Book , t\4- ]fl 
 
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NNESO T A 
 
 EXPLOEEES AND PIONEEES 
 
 A. D. 1659 to A. D. 1858, 
 
 REV. EDWARD DUFFIELD XKIL1.. 
 
 BOB OK •VIRGINIA 
 
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 NORTH STAR PUBLISHING COMPANY. 
 
 OHO. K. WARN KB. 
 
 CHAS. M 
 
 MINNEAPOLIS : 
 NORTH STAR PUBLISHING COMPANY. 
 1881. 
 
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MINNESOTA 
 
 EXPLOEERS AND PIONEEES 
 
 A. D. 1659 to A. D. 1858, 
 
 REV. EDWARD DUFFIELD NEILL, 
 
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 iomi-anv 09 LOHDOS," 1N..II-II m/aih.\ 01 AMERICA," "FAIRFAXES OF 
 
 IM.1\M> am. AMERICA," ' n i:i:\ mvki.i " "HI8TOB1 "i 
 
 M l\ M -. .1 k," I ..I M.I l:- HI \t \ICYI VMi 
 
 " X, scin i/niil antea quam natus rig m <i<l< rti i<l *< mix r ease />'" ruin." 
 
 PREPARED Mn: 
 
 NORTH STAR PUBLISHING COMPANY. 
 
 Si UAKM'li. < II AS. M. MM.'IK. 
 
 MINNKAPOUS : 
 NORTH STAR PUBLISHING COMPANY. 
 1881. 
 
 
EXPLORERS 
 
 PIOXEEES OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 FOOTPRINTS OF CIVTLIZATIOX TOWARD THE EXTRE5nTY OF LAKE SFTERIOR. 
 
 i Central Position.— D'Avagour's Prediction.— Nicolet's Visit to Green 
 Bay.— Pint White Men in Minnesota.— Notices of Groselliers and Radisson.— 
 llurons Flee to Minnesota. — Visited by Frenchmen.— Father Menard Disap* 
 pears.— Groselliers Visits Hudson's Bay.— Father Allouez Describes the Sioux 
 Mission at Li Pointe.— Father Marquette.— Sioux at Sault St. Marie.— Jesuit 
 Missions Fail.— Groaelliers Visits England.— Captain Gillaru, of Boston, at Hud- 
 son's Bay.— Letter of Mother Superior of I'rsulines., at Quebec.— Death of 
 
 The Dakotahs, called by the Ojibways, Xado- 
 waysioux, or Sioux (Soos), as abbreviated by the 
 French, used to claim superiority- over other peo- 
 ple, because, their sacred men asserted that the 
 mouth of the Minnesota River was immediately 
 over the centre of the earth, and below the centre 
 of the heavens. 
 
 While this teaching is very different from that 
 of the modem astronomer, it is certainly true, 
 that the region west of Lake Superior, extending 
 through the valley of the Minnesota, to the Mis- 
 souri River, is one of the most healthful and fer- 
 tile regions beneath the skies, and may prove to 
 be the centre of the republic of the United States 
 of America. Baron D'Avagour, a brave officer, 
 who was killed in fighting the Turks, while he 
 was Governor of Canada, in a dispatch to the 
 French Government, dated August 14th, 1663, 
 after referring to Lake Huron, wrote, that beyond 
 '• is met another, called Lake Superior, the waters 
 of which, it is believed, flow into Xew Spain, and 
 this, according to general opinion, ought to be the 
 centre of the country.'''' 
 
 As early as 1635, one of Champlain's interpre- 
 ters, Jean Xicolet (Xicolay), who came to Cana- 
 da in 1618, reached the western shores of Lake 
 Michigan. In the summer of 1634 he ascended 
 
 by Geo. E. Wtarea and 
 
 the St. Lawrence, with a party of llurons, and 
 probably during the next winter was trading at 
 Green Bay, in "Wisconsin. On the ninth of De- 
 cember, 1635, he had returned to Canada, and on 
 the 7th of October, 1637, was married at Quebec, 
 and the next month, went to Three Rivers, where 
 he lived until lt'»42. when he died. Of him it is 
 said, in a letter written in 1640, that he had pen- 
 etrated farthest into those distant countries, and 
 that if he had proceeded " three days more on a 
 great river which flows from that lake [Green 
 Bay] he would have found the sea." 
 
 The first white men in Minnesota, of whom we 
 have any record, were, according to Garneau, two 
 persons of Huguenot affinities, Medard Chouart, 
 known as Sieur Groselliers, and Pierre d'Esprit, 
 called Sieur Radisson. 
 
 Groselliers (pronounced Gro-zay-yay) was bom 
 near Ferte-sous-Jouarre, eleven miles east of 
 Means, in France, and when about sixteen years 
 of age, in the year 1641, came to Canada. The fur 
 trade was the great avenue to prosperity, atffl in 
 1646, he was among the Huron Indians, who then 
 dwelt upon the eastern shore of Lake Huron, 
 bartering for peltries. On the second of Septem- 
 ber. 1647, at Quebec, he was married to Helen, 
 the widow of Claud-e Etienne, who was the daugh- 
 ter of a pilot, A'oraham Martin, whose baptismal 
 name is still attached to the suburbs of that city, 
 the " Plains of Abraham," made famous by the 
 death Vhere, of General Wolfe, of the English 
 army, in 1759, and of General Montgomery, of 
 the /Continental army, in December, 1775, at the 
 
 CMS oot,, i„ the office .jfthe Librarian ofCongress. at Washington, D. C. 
 
 / 
 
EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 commencement of Che " War for Independence." 
 
 His son. Medard, was born in 1657, and llu> next 
 
 year his mother died. The second wife of Gro- 
 selliers was Marguerite Hayet(Hayay] Radisson, 
 
 the Bister of his associate, in the exploration of 
 
 the region west of Lake superior. 
 
 Radisson was born at St. Malo, and, while a 
 boy. went to Paris, and from thence to Canada, 
 and in 1656, at Three Rivers, married Elizabeth, 
 the daughter Of -Madeleine Hainault, and, after 
 her death, the daughter of Sir David Kirk or 
 Kerkt. a zealous Huguenot, became his wife. 
 
 The Iroquois of New York, about the year 1650, 
 drove the Unions from their villages, and forced 
 them to take refuge with their friends the Tinon- 
 tates. called by the French, Petuns, because they 
 cultivated tobacco. In time the Hurons and 
 their allies, the Ottawas (Ottaw-waws), were 
 again driven by the Iroquois, and after successive 
 wanderings, were found on the west side of Lake 
 Michigan. In time they reached the Mississippi, 
 and ascending above the Wisconsin, they found 
 the Iowa Eiver, on the west side, which they fol- 
 lowed, and dwelt for a time with the Ayoes 
 (loways) who were very friendly ; but being ac- 
 customed to a country of lakes and forests, they 
 were not satisfied with the vast prairies. Beturn- 
 ing to the Mississippi, they ascended this river, 
 in search of a better land, and were met by some 
 of the Sioux or Dakotahs, and conducted to their 
 villages, where they were well received. The 
 Sioux, delighted with the axes, knives and awls 
 of European manufacture, which had been pre- 
 sented to them, allowed the refugees to settle 
 upon an island in the Mississippi, below the 
 mouth of the St. Croix Eiver, called Bald Island 
 from the absence of trees, about nine miles from 
 the site of the present city of Hastings. Possessed 
 of fireavrms, the Hurons and Ottawas asserted 
 their superiority", and determined to conquer the 
 country for themselves, and having incurred the 
 hostility of the Sioux,Vvere obliged to flee from 
 the isle in the Mississippi. Descending below 
 Lake Pepin, they reached the* Black Eiver, and 
 ascending it, found an unoccupieh\country around 
 its sources and that of the Chippewiay. In this 
 region the Hurons established themselves, while 
 their allies, the Ottawas, moved eastwa, 
 they found the shores of Lake Superior, anu\ set- 
 tled at Chagouamikon ( Sha - gah - wah - mik - t>ng ) 
 
 near what is now Bayfield. In the year 1659, 
 Groselliers and Radisson arrived at Chagouamik- 
 on. and determined to visit the Hurons and Pe- 
 tuns, with whom the former had traded when 
 they resided east of Lake Huron. After a six 
 days' journey, in a southwesterly direction, they 
 reached their retreat toward the sources of the 
 Black, Chippewa, and Wisconsin Rivers. Prom 
 this point they journeyed north, and passed the 
 winter of 1659-60 among the " Nadouechiouec," 
 or Sioux villages in the Mille Lacs (Mil Lak) re- 
 gion. From the Hurons they learned of a beau- 
 tiful river, wide, large, deep, and comparable with 
 the Saint Lawrence, the great Mississippi, which 
 flows through the city of Minneapolis, and whose 
 sources are in northern Minnesota. 
 
 Northeast of Mille Lacs, toward the extremity 
 of Lake Superior, they met the "Poualak," or 
 Assiniboines of the prairie, a separated band of 
 the Sioux, who, as wood was scarce and small, 
 made fire with coal (charbon de terre) and dwelt 
 in tents of skins ; although some of the more in- 
 dustrious built cabins of clay (terre grasse), like 
 the swallows build their nests. 
 
 The spring and summer of 1660, Groselliers and 
 Eadisson passed in trading around Lake Superior. 
 On the 19th of August they returned to Mon- 
 treal, with three hundred Indians and sixty ca- 
 noes loaded with " a wealth of skins." 
 " Furs of bison and of beaver, 
 Furs of sable and of ermine." 
 The citizens were deeply stirred by the travelers' 
 tales of the vastness and richness of the region 
 they had visited, and their many romantic adven- 
 tures. In a few days, they began their return to 
 the far West, accompanied by six Frenchmen and 
 two priests, one of whom was the Jesuit, Eene Me- 
 nard. His hair whitened by age, and his mind 
 ripened by long experience, he seemed the man 
 for the mission. Two hours after midnight, of the 
 day before departure, the venerable missionary 
 penned at " Three Eivers," the following letter 
 to a friend : 
 
 ' Be verend Father : 
 " The peace of Christ be with you : I write to 
 you probably the last, which I hope will be the 
 seal of our friendship until eternity. Love whom 
 the Lord Jesus did not disdain to love, though 
 the greatest of sinners; for he loves whom he 
 
 ^\ 
 
 
FATHEB MENARD LOST IN WISCONSIN. 
 
 loads with his cross. Let your friendship, my 
 good Father, be useful to me by the desirable 
 fruits of your daily sacrifice. 
 
 " In three or four months you may remember 
 me at the memento for the dead, on account of 
 my old age, my weak constitution and the hard- 
 ships I lay under amongst these tribes. Never- 
 theless, I am in peace, for I have not been led to 
 this mission by any temporal motive, but I think 
 it was by the voice of God. I was to resist the 
 grace of God by not coming. Eternal remorse 
 would have tormented me, had I not come when 
 I had the opportunity. 
 
 " We have been a little surprized, not being 
 able to provide ourselves with vestments and oth- 
 er things, but he who feeds the little birds, and 
 clothes the lilies of the fields, will take care of 
 his servants; and though it should happen we 
 should die of want, we would esteem ourselves 
 happy. I am burdened with business. "What I 
 can do is to recommend our journey to your daily 
 sacrifice, and to embrace you with the same sen- 
 timents of heart as I hope to do in eternity. 
 " My Reverend Father, 
 
 Your most humble and affectionate 
 servant in Jesus Christ, 
 
 B. MENTABD. 
 "From the Three Rivers, this 26th August, 2 
 
 o'clock after midnight, 1660." 
 
 On the 16th of October, the party with which 
 he journeyed reached a bay on Lake Superior, 
 where he found some of the Ottawas, who had 
 fled from the Iroquois of New Fork. For more 
 than eight months, surrounded by a few French 
 voyageurs, he lived, to use his words. " in a kind 
 of small hermitage, a cabin built of fir branches 
 piled one on another, not so much to shield ns 
 from the rigor of the season as to correct my im- 
 agination, and persuade me I was sheltered."' 
 
 During the summer of 1661. he resolved to visit 
 the Ilurons, who had fled eastward from the Sioux 
 of Minnesota, and encamped amid the marshes of 
 Northern Wisconsin. Some Frenchmen, who had 
 been among the Hurons, in vain attempted to dis- 
 suade him from the journey. To their entreaties 
 he replied, " I must go, if it cost me my life. I 
 can not suffer souls to perish on the ground of 
 saving the bodily life of a miserable old man like 
 myself. What! Are we to serve God only when 
 there is nothing to suffer, and no risk of life?" 
 
 Upon De Tlsle's map of Louisiana, published 
 nearly two centuries ago, there appears the Lake 
 of the Ottawas, and the Lake of the Old or De- 
 serted Settlement, west of Green Bay, and south 
 of Lake Superior. The Lake of the Old Planta- 
 tion is supposed to have been the spot occupied 
 by the Hurons at the time when Menard attempt- 
 ed to visit them. One way of access to this seclu- 
 ded spot was from Lake Superior to the head- 
 waters of the Ontanagon River, and then by a port- 
 age, to the lake. It could also be reached from 
 the headwaters of the Wisconsin, Black and Chip- 
 pewa Rivers, and some have said that Menard 
 descended the Wisconsin and ascended the Black 
 River. 
 
 Perrot, who lived at the same time, WTites : 
 " Father Menard, who was sent as missionary 
 among the Outaouas [Utaw-waws] accompanied 
 by certain Frenchmen who were going to trade 
 with that people, was left by all who were with 
 him, except one, who rendered to him until death, 
 all of the services and help that he could have 
 hoped. The Father followed the Outaouas f Utaw- 
 waws] to the Lake of the Illinoets [Illino-ay, now 
 Michigan] and in their flight to the Louisianne, 
 [Mississippi] to above the Black River. There 
 this missionary had but one Frenchman for a 
 companion. This Frenchman carefully followed 
 the route, and made a portage at the same place 
 as the Outaouas. lie found himself in a rapid, 
 one day, that was carrying him away in his canoe. 
 The Father, to assist, debarked from his own, but 
 did not find a good path to come to him. lie en- 
 tered one that had been made by beasts, and de- 
 siring to return, became confused in a labyrinth 
 of trees, and was lost. The Frenchman, after 
 having ascended the rapids with great labor, 
 awaited the good Father, and, as he did not come, 
 resolved to search for him. With all his might, 
 for several days, lie called his name in the woods, 
 hoping to find him, but it was useless. He met, 
 however, a Sakis [Sauk] who was carrying the 
 camp-kettle of the missionary, and who gave him 
 some intelligence. He assured him that he had 
 found his foot -prints at some distance, but that 
 he had not seen the Father. He told him, also, 
 that he had found the tracks of several, who were 
 going towards the Scioux. He declared that he 
 supposed that the Scioux might have killed or 
 captured him. Indeed, several years afterwards, 
 
EXPLORERS A.\I> PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 there were found among this tribe, his breviary 
 and cassock, which they exposed at their festivals, 
 making offerings to them of food." 
 
 In a journal of the Jesuits. Menard, about the 
 Beventh or eighth of August. 1661, is said to have 
 been lost. 
 
 GroseUiers (Gro-zay-yay), while Menard was 
 endeavoring to reach the retreat of the Hurons 
 which he had made known to the authorities of 
 Canada, was pushing through the country of the 
 Assinehoines. on the northwest shore of Lake 
 Superior, and at length, probably by Lake Alera- 
 pigon, or Xepigon, reached Hudson's Bay, and 
 early in May, 1662. returned to Montreal, and 
 surprised its citizens with his tale of new discov- 
 eries toward the Sea of the North. 
 
 The Hurons did not remain long toward the 
 sources of the Black Eiver, after Menard's disap- 
 pearance, and deserting their plantations, joined 
 their allies, the Ottawas, at La Pointe, now Bay- 
 field, on Lake Superior. While here, they deter- 
 mined to send a war party of one hundred against 
 the Sioux of Mille Lacs (Mil Lak) region. At 
 length they met their foes, who drove them into 
 one of the thousand marshes of the water-shed 
 between Lake Superior and the Mississippi, where 
 they hid themselves among the tall grasses. The 
 Sioux, suspecting that they might attempt to es- 
 cape in the night, cut up beaver skins into strips, 
 and hung thereon little bells, which they had ob- 
 tained from the French traders. The Hurons, 
 emerging from their watery hidingplace, stumbled 
 over the unseen cords, ringing the bells, and the 
 Sioux instantly attacked, killing all but one. 
 
 About the year 1665, four Frenchmen visited 
 the Sioux of Minnesota, from the west end of 
 Lake Superior, accompanied by an Ottawa chief, 
 and in the summer of the same year, a flotilla of 
 canoes laden with peltries, came down to Mon- 
 treal. Upon their return, on the eighth of Au- 
 gust, the Jesuit Father, Allouez, accompanied the 
 traders, and, by the first of October, reached Che- 
 goimegon Bay, on or near the site of the modern 
 town of Bayfield, on Lake Superior, where he 
 found the refugee Hurons and Ottawas. While 
 on an excursion to Lake Alempigon, now Ne- 
 pigon, this missionary saw, near the mouth of 
 Saint Louis Biver, in Minnesota, some of the 
 Sioux. He writes : " There is a tribe to the west 
 of this, toward the great river called Messipi. 
 
 They are forty or fifty leagues from here, in a 
 country of prairies, abounding in all kinds of 
 game. They have fields, in which they do not 
 sow Indian corn, but only tobacco. Providence 
 has provided them with a species of marsh rice, 
 which, toward the end of summer, they go to col- 
 lect in certain small lakes, that are covered with 
 it. They presented me with some when I was at 
 the extremity of Lake Tracy [Superior], where I 
 saw them. They do not use the gun, but only 
 the bow and arrow w-ith great dexterity. Their 
 cabins are not covered with bark, but with deer- 
 skins well dried, and stitched together so that the 
 cold does not enter. These people are above all 
 other savage and warlike. In our presence they 
 seem abashed, and were motionless as statues. 
 They speak a language entirely unknown to us, 
 and the savages about here do not understand 
 them." 
 
 The mission at La Pointe was not encouraging, 
 and Allouez, " weary of their obstinate unbelief," 
 departed, but Marquette succeeded him for a brief 
 period. 
 
 The "Relations" of the Jesuits for 1670-71, 
 allude to the Sioux or Dakotahs, and their attack 
 upon the refugees at La Pointe : 
 
 " There are certain people called Nadoussi, 
 dreaded by their neighbors, and although they 
 only use the bow and arrow, they use it with so 
 much skill and dexterity, that in a moment they 
 fill the air. After the Parthian method, they 
 turn their heads in flight, and discharge their ar- 
 rows so rapidly that they are to be feared no less 
 in their retreat than in their attack. 
 
 "They dwell on the shores and around the 
 great river Messipi, of which we shall speak. 
 They number no less than fifteen populous towns, 
 and yet they know not how to cultivate the earth 
 by seeding it, contenting themselves with a sort 
 of marsh rye, which we call wild oats. 
 
 " For sixty leagues from the extremity of the 
 upper lakes, towards sunset, and, as it were, in 
 the centre of the western nations, they have all 
 united their force by a general league, which has 
 been made against them, as against a common 
 enemy. 
 
 " They speak a peculiar language, entirely dis- 
 tinct from that of the Algonquins and Hurons, 
 whom they generally surpass in generosity, since 
 they often content themselves with the glory of 
 
GROSELLIERS AND RADISSON IN THE ENGLISH SEE VICE. 
 
 having obtained the victory, and release the pris- 
 oners they have taken in battle. 
 
 " Our Outouacs of the Point of the Holy Ghost 
 [La Pointe, now Bayfield] had to the present time 
 kept up a kind of peace with them, but affairs 
 having become embroiled during last winter, and 
 some murders having been committed on both 
 sides, our savages had reason to apprehend that 
 the storm would soon burst upon them, and judged 
 that it was safer for them to leave the place, which 
 in fact "they did in the spring." 
 
 Marquette, on the 13th of September, 1669, 
 writes : " The Xadouessi are the Iroquois of this 
 country. * * * they lie northwest of the Mission 
 of the Holy Ghost [La Pointe, the modern Bay- 
 field] and we have not yet visited them, having 
 confined ourselves to the conversion of the Otta- 
 was." 
 
 Soon after this, hostilities began between the 
 Sioux and the Hurons and Ottawas of La Pointe, 
 and the former compelled their foes to seek an- 
 other resting place, tow aid the eastern extremity 
 of Lake Superior, and at length they pitched 
 their tents at Mackinaw. 
 
 In 1674, some Sioux warriors came down to 
 Sault Saint Marie, to make a treaty of peace with 
 adjacent tribes. A friend of the Abbe de Galli- 
 nee wrote that a council was had at the fort to 
 which "the Xadouessioux sent twelve deputies. 
 and the others forty. During the conference, 
 one of the latter, knife in hand, drew near the 
 breast of one of the Xadouessioux. who showed 
 surprise at the movement ; when the Indian with 
 the knife reproached him for cowardice. The 
 Xadouessioux said he was not afraid, when the 
 other planted the knife in Ids heart, and killed 
 him. All the savages then engaged in conflict, 
 and the Xadouessioux bravely defended them- 
 selves, but. overwhelmed by numbers, nine of 
 them were killed. The two who survived rushed 
 into the chapel, ami closed the door. Here they 
 found munitions of war. and fired guns at their 
 enemies, who became anxious to burn down the 
 chapel, but the Jesuits would not permit it, be- 
 cause they had their skins stored between its roof 
 and ceiling. In this extremity, a Jesuit. Louis 
 Le Boeme, advised that a cannon should be point- 
 ed at the door, which was discharged, and the two 
 brave Sioux were killed." 
 
 Governor Frontenac of Canada, was indignant 
 
 at the occurrence, and in a letter to Colbert, one 
 of the Ministers of Louis the Fourteenth, speaks 
 in Condemnation of this discharge of a cannon by 
 a Brother attached to the Jesuit Mission. 
 
 From this period, the missions of the Church of 
 Rome, near Lake Superior, began to wane. Shea, 
 a devout historian of that church, writes: "In 
 1680, Father Enjalran was apparently alone at 
 Green Bay, and Pierson at Mackinaw ; the latter 
 mission still comprising the two villages, Huron 
 and Kiskakon. Of the other missions, neither 
 Le Clerq nor Hennepin, the Recollect, WTiters of 
 the AVest at this time, makes any mention, or in 
 any way alludes to their existence, and La Hon- 
 tan mentions the Jesuit missions only to ridicule 
 them." 
 
 The Pigeon River, a part of the northern boun- 
 dary of Minnesota, was called on the French maps 
 Grosellier's River, after the first explorer of Min- 
 nesota, whose career, with his associate Radisson, 
 became quite prominent in connection with the 
 Hudson Bay region. 
 
