The Native Americans used to say, with great simplicity, that the first white settler in Chicago was a negro. His name was Jean-Baptiste Point du Sable, the Daniel Boone of Illinois. At the close of the 18th century, he had hacked out of the wild, windy plains at the foot of Lake Michigan, a fabulous trading post, and a settlement which stood on the site now studded with sky scrapers and crossed by boulevards.