The summer of 1680 was an unquiet season, when every whisper of the wind seemed to bring ill news. Persistent rumors came to the Illinois of an alliance between the Iroquois and the Miamis. Seeing their fears the energetic man with the “medicine” arm began to teach his red brothers the arts of the white man: he showed them the use of guns and taught them how to fight as the white men fought.

One day a runner came into the village with news of the death of La Salle, followed a little later by another Indian who confirmed the evil tidings. The Illinois saw gloom in the face of Tonty; but his eyes flashed no less of fire and his step lacked none of its usual vigor, for he was every inch a chief. Then into the village a new rumor came whispering to the Indians that this dark-visaged chieftain with flowing hair was no Frenchman at all; that he came from a country far beyond France whose people bore no kinship or allegiance to the great King of the French.

Surely the situation looked worse for the Illinois with each passing day. If the white men were in league with the Iroquois, and if their kinsmen, the Miamis, had joined the enemy, they and their wives and children might well fear the time when the war cry of the painted Iroquois would echo in the valley of the Illinois. Defeated and overwhelmed, they would be eaten by their enemies. Did not the tribes of the Five Nations thus treat their captives? Consternation rose on the wings of fear. What hope had the Illinois against the tribes from the East?

From their long houses at the other end of the Great Lakes the famous Iroquois warriors had spread desolation among a hundred tribes. They had conquered and subjugated whole nations. Toward the south as far as the Cherokees and Catawbas they had made easy conquests. North of the Iroquois were the French on the St. Lawrence. Since Champlain had taken sides with the Canadian Indians against the Iroquois, three quarters of a century ago, the tribes of the Five Nations had hated the French. But they did not dare attack them. So now the West offered the best field for their eager ravages. From the Dutch in New Netherland, and later from their English successors, they had purchased guns and ammunition, and they had set their cruel hearts upon laying waste the valley of the Illinois—at least so the tribes of th............