 A disagreement occurring between Groselliers 
 and his partners in Quebec, he proceeded to Paris, 
 and from thence to London, where he was intro- 
 duced to the nephew of Charles I., who led the 
 cavalry charge against Fairfax and Cromwell at 
 Naseby, afterwards commander of the English 
 fleet. The Prince listened with pleasure to the 
 narrative of travel, and endorsed the plans for 
 prosecuting the fur trade and seeking a north- 
 west passage to Asia. The scientific men of Eng- 
 land were also full of the enterprise, in the hope 
 that it would increase a knowledge of nature. 
 The Secretary of the Royal Society wrote to Rob- 
 ert Boyle, the distinguished philosopher, a too 
 sanguine letter. 1 lis words were : " Surely I need 
 not tell you from hence what is said here, with 
 great joy, of the discovery of a northwest passage; 
 and by two Englishmen and one Frenchman 
 represented to his Majesty at Oxford, and an- 
 swered by the grant of a vessel to sail into Hud- 
 son's Bay and channel into the South Sea." 
 
 The ship Nonsuch was fitted out, in charge of 
 ( laptain Zachary Gillam, a son of one of the early 
 settlers of Boston ; and in this vessel Groselliers 
 and Radisson left the Thames, in June, 1668, and 
 in September reached a tributary of Hudson's 
 Bay. The next year, by way of Boston, they re- . 
 turned to England, and in 1670, a trading com- 
 
EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 pany was chartered, still known among venerable 
 English corporations as "The Hudson's Bay 
 Company ." 
 
 The Reverend Mother of the Incarnation, Su- 
 perior of the Ursulines of Quebec, in a letter of 
 the l^Tih of August. 1670. writes thus : 
 
 " It was about this time that a Frenchman of 
 our Touraine, named des Groselliers, married in 
 this country, anil as he had not been successful 
 in making a fortune, was seized with a fancy to 
 goto New England to better his condition, lie 
 excited a hope among the English that he had 
 found a passage to the Sea of the North. With 
 this expectation, he was sent as an envoy to Eng- 
 land, where there was given to him, a vessel, 
 with crew and every thing necessary for the voy- 
 age. "With these advantages, he put to sea, and 
 in place of the usual route, which others had ta- 
 ken in vain, he sailed in another direction, and 
 searched so wide, that he found the grand Bay of 
 the North. lie found large population, and fdled 
 his ship or ships with peltries of great value. * * * 
 
 lie has taken possession of this great region for 
 the King of England, and for his personal benefit 
 A publication for the benefit of this French ad- 
 venturer, has been made in England. He was 
 a youth when he arrived here, and his wife and 
 children are yet here." 
 
 Talon, Intendent of Justice in Canada, in a dis- 
 patch to Colbert, Minister of the Colonial Depart- 
 ment of France, wrote on the 10th of November, 
 1670, that he has received intelligence that two 
 English vessels are approaching Hudson's Bay, 
 and adds : " After reflecting on all the nations 
 that might have penetrated as far north as that, 
 I can alight on only the English, who, under the 
 guidance of a man named Des Grozellers, for- 
 merly an inhabitant of Canada, might possibly 
 have attempted that navigation." 
 
 After years of service on the shores of Hudson's 
 Bay, either with English or French trading com- 
 panies, the old explorer died in Canada, and it has 
 been said that his son went to England , where he 
 was living in 1696, in receipt of a pension. 
 
EARLY MENTION OF LAKE SUPEBIOB COPPEB. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 EARLY MENTION OF LAKE SUPERIOR COPPER. 
 
 Sagard, A D. 1636, on Copper Mines— Boucher, A D. 1C40, Describes La'KC Supe 
 nor Copper-Jesuit Relations, A. D M6C-67.— Copper on Isle Royiils.-Half- 
 Breed Voyageur Goes to France with Talon. — Jolhet and Perrot Sr:ireh for 
 Cupper.— St. Lusnon Plants the French Arms at Sault St. Marie.— Copper at 
 Ontanagon and Head of Lake Superior. 
 
 Before white men had explored the shores of 
 Lake Superior, Indians had brought to the tra- 
 dingposts of the St. Lawrence River, specimens of 
 copper from that region. Sagard, in his History 
 of Canada, published in 1686, at Paris, writes. 
 'There are mines of copper which might he made 
 profitable, if there were inhabitants and work- 
 men who would labor faithfully. That would be 
 done if colonies were established. About eighty 
 or one hundred leagues from the Hurons, there 
 is a mine of copper, from which Trochemont 
 Brusle showed me an ingot, on his return from a 
 Toyage which he made to the neighboring nation." 
 
 Pierre Boucher, grandfather of Sieurde la Ve- 
 rendrye, the explorer of the lakes of the northern 
 boundary of Minnesota, in a volume published 
 A. I). 1(340. also at Paris, writes : " In Lake Su- 
 perior there is a great island. Qfty or one hundred 
 leagues in circumference, in which there is a very 
 beautiful mine of copper. There are other places 
 in those quarters, where there are similar mines ; 
 so I learned from four or five Frenchmen, who 
 lately returned. They were gone three years, 
 without finding an opportunity to return; they 
 told me that they had seen an ingot of copper all 
 refined which was on the coast, ami weighed more 
 than eight hundred pounds, according to their es- 
 timate. They said that the savages, on passing 
 it, made a fire on it. after which they cut off pie- 
 ces with their axes." 
 
 In the Jesuit Relations of 1666-G7. there is this 
 description of Isle Royale : " Advancing to a 
 place called the Grand Anse. we meet with an 
 island, three leagues from land, which is cele- 
 brated for the metal which is found there, and 
 for the thunder which takes place there; for they 
 say it always thunders there. 
 
 11 But farther towards the west on the same 
 north shore, is the island most famous for copper, 
 Minong (Isle Royale). This island is twenty-five 
 leagues in length ; it is seven from the mainland, 
 and sixty from the head of the lake. Nearly all 
 around the island, on the waters edge, pieces of 
 copper are found mixed with pebbles, but espe- 
 cially on the side which is opposite the south, 
 and principally in a certain bay. which is near 
 the northeast exposure to the great lake. * * * 
 
 ■• Advancing to the head of the lake (Fon du 
 Lac) and returning one day's journey by the south 
 coast, there is seen on the edge of the water, a 
 rock of copper weighing seven or eight hundred 
 pounds, ami is so hard that steel can hardly cut it, 
 but when it is heated it cuts as easily as lead. 
 Near Point Chagouainigong [Sha - gab - wah- mik- 
 ong. near Bayfield] where a mission was establish- 
 ed rocks of copper and plates of the same metal 
 were found. * * * Returning still toward the 
 mouth of the lake, following the coast on the south 
 as twenty leagues from the place last mentioned, 
 we, enter the river called Nantaouagan [Ontona- 
 gon] on which is a hill where stones and copper 
 fall into the water or upon the earth. They are 
 readily found. 
 
 ••Three years since we received a piece which 
 was brought from this place, which weighed a 
 hundred pounds, ami we sent it to Quebec to Mr. 
 Talon. It is not certain exactly where this was 
 broken from. "We think it was from the forks of 
 the river : others, that it A\as from near the lake, 
 and dug up." 
 
 Talon. Intendent of Justice in Canada, visited 
 Fiance, taking a half-breed voyageur with him, 
 and while in Paris, wrote on the 26th of Febru- 
 ary. 1669, to Colbert, the Minister of the Marine 
 Department, "that this voyageur had penetrated 
 among the western nations farther than any other 
 Frenchman, and had seen the copper mine on 
 Lake Huron. [Superior?] The man otters to go 
 
EXPLORERS AM> PlOXaURS OF MINXES01A. 
 
 to that mine, and explore, cither i>> sea. or i>\ 
 lake and river, the communication supposed to 
 exist between Canada and the South Sea, or to 
 the regions of Hudson's Bay." 
 
 \^ soon as Talon returned to Canada he com- 
 missioned Jolliet and Pere [Perrot] to search for 
 tin' mines Of copper on the upper Lakes. Jolliet 
 received an outfit of four hundred livres, and four 
 canoes, and l'errot one thousand livres. Minis- 
 ister Colbert wrote from Paris to Talon, in Feb- 
 ruary, 1671, approving of the search for copper, 
 in these words ; " The resolution you have taken 
 to send Sieur de La Salle toward the south, and 
 Sieur de St. Lusson to the north, to discover the 
 South Sea passage, is very good, hut the principal 
 thing you ought to apply yourself in discoveries 
 of this nature, is to look for the copper mine. 
 
 •• Were this mine discovered, and its utility 
 evident, it would he an assured means to attract 
 several Frenchmen from old, to New Trance." 
 
 On the 14th of June, 1671, Saint Lusson at Sault 
 St. Marie, planted the arms of France, in the pres- 
 ence of Nicholas Perrot, who acted as interpreter 
 on the occasion ; the Sieur Jolliet ; Pierre Moreau 
 or Sieur de la Taupine ; a soldier of the garrison 
 of Quebec, and several other Frenchmen. 
 
 Talon, in announcing Saint Lusson's explora- 
 tions to Colbert, on the' 2d of November, 1671, 
 wrote from Quebec : " The copper which I send 
 from Lake Superior and the river Nantaouagan 
 [Ontonagon] proves that there is a mine on the 
 border of some stream, which produces this ma- 
 terial as pure as one could wish. More than 
 twenty Frenchmen have seen one lump at the 
 lake, which they estimate weighs more than eight 
 hundred pounds. The Jesuit Fathers among the 
 Outaouas [Ou-taw-waws] use an anvil of this ma- 
 terial, which weighs about one hundred pounds. 
 There will be no rest until the source from whence 
 these detached lumps come is discovered. 
 
 " The river Nantaouagan TOntonagon] appears 
 
 between two high hills, the plain above which 
 feeds the lakes, and receives a great deal of snow, 
 which, in melting, forms torrents which wasli the 
 borders of this river, composed of solid gravel, 
 w Inch is rolled down by it. 
 
 "The gravel at the bottom of this, hardens it- 
 self, and assumes different shapes, such as those 
 pebbles which I send to Mr. Bellinzany. My 
 opinion is that these pebbles, rounded and carried 
 off by the rapid waters, then have a tendency to 
 become copper, by the influence of the sun's rays 
 which they absorb, and to form other nuggets of 
 metal similar to those which I send to Sieur de 
 Bellinzany, found by the Sieur de Saint Lusson, 
 about four hundred leagues, at some distance from 
 the mouth of the river. 
 
 "He hoped by the frequent journeys of the 
 savages, and French who are beginning to travel 
 by these routes, to discern the source of nroduc- 
 tion." 
 
 Governor Denonville, of Canada, sixteen years 
 after the above circumstances, wrote : " The cop- 
 per, a sample of which I sent M. Arnou, is found 
 at the head of Lake Superior. The body of the 
 mine has not yet been discovered. I have seen 
 one of our voyageurs who assures me that, some 
 fifteen months ago he saw a lump of two hundred 
 weight, as yellow as gold, in a river which falls 
 into Lake Superior. When heated, it could be 
 cut with an axe ; but the superstitious Indians, 
 regarding this boulder as a good spirit, would 
 never permit him to take any of it away. His 
 opinion is that the frost undermined this piece, 
 and that the mine is in that river. He has prom- 
 ised to search for it on his way back." 
 
 In the year 1730, there was some correspond- 
 ence with the authorities in France relative to 
 the discovery of copper at La Pointe, but, practi- 
 cally, little was done by the French, in developing 
 the mineral wealth of Lake Superior. 
 
DTJ LUTH PLANTS THE FRENCH ARMS IN MINNESOTA. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 DTJ LUTH PLANTS TILE FUEXCH ARMS TX MINNESOTA 
 
 ro Luth's Belatives.— Bandin Visits Extremity of Lake Superior. — Du Luth 
 Plants King's Arms. — Post at Kaministigoya.— Pierre MoreaF, alias La Taupine. 
 — La Salle's Visit.— A Pilot Deserts to the Sioux Country.— uaffart, Du Luth's 
 Interpreter.— Descent of the River St. Croix.— Meet* Father Hennepin.— Crit- 
 icised by La Salle. — Trades with Xew England. —Visits France.— In Command 
 at Mackinaw. — Frenchmen Murdered at Keweenaw.— Du Luth Arrests aud 
 Shoots Murderers.— Builds Fort above Detroit. — With Indian Allies in the 
 Seneca War.— Du Luth's Brother.— Cadillac Defends the Brandy Trade.— Du 
 Luth Disapproves of Selling Brandy to the Indians.- 
 -Death. 
 
 In the year 1678, several prominent merchants 
 of Quebec and Montreal, with the support of 
 Governor Frontenac of Canada, formed a com- 
 pany to open trade with the Sioux of Minnesota, 
 and a nephew of Patron, one of these merchants, 
 a brother-in-law of Sieur de Lusigny. an officer 
 of the Governor's Guards, named Darnel Grey- 
 solon Du Luth [Doo-loo]. a native of St. Germain 
 en Lave, a few miles from Paris, although Lahon- 
 tan speaks of him as from Lyons, was made the 
 leader of the expedition. At the battle of Seneffe 
 against the Prince of Orange, he was a gendarme, 
 and one of the King's guards. 
 
 Du Luth was also a cousin of Henry Tonty, who 
 had been in the revolution at Naples, to throw off 
 the Spanish dependence. Du Luth's name is va- 
 riously spelled in the documents of his day. Hen- 
 nepin writes, ••DuLuth;" others. •• Dulhnt." 
 " Du Lira," " Du Lut." " De Luth." " Du Lud." 
 
 The temptation to procure valuable furs from 
 the Lake Superior region, contrary to the letter 
 of the Canadian law, was very great ; and more 
 than one Governor winked at the eontraband 
 trade. Randin, who visited the extremity of 
 Lake Superior, distributed presents to the Sioux 
 and Ottawas in the name of Governor Frontenac, 
 to secure the trade, and after his death. Du Luth 
 was sent to complete what he had begun. With 
 a party of twenty, seventeen Frenchmen and 
 three Indians, he left Quebec on the first of 
 September, 1678, and on the fifth of April. H57i). 
 DuLuth writes to Governor Frontenac. that he 
 is in the woods, about nine miles from Sault St. 
 Marie, at the entrance of Lake Superior, and 
 
 adds that : he " will not stir from the Nadous- 
 sioux. until further orders, and. peace being con- 
 cluded, he will set up the King's Arms ; lest the 
 English and other Europeans settled towards 
 California, take possession of the country." 
 
 On the second of July, 1679. he caused his 
 Majesty's Anns to be planted in the great village 
 of the Xadoussioux. called Kathio, where no 
 Frenchman had ever been, and at Songaskicons 
 and Houetbatons. one hundred and twenty leagues 
 distant from the former, where he also set up the 
 King's Arms. In a letter to Seignalay, published 
 for the first time by Harrisse, he writes that it 
 was in the village of Izatys [Issati]. Upon Fran- 
 quelin's map. the Mississippi branches into the 
 Tintonha [Teeton Sioux] country, and not far from 
 here, he alleges, was seen a tree upon which was 
 this legend: " Arms of the King cut on this tree 
 in the year 1679." 
 
 lie established a post at Kamanistigoya, which 
 was distant fifteen leagues from the Grand Port- 
 age at the western extremity of Lake Superior; 
 and here, on the fifteenth of September, he held 
 a council with the Assenipoulaks [Assineboines] 
 and other tribes, and urged them to be at peace 
 with the Sioux. During this summer, he dis- 
 patched Pierre Moreau, a celebrated voyageur, 
 nicknamed La Taupine. with letters to Governor 
 Frontenac, and valuable furs to the merchants. 
 His arrival at Quebec, created some excitement. 
 It was charged that the Governor corresponded 
 with Du Luth, and that he passed the beaver, 
 sent by him. in the name of merchants in his in- 
 
 : terest. The Intendant of Justice, Du Chesneau, 
 wrote to the Minister of the Colonial Department 
 
 I of France, that il the man named La Taupine, a 
 famous coureur des bois, who set out in the month 
 of September of last year, 1678, to go to the Ou- 
 tawacs, with goods, and who has always been iu- 
 
 j terested with the Governor, having returned this 
 year, and I, being advised that he had traded in 
 
10 
 
 EXPLOBEES AND PIONEEBS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 two days, one hundred and fifty beaver robes in 
 
 one village of this tribe, amounting to nearly nine 
 hundred beavers, which is a matter o( public no- 
 toriety: and that he left with Du Lut two men 
 whom he had with him. considered m\ self bound 
 to have him arrested, and to interrogate him ; but 
 ha\ ing presented me with a license from the Gov- 
 ernor, permitting him and his comrades, named 
 Lamondeand Dupuy, to repair to the Outawac, 
 to execute his secret orders. 1 had him set at 
 liberty : and immediately on his going out, Sieur 
 1 "revost . Town Mayor of Quebec, came at the head 
 of some soldiers to force the prison, in case he 
 was still there, pursuant to his orders from the 
 Governor, in these terms : " Sieur Prevost, Mayor 
 of Quebec, is ordered, in case the Intendant arrest 
 Pierre Moreau alias La Taupine, whom we have 
 sent to Quebec as bearer of our dispatches, upon 
 pretext of his liaving been in the bush, to set him 
 forthwith at liberty, and to employ every means 
 for this purpose, at bis peril. Done at Montreal, 
 the 5th September, 1679." 
 
 La Taupine, in due time returned to Lake Su- 
 perior with another consignment of merchandise. 
 The interpreter of Du Luth, and trader with the 
 Sioux, was Faffart, who had been a soldier under 
 La Salle at Fort Frontenac, and had deserted. 
 
 La Salle was commissioned in 1678, by the 
 King of France, to explore the West, and trade in 
 cibola, or buffalo skins, and on condition that he 
 did not traffic with the Ottauwaws, who carried 
 their beaver to Montreal. 
 
 On the 27th of August, 1679, he arrived at 
 Mackinaw, in the " Griffin,'' the first sailing ves- 
 sel on the great Lakes of the West, and from 
 thence went to Green Bay, where, in the face of 
 his commission, he traded for beaver. Loading 
 his vessel with peltries, he sent it back to Niag- 
 ara, while he, in canoes, proceeded with his ex- 
 pedition to the Illinois Eiver. The ship was 
 never heard of, and for a time supposed to be lost, 
 but La Salle afterward learned from a Pawnee 
 boy fourteen or fifteen years of age, who was 
 brought prisoner to his fort on the Illinois by some 
 Indians, that the pilot of the " Griffin " had been 
 among the tribes of the Upper Missouri. He had 
 ascended the Mississippi with four others in two 
 birch canoes with goods and some hand grenades, 
 taken from the ship, with the intention of jom 
 ing Du Luth, who had for months been trading 
 
 with the Sioux ; and if their efforts were unsuc- 
 cessful, they expected to. push on to the English, 
 at Hudson's Pay. While ascending the Missis- 
 sippi they were attacked by Indians, and the pilot 
 and one other only survived, and they were sold 
 to the Indians on the Missouri. 
 
 In the month of June, 1680, Du Luth, accom- 
 panied by Faffart, an interpreter, with four 
 Frenchmen, also a Chippeway and a Sioux, with 
 two canoes, entered a river, the mouth o'f which 
 is eight leagues from the head of Lake Superior 
 on the South side, named jSTemitsakouat. Peach- 
 ing its head waters, by a short portage, of half a 
 league, he reached a lake which was the source 
 of the Saint Croix River, and by this, he and his 
 companions were the first Europeans to journey 
 in a canoe from Lake Superior to the Mississippi. 
 
 La Salle writes, that Du Luth, finding that 
 the Sioux were on a hunt in the Mississippi val- 
 ley, below the Saint Croix, and that Accault, Au- 
 gelle and Hennepin, who had come up from the 
 Illinois a few weeks before, were with them, de- 
 scended until he found them. In the same letter 
 he disregards the truth in order to disparage his 
 rival, and writes: 
 
 " Thirty-eight or forty leagues above the Chip- 
 peway they found the river by which the Sieur 
 Du Luth did descend to the Mississippi. He had 
 been three years, contrary to orders, with a com- 
 pany of twenty " coureurs du bois " on Lake Su- 
 perior; he had borne himself bravely, proclaiming 
 everywhere that at the head of his brave fellows 
 he did not fear the Grand Prevost, and that he 
 would compel an amnesty. 
 
 " While he was at Lake Superior, the Nadoue- 
 sioux, enticed by the presents that the late Sieur 
 Eandin had made on the part of Count Fronte- 
 nac, and the Sauteurs [Ojibways], who are the sav- 
 ages who carry the peltries to Montreal, and who 
 dwell on Lake Superior, wishing to obey the re- 
 peated orders of the Count, made a peace to 
 unite the Sauteurs and French, and to trade with 
 the Nadouesioux, situated about sixty leagues to 
 the w r est of Lake Superior. Du Luth, to disguise 
 bis desertion, seized the opportunity to make 
 some reputation for himself, sending two messen- 
 gers to the Count to negotiate a truce, during 
 which period their comrades negotiated still bet- 
 ter for beaver. 
 
 Several conferences were held with the !Na- 
 
 
FAFFABT, DU LUTH'S INTERPRETER. 
 
 douessioux, and as he needed an interpreter, he led 
 off one of mine, named Faff art, formerly a sol- 
 dier at Fort Frontenac. During this period there 
 were frequent visits between the Sauteurs [Ojib- 
 ways] and Nadouesioux, and supposing that it 
 might increase the number of beaver skins, he 
 sent Faffart by land, with the Nadouesioux and 
 Sauteurs [Ojibways]. The young man on his re- 
 turn, having given an account of the quantity of 
 beaver in that region, he wished to proceed thither 
 himself, and, guided by a Sauteur and a Nadoue- 
 sioux. and four Frenchmen, he ascended the river 
 Xeniitsakouat. where, by a short portage, he de- 
 scended that stream, whereon he passed through 
 forty leagues of rapids [Upper St. Croix Kiver], 
 and finding that the Xadouesioux were below with 
 my men and the Father, who had come down 
 again from the village of the Xadouesioux. he 
 discovered them. They went up again to the 
 village, and from thence they all together came 
 down. They returned by the river Ouisconsiug, 
 and came back to Montreal, where DuLuth in- 
 sults the commissaries, and the deputy of the 
 'procuieur general," named d'Auteuil. Count 
 Frontenac had him arrested and imprisoned in 
 the castle of Quebec, with the intention of return- 
 ing him to France for the amnesty accorded to 
 the coureurs dcs bois. did not release him." 
 
