"In 1752 no rain fell for three months, the marshes dried up, and the Kaskaskia river would scarcely float the smallest pirogue*...Rust had attacked the wheat, and the kernels were smaller than usual...That same year Macarty reported that the fields on the Illinois side were worn out, and most of the habitants* were taking up land around Ste. Genevieve."

*A pirogue was a flat-bottomed canoe.

*Habitant: comes from the French verb habiter which means to live, and describes the people that live in a particular place, for example, the habitants of Kaskaskia.

© Illinois State Museum 31-Dec-96