Excerpt from The Illinois Country, 1673-1818 HE sentences Of this preface are actually written amidst scenes the antithesis Of those in which the volumes Of the history were born and brought to maturity. The boundless prairies forme'd their cradle and Offered unobstructed stretches for their development; while this act Of baptism, so to speak, is taking place in a valley formed by the Berkshire hills Of Massachusetts. Not far away, as the automobile runs, lie Greenfield, Northampton, and Williamstown, the names most familiar in my ears, when the verdant slopes Of Mounts Tom and Holyoke were mysterious regions peopled by the fairies and Indians Of childhood and later when Mount Greylock was watching over those callow days Of football and tennis. From these rock-bound valleys to the oceanlike levels Of central Illi nois is a long, long trail. 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.