 At this very period, another party charges 
 Frontenac as being Dn Luth's particular friend. 
 
 Du Luth, during the fall of 1681, was engaged 
 in the beaver trade at Montreal and Quebec. 
 Du Chesneau, the Intendant of Justice for Can- 
 ada, on the 13th of November. 1681, wrote to the 
 Marquis de Siegnelay, in Paris : •- Not content 
 with the profits to be derived from the countries 
 under the King's dominion, the desire of making 
 money everywhere, has led the Governor [Fron- 
 tenac], Boisseau, Du Lut and Patron, his uncle. 
 to send canoes loaded with peltries, to the En- 
 glish. It is said sixty thousand livres' worth has 
 been sent thither:"' and he further stated that 
 there was a very general report that within live 
 or six days. Frontenac and his associates had di- 
 vided the money received from the beavers sent 
 to Xew England. 
 
 At a conference in Quebec of some of the dis- 
 tinguished men in that city, relative to difficulties 
 with the Iroquois, held on the Kith of October, 
 1682, Du Luth was present. From thence he went 
 
 to France, and, early in 1683, consulted with the 
 Minister of Marine at Versailles relative to the 
 interests of trade in the Hudson's Bay and Lake 
 Superior region. Upon his return to Canada, he 
 departed for Mackinaw. Governor De la Barre, 
 on the 9th of November, 1683, wrote to the French 
 Government that the Indians west and north of 
 Lake Superior, " when they heard by expresses 
 sent them by Du Lhut, of his arrival at Missili- 
 makinak, that he was coming, sent him word to 
 come quickly and they would unite with him to 
 prevent others going thither. If I stop that pass 
 as I hope, and as it is necessary to do, as the Eng- 
 lish of the Bay [Hudson's] excite against us the 
 savages, whom Sieur Du Lhut alone can quiet." 
 
 "While stationed at Mackinaw he was a partici- 
 pant in a tragic occurrence. During the summer 
 of 1683 Jacques le Maire and Colin Berthot, while 
 on their way to trade at Keweenaw, on Lake Su- 
 perior, were surprised by three Indians, robbed, 
 and murdered. Du Luth was prompt to arrest 
 and punish the assassins. In a letter f rqrn Mack- 
 inaw, dated April 12, 1684, to the Governor of 
 Canada, he writes: "Be pleased to know. Sir, 
 that on the 24th of October last, I was told that 
 Folle Avoine, accomplice in the murder and rob- 
 bery of the two Frenchmen, had arrived at Sault 
 Ste. Marie with fifteen families of the Sauteurs 
 [Ojibways] who had fled from Chagoamigon [La 
 Pointe] on account of an attack which they, to- 
 gether with the people of the land, made last 
 Spring upon the Xadouecioux [Dakotahs.] 
 
 ■•lie believed himself safe at the Sault, on ac- 
 count of the number of allies and relatives he had 
 there. Rev. Father Albanel informed me that 
 the French at the Saut, being only twelve in num- 
 ber, had not arrested him, believing themselves 
 too weak to contend with such numbers, espe- 
 cially as the Sauteurs had declared that they 
 would not allow the French to redden the land 
 of their fathers with the blood of their brothers. 
 
 " On receiving this information, I immediately 
 resolved to take with me six Frenchmen, and em- 
 bark at the dawn of the next day for Sault Ste. 
 Marie, and if possible obtain possession of the 
 murderer. 1 made known my design to the Rev. 
 Father Engalran, and, at my request, as he had 
 some business to arrange with Rev. Father Al- 
 banel, he placed himself in my canoe. 
 
 " Having arrived within a league of the village 
 
12 
 
 EXPLORERS AND PIONEEBS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 of the Saut, the Bev. Father, the Chevalier de 
 Fourcille, Cardonnierre, and l disembarked. I 
 
 caused the canoe, in which were l>a riband, Le 
 Mere, La Fortune, and Maeons. to proceed, w bile 
 
 we went across the wood to the house of the Rev. 
 Fattier, fearing that the savages, seeing me. might 
 suspect the object of my visit, and cause Folle 
 Avoine to escape. Finally, to cut the matter 
 short, 1 arrested him, and caused him to be 
 guarded day and night by six Frenchmen. 
 
 ■• I then called a council, at which I requested 
 all the savages of the place to be present, where 
 1 repeated what I bad often said to the Hurons 
 and Ottawas since the departure of M. Pere[Per- 
 rot], giving them the message you ordered me. 
 Sir, that in case there should be among them any 
 spirits so evil disposed as to follow the example 
 of those who have murdered the French on Lake 
 Superior and Lake Michigan, they must separate 
 the guilty from the innocent, as I did not wish 
 the whole nation to suffer, unless they protected 
 the guilty. * * * The savages held several 
 councils, to which I was invited, b:.t their only 
 object seemed to be to exculpate the prisoner, in 
 order that I might release him. 
 
 " All united in accusing Achiganaga and his 
 children, assuring themselves with the belief that 
 M. Pere, [Perrot] with his detachment would not 
 be able to arrest them, and wishing to persuade 
 me that they apprehended that all the Frenchmen 
 might be killed. 
 
 "I answered them. * * *' As to the antici- 
 pated death of M. Pere [Perrot], as well as of the 
 other Frenchmen, that would not embarrass me. 
 since I believed neither the allies nor the nation 
 of Achiganaga would wish to have a war with us 
 to sustain an action so dark as that of which we 
 were speaking. Having only to attack a few 
 murderers, or, at most, those of their own family. 
 I was certain that the French would have them 
 dead or alive.' 
 
 " This was the answer they had from me during 
 the three days that- the councils lasted ; after 
 which I embarked, at ten o'clock in the morning, 
 sustained by only twelve Frenchmen, to show a 
 few unruly persons who boasted of taking the 
 prisoner away from me, that the French did not 
 fear them. 
 
 "Daily I received accounts of the number of 
 savages that Achiganaga drew from his nation to 
 
 Eiaonan [Keweenaw] under pretext of going to 
 war in the spring against the Nadouecioux, to 
 avenge the death of one of his relatives, son of Ou- 
 enaus, but really to protect himself against us, 
 in case we should become convinced that his chil- 
 dren had killed the F'renchmen. This precaution 
 placed me between hope and fear respecting the 
 expedition which M. Pere [Perrot] had under- 
 taken. 
 
 "On the 24th of November, [1683], he came 
 across the wood at ten o'clock at night, to tell me 
 that he had arrested Achiganaga and four of his 
 children. He said they were not all guilty of the 
 murder, but had thought proper, in this affair, to 
 follow the custom of the savages, which is to seize 
 all the relatives. Folle Avoine, whom I had ar- 
 rested, he considered the most guilty, being with- 
 out doubt the originator of the mischief. 
 
 " I immediately gave orders that Folle Avoine 
 should be more closely confined, and not allowed 
 to speak to any one ; for I had also learned that 
 he had a brother, sister, and uncle in the village 
 of the Kiskakons. 
 
 " M. Pere informed me that he had released the 
 youngest son of Achiganaga, aged about thirteen 
 or fourteen years, that he might make known to 
 their nation and the Sauteurs [Ojibways], who are 
 at Nocke and in the neighborhood, the reason 
 why the French had arrested his father and bro- 
 thers. M. Pere bade him assure the savages that 
 if any one wished to complain of what he had 
 done, he would wait for them with a firm step ; for 
 he considered himself in a condition to set them 
 at defiance, having found at Kiaonau [Keweenaw] 
 eighteen Frenchmen who had wintered there. 
 
 " On the 25th, at daybreak, M. Pere embarked 
 at the Sault, with four good men whom I gave 
 him, to go and meet the prisoners. He left them 
 four leagues from there, under a guard of twelve 
 Frenchmen ; and at two o'clock in the afternoon, 
 they arrived. I had prepared a room in my house 
 for the prisoners, in which they were placed under 
 a strong guard, and were not allowed to converse 
 with any one. 
 
 " On the 26th, I commenced proceedings; and 
 this, sir, is the course I pursued. I gave notice 
 to all the chiefs and others, to appear at the 
 council which I had appointed, and gave to Folle 
 Avoine the privilege of selecting two of his rela- 
 
INDIANS CONDEMNED TO BE SHOT. 
 
 13 
 
 tives to support his interests ; and to the other 
 prisoners I made the same offer. 
 
 " The council being assembled, I sent for Folle 
 Avoine to be interrogated, and caused his answers 
 to be written, and afterwards they were read to 
 him, and inquiry made whether they were not, 
 word for word, what he had said. He was then 
 removed under a safe guard. I used the same 
 form with the two eldest sons of Achiganaga, and, 
 as Folle Avoine had mdirectly charged the father 
 with being accessory to the murder, I sent for 
 him and also for Folle Avoine, and bringing them 
 into the council, confronted the four. 
 
 " Folle Avoine and the two sons of Achiganaga 
 accused each other of committing the murder, 
 without denying that they were participators in 
 the crime. Achiganaga alone strongly maintained 
 that he knew nothing of the design of Folle 
 Avoine, nor of his children, and called on them 
 to say if he had advised them to kill the French- 
 men. They answered, 'No.' 
 
 " This confrontation, which the savages did not 
 expect, surprised them; and, seeing the prisoners 
 had convicted themselves of the murder, the 
 Chiefs said: 'It is enough; you accuse your- 
 selves; the French are masters of your bodies.* 
 
 " The next day I held another council, in which 
 I said there could be no doubt that the French- 
 men had been murdered, that the murderers were 
 known, and that they knew what was the prac- 
 tice among themselves upon such occasions. To 
 all this they said nothing, which obliged us on 
 the following day to hold another council in the 
 cabin of Brochet, where, after having spoken, and 
 seeing that they would make no decision, and that 
 all my councils ended only in reducing tobacco to 
 ashes, I told them that, since they did not wish to 
 decide, I should take the responsibility, and that 
 the' next day I would let them know the deter- 
 mination of the French and myself. 
 
 " It is proper, Sir, you should know that I ob- 
 served all these forms only to see if they would 
 feel it their duty to render to us the same justice 
 that they do to each other, having had divers ex- 
 amples in which when the tribes of those who 
 had committed the murder did not wish to go to 
 war with the tribe aggrieved, the nearest rela- 
 tions of the murderers killed them themselves; 
 that is to say, man for man. 
 
 " On the 29th of November. I gathered together 
 
 the French that were here, and, after the interro- 
 gations and answers of the accused had been read 
 to them, the guilt of the three appeared so evi- 
 dent, from their own confessions, that the vote 
 was unanimous that all should die. But as the 
 French who remained at Kiaonan to pass the win- 
 ter had written to Father Engalran and to myself, 
 to beg us to treat the affair with all possible len- 
 iency, the savages declaring that if they made 
 the prisoners die they would avenge themselves, 
 I told the gentlemen who were with me in coun- 
 cil that, this being a case without a precedent, I 
 believed it was expedient for the safety of the 
 French who would pass the winter in the Lake 
 Superior country to put to death only two, as that 
 of the third might bring about grievous conse- 
 quences, while the putting to death, man for 
 man, could give the savages no complaint, since 
 this is their custom. M. de la Tour, chief of the 
 Fathers, who had served much, sustained my 
 opinions by strong reasoning, and all decided that 
 two should be shot, namely, Folle Avoine and 
 the older of the two brothers, while the younger 
 should be released, and hold his life, Sir, as a gift 
 from you. 
 
 ■• I then returned to the cabin of Brochet with 
 Messrs. Boisguillot, Pere, De Kepentigny, De 
 Manthet, De la Ferte. and Macons, where were 
 all the chiefs of the Outawas du Sable, Outawas 
 Sinagos, Kiskakons, Sauteurs, DAchiliny, apart 
 of the Hurons. and Oumamens, the chief of the 
 Amikoys. I informed them of our decision * 
 
 * * that, the Frenchmen having been killed by 
 the different nations, one of each must die, and 
 that the same death they had caused the French 
 to suffer they must also suffer. * * * This 
 decision to put the murderers to death was a hard 
 stroke to them all, for none had believed that I 
 would dare to undertake it. * * * I then left 
 the council and asked the Rev. Fathers if they 
 wished to baptize the prisoners, which they did. 
 
 "An hour after, I put myself at the head of 
 forty-two Frenchmen, and, in sight of more than 
 four hundred savages, and within two hundred 
 paces of their fort, I caused the two murderers 
 to be shot. The impossibility of keeping them 
 until spring made me hasten their death. * * 
 
 * "When M. Pere made the arrest, those who had 
 committed the murder confessed it; and when he 
 asked them what they had done with our goods, 
 
11 
 
 EXriOHEHS AND PIOXEEHS OF MIXXESOTA. 
 
 they answered that they were almost all con- 
 cealed, lie proceeded to the place of conceal- 
 ment, ami was very much surprised, as were also 
 the French with him. to find them, in fifteen or 
 
 twenty different places. By the carelessness of 
 the savages, the tobacco and powder were entire- 
 ly destroyed, having been placed in the pinery, 
 under the roots of trees, and being soaked in the 
 water caused b\ ten or twelve days' continuous 
 rain, which inundated all the lower country. 
 The season for snow and ice having come, they 
 had all the trouble in the world to get out the 
 bales of cloth. 
 
 •• They then went to see the bodies, but could 
 not remove them, these miserable wretches hav- 
 iug thrown them into a marsh, and thrust them 
 down into holes which they had made. Not sat- 
 isfied with this, they had also piled branches of 
 trees upon the bodies, to prevent them from float- 
 ing when the water should rise in the spring, 
 hoping by this precaution the French would find 
 no trace of those who were killed, but would think 
 them drowned : as they reported that they had 
 found in the lake on the other side of the Portage, 
 a boat with the sides all broken in, which they 
 believed to be a French boat. 
 
 " Those goods which the French were able to 
 secure, they took to Kiaonau [Keweenaw], where 
 were a number of Frenchmen who had gone there 
 to pass the winter, who knew nothing of the death 
 of Colin Berthot and Jacques le Maire, until M. 
 Pere arrived. 
 
 " The ten who formed M. Pere's detachment 
 having conferred together concerning the means 
 they should take to prevent a total loss, decided 
 to sell the goods to the highest bidder. The sale 
 was made for 1100 livres, which was to be paid in 
 beavers, to M. de la Chesnaye, to whom I send 
 the names of the purchsers. 
 
 " The savages who were present when Achiga- 
 naga and his children were arrested wished to 
 pass the calumet to M. Pere, and give him cap- 
 tives to satisfy him for the murder committed on 
 the two Frenchmen; but he knew their inten- 
 tion, and would not accept their offer. He told 
 them neither a hundred captives nor a hundred 
 packs of beaver would give back the blood of his 
 brothers ; that the murderers must be given up 
 to me, and I would see what I would do. 
 
 " I caused M. Pere to repeat these things in the 
 
 council, that in future the savages need not think 
 by presents to save those who commit similar 
 deeds. Besides, sir, M. Pere showed plainly by 
 his conduct, that he is not strongly inclined to 
 favor the savages, as was reported. Indeed, I do 
 not know any one whom they fear more, yet who 
 flatters them less or knows them better. 
 
 " The criminals being in two different places, 
 M. Pere being obliged to keep four of them, sent 
 Messrs. de Eepentigny, Manthet, and six other 
 Frenchmen, to arrest the two who were eight 
 leagues in the woods. Among others, M. de Re- 
 pentigny and M. de Manthet showed that they 
 feared nothing when their honor called them. 
 
 " M. de la Chevrotiere has also served well in 
 person, and by his advice, having pointed out 
 where the prisoners were. Achiganaga, who had 
 adopted him as a son, had told him where he 
 should hunt during the winter. ***** 
 It still remained for me to give to Achiganaga and 
 his three children the means to return to his 
 family. Their home from which they were taken 
 was nearly twenty-six leagues from here. Know- 
 ing their necessity, I told them you would not be 
 satisfied in giving them life ; you wished to pre- 
 serve it, by giving them all that was necessary to 
 prevent them from dying with hunger and cold 
 by the way, and that your gift was made by my 
 hands. I gave them blankets, tobacco, meat, 
 hatchets, knives, twine to make nets for beavers, 
 and two bags of corn, to supply them till they 
 could kill game. 
 
 " They departed two days after, the most con- 
 tented creatures in the world, but God was not ; 
 for when only two days' journey from here, the 
 old Achiganaga fell sick of the quinsy, and died, 
 and his children returned. When the news of his 
 death arrived, the greater part of the savages of 
 this place [Mackinaw] attributed it to the French, 
 saying we had caused him to die. I let them 
 talk, and laughed at them. It is only about two 
 months since the children of Achiganaga returr.e I 
 toKiaonan." 
 
 Some of those opposed to Du Luth and Fron- 
 • tenac, prejudiced the King of France relative to 
 the transaction we have described, and in a letter 
 to the Governor of Canada, the King writes : " It 
 appears to me that one of the principal causes of 
 the war arises from one Du Luth having caused 
 two to be killed who had assassinated two French- 
 
ENGLISH TRADERS CAPTURED. 
 
 15 
 
 men on Lake Superior ; and you sufficiently see 
 now much this man's voyage, which can not pro- 
 duce any advantage to the colony, and which was 
 permitted only in the interest of some private 
 persons, has contributed to distract the peace of 
 the colony." 
 
 Du Luth and his young brother appear to have 
 traded at the western extremity of Lake Superior. 
 and on the north shore, to Lake Xipegon. 
 
 In June, 16S4, Governor De la Barre sent Guil- 
 letand Hebertfrom Montreal to request DuLuth 
 and Durantaye to bring down voyageurs and In- 
 dians to assist in an expedition against the Iro- 
 quois of Xew York. Early in September, they 
 reported on the St. Lawrence, with one hundred 
 and fifty coureurs des bois and three hundred and 
 fifty Indians ; but as a treaty had just been made 
 with the Senecas, they returned. 
 
 De la Barre 's successor, Governor Denonville, 
 in a dispatch to the French Government, dated 
 November 12th, 1685, alludes to Du Luth being 
 in the far West, in these words : •• I likewise sent 
 to M. De la Durantaye. who is at Lake Superior 
 under orders from M. De la Bane, and to Sieur 
 Du Luth. who is also at a great distance in an- 
 other direction, and all so far beyond reach that 
 neither the one nor the other can hear news from 
 me this year ; so that, not being able to see them 
 at soonest, before next July. I considered it best 
 not to think of undertaking any thing during the 
 whole of next year, especially as a great number 
 of our best men are among the Outaouacs. and 
 can not return before the ensuing summer. * * * 
 In regard to Sieur DuLuth. 1 sent him orders to 
 repair here, so that I may learn the number of 
 savages on whom 1 may depend. lie is accredit- 
 ed among them, and rendered great services to 
 M. De la Barre by a large number of savages he 
 brought to Niagara, who would have attacked 
 the Senecas. was it not for an express order from 
 M. De la Barre to the contrary." 
 
 In 1686, while at Mackinaw, he was ordered to 
 establish a post on the Detroit, near Lake Erie. 
 A portion of the order reads as f illows : " After 
 having given all the orders that you may judge 
 necessary for the safety of this post, and having 
 well secured the obedience of the Indians, you 
 will return to Michilimackinac. there to await 
 Rev. Father Engelran, by whom I will commu- 
 nicate what I wish of you, there." 
 
 The design of this post was to block the pas- 
 sage of the English to. the upper lakes. Before 
 it was established, in the fall of 16S6, Thomas 
 Roseboorn, a daring trader from Albany, on the 
 Hudson, had found his way to the vicinity of 
 Mackinaw, and by the proffer of brandy, weak- 
 ened the allegiance of the tribes to the French. 
 
 A canoe coming to Mackinaw with dispatches 
 for the French and their allies, to march to the 
 Seneca country, in Xew York, perceived this Xew 
 York trader and associates, and, giving the alarm, 
 they were met by three hundred coureurs du 
 bois and captured. 
 
 In the spring of 1687 Du Luth, Durantaye, 
 and Tonty all left the vicinity of Detroit for Ni- 
 agara, and as they were coasting along Lake Erie 
 they met another English trader, a Scotchman 
 by birth, and by name Major Patrick McGregor, 
 a person of some influence, going with a number 
 of traders to Mackinaw. Having taken him pris- 
 oner, he was sent with Roseboom to Montreal. 
 
 Du Luth. Tonty. and Durantaye arrived at Xi- 
 agara on the :27th of June. 1687, with one hun- 
 dred and seventy French voyageurs. besides In- 
 dians, and on the 10th of July joined the army of 
 Denonville at the mouth of the Genesee River, 
 and on the 13th Du Luth and his associates had 
 a skirmish near a Seneca village, now the site of 
 the town of Victor, twenty miles southeast of the 
 city of Rochester. Xew York. Governor Denon- 
 ville. in a report, writes: •• On the 13th, about 4 
 o'clock in the afternoon, having passed through 
 two dangerous defiles, we arrived at the third, 
 where we were vigorously attacked by eight hun- 
 dred Senecas. two hundred of whom fired, wish- 
 ing to attack our rear, while the rest would attack 
 our front, but the resistance, made produced 
 such a great consternation that they soon resolved 
 to fly. * * '* We witnessed the painful sight 
 of the usual cruelties of the savages, who cut the 
 dead into quarters, as is done in slaughter houses, 
 in order to put them into the kettle. The greater 
 number were opened while still warm, that the 
 blood might be drunk. Our rascally Otaoas dis- 
 tinguished themselves particularly by these bar- 
 barities. * * * "We had five or six men killed 
 on the spot, French and Indians, and about 
 twenty wounded, among the first of whom was the 
 Rev. Father Angelran, superior of all the Otaoan 
 Missions, by a very severe gu n-shot. It is a great 
 
16 
 
 EXPLORERS AND PlOXEETis OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 misfortune that this wound Will prevent him go- 
 ing hack again, for he is a man of capacity." 
 In the order to Du Luth assigning turn to duty 
 
 at the post on the .site of the modern Fort Gra- 
 tiot, above the city of Detroit, the Governor of 
 Canada said: " If you can so arrange your affairs 
 that your brother can be near you in the Spring, 
 I shall be very glad. He is an intelligent lad, 
 and might be a great assistance to you; he might 
 also be very serviceable to us." 
 
