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Show 1836- 1837] Flaggs Far West 139 sessed of all that gentlemanly naivete which foreign travellers would have us believe is, in our country, confined to the profession of arms. The night- dews of the lowlands had for some hours been falling when we reached the village drenched with their damps. Much to our regret, the stage of water in the Illinois would not permit our boat to ascend the stream, as had been the intention, to Hennepin, some twenty miles above, and Ottawa, at the foot of the rapids. 9* Nearly equidistant between these [ i n ] flourishing towns, upon the eastern bank of the Illinois, is situated that remarkable crag, termed by the early French " Le Rochet" by the Indian traditions " Starved Rocky" and by the present dwellers in its vicinity, as well as by Schoolcraft and the maps, " Rockfort" It is a tall cliff, composed of alternate strata of lime and sandstone, about two hundred and fifty feet in height by report, and one hundred and thirty- four by actual measurement. Its base is swept by the current, and it is perfectly precipitous upon three sides. The fourth side, by which alone it is accessible, is connected with the neighbouring range of bluffs by a natural causeway, which can be ascended only by a difficult and tortuous path. The summit of the crag is clothed with soil to the depth of several feet, sufficient to sustain a growth of stunted cedars. It is about one hundred feet in diameter, and comprises nearly an acre of level land. The name of " Starved Rock " was obtained by this inaccessible battlement from a legend of Indian tradition, an outline of which may be found in Flint's work upon the Western Valley, and an interesting story wrought from its incidents in Hall's " Border Tales." A band of the Illini having assassinated Pontiac, the Ottoway chieftain, in 1767, the tribe M Hennepin, on the east bank of the Illinois River, was laid out in 1831 and made the seat of justice for Putnam County. Ottawa, the county seat of La Salle, was laid off by the canal commissioners ( 1830) at the junction of the Fox and Illinois rivers.- ED. |
