Or perhaps the city was named from the successive titles of the proud, old Tamawas Chiefs.
"Not a monarch in all that proud Old World beyond the deep" bore more haughtily his inherited title of Herod or Caesar than did one of these Tamawas rulers exult in the ancient title of Chacaqua. If this theory of the origin of Chicago's cognomen be accepted, then indeed can the "Windy City" claim a royal title from the first.
In 1673, certain Catholic missionaries became interested in exploring the Western Wilds. They were especially enthusiastic in regard to the waterways of darkest America. The Mississippi they had heard of. Was it possible that it ever could be made to join hands with the Great Lakes, of which they had some knowledge?
So questioning, Fathers Marquette and Joliet took two canoes and five men from the upper lake regions, and started to explore the charming Valley of the Mississippi.
On their return they reached the mouth of the Illinois, where they were informed of a new way of reaching Lake Michigan.
"Taking the Des Plaines branch, they were able to reach the water shed, but eight feet higher than canoeable waters, crossing which they launched into the stream which conducted them into the lake."
In so doing they made perhaps the greatest discovery of their time—namely, a discovery of that supremely important portage which insures Chicago's supremacy so long as American civilization exists.
In October, 1674, Marquette returned to this spot and erected the first white man's dwelling which was ordained to be the beginning of the great metropolis of the West. His little hut was both a home and a sanctuary. Here he wintered, shooting turkey, deer and buffalo from his door. Here in the spring, from toil and exposure, he died, mourned by the savages whom he had taught.
Thus was Chicago begun in embryo.