 This lad, Greysolon de la Tourette, during the 
 winter of 1686-7 was trading among the Assina- 
 boines and other tribes at the west end of Lake 
 Superior, but, upon receiving a dispatch, hastened 
 to his brother, journeying in a canoe without any 
 escort from Mackinaw. He did not arrive until 
 after the battle with the Senecas. Governor Den- 
 onville, on the 25th of August, 1687, wrote: 
 
 ■■ Du Luth's brother, who has recently arrived 
 from the rivers above the Lake of the Allempi- 
 gons [Nipegon], assures me that he saw more than 
 fifteen hundred persons come to trade with him, 
 and they were very sorry he had not goods suffi- 
 cient to satisfy them. They are of the tribes ac- 
 customed to resort to the English at Port Nelson 
 and River Bourbon, where, they say, they did not 
 go this year, through Sieur Du Lhu's influence." 
 After the battle in the vicinity of Rochester, 
 New York, Du Luth, with his celebrated cousin, 
 Henry Tonty, returned together as far as the post 
 above the present city of Detroit, Michigan, but 
 this point, after 1688, was not again occupied. 
 
 From this period Du Luth becomes less prom- 
 inent. At the time when the Jesuits attempted 
 to exclude brandy from the Indian country a bit- 
 ter controversy arose between them and the 
 traders. Cadillac, a Gascon by birth, command- 
 ing Fort Buade, at Mackinaw, on August 3, 1695, 
 wrote to Count Frontenac: "Now, what reason 
 can we assign that the savages should not drink 
 brandy bought with their own money as well as 
 we? Is it prohibited to prevent them from be- 
 coming intoxicated? Or is it because the use of 
 brandy reduces them to extreme .misery, placing 
 it out of their power to make war by depriving 
 them of clothing and arms? If such representa- 
 tions in regard to the Indians have been made to 
 the Count, they are very false, as every one knows 
 who is acquainted with the ways of the savages. 
 * * * It is bad faith to represent to the Count 
 
 that the sale of brandy reduces the savage to a 
 slate of nudity, arid by that means places it out 
 of his power to make war, since he never goes to 
 war in any other condition. * * * Perhaps it 
 will be said that the sale of brandy makes the 
 labors of the missionaries unfruitful. It is neces- 
 sary to examine this proposition. If the mission- 
 aries care for only the extension of commerce, 
 pursuing the course they have hitherto, I agree 
 to it; but if it is the use of brandy that hinders 
 the advancement of the cause of God, I deny it, 
 for it is a fact which no one can deny that there 
 are a great number of savages who never drink 
 brandy, yet who are not, for that, better Chris- 
 tians. 
 
 " All the Sioux, the most numerous of all the 
 tribes, who inhabit the region along the shore of 
 Lake Superior, do not even like the smell of 
 brandy. Are they more advanced in religion for 
 that? They do not wish to have the subject men- 
 tioned, and when the missionaries address them 
 they only laugh at the foolishness of preaching. 
 Yet these priests boldly fling before the eyes of 
 Europeans, whole volumes filled with glowing 
 descriptions of the conversion of souls by thou- 
 sands in this country, causing the poor missiona- 
 ries from Europe, to run to martyrdom as flies to 
 sugar and honey." 
 
 Du Luth, or Du Lhut, as he wrote his name, 
 during this discussion, was found upon the side 
 of order and good morals. His attestation is as 
 follows : "I certify that at different periods I 
 have lived about ten years among the Ottawa 
 nation, from the time that I made an exploration 
 to the Nadouecioux people until Fort Saint Jo- 
 seph was established by order of the Monsieur 
 Marquis Denonville, Governor General, at the 
 head of the Detroit of Lake Erie, which is in the 
 Iroquois country, and which I had the honor to 
 command. During this period, I have seen that 
 the trade in eau-de-vie (brandy) produced great 
 disorder, the father kilhng the son, and the son 
 throwing his mother into the fire; and I maintain 
 that, morally speaking, it is impossible to export 
 brandy to the woods and distant missions, with- 
 out danger of its leading to misery." 
 
 Governor Frontenac, in an expedition against 
 the Oneidas of New York, arrived at Fort Fron- 
 tenac, on the 19th of July, 1695, and Captain Du 
 Luth was left in command with forty soldiers, 
 
DU LTJTH AFFLICTED WITH GOUT. 
 
 17 
 
 and masons and carpenters, with orders to erect 
 new buildings. In about four weeks he erected 
 a building one hundred and twenty feet in length, 
 containing officers' quarters, store-rooms, a bakery 
 and a chapel. Early in 1697 he was still in com- 
 mand of the post, and in a report it is mentioned 
 that " everybody was then in good health, except 
 Captain Dulhut the commander, who was unwell 
 of the gout." 
 
 It was just before \ .'period, that as a member 
 of the Roman Catholic Church, he was firmly 
 impressed that he had been helped by prayers 
 which he addressed I a deceased Iroquois girl, 
 who had died in the odor of sanctity, and. as a 
 thank offering, signed the following certificate : 
 "I, the subscriber, certify to all whom it may 
 concern, that having been tormented by the gout, 
 for the space of twenty-three years, and with such 
 
 severe pains, that it gave me no rest for the spac 
 of three months at a time, I addressed myself to 
 Catherine Tegahkouita, an Iroquois virgin de- 
 ceased at the Sault Saint Louis, in the reputation 
 of sanctity, and I promised her to visit her tomb, 
 if God should give me health, through her inter- 
 cession. I have been as perfectly cured at the 
 end of one novena, which I made in her honor, 
 that after five months, I have not perceived the 
 slightest touch of my gout. Given at Tort Fron- 
 tenac, this 18th day of August, 1696." 
 
 As soon as cold weather returned, his old mal- 
 ady again appeared. He died early in A. D. 1710. 
 Marquis de Vaudreuil, Governor of Canada, un- 
 der date of first of May of that year, wrote to 
 Count Pontchartrain, Colonial Minister at Paris, 
 " Captain Du Lud died this winter. He was a 
 very honest man." 
 
SXPLOBEES AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FIRST WHITE MEN AT FALLS OF SAINT ANTHONY OF PADUA. 
 
 Falls of St. Anthony Visited by White Men.— La Salle Gives the First Description 
 
 of Upper Mississippi Valley.— Accault, the Lender, Accompanied by Augelle 
 ud Hennepin, at Falls of Saint Anthony.— Hennepin Declared Unreliable by 
 La Salle.— His Early Life.— His Fust Book Criticised by Abbe Bomou and 
 Tronson. — Deceptive Map. — First Meeting with Siouv./— Astonishment at 
 Reading His Breviary,— Sioux Name tor Guns.— Aceauli and Hennepin at 
 Lake repin.— Leave the River Below Saint Paul.— At Mille Lacs.— A Sweating 
 Cabin.— Sioux Wonder at Mariner's Compass.— Fears of an Iron Pot.— Making 
 a Dictionary.— Infant Baptised.— Route to the Pacific— Hennepin Descends 
 Rum River. - First Visit to Falls of Saint Anthony.— On a Buffalo Hunt.— Meets 
 DuLuth.— Returns to Mille Lacs.— With Du Luth at Falls of St. Anthony.— 
 Returns to France. — Subsequent Life.— His Books Examined.— Denies in First 
 Book HisDescenttotheGulfof Mexico.— Dispute with Du Luth at Falls of St, 
 Anthony.— Patronage of Du Luth.— Tribute to Du Luth.— Hennepin's Answer 
 to Criticisms.— Denounced by D'Iberville and Father Gravier.— Residence in 
 
 In the summer of 1680, Michael Accault (Ako), 
 Heimepin, the Franciscan missionary, Augelle, 
 Du Luth, and Faffart all visited the Falls of 
 Saint Anthony. 
 
 The first description of the valley of the upper 
 Mississippi was -written by La Salle, at Fort 
 Frontenac, on Lake Ontario, on the 22d of Au- 
 gust, 1682, a month before Hennepin, in Paris, 
 obtained a license to print, and some time before 
 the Franciscan's first work, was issued from the 
 press. 
 
 La Salle's knowledge must have been received 
 from Michael Accault, the leader of the expedi- 
 tion, Augelle, his comrade, or the clerical attache, 
 the Franciscan, Hennepin. 
 
 It differs from Hennepin's narrative in its free- 
 dom from bombast, and if its statements are to 
 be credited, the Franciscan must be looked on as 
 one given to exaggeration. The careful student, 
 however, soon learns to be cautious in receiving 
 the statement of any of the early explorers and 
 ecclesiastics of the Northwest. The Franciscan 
 depreciated the Jesuit missionary, and La Salle 
 did not hesitate to misrepresent Du Luth and 
 others for his own exaltation. La Salle makes 
 statements which we deem to be wide of the 
 truth when his prejudices are aroused. 
 
 At the very time that the Intendant of Justice 
 in Canada is complaining that Governor Fronte- 
 nac is a' friend and correspondent of Du Luth, 
 
 La Salle writes to his friends in Paris, that Du 
 Luth is looked upon as an outlaw by the governor. 
 
 "While official documents prove that Du Luth 
 was in Minnesota a year before Accault and asso- 
 ciates, yet La Salle writes: " Moreover, the Na- 
 donesioux is not a region which he has discov- 
 ered. It is known that it was discovered a long 
 time before, and that the Rev. Father Hennepin 
 and Michael Accault were there before him." 
 
 La Salle in this communication describes Ac- 
 cault as one well acquainted with the language 
 and names of the Indians of the Illinois region, 
 and also " cool, brave, and prudent," and the head 
 of the party of exploration. 
 
 We now proceed with the first description of 
 the country above the Wisconsin, to which is 
 given, for the first and only time, by any writer, 
 the Sioux name, Meschetz Odeba, perhaps in- 
 tended for Meshdeke Wakpa, River of the Foxes. 
 
 He describes the Upper Mississippi in these 
 words : "Following the windings of the Missis- 
 sippi, they found the river Ouisconsing, Wiscon- 
 sing, or Meschetz Odeba, which flows between 
 Bay of Puans and the Grand river. * * * About 
 twenty-three or twenty-four leagues to the north 
 or northwest of the mouth of the Ouisconsing, 
 * * * they found the Black river, called by the 
 jSTadouesioux, Chabadeba [Chapa Wakpa, Beaver 
 river] not very large, the mouth of which is bor- 
 dered on the two shores by alders. 
 
 " Ascending about thirty leagues, almost at the 
 same point of the compass, is the Buffalo river 
 [Chippewa], as large at its mouth as that of the 
 Illinois. They follow it ten or twelve leagues, 
 where it is deep, small and without rapids, bor- 
 dered by hills which widen out from time to time 
 to form prairies." 
 
 About three o'clock in the afternoon of the 11th 
 of April, 1680, the travelers were met by a war 
 party of one hundred Sioux in thirty-three birch 
 bark canoes. "Michael Accault, who was the 
 
HEN-tfEPIN- CBlTICISED BY LA SALLE. 
 
 19 
 
 leader," says La Salle, " presented the Calumet.'" 
 The Indians were presented by Accault with 
 twenty knives and a fathom and a half of tobacco 
 and some goods. Proceeding with the Indians 
 ten days, on the 22d of April the isles in the Mis- 
 sissippi were reached, where the Sioux had killed 
 some Maskoutens, and they halted to weep over 
 the death of two of their own number ; and to 
 assuage their grief, Accault gave them hi trade a 
 box of goods and twenty-four hatchets. 
 
 When they were eight leagues below the Falls 
 of Saint Anthony, they resolved to go by land to 
 their village, sixty leagues distant. They were 
 well received ; the only strife among the villages 
 was that which resulted from the desire to have 
 a Frenchman in their midst. La Salle also states 
 that it was not correct to give the impression that 
 Du Luth had rescued his men from captivity, for 
 they could not be properly called prisoners. 
 
 He continues: "In going up the Mississippi 
 again, twenty leagues above that river [Saint 
 CroixJ is found the falls, which those I sent, and 
 who passing there first, named Saint Anthony. 
 It is thirty or forty feet high, and the river is nar- 
 rower here than elsewhere. There is a small 
 island in the midst of the chute, and the two 
 banks of the river are not bordered by high hills, 
 which gradually diminish at this point, but the 
 country on each side is covered with thin Avoods, 
 such as oaks and other hard woods, scattered wide 
 apart. 
 
 "The canoes were carried three or four hun- 
 dred steps, and eight leagues above was found 
 the west [east?] bank of the river of the Xadone- 
 sioux, ending in a lake named Issati, which ex- 
 pands into a great marsh, where the wild rice 
 grows toward the mouth." 
 
 In the latter part of his letter La Salle uses the 
 following language relative to his old chaplain: 
 
 '• 1 believed that it was appropriate to make for 
 you the narrative of the adventures of this canoe, 
 because I doubt not that they will speak of it, and 
 if you wish to confer with the Father Louis Hen- 
 nepin. Recollect, who has returned to France, you 
 must know him a little, because he will not fail 
 to exaggerate all things; it is his character, and 
 to me he has written as if he were about to be 
 burned when he was not even in danger, but he 
 believes that it is honorable to act in this manner, 
 
 and he speaks more conformably to that which 
 he wishes than to that which he knows." 
 
 Hennepin was born in Ath, an inland town of 
 the Netherlands. From boyhood he longed to 
 visit foreign lands, and it is not to be wondered 
 at that he assumed the priest's garb, for next to 
 the soldier's life, it suited one of wandering pro- 
 pensities. 
 
 At one time he is on a begging expedition to 
 some of the towns on the sea coast. In a few 
 months he occupies the post of chaplain at an 
 hospital, where he shrives the dying and admin- 
 isters extreme unction. From the quiet of the 
 hospital he proceeds to the camp, and is present 
 at the battle of Seneffe, which occurred in the 
 year 1674. 
 
 His whole mind, from the time that he became 
 a priest, appears to have been on " things seen 
 and temporal," rather than on those that are " un- 
 seen and eternal." While on duty at some of the 
 ports of the Straits of Dover, he exhibited the 
 characteristic of an ancient Athenian more than 
 that of a professed successor of the Apostles. 
 He sought out the society of Strang, -s " who 
 spent their time in nothing else but either to tell 
 or to hear some new thing." With perfect non- 
 chalance he confesses that notwithstanding the 
 nauseating fumes of tobacco, he used to slip be- 
 hind the doors of sailors' taverns, and spend days, 
 without regard to the loss of his meals, listening 
 to the adventures and hair-breadth escapes of the 
 mariners in lands beyond the sea. 
 
 In the year 1676, he received a welcome order 
 from his Superior, requiring him to embark for 
 Canada. Unaccustomed to the world, and arbi- 
 trary in his disposition, he rendered the cabin of 
 the ship in which he sailed any thing but heav- 
 enly. As in modern days, the passengers in a 
 vessel to the new world were composed of hete- 
 rogeneous materials. There were young women 
 going out in search for brothers or husbands, ec- 
 clesiastics, and those engaged in the then new, 
 but profitable, commerce in furs. One of his 
 fellow passengers was the talented and enterpri- 
 prising, though unfortunate, La Salle, with whom 
 he was afterwards associated. If he is to be 
 credited, his intercourse with La Salle was not 
 very pleasant on ship-board. The young women, 
 tired of being cooped up in the narrow accommo- 
 dations of the ship, when the evening was fair 
 
EXl'LOHEES AND PIONEERS OF M1NNES01A. 
 
 sought the deck, and engaged in the rude dances 
 of the French peasantry of that age. Hennepin, 
 feeling that it was improper, began to assume 
 the air of the priest, and forbade the sport. La 
 Salle, feeling- that his interference was uncalled 
 for. called him a pedant, and took the side of the 
 girls, and during the voyage there were stormy 
 discussions. 
 
 Good humor appears to have been restored 
 when they left the ship, for Hennepin would oth- 
 erwise have not been the companion of La Salle 
 in his great western journey. 
 
 Sojourning for a short period at Quebec, the 
 adventure-loving Franciscan is permitted to go 
 to a mission station on or near tbe site of the 
 present town of Kingston, Canada West. 
 
 Here there was much to gratify his love of 
 novelty, and he passed considerable time in ram- 
 bling among the Iroquois of New York. In 1678 
 he returned to Quebec, and was ordered to join 
 the expedition of Robert La Salle. 
 
 On the 6th of December Father Hennepin and 
 a portion of the exploring party had entered the 
 Niagara river. In the vicinity of the Falls, the 
 winter was passed, and while the artisans were 
 preparing a ship above the Falls, to navigate the 
 great lakes, the Recollect whiled away the hours, 
 in studying the manners and customs of the Sen- 
 eca Indians, and in admiring the sublimest han- 
 diwork of God on the globe. 
 
 On the 7th of August, 1679, the ship being 
 completely rigged, unfurled its sails to the breezes 
 of Lake Erie. The vessel was named the " Grif- 
 fin," in honor of the arms of Frontenac, Governor 
 of Canada, the first ship of European construc- 
 tion that had ever ploughed the waters of the 
 great inland seas of North America. 
 
 After encountering a violent and dangerous 
 storm on one of the lakes,'during which they had 
 given up all hope of escaping shipwreck, on the 
 27th of the month, they were safely moored in 
 the harbor of ' ' Missilimackinack. " From thence 
 the party proceeded to Green Bay, where they 
 left the ship, procured canoes, and continued 
 along the coast of Lake Michigan. " By the mid- 
 dle of January, 1680, La Salle had conducted his 
 expedition to the Illinois River, and, on an emi- 
 nence near Lake Peoria, he commenced, with 
 much heaviness of heart, the erection of a fort, 
 
 which he called Crevecceur, on account of the 
 many disappointments he had experienced. 
 
 On the last of February, Accault, Augelle, and 
 Hennepin left to ascend the Mississippi. 
 
 The first work bearing the name of the Rev- 
 erend Father Louis Hennepin, Franciscan Mis- 
 sionary of the Recollect order, was entitled, " De- 
 scription de la Louisiane," and in 1683 published 
 in Paris. 
 
 As soon as the book appeared it was criticised. 
 Abbe Bernou, on the 29th of February, 1684, 
 writes from Rome about the "paltry book" (mes- 
 hcant livre) of Father Hennepin. About a year 
 before the pious Tronson, under date of March 
 13, 1683, wrote to a friend: " I have interviewed 
 the P. Recollect, who pretends to have descended 
 the Mississippi river to the Gulf of Mexico. I do 
 not know that one will believe what he speaks any 
 more than that which is in the printed relation of 
 P. Louis, which I send you that you may make 
 your own reflections." 
 
 On the map accompanying his first book, he 
 boldly marks a Recollect Mission many miles 
 north of the point he had visited. In the Utrecht 
 edition of 1697 this deliberate fraud is erased. 
 
 Throughout the work he assumes, that he was 
 the leader of the expedition, and magnifies trifles 
 into tragedies. For instance, Mr. La Salle writes 
 that Michael Accault, also written Ako, who was 
 the leader, presented the Sioux with the calu- 
 met ;" but Hennepin makes the occurrence more 
 formidable. 
 
 ,He writes : " Our prayers were heard, when on 
 the 11th of April, 1680, about two o'clock in the 
 afternoon, we suddenly perceived thirty -three 
 bark canoes manned by a hundred and twenty 
 Indians coming down with very great speed, on a 
 war party, against the Miamis, Illinois and Maro- 
 as. These Indians surrounded us, and while at 
 a distance, discharged some arrows at us, but as 
 they approached our canoe, the old men seeing us 
 with the calumet of peace in our hands, prevent- 
 ed the young men from killing us. These sava- 
 ges leaping from their canoes, some on land, 
 others into the water, with frightful cries and 
 yells approached us, and as we made no resist- 
 ance, being only three against so great a number, 
 one of them wrenched our calumet from our 
 hands, while our canoe and theirs were tied to 
 the shore. We first presented to them a piece of 
 
HENNEPIN'S DIFFICULTY WITH PBAYEB-BOOK. 
 
 21 
 
 French tobacco, better for smoking than theirs- 
 and the eldest among them uttered the words' 
 " Miamiha, Miamiha." 
 
 " As we did not understand their language, we 
 took a little stick, and by signs which we made 
 on the sand, showed them that their enemies, the 
 Miamis, whom they sought, had fled across the 
 river Colbert [Mississippi] to join the Islinois; 
 when they saw themselves discovered and unable 
 to surprise their enemies, three or four old men 
 laying their hands on my head, wept in a mourn- 
 ful tone. 
 
 " With a spare handkerchief I had left I wiped 
 away their tears, but they would not smoke our 
 Calumet. They made us cross the river with 
 great cries, while all shouted with tears in their 
 eyes; they made us row before them, and we 
 heard yells capable of striking the most resolute 
 with terror. After landing our canoe and goods, 
 part of which had already been taken, we made a 
 fire to boil our kettle, and we gave them two large 
 wild turkeys which we had killed. These Indians 
 having called an assembly to deliberate what they 
 were to do with us, the two head chiefs of the 
 party approaching, showed us by signs that the 
 warriors wished to tomahawk its. This com- 
 pelled me to go to the war chiefs with one young 
 man, leaving the other by our property, and 
 throw into their midst six axes, fifteen knives 
 and six fathom of our black tobacco ; and then 
 bringing down my head. I showed them with an 
 axe that they might kill me, if they thought 
 proper. Tins present appeased many individual 
 members, who gave us some beaver to eat. put- 
 ting the three first morsels into our mouths, accor- 
 ding to the custom of the country, and blowing on 
 the meat, which was too hot, before putting the 
 bark dish before us to let us eat as we liked. We 
 spent the night in anxiety, because, before reti- 
 ring at night, they had returned us our peace 
 calumet. 
 
 " Our two boatmen were resolved to sell their 
 lives dearly, and to resist if attacked ; their arms 
 and swords were ready. As for my own part, I 
 determined to allow myself to be killed without 
 any resistance ; as I was going to announce to 
 them a God who had been foully accused, un- 
 justly condemned, and cruelly crucified, without 
 showing the least aversion to those who put him 
 to death. We watched in turn, in our anxiety, 
 
 so as not to be surprised asleep. The next morn- 
 ing, a chief named Narrhetoba asked for the 
 peace calumet, filled it with willow bark, and all 
 smoked. It was then signified that the white 
 men were to return with them to their villages." 
 
 In his narrative the Franciscan remarks, "I 
 found it difficult to say my office before these 
 Indians. Many seeing me move my lips, said in 
 a fierce tone. ' Ouakanche.' Michael, all out of 
 countenance, told me, that if I continued to say 
 my breviary, Ave should all three be killed, and 
 the Picard begged me at least to pray apart, so as 
 not to provoke them. I followed the latter's 
 advice, but the more I concealed myself the more 
 I had the Indians at my heels ; for when I en- 
 tered the wood, they thought I was going to hide 
 some goods under ground, so that I knew not on 
 what side to turn to pray, for they never let me 
 out of sight. This obliged me to beg pardon of 
 my canoe -men, assuring them I could not dis- 
 pense with saying my office. By the word, ' Ou- 
 akanche,' the Indians meant that the book I was 
 reading was a spirit, but by their gesture they 
 nevertheless showed a kind of aversion, so that 
 to accustom them to it, I chanted the litany of 
 the Blessed Virgin in the canoe, with my book 
 opened. They thought that the breviary was a 
 spirit which taught me to sing for their diversion ; 
 for these people are naturally fond of singing." 
 
