A Great Gathering of People…

A map…

Behold the title block.

Which says something along the lines of “MAP OF LOUISIANA OR OF THE VOYAGES OF SR. DE LA SALLE, and of the country which he discovered from New France to the Gulf of Mexico, the years 1679, 80, 81 & 82. By Jean Baptiste Louis Franquelin, the year 1684, Paris.”

This map is shared here compliments of the U.S. Library of Congress.  It is a facsimile of a reproduction of the original made for the author and historian, Francis Parkman, in the 1800s. The original map, formerly in the Archives de la Marine, Paris, has evidently been lost.

Much may be said about this map.  Much!  It touches on quite the fascinating range of subjects.  But right now, let’s look at one particular area. Let’s zoom in on the heart of North America.

And let’s zoom right in on the modern day state of Illinois.

Let’s zoom yet closer, towards modern day Ottawa, Illinois, slightly southwest of Chicago.  Check out the COLONIE DU SR. DE LA SALLE.

This map was published in 1684.  With respect to this particular geographical area, it captures a snapshot of the summer of 1683.  The Colony of Sr. de La Salle included a few Frenchmen, but fundamentally it was a huge gathering of Native Americans.   Upon the rock known to French mapmakers as “Le Rocher” and known to us today as “Starved Rock,” the French explorer Renè-Robert Cavalier, Sieur de La Salle had recently constructed a fort.  Fort St. Louis. With the blessing of his sovereign, King Louis XIV, La Salle was on a mission to establish a great French empire in the heart of North America. The Native Americans, being from numerous tribes which generally shared the Algonquin tongue, were gathered together in response to threats from a rival group of natives, the Iroquois confederacy.  The Iroquois, while satisfying their basic instinct to conquer, were in turn responding to encouragement from Dutch and English colonists to wreck havoc in the areas where the French trying to trade and colonize.  These forces combined to create a remarkable gathering of people.  It is captured on this map.

Stay tuned!  And have a wonderful day.