Excerpt from Fighting Men of Illinois: An Illustrated Historical Biography Compiled From Private and Public Authentic Records Here where fearless courage, undaunted bravery and hardy perseverance always find the response of ready appreciation, we of the west look back with glowing pride to the deeds accomplished and obsta cles overcome by these intrepid men - the founders of our western civilization - the discoverers Of our homes today. The bright lustre of their fame France shares with us since La Salle, Joliet, Marquette, Champlain, and a thousand others mothered by fair France rest now in the bosom of the land that ever enticed and enthralled them. Their efforts are the corner stones of the greatest civilization the world has ever known. Their trials and tribulations were not in vain. Upon the foundation left by them there has in less than three centuries been established the most powerful nation known to history. Tradition - the forerunner of history - really means unproven history - but it does not necessarily follow tradition is untrue. Many really 'great experiences befallen hitherto unknown and obscure men, have been related, retold and marked tradition and have been denied the pages of civilized history. The probability that many of these undertakings were true, but were accorded to tradition and unrecorded in history is due to the fact that they were either not recorded securely enough, or that they were recorded in wrong places. The great tradition of France is that in 1488, antedating Columbus by four years, Cousin, a French sailor, discovered America. Cousin, sailing from his home port of Dieppe, while far out to sea Off the African coast, was forced westward by wild winds until one day he beheld land in the distance. Upon closer investigation he made out the mouth of a large river. Lacking the initiative Of the later navigators, he made no explorations, nor did he land, but with the aid of clement weather retraced his course and in due time returned to France. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.