 This is the first mention of a Dahkotah word 
 in a European book. The savages were annoyed 
 rather than enraged, at seeing the white man 
 reading a book, and exclaimed, "Wakan-de!" 
 this is wonderful or supernatural. The war 
 party was composed of several bands of the M'de- 
 wahkantonwan Dahkotahs, and there was a di- 
 versity of opinion in relation to the disposition 
 that should be made of the white men. The 
 relatives of those who had been killed by the 
 Miamis, were in favor of taking their scalps, but 
 others were anxious to retain the favor of the 
 French, and open a trading intercourse. 
 
 Perceiving one of the canoe-men shoot a wild 
 turkey, they called the gun, " Manza Ouackange," 
 iron that has understanding; more correctly, 
 " Maza Wakande," this is the supernatural metal. 
 
 Aquipaguetin, one of the head men, resorted 
 to the following device to obtain merchandise. 
 Says the Father, " This wily savage had the 
 bones of some distinguished relative, which he 
 
EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 preserved with great care in some skins dressed 
 and adorned with several rows of black and red 
 porcupine (pulls. From time to time he assem- 
 bled his men to give it a smoke, and made us 
 come several days to cover the bones with goods, 
 and by a present wipe away the tears he had shed 
 for him. and for his own son killed by the Miamis. 
 To appease this captious man, we threw on the 
 bones several fathoms of tobacco, axes, knives, 
 beads, and some black and white wampum brace- 
 lets. * * * We slept at the point of the Lake 
 of Tears [Lake Pepin], which we so called from 
 the tears which this chief shed all night long, or 
 by one of his sons whom he caused to weep when 
 he grew tired." 
 
 The next day, after four or five leagues' sail, a 
 chief came, and telling them to leave their canoes, 
 he pulled up three piles of grass for seats. Then 
 taking a piece of cedar full of little holes, he 
 placed a stick into one, which he revolved between 
 the palms of his hands, until he kindled a fire, 
 and informed the Frenchmen that they would be 
 at JMille Lac in six days. On the nineteenth day 
 after their captivity, they arrived in the vicinity 
 of Saint Paul, not far, it is probable, from the 
 marshy ground on which the Kaposia band once 
 lived, and now called Pig's Eye. 
 
 The journal remarks, " Having arrived on the 
 nineteenth day of our navigation, five leagues 
 below St. Anthony's Falls, these Indians landed 
 us in a bay, broke our canoe to pieces, and se- 
 creted their own in the reeds." 
 
 They then followed the trail to Mille Lac, sixty 
 leagues distant. As they approached their villa- 
 ges, the various bands began to show their spoils. 
 The tobacco was highly prized, and led to some 
 contention. The chalice of the Father, which 
 glistened in the sun, they were afraid to touch, 
 supposing it was "wakan." After five days' 
 walk they reached the Issati [Dahkotah] settle- 
 ments in the valley of the Rum or Knife river. 
 The different bands each conducted a Frenchman 
 to their village, the chief Aquipaguetin taking 
 charge of Hennepin. After marching through 
 the marshes towards the sources of Rum river, 
 five wives of 'he chief, in three bark canoes, met 
 them and took them a short league to an island 
 where their cabins were. 
 
 An aged Indian kindly rubbed down the way- 
 worn Franciscan; placing him on a bear -skin 
 
 near the live, he anointed his legs and the soles 
 of his feet with wildcat oil. 
 
 The son of the chief took great pleasure in car- 
 rying upon his bare back the priest's robe with 
 dead men's bones enveloped. It was called Pere 
 Louis Chinnen. In the Dahkotah language Shin- 
 na or Sbinnan signifies a buffalo robe. 
 
 Hennepin's description of his life on the island 
 is in these words : 
 
 " The day after our arrival, Aquipaguetin, who 
 was the head of a large family, covered me with 
 a robe made of ten large dressed beaver skins, 
 trimmed with porcupine quills. This Indian 
 showed me five or six of his wives, telling them, 
 as I afterwards learned, that they shouF in fu- 
 ture regard me as one of their children. 
 
 " He set before me a bark dish full of fish, and 
 seeing that I could not rise from the ground, he 
 had a small sweating-cabin made, in which he 
 made me enter with four Indians. This cabin he 
 covered with buffalo skins, and inside he put 
 stones red-hot. He made me a sign to do as the 
 others before beginning to sweat, but I merely 
 concealed my nakedness with a handkerchief. 
 As soon as these Indians had several times 
 breathed out quite violently, he began to sing vo- 
 ciferously, the others putting their hands on me 
 and rubbing me while they wept bitterly. I be- 
 gan to faint, but I came out and could scarcely 
 take my habit to put on. When he made me 
 sweat thus three times a week, I felt as strong as 
 ever." 
 
 The mariner's compass was a constant source 
 of wonder and amazement. Aquipaguetin hav- 
 ing assembled the braves, would ask Hennepin 
 to show his compass. Perceiving that the needle 
 turned, the chief harangued his men, and told 
 them that the Europeans were spirits, capable of 
 doing any thing. 
 
 In the Franciscan's possession was an iron pot 
 with feet like lions', which the Indians would not 
 touch unless their hands were wrapped in buffalo 
 skins. The women looked upon it as "wakan," 
 and would not enter the cabin where it was. 
 
 " The chiefs of these savages, seeing that I was 
 desirous to learn, frequently made me write, 
 naming all the parts of the human body ; and as 
 I would not put on paper certain indelicate words, 
 at which they do not blush, they were heartily 
 amused." 
 
HENNEPIN'S VISIT TO FALLS OF SAINT ANTHONY. 
 
 23 
 
 They often asked the Franciscan questions, to 
 answer which it was necessary to refer to his lex- 
 icon. This appeared very strange, and, as they 
 had no word for paper, they said, " That white 
 thing must be a spirit which tells Pere Louis all 
 we say." 
 
 Hennepin remarks : " These Indians often 
 asked me how many wives and children I had, 
 and how old I was, that is, how many winters ; 
 for so these natives always count. Sever illu- 
 mined by the light of faith, they were surprised 
 at my answer. Pointing to our two Frenchmen, 
 whom I was then visiting, at a point three leagues 
 from our village, I told them that a man among 
 us could only have one wife ; that as for me, I 
 had promised the Master- of life to live as they 
 saw me, and to come and live with them to teach 
 them to be like the French. 
 
 " But that gross people, till then lawless and 
 faithless, turned all I said into ridicule. - How," 
 said they, ' would you have these two men with 
 thee have wives? Ours would not live with them, 
 for they have hair all over their face, and we have 
 none there or elsewhere.' In fact, they were 
 never better pleased with me than when I was 
 shaved, and from a complaisance, certainly not 
 criminal, I shaved every week. 
 
 " As often as I went to visit the cabins, I found 
 a sick child, whose father's name was Mamenisi. 
 Michael Ako would not accompany me ; the 
 Picard du Gay alone followed me to act as spon- 
 sor, or, rather, to witness the baptism. 
 
 "I christened the child Antoinette, in honor of 
 St. Anthony of Padua, as well as for the Picard's 
 name, which was Anthony Auguelle. He was a 
 native of Amiens, and nephew of the Procurator- 
 General of the Premonstratensians both now at 
 Paris. Having poured natural water on the head 
 and uttered these words : ' Creature of God, I 
 baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of 
 the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,' I took half an 
 altar cloth which I had wrested from the hands 
 of an Indian who had stolen it from me, and put 
 it on the body of the baptized child; for as I 
 could not say mass for want of wine and vest- 
 ments, this piece of linen could not be put to bet- 
 ter use than to enshroud the first Christian child 
 among these tribes. I do not know whether the 
 softness of the linen had refreshed her, but she 
 was the next day smiling in her mother's arms, 
 
 who believed that I had cured the child ; but she 
 died soon after, to my great consolation. 
 
 " During my stay among them, there arrived 
 four savages, who said they were come alone five 
 hundred leagues from the west, and had been four 
 months upon the way. They assured us there 
 was no such place as the Straits of Anian, and 
 that they had traveled without resting, except to 
 sleep, and had not seen or passed over any great 
 lake, by which phrase they always mean the sea. 
 
 " They further informed us that the nation of 
 the Assenipoulacs [Assiniboines] who lie north- 
 east of Issati, was not above six or seven days' 
 journey ; that none of the nations, within their 
 knowledge, who lie to the east or northwest, had 
 any great lake about their countries, which were 
 very large, but only rivers, which came from the 
 north. They further assured us that there were 
 very few forests in the countries through which 
 they passed, insomuch that now and then they 
 were forced to make fires of buffaloes' dung to 
 boil their food. All these circumstances make it 
 appear that there is no such place as the Straits 
 of Anian, as we usually see them set down on the 
 maps. And whatever efforts have been made for 
 many years past by the English and Dutch, to 
 find out a passage to the Frozen Sea, they have 
 not yet been able to effect it. But by the help of 
 my discovery aud the assistance of God, I doubt 
 not but a passage may still be found, and that an 
 easy one too. 
 
 " For example, we may be transported into the 
 Pacific Sea by rivers which are large and capable 
 of carrying great vessels, and from thence it is 
 n ry easy to go to China and Japan, without cross- 
 ing the equinoctial line ; and, in all probability, 
 Japan is on the same continent as America.''' 
 
 Hennepin in his first book, thus describes Iris 
 first visit to the Falls of St. Anthony : " In the 
 beginning of July, 1680, we descended the [Rum] 
 River in a canoe southward, with the great chief 
 Ouasicoude [Wauzeekootay] that is to say Pierced 
 Pine, with about eighty cabins composed of more 
 than a hundred and thirty families and about 
 two hundred and fifty warriors. Scarcely would 
 the Indians give me a place in their little flotilla, 
 for they had only old canoes. They went four 
 leagues lower down, to get birch bark to make 
 some more. Having made a hole in the ground, 
 to hide our silver chalice and our papers, till our 
 
EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 return from the hunt, ami keeping only our bre- 
 viary, so as not to be loaded. I stood on the bank 
 of the lake formed by the liver we had called St. 
 Francis [now Bom] and stretched out my hand 
 to the canoes as they rapidly passed in succession. 
 
 '■Our Frenchmen also had one for themselves, 
 which the Indians had given them. They would 
 not take me in, Michael Ako saying that he had 
 taken me long enough to satisfy him. I was hurt 
 at this answer, seeing myself thus abandoned by 
 Christians, to whom I had always done good, as 
 they both often acknowledged; but God never 
 having abandoned me on that painful voyage, in- 
 spired two Indians to take me in their little 
 canoe, where I had no other employment than to 
 bale out with a little bark tray, the water which 
 entered by little boles. This I did not do with- 
 out getting all wet. This boat might, indeed, be 
 called a death box, for its lightness and fragility. 
 These canoes do not generally weigh over fifty 
 pounds, the least motion of the body upsets them, 
 unless you are long accustomed to that kind of 
 navigation. 
 
 " On disembarking in the evening, the Picard, 
 as an excuse, told me that their canoe was half- 
 rotten, and that had we been three in it, we 
 should have run a great risk of remaining on the 
 way. * * * Tour days after our departure for 
 the buffalo hunt, we halted eight leagues above 
 St. Anthony of Padua's Palls, on an eminence 
 opposite the mouth of the River St. Francis [Rum] 
 * * * The Picard and myself went to look for 
 haws, gooseberries, and little wild fruit, which 
 often did us more harm than good. This obliged 
 us to go alone, as Michael Ako refused, in a 
 wretched canoe, to Ouisconsin river, which was 
 more than a hundred leagues off, to see whether 
 the Sieur de la Salle had sent to that place a re- 
 inforcement of men, with powder, lead, and 
 other munitions, as he had promised us. 
 
 "The Indians would not have suffered this 
 voyage bad not one of the three remained with 
 them. They wished me to stay, but Michael 
 Ako absolutely refused. As we were making the 
 portage of our canoe at St. Anthony of Padua's 
 Falls, we perceived five or six of our Indians who 
 had taken the start ; one of them was up in an 
 oak opposite the great fall, weeping bitterly, with 
 a rich dressed beaver robe, whitened inside, and 
 trimmed with porcupine quills, which he was 
 
 offering as a sacrifice to the falls; which is, in it- 
 self, admirable and frightful. I heard him while 
 shedding copious tears, say as he spoke to the 
 great cataract, l Thou who art a spirit, grant that 
 our nation may pass here quietly, without acci- 
 dent ; may kill buffalo in abundance ; conquer 
 our enemies, and bring in slaves, some of whom 
 we will put to death before thee. The Messenecqz 
 (so they call the tribe named by the French Outa- 
 gamis) have killed our kindred; grant that we 
 may avenge them.' This robe offered in sacrifice, 
 served one of our Frenchmen, who took it as we 
 returned." 
 
 It is certainly wonderful, that Hennepin, who 
 knew nothing of the Sioux language a few weeks 
 before, should understand the prayer offered at 
 the Falls without the aid of an interpreter. 
 
 The narrator continues : "A league beyond 
 St. Anthony of Padua's Falls, the Picard was 
 obliged to land and get his powder horn, which he 
 had left at the Falls. * * * As we descended 
 the river Colbert [Mississippi] we found some of 
 our Indians on the islands loaded with buffalo 
 meat, some of which they gave us. Two hours 
 after landing, fifteen or sixteen warriors whom we 
 had left above St. Anthony of Padua's Falls, en- 
 tered, tomakawkin hand, upset the cabin of those 
 who had invited us, took all the meat and bear 
 oil they found, and greased themselves from head 
 to foot,"' 
 
 This was done because the others had violated 
 the rules for the buffalo hunt. With the Indians 
 Hennepin went down the river sixty leagues, and 
 then went up the river again, and met buffalo. 
 He continues : 
 
 "While seeking the Ouisconsin River, that 
 savage father, Aquipaguetin, whom I had left, 
 and who I believed more than two hundred 
 leagues off, on the 11th of July, 1680, appeared 
 with the warriors." After this, Hennepin and 
 Picard continued to go up the river almost eighty 
 leagues. 
 
 There is great confusion here, as the reader 
 will see. When at the mouth of the Rum River, 
 he speaks of the Wisconsin as more than a hun- 
 dred leagues off. He floats down the river sixty 
 leagues ; then he ascended, but does not state the 
 distance; then he ascends eighty leagues. 
 
 He continues : " The Indians whom he had left 
 with Michael Ako at Buffalo [Chippeway] River, 
 
HENNEPIN MEETS SIEVE DU LUTH. 
 
 25 
 
 •with the flotilla of canoes loaded with meat, came 
 down. * * * All the Indian women had their 
 stock of meat at the mouth of Buffalo River and 
 on the islands, and again we went down the Col- 
 bert [Mississippi] about eighty leagues. * * * 
 "We had another alarm in our camp : the old men 
 on duty on the top of the mountains announced 
 that they saw two warriors in the distance ; all 
 the bowmen hastened there with speed, each try- 
 ing to outstrip the others ; but they brought back 
 only two of their enemies, who came to tell them 
 that a party of their people were hunting at the 
 extremity of Lake Conde [Superior] and had found 
 four Spirits (so they call the French) who. by 
 means of a slave, had expressed a wish to come 
 on, knowing us to be among them. * * * On 
 the 25th of July, 1680, as we were ascending the 
 river Colbert, after the buffalo hunt, to the In- 
 dian villages. Ave met Sieur du Luth, who came 
 to the Xadouessious with five French soldiers. 
 They joined us about two hundred and twenty 
 leagues distant from the country of the Indians 
 who had taken us. As we had some knowledge 
 of the language, they begged us to accompany 
 them to the villages of these tribes, to which I 
 readily agreed, knowing that these two French- 
 men had not approached the sacrament for two 
 years." 
 
 Here again the number of leagues is confusing. 
 and it is impossible to believe that I)u Luth and 
 his interpreter Faffart. who had been trading 
 with the Sioux for more than a year, needed the 
 help of Hennepin, who had been about three 
 months with these people. 
 
 "We are not told by what route Hennepin and 
 Du Luth reached Lake Issati or Mille Lacs, but 
 Hennepin says they arrived there on the 11th of 
 August, 1680, and he adds. " Toward the end of 
 September, having no implements to begin an 
 establishment, we resolved to tell these people. 
 that for their benefit, we would have to return to 
 the French settlements. The grand Chief of the 
 Issati or Xadouessiouz consented, and traced in 
 pencil on paper I gave him, the route I should 
 take for four hundred leagues. "With this chart. 
 we set out. eight Frenchmen, in two canoes, and 
 descended the river St. Francis and Colbert [Bum 
 and Mississippi]. Two of our men took two bea- 
 ver robes at St. Anthony of Padua's Falls, which 
 the Indians had hung in sacrifice on the trees." 
 
 The second work of Hennepin, an enlargement 
 of the first, appeared at Utrecht in the year 1697, 
 ten years after La Salle's death. During the in- 
 terval between the publication of the first and 
 second book, he had passed three years as Super- 
 intendent of the Recollects at Reny in the province 
 of Artois, when Father Hyacinth Lefevre, a friend 
 of La Salle, and Commissary Provincial of Recol- 
 lects at Paris, wished him to return to Canada. 
 He refused, and was ordered to go to Rome, and 
 upon his coming back was sent to a convent at 
 St. Omer, and there received a dispatch from the 
 Minister of State in France to return to the coun- 
 tries of the King of Spain, of which he was a 
 subject. This order, he asserts, he afterwards 
 learned was forged. 
 
 In the preface to the English edition of the 
 Xew Discovery, published in 1698. in London, he 
 writes : 
 
 ••The pretended reason of that violent order 
 was because I refused to return into America, 
 where I had been already eleven years ; though 
 the particular laws of our Order oblige none of us 
 to go beyond sea against his will. I would have, 
 however, returned very willingly had I not known 
 the malice of M. La Salle, who would have ex- 
 posed me to perish, as he did one of the men who 
 accompanied me in my discovery. God knows 
 that I am sorry for his unfortunate death ; but 
 the judgments of the Almighty are always just, 
 for the gentleman was killed by one of his own 
 men. who were at last sensible that he exposed 
 them to visible dangers without any necessity and 
 for bis private designs." 
 
 Alter this he was for about five years at Gosse- 
 lies, in Brabant, as Confessor in a convent, and 
 from thence removed to his native place, Ath, in 
 Belgium, where, according to his narrative in the 
 preface to the "Nouvean Decouverte." he was 
 again persecuted. Then Father Payez, Grand 
 Commissary of Recollects at Louvain, being in- 
 formed that the King of Spain and the Elector of 
 Bavaria recommended the step, consented that 
 he should enter the service of "William the Third 
 of Great Britain, who had been very kind to the 
 Roman Catholics of Netherlands. By order of 
 Payez he was sent to Antwerp to take the lay 
 habit in the convent there, and subsequently 
 went to Utrecht, where he finished his second 
 book known as the Xew Discovery. 
 
KXI'LOUEBS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 His first volume, printed in 1688, contains 812 
 pages, with an appendix of 107 pages, on the 
 Customs of the Savages, while the Utrecht hook 
 of 1097 contains 509 pages without an appendix. 
 
 On page 249 of the New Discovery, he begins 
 an account of a voyage alleged to have heen made 
 to the mouth of the Mississippi, and occupies 
 over sixty pages in the narrative. The opening 
 sentences give as a reason for concealing to tins 
 time his discovery, that La Salle would have re- 
 ported him to his Superiors for presuming to go 
 down instead of ascending the stream toward the 
 north, as had been agreed ; and that the two with 
 him threatened that if he did not consent to de- 
 scend the river, they would leave him on shore 
 during the night, and pursue their own course. 
 
 He asserts that he left the Gulf of Mexico, to 
 return, on the 1st of April, and on the 24th left 
 the Arkansas ; but a week after this, he declares 
 he landed with the Sioux at the marsh about two 
 miles below the city of Saint Paul. 
 
 The account has been and is still a puzzle to 
 the historical student. In our review of his first 
 book we have noticed that as early as 1683, he 
 claimed to have descended the Mississippi. In 
 the Utrecht publication he declares that while at 
 Quebec, upon his return to France, he gave to 
 Father Valentine Roux, Commissary of Recol- 
 lects, his journal, upon the promise that it would 
 be kept secret, and that this Father made a copy 
 of his whole voyage, including the visit to the 
 Gulf of Mexico ; but in his Description of Louis- 
 iana, Hennepin wrote, " We had some design of 
 going to the mouth of the river Colbert, which 
 more probably empties into the Gulf of Mexico 
 than into the Red Sea, but the tribes that seized 
 us gave us no time to sail up and down the river." 
 
 The additions in his Utrecht book to magnify 
 his importance and detract from others, are 
 many. As Sparks and Parkman have pointed 
 out the plagiarisms of this edition, a reference 
 here is unnecessary. 
 
 Du Luth, who left Quebec in 1678, and had 
 been in northern Minnesota, with an interpreter, 
 for a year, after he met Ako and Hennepin, be- 
 comes of secondary importance, in the eyes of 
 the Franciscan. 
 
 In the Description of Louisiana, on page 289, 
 Hennepin speaks of passing the Falls of Saint 
 Anthony, upon his return to Canada, in these 
 
 few words : " Two of our men seized two heaver 
 robes at the Falls of St. Anthony of Padua; 
 which the Indians had in sacrifice,' fastened to 
 trees." But in the Utrecht edition, commencing 
 on page 416, there is much added concerning Du 
 Lnth. After using the language of the edition 
 of 1683, already quoted it adds: "Hereupon 
 there arose a dispute between Sieur du Luth and 
 myself. I commended what they had done, say- 
 ing, ' The savages might judge by it that they 
 disliked the superstition of these people.' The 
 Sieur du Luth, on the contrary, said that they 
 ought to have left the robes where the savages 
 placed them, for they would not fail to avenge 
 the insult we had put upon them by this action, 
 and that it was feared that they would attack us 
 on this journey. I confessed he had some foun- 
 dation for what he said, and that he spoke accor- 
 ding to the rules of prudence. But one of the 
 two men flatly replied, the two robes suited them, 
 and they cared nothing for the savages and their 
 superstitions. The Sieur du Luth at these words 
 was so greatly enraged that he nearly struck the 
 one who uttered them, but I intervened and set- 
 tled the dispute. The Picard and Michael Ako 
 ranged themselves on the side of those who had 
 taken the robes in question, which might have 
 resulted badly. 
 
