route about a hundred
and fifty miles in length, they reached, on the 8th of April, the
Kankakee River, an important tributary of the Illinois. At this point,
which is now in the present county of Kankakee, and near where the
village of Rockport stands, the Illinois Indians had their large and
populous village.

The missionary was received, we are told, as an angel from heaven. He
assembled all the chiefs of the tribe, with the renowned warriors, that
with imposing ceremonies he might announce to them the object of his
coming, and impress them with the momentous importance of his message.
There was no wigwam sufficiently capacious to accommodate such a
multitude as the occasion would assemble.

Near the village there was a smooth, verdant, beautiful prairie, richly
carpeted with the velvet green of early spring. On a mild and sunny
morning a wonderful crowd of savages--men, women, and children--were
seen crowding to the appointed station. The chiefs were dressed in
truly gorgeous habiliments, of plumes, skins richly embroidered and
fringed, and brilliantly colored. Their robes were more showy than any
court-dress ever witnessed at Windsor Castle or the Tuileries. The
warriors, with proud demeanor and stately tread, marched along, with
quivers of arrows at their backs, and bows in their hands. Tomahawks
and scalping knives were ostentatiously displayed, and the scalps of
enemies dangled at their javelin points, as badges of their nobility.
Of these they were more proud than were ever English, French, or
Spanish grandees of the decoration of stars or garters. The women and
the dogs came next. They were alike regarded as necessary drudges to
bear burdens, and to be fed with the refuse which their masters left.
Then came the boys and girls, many of them half naked, shouting,
laughing, racing, engaging in all the uncouth merriment of a savage
gala day.

The spot selected for the council was decorated according to the most
approved fashion of the people and their times. The ground was covered
with mats, made of the skins of bears and other animals. Posts were
planted, draped and festooned with green boughs. Upon each of the four
sides of the square, the good father, who had ever been taught to
regard with the utmost veneration the Mother of Jesus, hung a picture
of the Blessed Virgin, that all might gaze upon her sad yet beautiful
features.

Father Marquette took his seat upon a mat, in the centre of the
enclosure. The