French settlements began to extend southward from Lake Erie to the head
waters of the Ohio, like a chain to check the English. Presqu' Isle, now
Erie, Pennsylvania, was founded about the same time as Vincennes.

A French settler built his house in an inclosure of two or three acres.
The unvarying model was one story high, with porches or galleries
surrounding it. Wooden walls were filled and daubed with a solid mass of
what was called cat-and-clay, a mixture of mortar and chopped straw or
Spanish moss. The chimney was of the same materials, shaped by four long
corner posts, wide apart below, and nearer together at the top.

As fast as children grew up and married they built their cottages
in their father's yard; and so it went on, until with children and
grandchildren and great-grandchildren, a small village accumulated
around one old couple.

The French were not anxious to obtain grants of the rich wild land.
Every settlement had its common field, large or small, as was desired.
A portion of this field was given to each person in the village for his
own, and he was obliged to cultivate it and raise food for his family.
If a man neglected his ground, it was taken from him. A large tract of
land called the common pasture was also inclosed for everybody's cattle
to graze in.

Sometimes houses were set facing one court, or center, like a camp, for
defense. But generally the French had little trouble with their savage
neighbors, who took very kindly to them. The story of western settlement
is not that dreadful story of continual wars with Indians which reddens
the pages of eastern colonies. The French were gay people. They loved to
dance and hunt and spend their time in amusements. While the serious,
stubborn English were grubbing out the foundations of great states on
the Atlantic coast, it must be confessed these happy folks cared little
about developing the rich Mississippi valley.

During all its early occupation this hospitable land abounded with game.
Though in November the buffaloes became so lean that only their tongues
were eaten, swans, geese, and ducks were always plentiful, and the fish
could not be exhausted.

On a day in February, people from Kaskaskia hurried over the road which
then stretched a league to the Mississippi, for the town was on the
Kaskaskia River bank. There were settlers in blanket capotes, shaped
like friars' frocks, with hoods to draw over their heads. If it had
been June instead o