 " I argued with Sieur du Luth that the savages 
 would*not attack us, because I was persuaded 
 that their great chief Ouasicoude would have our 
 interests at heart, and he had great credit with 
 his nation. The matter terminated pleasantly. 
 
 " When we arrived near the river Ouisconsin, 
 we halted to smoke the meat of the buffalo we 
 had killed on the journey. During our stay, three 
 savages of the nation we had left, came by the 
 side of our canoe to tell us that their great chief 
 Ouasicoude, having learned that another chief of 
 these people wished to pursue and kill us, and 
 that he entered the cabin where he was consult- 
 ing, and had struck him on the head with such 
 violence as to scatter his brains upon his associ- 
 ates ; thus preventing the executing of this inju- 
 rious project. 
 
 " We regaled the three savages, having a great 
 abundance of food at that time. The Sieur du 
 Luth, after the savages had left, was as enraged 
 as before, and feared that they would pursue and 
 attack us on our voyage. He would have pushed 
 
TBIBUTE TO DANIEL GBEYSOLON DU LUTH. 
 
 27 
 
 the matter further, hut seeing that one man would 
 resist, and was not in the humor to be imposed 
 upon, he moderated, and I appeased them in the 
 end with the assurance that God would not aban- 
 don us in distress, and, provided we confided in 
 Him, he would deliver us from our foes, because 
 He is the protector of men and angels." 
 
 After describing a conference with the Sioux, 
 he adds, ••Thus the savages were very kind. 
 without mentioning the heaver robes. The chief 
 Ouasicoude told me to offer a fathom of Marti- 
 nico tobacco to the chief Aquipaguetin. who had 
 adopted me as a son. This had an admirable 
 effect upon the barbarians, who went off shouting 
 several times the word ' Louis,' [Ouis or We] 
 which, as he said, means the sun. Without van- 
 ity, I must say that my name will be for a long 
 time among these people. 
 
 "The savages having left us, to go to war 
 against the Messorites, the Maroha. the Illinois, 
 and other nations which live toward the lower 
 part of the Mississippi, and are irreconcilable foe> 
 of the people of the Xorth, the Sieur du Luth. 
 who upon many occasions gave me marks of his 
 friendship, could not forbear to tell our men that 
 I had all the reason in the world to believe that 
 tlic Viceroy of Canada would give rne a favorable 
 reception, should we arrive before winter, and 
 that he wished with all his heart that he had been 
 among as many natives as myself." 
 
 The Style of Louis Hennepin is unmistakable 
 in this extract, and it is amusing to read his pa- 
 tronage of one of the fearless explorers of the 
 Northwest, a cousin of Tonty. favored by Fron- 
 tenac, and who was in Minnesota a year before 
 his arrival. 
 
 In 1691, six years before the Utrecht edition of 
 Hennepin, another Recollect Franciscan had pub- 
 lished a book at Paris, called " The First Estab- 
 lishment of the Faith in New France." in which 
 is the following tribute to I)u Luth. whom Hen- 
 nepin strives to make a subordinate : " In the last 
 years of M. de Frontenac's administration. Sieur 
 DuLuth,a man of talent and experience, opened 
 a way to the missionary and the Gospel in many 
 different nations, turning toward the north of 
 that lake [Superior] where he even built a fort, 
 he advanced as far as the Lake of the Issati, 
 called Lake Buade, from the family name of M. 
 
 de Frontenac, planting the arms of his Majesty 
 in several nations on the right and left." 
 
 In the second volume of his last book, which is 
 called " A Continuance of the New Discovery of 
 a vast Country in America," etc., Hennepin no- 
 ticed some criticisms. 
 
 To the objection that his work was dedicated 
 to William the Third of Great Britain, he replies : 
 ■■ My King, his most Catholic Majesty, his Elec- 
 toral Highness of Bavaria, the consent in writing 
 of the Superior of my order, the integrity of my 
 faith, and the regular observance of my vows, 
 which his Britannic Majesty allows me, are the 
 best warrants of the uprightness of my inten- 
 tions." 
 
 To the query, how he could travel so far upon 
 the Mississippi in so little time, he answers with 
 a bold face, " That we may, with a canoe and a 
 pair of oars, go twenty, twenty-five, or thirty 
 leagues every day, and more too. if there be oc- 
 casion. And though we had gone but ten leagues 
 a day. yet in thirty days we might easily have 
 gone three hundred leagues. If during the time 
 we spent from the river of the Illinois to the 
 mouth of the Mesehasipi, in the Gulf of Mexico, 
 we had used a little more haste, we might have 
 gone the same twice over." 
 
 To the objection, that he said, he nad passed 
 eleven years in America, when he had been there 
 hut about four, he evasively replies, that "reck- 
 oning from the year 1674, when I first set out, to 
 the year Kiss, when 1 printed the second edition 
 of my ' Louisiana," it appears that I have spent 
 fifteen years either in travels or printing my 
 Discoveries." 
 
 To those who objected to the statement in his 
 first book, in the dedication to Louis the Four- 
 teenth, that the Sioux always call the sun Louis, 
 he writes: "I repeat what I have said before, 
 that being among the Issati and Nadouessans, by 
 whom I was made a slave in America, I never 
 heard them call the sun any other than Louis. 
 It is true these savages call also the moon Louis, 
 but with this distinction, that they give the moon 
 the name of Louis Bastache, which in their lan- 
 guage signifies, the sun that shines in the night." 
 
 The Utrecht edition called forth much censure, 
 and no one in France doubted that Hennepin 
 was the author. DTberville, Governor of Lou- 
 isiana, while in Paris, wrote on July 3d 1699, to 
 
EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 the Minister of Marino and Colonies of Fiance, 
 in these words : " Very much vexed at the Rec- 
 olleet. whose false narratives had deceived every 
 one. and caused our suffering and total failure of 
 our enterprise, by the time consumed in the 
 search of things which alone existed in his imag- 
 ination." 
 
 The Rev. Father James Gravier, in a letter 
 from a fort on the Gulf of Mexico, near the Mis- 
 sissippi, dated February 16th. 1701, expressed the 
 sentiment of his times when he speaks of Hen- 
 nepin " who presented to King William, the Rela- 
 tion of the Mississippi, where he never was, and 
 after a thousand falsehoods and ridiculous boasts, 
 
 * * * he makes Mr. de la Salle appear in his 
 Relation, wounded with two balls in the head, 
 turn toward the Recollect Feather Anastase, to 
 ask him for absolution, having been killed in- 
 stantly, without uttering a word • and other like 
 false stories." 
 
 Hennepin gradually faded out of sight. Bru- 
 net mentions a letter written by J. B. Dubos, 
 from Rome, dated March 1st, 1701, which men- 
 tions that Hennepin was living on the Capitoline 
 Hill, in the celebrated convent of Ara Cceli, and 
 was a favorite of Cardinal Spada. The time and 
 place of his death has not been ascertained. 
 
NICHOLAS PERROT, FOUNDER OF FIRST POST ON LAKE PEPIN. 
 
 CHAPTEK V. 
 
 NICHOLAS PERROT, FOUNDER OF FIRST POST ON LAKE PEPIN. 
 
 gmiij Life.— Searches for Copper.— Interpreter at Saolt St. Marie, Employed by 
 L» Salle.— B«ilds Stockade at Lake Pepin. — Hostile Indians Rebuked. —A 
 Silver Ostensorium Given to a Jesuit Chapel.— Perrot in the Battle against 
 Senecas , in New York— Second Visit to Sioux Country.— Taking Possession by 
 "Proces Verbal." — Discovery of Lead Mines. — Attends Council at Montreal. — 
 Establishes a Post near Detroit, in Michigan.— Perrot s Death, and his Wife. 
 
 Nicholas Perrot, sometimes written Pere, was 
 one of the most energetic of the class in Canada 
 known as " coureurs des bois,"' or forest rangers. 
 Born in 1644, at an early age he was identified 
 with the fur trade of the great inland lakes. As 
 earl} 7 as 1665. he was among the Outagamies 
 [Foxes], and in 1667 was at Green Bay. In 1669, 
 he was appointed by Talon to go to the lake re- 
 gion in search of copper mines. At the formal 
 taking possession of that country in the name of 
 the King of France, at Sault St. Marie, on the 
 14th of May, lb71, he acted as interpreter. In 
 1677, he seems to have been employed at Fort 
 Frontenac. La Salle was made very sick the 
 next year, from eating a salad, and one Nicholas 
 Perrot, called Joly Coeur (Jolly Soul) was sus- 
 pected of having mingled poison with the food. 
 After this he was associated with Du Lath in 
 the execution of two Indians, as we have seen. 
 In l('s4. he was appointed by De la Bane, the 
 Governor of Canada, as Commandant for the 
 West, and left Montreal with twenty men. Ar- 
 riving at Green Bay in Wisconsin, some Indians 
 told him that they had visited countries toward 
 the setting sun, where they obtained the blue 
 and green stones suspended from their ears and 
 noses, and that they saw horses and men like 
 Frenchmen, probably the Spaniards of New Mex- 
 ico ; and others said that they had obtained hatch- 
 ets from persons who lived in a house that walked 
 on the water, near the mouth of the river of the 
 Assiniboines, alluding to the English established 
 at Hudson's Bay. Proceeding to the portage be- 
 tween the Fox and Wisconsin, thirteen Hurons 
 were met, who were bitterly opposed to the es- 
 tablishment of a post near the Sioux. After the 
 
 Mississippi was reached, a party of Winnebagoes 
 was employed to notify the tribes of Northern 
 Iowa that the French had ascended the river, 
 and wished to meet them. It was further agreed 
 that prairie fires would be kindled from time to 
 time, so that the Indians could follow the French. 
 
 After entering Lake Pepin, near its mouth, on 
 the east side, Perrot found a place suitable for a 
 post, where there was wood. The stockade was 
 built at the foot of a bluff beyond which was a 
 large prairie. La Potherie makes this statement, 
 which is repeated by Penicaut. who writes of 
 Lake Pepin : " To the right and left of its shores 
 there are also prairies. In that on the right on 
 the bank of the lake, there is a fort, which was 
 built by Nicholas Perrot, whose name it yet [1700] 
 bears." 
 
 Soon after he was established, it was announced 
 that a band of Aiouez [Ioways] was encamped 
 above, and on the way to visit the post. The 
 French ascended in canoes to meet them, but as 
 they drew nigh, the Indian women ran up the 
 bluffs, and hid in the woods ; but twenty of the 
 braves mustered courage to advance and greet 
 Perrot, and bore him to the chief's lodge. The 
 chief, bending over Perrot, began to weep, and 
 allowed the moisture to fall upon his visitor. 
 After he had exhausted himself, the principal 
 men of the party repeated the slabbering process. 
 Then buffalo tongues were boiled in an earthen 
 pot, and after being cut into small pieces, the 
 chief took a piece, and. as a mark of respect, 
 placed it in Perrot 's mouth. 
 
 During the winter of 1684-85, the French tra- 
 ded in Minnesota. 
 
 At the end of the beaver hunt, the Ayoes 
 [Ioways] came to the post, but Perrot was absent 
 visiting the Nadouaissioux. and they sent a chief 
 to notify him of their arrival. Four Illinois met 
 him on the way, and were anxious for the return 
 of four children held by the French. When the 
 
so 
 
 EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 Sioux, who were at war With the Illinois, per- 
 ceived them, they wished to seize their canoes, 
 lml the French voyageurs who were guarding 
 them, pushed into the middle of the river, and 
 the French at the post coming to their assistance, 
 a reconciliation was effected, and four of the 
 Sioux took the Illinois upon their shoulders, and 
 bore them to the shore. 
 
 An order having heen received from Denon- 
 ville. Governor of Canada, to bring the Miamis, 
 and other tribes, to the rendezvous at Niagara, 
 to go on an expedition against the Senecas, Per- 
 rot entrusting the post at Lake Pepin to a few 
 Frenchmen, visited the Miamis, who were dwel- 
 ling below on the Mississippi, and with no guide 
 but Indian camp fires, went sixty miles into the 
 country beyond the river. 
 
 Upon his return, he perceived a great smoke, 
 and at first thought that it was a war party pro- 
 ceeding to the Sioux country. Fortunately he 
 met a Maskouten chief, who had been at the post 
 to see him, and he gave the intelligence, that the 
 Outagamies [Foxes], Kikapous [Kickapoos], and 
 Mascoutechs [Maskoutens], and others, from the 
 region of Green Bay, had determined to pillage 
 the post, kill the French, and then go to war 
 against the Sioux. Hurrying on, he reached the 
 fort, and learned that on that very day three 
 spies had been there and seen that there were 
 only six Frenchmen in charge. 
 
 The next day two more spies appeared, but 
 Perrot had taken the precaution to put loaded 
 guns at the door of each hut, and caused his men 
 frequently to change their clothes. To the query, 
 " How many French were there?" the reply was 
 given, " Forty, and that more were daily expected, 
 who had been on a buffalo hunt, and that the 
 guns were well loaded and knives well sharpened. " 
 They were then told to go back to their camp 
 and bring a chief of each nation represented, and 
 that if Indians, in large numbers, came near, they 
 would be fired at. In accordance with this mes- 
 sage six chiefs presented themselves, After their 
 bows and arrows were taken away they were in- 
 vited to Perrot's cabin, who gave something to 
 eat and tobacco to smoke. Looking at Perrot's 
 loaded guns they asked, '-If he was afraid of his 
 children?" He replied, he was not. They con- 
 tinued, "You are displeased." He answered, 
 " I have good reason to be. The Spirit has warned 
 
 me of your designs; you will take my things 
 away and put me in the kettle, and proceed 
 against the Kadouaissioux, The Spirit told me 
 to be on my guard, and he would help me." At 
 this they were astonished, and confessed that an 
 attack was meditated. That night the chiefs 
 slept in the stockade, and early the next morn- 
 ing a part of the hostile force was encamped in 
 the vicinity, and wished to trade. Perrot had 
 now only a force of fifteen men, and seizing the 
 chiefs, he told them he would break their heads 
 if they did not disperse the Indians. One of the 
 chiefs then stood .up on the gate of the fort and 
 said to the warriors, " Do not advance, young 
 men, or you are dead. The Spirit has warned 
 Metaminens [PerrotJ of your designs." They fol- 
 lowed the advice, and afterwards Perrot present- 
 ed them with two guns, two kettles, and some 
 tobacco, to close the door of war against the jSTa- 
 douaissioux, and the chiefs were all permitted to 
 make a brief visit to the post. 
 
 Keturning to Green Bay in 1686, he passed much i 
 time in collecting allies for the expedition against 
 the Iroquois in New York. During this year he 
 gave to the Jesuit chapel at Depere, five miles 
 above Green Bay, a church utensil of silver, fif- 
 teen inches high, still in existence. The stand- 
 ard, nine inches in height, supports a radiated 
 circlet closed with glass on both sides and sur- 
 mounted with a cross. This vessel, weighing 
 about twenty ounces, was intended to show the 
 consecrated wafer of the mass, and is called a 
 soleil, monstrance, or ostensorium. 
 
 Around the oval base of the rim is the follow- 
 ing inscription: 
 
 jtfMSNwao^ 
 
 A 
 
 tv ?nira aaiV^ 
 
 In 1802 some workmen in digging at Green 
 Bay, Wisconsin, on the old Langlade estate dis- 
 
A CUP OF BRANDT AND WATEB DETECTS A THIEF. 
 
 31 
 
 covered this relic, which is now kept in the vault 
 of the Roman Catholic bishop of that diocese. 
 
 During the spring of 1687 Perrot, with De Lu- 
 th and Tonty, was with the Indian allies and the 
 French in the expedition against the Senecas of 
 the Genessee Yalley in Xew York. 
 
 The next year Denonville, Governor of Canada, 
 again sent Perrot with forty Frenchmen to the 
 Sioux who, says Potherie. •■ were very distant, 
 and who would not trade with us as easily as 
 the other tribes, the Outagamis [Foxes] having 
 boasted of having cut off the passage thereto." 
 
 "When Perrot arrived at Mackinaw, the tribes 
 of that region were much excited at the hostility 
 of the Outagamis [Foxes] toward the Sauteurs 
 [Chippeways]. As soon as Perrot and his party 
 reached Green Bay a deputation of the Foxes 
 sought an interview. He told them that he had 
 nothing to do with this quarrel with the Chippe- 
 ways. In justification, they said that a party of 
 their young men, in going to war against the 
 Xadouaissioux, had found a young man and three 
 Chippewa; girls. 
 
 Perrot was silent, and continued his journey 
 towards the Xadouaissioux. Soon he was met by 
 live chiefs of the Foxes in a canoe, who begged 
 him to go to theirvillage. Perrot consented, and 
 when he went into a chief's lodge they placed be- 
 fore him broiled venison, and raw meat for the 
 rest of the French. He refused to eat because, 
 said he. ■• that meat did not give him any spirit. 
 but lie would take some when the Outagamis 
 [Poxes] were more reasonable."" He then eluded 
 them for not having gone, as requested by the 
 Governor of Canada, to the Detroit of Lake 
 Erie, and during the absence of the French light- 
 ing with the Chippeways. Having ordered them 
 to go oji their beaver hunt and only fight against 
 the Iroquois, he left a few Frenchmen to trade 
 and proceeded on his journey to the Sioux coun- 
 try. Arriving at the portage between the Fox and 
 Wisconsin Rivers they were impeded by ice, but 
 witli the aid of some Pottawattomies they trans- 
 ported their goods to the Wisconsin, which they 
 found no longer frozen. The Chippeways were 
 informed that their daughters had been taken 
 from the Foxes, and a deputation came to take 
 them back, but being attacked by the Foxes, who 
 did not know their errand, they fled without se- 
 curing the three girls. Perrot then ascended the 
 
 Mississippi to the post which in 1684 he had 
 erected, just above the mouth, and on the east 
 side of Lake Pepin. 
 
 As soon as the rivers were navigable, the Xa- 
 douaissioux came down and escorted Perrot to 
 one of their villages, where he was welcomed 
 with much enthusiasm. He was carried upon a 
 beaver robe, followed by a long line of warriors, 
 each bearing a pipe, and singing. After taking 
 him around the village, he was borne to the chief's 
 lodge, when several came in to weep over his head, 
 with the same tenderness that the Ayoes (Ioways) 
 did, when Perrot several years before arrived at 
 Lake Pepin. " These weepings," says an old 
 chronicler " do not weaken their souls. They are 
 very good warriors, and reported the bravest in 
 that region. They are at war with all the tribes 
 at present except the Saulteurs [Chippeways] and 
 Ayoes [Ioways]. and even with these they have 
 quarrels. At the break of day the Xadouaissioux 
 bathe, even to the youngest. They have very tine 
 forms, but the women are not comely, and they 
 look upon them as slaves. They are jealous and 
 suspicions about them, and they are the cause 
 of quarrels and blood-shedding. 
 
 •• The Sioux are very dextrous with their ca- 
 noes, and they fight unto death if surrounded, 
 Their country is full of swamps, which shelter 
 them in summer from being molested. One must 
 be a Xadouaissioux. to find the way to their vil- 
 lages." 
 
 While Perrot was absent in Xew York, fight- 
 ing the Senecas, a Sioux chief knowing that few 
 Frenchmen were left at Lake Pepin, came with 
 one hundred warriors, and endeavored to pillage 
 it. Of this complaint was made, and the guilty 
 leader was near being put to death by his associ- 
 ates. Amicable relations having been formed, 
 preparations were made by Perrot to return to 
 his post. As they were going away, one of the 
 Frenchmen complained that a box of his goods 
 had been stolen. Perrot ordered a voyageur to 
 bring a cup of water, and into it he poured some 
 brandy. He then addressed the Indians and told 
 them he would dry up their marshes if the goods 
 were not restored; and then he set on fire the 
 brandy in the cup, The savages were astonished 
 and terrified, and supposed that he possessed su- 
 pernatural powers ; and in a little ^-^lethe goods 
 
82 
 
 EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 were found and restored to the owner, and the 
 French descended to their stoeka.de. 
 
 The Poxes, while Perrot was in the Sioux 
 country, changed their village, and settled on the 
 Mississippi. Coming np to visit Perrot, they 
 asked him to establish friendly relations between 
 them and the Sioux. At the time some Sioux 
 were at the post trading furs, and at first they 
 supposed the French were plotting with the 
 Foxes. Perrot, however, eased them by present- 
 ing the calumet and saying that the French con- 
 sidered the Outagamis [Foxes] as brothers, and 
 then adding: "Smoke in my pipe; this is the 
 manner with which Onontio [Governor of Can- 
 ada] feeds his children." The Sioux replied that 
 they wished the Foxes to smoke first. This was 
 reluctantly done, and the Sioux smoked, but 
 would not conclude a definite peace until they 
 consulted their chiefs. This was not concluded, 
 because Perrot, before the chiefs came down, 
 received orders to return to Canada. 
 
 About this time, in the presence of Father Jo- 
 seph James Marest, a Jesuit missionary, Boisguil- 
 lot, a trader on the Wisconsin and Mississippi, Le 
 Sueur, who afterward built a post below the. Saint 
 Croix River, about nine miles from Hastings, the 
 following document was prepared: 
 
 " Nicholas Perrot, commanding for the King at 
 the post of the Nadouessioux, commissioned by 
 the Marquis Denonville, Governor and Lieuten- 
 ant Governor of all New France, to manage the 
 interests of commerce among all the Indian tribes 
 and people of the Bay des Puants [Green Bay], 
 Nadouessioux, Mascoutens, and other western na- 
 tions of the Upper Mississippi, and to take pos- 
 session in the King's name of all the places where 
 he has heretofore been and whither he will go: 
 
 " We this day, the eighth of May, one thousand 
 six hundred and eighty-nine, do, in the presence 
 of the Reverend Father Marest, of the Society of 
 Jesus, Missionary among the Nadouessioux, of 
 Monsieur de Boisguillot, commanding the French 
 in the neighborhood of the Ouiskonche, on the 
 Mississippi, Augustin Legardeur, Esquire, Sieur 
 de Caumont, and of Messieurs Le Sueur, Hebert, 
 Lemire and Blein. 
 
 " Declare to all whom it may concern, that, be- 
 ing come from the Bay des Puants, and to the 
 Lake of the Ouiskonches, we did transport our- 
 selves to the country of the Nadouessioux, on the 
 
 border of the river St. Croix, and at the mouth 
 of the river St. Pierre, on the bank of which were 
 the Mantantans, and further up to the interior, 
 as far as the Metichokatonx [Med-ay-wah-kawn- 
 twawn], with whom dwell the majority of the 
 Songeskitons [Se-see-twawns] and other JSTadou- 
 essioux who are to the northwest of the Missis- 
 sippi, to take possession, for and in the name of 
 the King, of the countries and rivers inhabited by 
 the said tribes, and of which they are proprietors. 
 The present act done in our-presence, signed with 
 our hand, and subscribed." 
 
