lake Michigan," and the man as "a handsome negro, well educated, but much in the French interest."
[L] See appendix A. After the peace. Colonel de Peyster retired to Scotland and lived in or near Dumfries; and it is in his honor that Burns wrote his verses "To Colonel de Peyster," beginning
"My honored Colonel, much I feel
Thy interest in the poet's weal."
The fort spoken of by Colonel de Peyster, if it had any existence, must have been a mere stockaded trading-post, for neither by English nor by French forces had it been built, and as to American forces, there were none west of the Alleghanies except Clark with his few score of heroic frontiers-men. Fort Dearborn came twenty-six years later, as we shall see.
The word "Chicago" in some of its many forms of spelling[M] had been in recognized existence for a century, being found in the scanty and precious records left by Marquette, La Salle and their contemporaries, though they first call the stream the "Portage River."
[M] Hurlbut's "Antiquities" discusses the name with great and amusing particularity Here are some of the variations he gives in its spelling and its meaning. Chicagowunzh, the wild onion or leek; (Schoolcraft). Checaqua; a line of chiefs of the Tamaroa Indians, signifying strong. Chigaakwa, "the woods are thin." Checagou, Chicagou, Marquette and La Salle. Shikakok, "at the skunk." Chi-ka-go, wild onion. Chikagou, an Indian chief who went to Paris (before 1752) where the Duchess of Orleans, at Versailles, gave him a splendid snuff box. Chicagou, M. DeLigny in a letter to M. DeSiette. Checaqua, "the Thunder God." Chacaqua, "Divine River." Chicagua or Skunk river (in Iowa). Chicago, skunk, onion or smelling thing; (Gordon S. Hubbard). Chicagoua, equivalent of the Chippewa Jikag; "bête puante." Zhegahg, a skunk. Eschikagou; (Col. De Peyster). Portage de Chegakou. Chikajo. Chi-kaug-ong; (Schoolcraft). Chicazo, corruption of Chickasaw.