 The three Chippeway girls of whom mention 
 has been made were still with the Foxes, and 
 Perrot took them with him to Mackinaw, upon 
 his return to Canada. 
 
 While there, the Ottawas held some prisoners 
 upon an island not far from the mainland. The 
 Jesuit Fathers went over and tried to save the 
 captives from harsh treatment, but were unsuc- 
 cessful. The canoes appeared at length near each 
 other, one man paddling in each, while the war- 
 riors were answering the shouts of the prisoners, 
 who each held a white stick in his hand. As 
 they neared the shore the chief of the party made 
 a speech to the Indians who lived on the shore, 
 and giving a history of the campaign, told them 
 that they were masters of the prisoners. The 
 warriors then came on land, and, according to 
 custom, abandoned the spoils. An old man then 
 ordered nine men to conduct the prisoners to a 
 separate place. The women and the young men 
 formed* a line with big sticks. The young pris- 
 oners soon found their feet, but the old men were 
 so badly used they spat blood, and they were con- 
 demned to be burned at the Mamilion. 
 
 The Jesuit Fathers and the French officers 
 were much embarrassed, and feared that the Iro- 
 quois would complain of the little care whijh had 
 been used to prevent cruelty. 
 
 Perrot, in this emergency, walked to the place 
 where the prisoners were singing the death dirge, 
 in expectation of being burned, and told them to 
 sit down and be silent. A few Ottauwaws rudely 
 told them to sing on, but Perrot forbade. He 
 then went back to the Council, where the old men 
 had rendered judgment, and ordered one prisoner 
 to be burned at Mackinaw, one at Sault St. Marie 
 and another at Green Bay. Undaunted he spoke 
 as follows : "I come to cut the strings of the 
 
PERROT VISITS THE LEAD MIXES. 
 
 33 
 
 dogs. I will not suffer them to be eaten . I have 
 pity on them, since my Father, Onontio, has com- 
 manded me. You Outaouaks [Ottawaws] are 
 like tame bears, who will not recognize them who 
 has brought them up. You have forgotten Onon- 
 tio's protection. When he asks your obedience, 
 you want to rule over him, and eat the flesh of 
 those children he does not wish to give to you. 
 Take care, that, if oyu swallow them, Onontio 
 will tear them with violence from between your 
 teeth. I speak as a brother, and I think I am 
 showing pity to your children, by cutting the 
 bonds of your prisoners." 
 
 His boldness had the desired effect. The pris- 
 oners were released, and two of them were sent 
 with him to Montreal, to be returned to the Iro- 
 quois. 
 
 On the 22nd of May, 1690, with one hundred 
 and forty-three voyageurs and six Indians, Per- 
 rot left Montreal as an escort of Sieur de Lou- 
 vigny La Porte, a half-pay captain, appointed to 
 succeed Durantaye at Mackinaw, by Frontenac. 
 the new Governor of Canada, who in October of 
 the previous year had arrived, to take the place 
 of Denonville. 
 
 Perrot, as he approached Mackinaw, went in 
 advance to notify the French of the coming of 
 the commander of the post. As he came in Bight 
 of the settlement, he hoisted the white flag with 
 the lleur delis and the voyageurs shouted, --Long 
 live the king! " Louvigny soon appeared and was 
 received by one hundred "coureur des bois" 
 under arms. 
 
 From Mackinaw, Perrot proceeded to Green 
 Bay, and a party of Miainis there begged him to 
 make a trading establishment on the Mississippi 
 towards the Ouiskonsing( Wisconsin.) The chief 
 made him a present of a piece of lead from a 
 mine which he had found in a small stream which 
 flows into the Mississippi. Perrot promised to 
 visit him within twenty days, and the chief then 
 returned to his village below the d*Ouiskonche 
 (iWsconsin) River. 
 
 Having at length reached his post on Lake 
 Pepin, he was informed that the Sioux were 
 forming a large war party against the Outaga- 
 mis (Foxes) and other allies of the French. He 
 gave notice of his arrival to a party of about four 
 hundred Sioux who were on the Mississippi. 
 
 They arrested the messengers and came to the 
 post for the purpose of plunder. Perrot asked 
 them why they acted in this manner, and said 
 that the Foxes, Miamis, Kickapoos, Illinois, and 
 Maskoutens had united in a war party against 
 them, but that he had persuaded them to give it 
 up, and now he wished them to return to their 
 families and to their beaver. The Sioux declared 
 that they had started on the war-path, and that 
 they were ready to die. After they had traded 
 their furs, they sent for Perrot to come to their 
 camp, and begged that he would not hinder them 
 from searching for their foes. Perrot tried to dis- 
 suade them, but they insisted that the Spirit had 
 given them men to eat, at three days' journey 
 from the post Then more powerful influences 
 were used. After giving them two kettles and 
 some merchandise, Poerrt spoke thus: " I love 
 your life, and I am sure you will be defeated. 
 Your Evil Spirit has deceived you. If you kill 
 the Outagamis, or their allies, you must strike me 
 first; if you kill them, you kill me just the same, 
 for I hold them under one wing and you under 
 the other."' After this he extended the calumet, 
 which they at first refused; but at length a chief 
 said he was right, and. making invocations to the 
 sun, wished Perrot to take him back to his arms. 
 This was granted, on condition that he would 
 give up his weapons of war. The chief then tied 
 them to a pole in the centre of the fort, turning 
 them toward the sun. He then persuaded the 
 other chiefs to give up the expedition, and, send- 
 ing for Perrot, he placed the calumet before him, 
 one end in the earth and the other on a small 
 forked twig to hold it firm. Then he took from 
 his own sack a pair of his cleanest moccasins, and 
 taking off Perrot *s shoes, put on these. After he 
 had made him eat, presenting the calumet, he 
 said: " We listen to you now. Do for us as you 
 do for our enemies, and prevent them from kill- 
 ing us, and we will separate for the beaver hunt. 
 The sun is the witness of our obedience." 
 
 After this, Perrot descended the Mississippi 
 and revealed to the Maskoutens, who had come to 
 meet him, how he had pacified the Sionx. He, 
 about this period, in accordance with his prom- 
 ise, visited the lead mines. He found the ore 
 abundant " but the lead hard to work because it 
 lay between rocks which required blowing up. 
 It had very little dross and was easily melted." 
 
84 
 
 EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 Peoicaut, who ascended the Mississippi in 1700, 
 wrote that twenty leagues below the Wisconsin, 
 on both sides of the Mississippi, were mines of 
 lead called " Nicolas Perrob's." Early French 
 maps indicate as the locality of lead mines the 
 site of modern towns, Galena, in Illinois, and Du- 
 buque, in Iowa. 
 
 In August, 1693, about two hundred French- 
 men from Mackinaw, with delegates from the 
 tribes of the West, arrived at Montreal to at- 
 tend a grand council called by Governor Fronte- 
 nac, and among these was Perrot. 
 
 On the first Sunday in September the governor 
 
 gave the Indians a great feast, after which they 
 and the traders began to return to the wilder- 
 ness. Perrot was ordered by Frontenac to es- 
 tablish a new post for the Miamis in Michigan, 
 in the neighborhood of the Kalamazoo Eiver. 
 
 Two years later he is present again, in August, 
 at a council in Montreal, then returned to the. 
 West, and in 1699 is recalled from Green Bay. 
 In 1701 he was at Montreal acting as interpreter, 
 and appears to have died before 1718: his wife 
 was Madeline Eaclos, and his residence was in 
 the Seigneury of Becancourt, not far from Three 
 Bivers, on the St. Lawrence. 
 
BABOX LA HONTAN* 8 FABULOUS VOYAGE. 
 
 CHAPTEK VI. 
 
 BARON LA HONTAXS FABULOrs VOYAGE. 
 
 A Hontan, a Gascon by Birth.— Early Life.— Description of Fox and Wisconsin 
 Rivers —Indian yeast— Alleged Ascent of Long River.— Bobe Exposes the 
 ute to the Pacific. 
 
 The • Travels " of Baron La Hontan appeared 
 in A. D. 1703, both at London and at Hague, and 
 •were as saleable and readable as those of Hennepin, 
 which were on the counters of booksellers at the 
 same time. 
 
 La Hontan, a Gascon by birth, and in style of 
 writing, when about seventeen years of age, ar- 
 rived in Canada, in 1683. as a private soldier, and 
 was with Gov. De la Barre in his expedition of 
 1684. toward Niagara, and was also in the battle 
 near Rochester. New York, in 1687. at which l)u 
 Luth and Perrot, explorers of Minnesota, were 
 present. 
 
 In 1688 he appears- to have been sent to Fort 
 St. Joseph, which was built by Du Luth, on the 
 St. Clare River, near the site of Fort Gratiot, 
 Michigan. It is possible that he may have accom- 
 panied Perrot to Lake Pepin, who came about 
 this time to reoccupy his old post. 
 
 From the following extracts it will be seen that 
 his style is graphic, and that he probably had been 
 in 1688 in the valley of the Wisconsin. At Mack- 
 inaw, after his return from his pretended voyage 
 of the Long River, he writes: 
 
 " I left here on the 24th September, with my 
 men and five Outaouas, good hunters, whom I 
 have before mentioned to you as having been of 
 good service to me. All my brave men being 
 provided with good canoes, filled with provisions 
 and ammunition, together with goods for the In- 
 dian trade, I took advantage of a north wind, and 
 in three days entered the Bay of the Pouteouata- 
 mis, distant from here about forty leagues. The 
 entrance to the bay is full of islands. It is ten 
 leagues wide and twenty-five in length. 
 
 " On the 29th we entered a river, which is quite 
 deep, whose waters are so affected by the lake 
 that they often rise and fall three feet in twelve 
 
 hours. This is an observation that I made dur- 
 ing these three or four days that I passed here. 
 The Sakis, the Poutouatamis, and a few of the 
 Malominis have their villages on the border of this 
 river, and the Jesuits have a house there. In the 
 place there is carried on quite a commerce in furs 
 and Indian corn, which the Indians traffic with 
 the ' coureurs des bois' that go and come, for it is 
 their nearest and most convenient passage to the 
 Mississippi. 
 
 " The lands here are very fertile, and produce, 
 almost without culture, the wheat of our Europe, 
 peas, beans, and any quantity of fruit unknown 
 in France. 
 
 • The moment I landed, the warriors of three 
 nations came by turns to my cabin to entertain 
 me with the pipe and chief dance ; the first in 
 proof of peace and friendship, the second to indi- 
 cate their esteem and consideration for me. In 
 return, I gave them several yards of tobacco, and 
 beads, with which they trimmed their capots. The 
 next morning. I was asked as a guest, to one of 
 the feasts of this nation, and after having sent my 
 dishes, which is the custom, I went towards noon. 
 They began to compliment me of my arrival, and 
 after hearing them, they all, one after the other, 
 began to sing and dance, in a manner that I will 
 detail to you when I have more leisure. These 
 songs and dances lasted two hours, and were sea- 
 soned with whoops of joy, and quibbles that they 
 have woven into their ridiculous musique. Then 
 the captives waited upon us. The whole troop 
 were seated in the Oriental custom. Each one 
 had his portion before him, like our monks in 
 their refectories. They commenced by placing 
 four dishes before me. The first consisted of two 
 white fish simply boiled in water. The second 
 was chopped meats with the boiled tongue of a 
 bear ; the third a beaver's tail, all roasted. They 
 made me drink also of a syrup, mixed with water, 
 made out of the maple tree. The feast lasted two 
 
EXPLORERS AM) PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 hours, after which, l tequested a chief of the 
 
 nation to sins;' tor me; for it is the custom, when 
 we have business with them, to employ an inferior 
 for self in all the ceremonies they perform. I 
 gave him several pieces of tobacco, to oblige him 
 to keep the party till dark. The next day and the 
 day following, I attended the feasts of the other 
 nations, where I observed the same formalities." 
 
 lie alleges that, on the 23d of October, he 
 reached the Mississippi Eiver, and, ascending, on 
 the 3d of November he entered into a river, a 
 tributary from the west, that was almost without 
 a current, and at its mouth filled with rushes. 
 He then describes a journey of five hundred miles 
 up this stream. He declares he found upon its 
 banks three great nations, the Eokoros, Essa- 
 napes, and Gnacsitares, and because he ascended 
 it for sixty days, he named it Long Eiver. 
 
 For years his wondrous story was believed, and 
 geographers hastened to trace it upon their maps. 
 But in time the voyage up the Long Kiver was 
 discovered to be a fabrication. There is extant 
 a letter of Bobe, a Priest of the Congregation of 
 the Mission, dated Versailles, March 15, 1716, and 
 addressed to De LTsle, the geographer of the 
 Academy of Sciences at Paris, which exposes the 
 deception. 
 
 He writes: " It seems to me that you might 
 give the name of Bourbonia to these vast coun- 
 tries which are between the Missouri, Mississippi, 
 and the Western Ocean. Would it not be well to 
 efface that great river which La Hontan says he 
 discovered? 
 
 "All the Canadians, and even the Governor 
 General, have told me that this river is unknown. 
 If it existed, the French, who are on the Illinois, 
 and at Ouabache, would know of it. The last 
 volume of the ' Lettres Edifiantes' of the Jesuits, 
 in which there is a very fine relation of the Illinois 
 Country, does not speak of it, any more than the 
 letters which I received this year, which tell won- 
 ders of the beauty and goodness of the country. 
 They send me some quite jpretty work, made by 
 the wife of one of the principal chiefs. 
 
 " They tell me, that among the Scioux, of the 
 Mississippi, there are always Frenchmen trading; 
 that the course of the Mississippi is from north 
 to west, and from west to south; that it is known 
 that toward the source of the Mississippi there is 
 a river in the highlands that leads to the western 
 
 ocean; that the Indians say that they have seen 
 bearded men with caps, who gather gold-dust on 
 the seashore, but that it is very far from this 
 count ry, and that they pass through many nations 
 unknown to the French. 
 
 " I have a memoir of La Motte Cadillac, form- 
 erly Governor of Missilimackinack, who says that 
 if St. Peters [MinnesotaJ River is ascended to its 
 source they will, according to all appearance, find 
 in the highland another river leading to the West- 
 ern Ocean. 
 
 "For the last two years I have tormented 
 exceedingly the Governor-General, M. Baudot, 
 and M. Duche, to move them to discover this 
 ocean. If I succeed, as I hope, we shall hear 
 tidings before three years, and I shall have the 
 pleasure and the consolation of having rendered 
 a good service to Geography, to Religion and to 
 the State." 
 
 Charlevoix, in his History of New France, al- 
 luding to La Hontan 's voyage, writes: "The 
 voyage up the Long River is as fabulous as the 
 Island of Barrataria, of which Sancho Panza was 
 governor. Nevertheless, in France and else- 
 where, most people have received these memoirs 
 as the fruits of the travels of a gentleman who 
 wrote badly, although quite lightly, and who had 
 no religion, but who described pretty sincerely 
 what he had seen. The consequence is that the 
 compilers of historical and geographical diction- 
 aries have almost always followed and cited them 
 in preference to more faithful records." 
 
 Even in modern times, Nicollet, employed by 
 the United States to explore the Upper Mississ- 
 ippi, has the following in his report: 
 
 "Having procured a copy of La Hontan's 
 book, in which there is a roughly made map of 
 his Long River, I was struck with the resem- 
 blance of its course as laid down with that of 
 Cannon River, which I had previously sketched 
 in my own field-book. I soon convinced myself 
 that the principal statements of the Baron in ref- 
 erence to the country and the few details he gives 
 of the physical character of the the river, coin- 
 cide remarkably with what I had laid down as 
 belonging to Cannon River. Then the lakes and 
 swamps corresponded; traces of Indian villages 
 mentioned by him might be found by a growth 
 of wild grass that propagates itself around all old 
 Indian settlements." 
 
LE SUEUB, EXPLOBEB OF THE MINNESOTA BIVEB. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 LE SUEUR, EXPLORER OF THE MINNESOTA RIVER. 
 
 Le Sueur Visits Lake Pepin.— Stationed at La Funic— Establishes a Post on an 
 Island Above Lake Pepin.— Island Described by Peniraut.— Kirst S oux Chief 
 at Montreal. — Ojibway Chiefs' Speeches. — Speech of Sioux Chief.— Teeoskah* 
 tay's Death.— Le Sueur Goes to France.— Posts West of Mackinaw Abandoned 
 — Le Sueur's License Revoked.— Second Visit to France.— Arrives in Gulf of 
 Mexico with D'Iberville.— Ascends the Mississippi.— Lead Mines.— Canadians 
 Fleeing from the Sioux.— At the Mouth of the Wisconsin.— Sioux Robbers,— Elk 
 Hunting.— Lake Pepin Described.— Rattlesnakes.— La Place Killed.— St. Cwdi 
 River Named After a Frenchman.— Le Sueur Reaches St. Pierre, now Minne" 
 sota River— Enters Mankahto, or Blue Earth, River.— Sioux of the Plains.— 
 Fort L'Huillier Completed.— Conferences with Sioux Bands — Assinahoines a 
 Separated Sioux Band. — An Indian Feast.— Names of the Sioux Bands.— Char- 
 levoix's Account.— Le Sueur Goes with D'Iberville to France.— D'lbcrvilles 
 Memorial.- Early Census of Indian Tribes. -Fcnicaufs Account of Fort L'Huil 
 tier.— Le Sueur's Departure fiom the Fart.— D'Bvaqe Left in Charge.— Return" 
 to Mobile.— Juchereau at Mouth of Wisconsin. -Bondor a Montreal Merchant' — 
 Sioux Attack Miamis.— Boudor Robbed by the Sioux. 
 
 Le Sueur was a native of Canada, and a rela- 
 tive of D'Iberville, the early Governor of Louis- 
 iana. He came to Lake Pepin in 1683, with 
 Nicholas Perrot, and his name also appears at- 
 tached to the document prepared in May, 1689, 
 after Perrot had re-occupied his post just above 
 the entrance of the lake, on the east side. 
 
 In 1092, he was sent by Governor Frontenac of 
 Canada, to La Pointe, on Lake Superior, and in a 
 dispatch of 1698, to the French Government, is 
 the following : " Le Sueur, another voyageur, is 
 to remain at Chagouamagon [La Pointe] to en- 
 deavor to maintain the peace lately concluded be- 
 tween the Saulteurs [Chippeways] and Sioux. 
 This is of the greatest consequence, as it is now 
 the sole pass by which access can be had to the 
 latter nation, whose trade is very profitable; the 
 country to the south being occupied by the Foxes 
 and Maskoutens, who several times plundered the 
 French, on the ground they were carrying ammu- 
 nition to the Sioux, their ancient enemies." 
 
 Entering the Sioux country in 1894, lie estab- 
 lished a post upon a prairie island in the Missis- 
 sippi, about nine miles below the present town of 
 Hastings, according to Bellin and others. Peni- 
 caut, who accompanied him in the exploration of 
 the Minnesota, writes, " At the extremity of the 
 lake [Pepin] you come to the Isle Pelee, so called 
 because there are no trees on it. It is on this island 
 
 that the French from Canada established their 
 fort and storehouse, and they also winter here, 
 because game is very abundant. In the month of 
 September they bring their store of meat, obtained 
 by hunting, and after having skinned and cleaned 
 it, hang it upon a crib of raised scaffolding, in 
 order that the extreme cold, which lasts from 
 September to March, may preserve it from spoil- 
 ing. During the whole winter they do not go out 
 except for water, when they have to break the ice 
 every day, and the abin is generally built upon 
 the bank, so as not to have far to go. When 
 spring arrives, the savages come to the island, 
 bringing their merchandize." 
 
 On the fifteenth of July, 1695, Le Sueur arrived 
 at Montreal with a party of Ojibways, and the 
 jirst Dakotah brave that had ever visited Canada. 
 The Indians were much impressed with the 
 power of France by the marching of a detach- 
 ment of seven hundred picked men, under Chev- 
 alier Cresali. who were on their way to La Chine. 
 On the eighteenth, Frontenac, in the presence 
 of Callieres and other persons of distinction, gave 
 them an audience. 
 
 The first speaker was the chief of the Ojibway 
 band at La Pointe, Shingowahbay, who said: 
 
 " That he was come to pay his respects to Onon- 
 tio [the title given the Governor of Canada] in the 
 name of the young warriors of Point Chagouami- 
 gon, and to thank him for having given them 
 some Frenchmen to dwell with them; to testify 
 their sorrow for one Jobin, a Frenchman, who 
 was killed at a feast, accidentally, and not ma- 
 liciously. We come to ask a favor of you, which 
 is to let us act. We are allies of the Sciou. Some 
 Outagamies, or Mascoutins, have been killed. 
 The Sciou came to mourn with us. Let us act, 
 Father; let us take revenge. 
 
 "Le Sueur alone, who is acquainted with the 
 language of the one and the other, can serve us. 
 We ask that he return with us." 
 
EXPLOIiEES AND PIONEERS OF MINNES01A. 
 
 Another speaker of the Ojibways was Le Bro- 
 chet. 
 
 Teeoskahtay, the Dahkotah chief, before he 
 spoke, spread out a beaver robe, and, laying an- 
 other with a tobacco pouch and otter skin, began 
 to weep bitterly. After dryiug his tears, he said: 
 
 • % All of the nations had a father, who afforded 
 them protection; all of them have iron. But he 
 was a bastard in quest of a father; he was come 
 to see him, and hopes that he will take pity on 
 him." 
 
 He then placed upon the beaver robe twenty- 
 two arrows, at each arrow naming a Dahkotah 
 village that desired Frontenac's protection. Ke- 
 suming his speech, he remarked: 
 
 "It is not on account of what I bring that I 
 hope him who rules the earth will have pity on 
 me. I learned from the Sauteurs that he wanted 
 nothing; that he was the Master of the Iron; that 
 he had a big heart, into which he could receive 
 all the nations. This has induced me to abandon 
 my people and come to seek his protection, and 
 to beseech bim to receive me among the number 
 of his children. Take courage, Great Captain, 
 and reject me not; despise me not, though I ap- 
 pear poor in your eyes. All the nations here 
 present know that I am rich, and the little they 
 offer here is taken from my lands." 
 
 Count Frontenac in reply told the chief that he 
 would receive the Dahkotahs as his children, on 
 condition that they would be obedient, and that 
 he would send back Le Sueur with him. 
 
 Teeoskahtay, taking hold of the governor's 
 knees, wept, and said: " Take pity on us; we 
 are well aware that we are not able to speak, be- 
 ing children; but Le Sueur, who understands our 
 language, and has seen all our villages, will next 
 year inform you what will have been achieved by 
 the Sioux nations represented by those arrows be- 
 fore you." 
 
 Having finished, a Dahkotah woman, the wife 
 of a great chief whom Le' Sueur had purchased 
 from captivity at Mackinaw, approached those in 
 authority, and, with downcast eyes, embraced 
 their knees, weeping and saying: 
 
 " I thank thee, Father; it is by thy means I 
 have been liberated, and am no longer captive." 
 
 Then Teeoskahtay resumed: 
 
 " I speak like a man penetrated with joy. The 
 Great Captain; he who is the Master of Iron, as- 
 
 sures me of his protection, and I promise, him that 
 if he condescends to restore my children, now 
 prisoners among the Foxes, Ottawas and Hurons, 
 I will return hither, and bring with me the twen- 
 ty-two villages whom he has just restored to life 
 by promising to send them Iron." 
 
 On the 14th of August, two weeks after the 
 Ojibway chief left for his home on Lake Superior, 
 Nicholas Perrot arrived with a deputation of 
 Sauks, Foxes, Menomonees, Miamis of Maramek 
 and Pottowatomies. 
 
 Two days after, they had a council with the 
 governor, who thus spoke to a Fox brave: 
 
 " I see that you are a young man; your nation 
 has quite turned away from my wishes; it has 
 pillaged some of my young men, whom it has 
 treated as slaves. I know that your father, who 
 loved the French, had no hand in the indignity. 
 You only imitate the example of your father 
 who had sense, when you do not co-operate 
 with those of your tribe who are wishing to go 
 over to my enemies, after they grossly insulted 
 me and defeated the Sioux, whom I now consider 
 my son. I pity the Sioux; I pity the dead whose 
 loss I deplore. Perrot goes up there, and he will 
 speak to your nation from me for the release of 
 their prisoners; let them attend to him." 
 
 Teeoshkahtay never returned to his native land. 
 "While in Montreal he was taken sick, and in 
 thirty-three days he ceased to breathe; and, fol- 
 lowed by white men, his body was interred in the 
 white man's grave. 
 
 Le Sueur instead of going back to Minnesota 
 that year, as was expected, went to France and 
 received a license, in 1697, to open certain mines 
 supposed to exist in Minnesota. The ship in 
 which he was returning was captured by the Eng- 
 lish, and he was taken to England. After his 
 release he went back to France, and, in 1698, ob- 
 tained a new commission for mining. 
 
 While Le Sueur was in Europe, the Dahkotas 
 waged war against the Foxes and Miamis. In 
 retaliation, the latter raised a war party and en- 
 tered the land of the Dahkotahs. Finding their 
 foes intrenched, and assisted by " coureurs des 
 bois," they were indignant; and on their return 
 they had a skirmish with some Frenchmen, who 
 were carrying goods to the Dahkotahs. 
 
 Shortly after, they met Perrot, and were about 
 to burn him to death, when prevented by some 
 
LE SUEUR ASCENDS THE MISSISIPPI RIVER. 
 
 friendly Foxes. The Miamis, after this, were 
 disposed to be friendly to the Iroquois. In 1696, 
 the year previous, the authorities at Quebec de- 
 cided that it was expedient to abandon all the 
 posts west of Mackinaw, and withdraw the French 
 from Wisconsin and Minnesota. 
 
 The voyageurs were not disposed to leave the 
 country, and the governor wrote to Pontchar- 
 train for instructions, in October, 1698. In his 
 dispatch he remarks: 
 
 " In this conjuncture, and under all these cir- 
 cumstances, we consider it our duty to postpone, 
 until new instructions from the court, the execu- 
 tion of Sieur Le Sueur's enterprise for the mines, 
 though the promise had already been given him 
 to send two canoes in advance to Missilimackinac. 
 for the purpose of purchasing there some pro- 
 visions and other necessaries for his voyage, and 
 that he would be permitted to go and join them 
 early in the spring with the rest of his hands. 
 What led us to adopt this resolution has been, 
 that the French who remained to trade off with 
 the Five Nations the remainder of their merch- 
 andise, might, on seeing entirely new comers 
 arriving there, consider themselves entitled to 
 dispense with coming down, and perhaps adopt 
 the resolution to settle there; wliilst, seeing no 
 arrival there, with permission to do what is for- 
 bidden, the reflection they will he able to make 
 during the winter, and the apprehension of being 
 guilty of crime, may oblige them to return in the 
 spring. 
 
 " This would be very desirable, in consequence 
 of the great difficulty there will be in constraining 
 them to it, should they be inclined to lift the mask 
 altogether and become buccaneers ; or should 
 Sieur Le Sueur, as he easily could do, furnish 
 them with goods for their beaver and smaller 
 peltry, which he might send down by the return of 
 other Frenchmen, whose sole desire is to obey, and 
 who have remained only because of the impossi- 
 bility of getting their effects down. This would 
 rather induce those who would continue to lead a 
 vagabond life to remain there, as the goods they 
 would receive from Le Sueur's people would afford 
 them the means of doing so." 
 
 In reply to this communication, Louis XIV. 
 answered that — 
 
 " His majesty has approved that the late Sieur 
 de Frontenac and De Champigny suspended the 
 
 execution of the license granted to the man named 
 Le Sueur to proceed, with fifty men, to explore 
 some mines on the banks of the Mississippi. He 
 has revoked said license, and desires that the said 
 Le Sueur, or any other person, be prevented from 
 leaving the colony on pretence of going in search 
 of mines, without his majesty's express permis- 
 sion." 
 
 Le Sueur, undaunted by these drawbacks to the 
 prosecution of a favorite project, again visited 
 France. 
 
 Fortunately for Le Sueur, D 'Iberville, who was 
 a friend, and closely connected by marriage, was 
 appointed governor of the new territory of Louis- 
 iana. In the month of December he arrived from 
 France, with thirty workmen, to proceed to the 
 supposed mines in Minnesota. 
 
 On the thirteenth of July, 1700, with a felucca, 
 two canoes, and nineteen men, having ascended 
 the Mississippi, he had reached the mouth of the 
 Missouri, and six leagues above this he passed the 
 Illinois. He there met three Canadians, who 
 came to join him, with a letter from Father Mar- 
 est. who had once attempted a mission among the 
 Dahkotahs, dated July 13, Mission Immaculate 
 Conception of the Holy Virgin, in Illinois. 
 
 " I have the honor to write, in order to inform 
 you that the Saugiestas have been defeated by the 
 Scioux and Ayavois [Iowas]. The people have 
 formed an alliance with the Quincapous [Kicka- 
 poos], some of the Mecoutins, Eenards [Foxes], 
 and Metesigamias, and gone to revenge them- 
 selves, not on the Scioux, for they are too much 
 afraid of them, but perhaps on the Ayavois, or 
 very likely upon the Paoutees, or more probably 
 upon the Osages, for these suspect nothing, and 
 the others are on their guard. 
 
 ■• As you will probably meet these allied na- 
 tions, you ought to take precaution against their 
 plans, and not allow them to board your vessel, 
 since they arc traitors, and utterly faithless. I pray 
 God to accompany you in all your designs." 
 
 Twenty-two leagues above the Illinois, he passed 
 a small stream which he called the River of Oxen, 
 and nine leagues beyond this he passed a small 
 river on the w r est side, where he met four Cana- 
 dians descending the Mississippi, on their way to 
 the Illinois. On the 30th of July, nine leagues 
 above the last-named river, he met seventeen 
 Scioux, in seven canoes, who were going to re- 
 
40 
 
 JUXPLOliMiS AND P10NEHBS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 venge the death of three Scioux, one of whom had 
 been burned, and the others killed, at Tamarois, 
 
 a lew da\ s before his arrival in that village. As 
 he had promised the chief of the Illinois to ap- 
 pease the Scioux who should go to war against 
 his nation, he made a present to the chief of the 
 party to engage lihn to turn back. He told them 
 the King of France did not wish them to make 
 this river more bloody, and that he was sent to tell 
 them that, if they obeyed the king's word, they 
 would receive in future all things necessary for 
 them. The chief answered that he accepted the 
 present, that is to say, that he would do as had 
 been told him. 
 
 From the 30th of July to the 25th of August, Le 
 Sueur advanced fifty-three and one-fourth leagues 
 to a small river which he called the River of the 
 Mine. At the mouth it runs from the north, but 
 it turns to the northeast. On the right seven 
 leagues, there is a lead mine in a prairie, one and 
 a half leagues. The river is only navigable in 
 high water, that is to say, from early spring till 
 the month of June. 
 
 From the 25th to the 27th he made ten leagues, 
 passed two small rivers, and made himself ac- 
 quamted with a mine of lead, from which he took 
 a supply. From the 27th to the 30th he made 
 eleven and a half leagues, and met five Canadians, 
 one of whom had been dangerously wounded in 
 the head. They were naked, and had no ammu- 
 nition except a miserable gun, with five or six 
 loads of powder and balls. They -said they were 
 descending from the Scioux to go to Tamarois, 
 and, when seventy leagues above, they perceived 
 nine canoes in the Mississippi, in which were 
 ninety savages, who robbed and cruelly beat them. 
 This party were going to war against the Scioux, 
 and were composed of four different nations, the 
 Outagamies [Foxes], Poutouwatamis [Pottowatta- 
 mies], and Puans [Winnebagoes], who dwell in a 
 country eighty leagues east of the Mississippi 
 from where Le Sueur then was. 
 
 The Canadians determined to follow the detach- 
 ment, which was composed of twenty-eight men. 
 This day they made seven and a half leagues. 
 On the 1st of September he passed the Wisconsin 
 river. It inns into the Mississippi from the north- 
 east. It is nearly one and a half miles wide. At 
 about seventy-five leagues up this river, on the 
 right, ascending, there is a portage of more than 
 
 a league. The half of this portage is shaking 
 ground, and at the end of it is a small river which 
 descends into a bay called Winnebago Bay. It is 
 inhabited by a great number of nations who carry 
 their furs to Canada. Monsieur Le Sueur came 
 by the Wisconsin river to the Mississippi, for the 
 first time, in 1683, on his way to the Scioux coun- 
 try, where he had already passed seven years at 
 different periods. The Mississippi, opposite the 
 mouth of the Wisconsin, is less than half a mile 
 wide. From the 1st of September to the 6th, our 
 voyageur advanced fourteen leagues. He passed 
 the river " Aux Canots," which comes from the 
 northeast, and then the Quincapous, named from 
 a nation which once dwelt upon its banks. 
 
 From the 5th to the 9th he made ten and a half 
 leagues, and passed the rivers Cachee and Aux 
 Ailes. The same day he perceived canoes, filled 
 with savages, descending the river, and the five 
 Canadians recognized them as the party who had 
 robbed them. They placed sentinels in the wood, 
 for fear of being surprised by land, and when 
 they had approached within hearing, they cried to 
 them that if they approached farther they would 
 fire. They then drew up by an island, at half the 
 distance of a gun shot. Soon, four of the princi- 
 pal men of the band approached in a canoe, and 
 asked if it was forgotten that they were our 
 brethren, and with what design we had taken 
 arms when we perceived them. Le Sueur replied 
 that he had cause to distrust them, since they had 
 robbed five of his party. Nevertheless, for the 
 surety of his trade, being forced to be at peace 
 with all the tribes, he demanded no redress for 
 the robbery, but added merely that the king, their 
 master and his, wished that his subjects should 
 navigate that river without insult, and that they 
 had better beware how they acted. 
 
 The Indian who had spoken was silent, but an- 
 other said they had been attacked by the Scioux, 
 and that if they did not have pity on them, and 
 give them a little powder, they should not be able 
 to reach their villages. The consideration of a 
 missionary, who was to go up among the Scioux, 
 and whom these savages might meet, induced 
 them to give two pounds of powder. 
 
 M. Le Sueur made the same day three leagues; 
 passed a stream on the west, and afterward an- 
 other river on the east, which is navigable at all 
 times, and which the Indians call Red River. 
 
BATTLESNAKES ON SHORES OF LAKE PEPIN. 
 
 41 
 
 On the 10th, at daybreak, they heard an elk 
 whistle, on the other side of the river. A Cana- 
 dian crossed in a small Scioux canoe, which they 
 had found, and shortly returned with the body of 
 the animal, which was very easily killed, " quand 
 il est en rut," that is, from the beginning of Sep- 
 tember until the end of October. The hunters at 
 this time made a whistle of a piece of wood, or 
 reed, and when they hear an elk whistle they an- 
 swer it. The animal, believing it to be another 
 elk, approaches, and is killed with ease. 
 
 From the 10th to the 14th, M. Le Sueur made 
 seventeen and a half leagues, passing the rivers 
 Raisin and Paquilenettes (perhaps the "VYazi Ozu 
 and Buffalo.) The same day he left, on the east 
 side of the Mississippi, a beautiful and large river, 
 which descends from the very far north, and 
 called Bon Secours (Chippeway). on account of the 
 great quantity of buffalo, elk, bears and deers 
 which are found there. Three leagues up this 
 river there is a mine of lead, and seven leagues 
 above, on the same side, they found another long 
 river, in the vicinity of which there is a copper 
 mine, from which lie had taken a lump of sixty 
 pounds in a former voyage. In order to make 
 these mines of any account, peace must be ob- 
 tained between the Scioux and Ouatagamis (Fox- 
 es), because the latter, who dwell on the east side 
 of the Mississippi, pass this road continually when 
 going to war against the Sioux. * 
 
 Fenicaut. in his journal, gives a brief descrip- 
 tion of the Mississippi between the Wisconsin 
 and Lake Pepin. He writes: --Above the Wis- 
 consin, and ten leagues higher on the same side. 
 begins a great prairie extending for sixty leagues 
 along the bank; this prairie is called Aux Ailes. 
 Opposite to Aux Ailes, on the left, there is 
 another prairie facing it called Faquilanet which 
 is not so long by a great deal. Twenty leagues 
 above these prairies is found Lake Bon Secours " 
 [Good Help, now Pepin.] 
 
 In this region, at one and a half leagues on the 
 northwest side, commenced a lake, which is six 
 leagues long and more than one broad, called 
 Lake Pepin. It is bounded on the west by a 
 chain of mountains; on the east is seen a prairie; 
 and on the northwest of the lake there is another 
 prairie two leagues long and one wide. In the 
 neighborhood is a chain of mountains quite two 
 hundred feet high, and more than one and a half 
 
 miles long. In these are found several caves, to 
 which the bears retire in winter. Most of the 
 caverns are more than seventy feet in extent, and 
 two hundred feet high. There are several of 
 which the entrance is very narrow, and quite 
 closed up with saltpetre, It would be dangerous 
 to enter them in summer, for they are filled with 
 rattlesnakes, the bite of which is very dangerous. 
 Le Sueur saw some of these snakes which were 
 six feet in length, but generally they are about 
 four feet. They have teeth resembling those of 
 the pike, and their gums are full of small vessels, 
 in which their poison is placed. The Scioux say 
 they take it every mornin r, and cast it away at 
 night. They have at the tail a kind of scale which 
 makes a noise, and this is ealled the rattle. 
 
 Le Sueur made on this day seven and a half 
 leagues, and passed another river, called Hiam- 
 bouxecate Ouataba, or the River of Flat Rock. 
 [The Sioux call the Cannon river Inyanbosndata.] 
 
 On the loth he crossed a small river, and saw 
 in the neighborhood several canoes, filled with 
 Indians, descending the Mississippi. lie sup- 
 posed they were Scioux, because he could not dis- 
 tinguish whether the canoes were large or small. 
 The anus were placed in readiness, and soon they 
 heard the cry of the savages, which they are ac- 
 customed to raise when they rush upon their en- 
 emies. He caused them to be answered in the 
 same manner; and after Inning placed all the 
 men behind the trees, he ordered them not to fire 
 until they were commanded, lie remained on 
 shore to see what movement the savages would 
 make, and perceiving that they placed two on 
 shore, on the other side, where from an eminence 
 they could ascertain the strength of his forces, he 
 caused the men to pass and repass from the shore 
 to the wood, in order to make them believe that 
 they were numerous. This ruse succeeded, for 
 as soon as the two descended from the eminence 
 the chief of the party came, bearing the calumet, 
 which is a signal of peace among the 'Indians. 
 They said that having never seen the French navi- 
 gate the river with boats like the felucca, they had 
 supposed them to be English, and for that reason 
 they had raised the war cry, and arranged them- 
 selves on the other side of the Mississippi; but 
 having recognized their flag, they had come with- 
 out fear to inform them, that one of their num- 
 ber, who was crazy, had accidentally killed a 
 
42 
 
 EXPLOBEBS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 Frenchman, and that they would go and bring his 
 comrade, who would tell how the mischief had 
 happened. 
 
 The Frenchman they brought was Denis, a Ca- 
 nadian, and he reported that his companion was 
 accidentally killed. His name was Laplace, a de- 
 serting soldier from Canada, who had taken ref- 
 uge in this country. 
 
 Le Sueur replied, that Onontio (the name they 
 give to all the governors of Canada), being their 
 father and his, they ought not to seek justification 
 elsewhere than before him; and he advised them 
 to go and see him as soon as possible, and beg 
 him to wipe off the blood of this Frenchman from 
 their faces. 
 
 The party was composed of forty-seven men of 
 different nations, who dwell far to the east, about 
 the forty-fourth degree of latitude. Le Sueur, 
 discovering who the chiefs were, said the king 
 whom they had spoken of in Canada, had sent 
 him to take possession of the north of the river; 
 and that he wished the nations who dwell on it, 
 as well as those under his protection, to live in 
 
 He made this day three and three-fourths 
 leagues; and on the 16th of September, he left a 
 large river on the east side, named St. Croix, be- 
 cause a Frenchman of that name was shipwrecked 
 at its mouth. It comes from the north-northwest. 
 Four leagues higher, in going up, is found a small 
 lake, at the mouth of which is a very large mass 
 of copper. It is on the edge of the water, in a 
 small ridge of sandy earth, on the west of this 
 lake. [One of La Salle's men was named St. 
 Croix.] 
 
 From the 16th to the 19th, he advanced thir- 
 teen and three-fourths leagues. After having 
 made from Tamarois two hundred and nine and a 
 half leagues, he left the navigation of the Missis- 
 sippi, to enter the river St. Pierre, on the west 
 side. By the 1st of October, he had made in this 
 river forty-four and one-fourth leagues. After he 
 entered Blue river, thus named on account of the 
 mines of blue earth found at its mouth, he found- 
 ed his post, situated in forty-four degrees, thir- 
 teen minutes north latitude. He met at this 
 place nine Scioux, who told him that the river 
 belonged to the Scioux of the west, the Ayavois 
 (Iowas) and Otoctatas (Ottoes), who lived a little 
 farther off; that it was not their custom to hunt 
 
 on ground belonging to others, unless invited to 
 do so by the owners, and that when they would 
 come to the fort to obtain provisions, they would 
 be in danger of being killed in ascending or de- 
 scending the rivers, which were narrow, and that 
 if they would show their pity, he must establish 
 himself on the Mississippi, near the mouth of the St. 
 Pierre, where the Ayavois, the Otoctatas, and the 
 other Scioux could go as well as they. 
 
 Having finished their speech, they leaned over 
 the head of Le Sueur, according to their custom, 
 crying out, "Ouaechissou ouaepanimanabo," that 
 is to say, " Have pity upon us." Le Sueur had 
 foreseen that the establishment of Blue Earth 
 river would not please the Scioux of the East, 
 who were, so to speak, masters of the other Scioux 
 and of the nations which will be hereafter men- 
 tioned, because they were the first with whom trade 
 was commenced, and in consequence of which they 
 had already quite a number of guns. 
 
 As he had commenced his operations not only 
 with a view to the trade of beaver but also to 
 gain a knowledge of the mines which he had pre- 
 viously discovered, he told them that he was sor- 
 ry that he had not known their intentions sooner, 
 and that it was just, since he came expressly for 
 them, that he should establish himself on their 
 land, but that the season was too far advanced 
 for him to return. He then made them a present 
 of powder, balls and knives, and an armful of to- 
 bacco, to entice them to assemble, as soon as pos- 
 sible, near the fort he was about to construct, 
 that when they should be all assembled he might 
 tell them the intention of the king, their and Ins 
 sovereign. 
 
 The Scioux of the West, according to the state- 
 ment of the Eastern Scioux, have more than a 
 thousand lodges. They do not use canoes, nor 
 cultivate the earth, nor gather wild rice. They 
 remain generally on the prairies which are be- 
 tween the Upper Mississippi and Missouri rivers, 
 and live entirely by the chase. The Scioux gen- 
 erally say they have three souls, and that after 
 death, that which has done well goes to the warm 
 country, that which has done evil to the cold 
 regions, and the other guards the body. Poly- 
 gamy is common among them. They are very 
 jealous, and sometimes fight in duel for their 
 wives. They manage the bow admirably, and 
 have been seen several times to kill ducks on the 
 
BLUE EABTR ASSAYED BY L'HULLIER IN PABIS. 
 
 43 
 
 wing. They make their lodges of a number of 
 buffalo skins interlaced and sewed, and carry 
 them wherever they go. They are all great smo- 
 kers, but their manner of smoking differs from 
 that of other Indians. There are some Scioux 
 who swallow all the smoke of the tobacco, and 
 others who, after having kept it some time in 
 their mouth, cause it to issue from the nose. " In 
 each lodge there are usually two or three men 
 with their families. 
 
 On the third of October, they received at the 
 fort several Scioux, among whom was Wahkan- 
 tape, chief of the village. Soon two Canadians 
 arrived who had been hunting, and who had been 
 robbed by the Scioux of the East, who had raised 
 their guns against the establishment which M. 
 Le Sueur had made on Blue Earth river. 
 
 On the fourteenth the fort was finished and 
 named Fort LTIuillier. and on the twenty-second 
 two Canadians were sent out to invite the Aya- 
 vois and Otoctatas to come and establish a vil- 
 lage near the fort, because these Indians are in- 
 dustrious and accustomed to cultivate the earth, 
 and they hoped to get provisions from them, and 
 to make them work in the mines. 
 
 On the twenty-fourth, six Scioux Oujalespoi- 
 tons wished to go into the fort, but were told 
 that they did not receive men who had killed 
 Frenchmen. This is the term used when they 
 have insulted them. The next day they came to 
 the lodge of Le Sueur to beg him to have pity on 
 them. They wished, according to custom, to 
 weep over hi- head and make him a present of 
 packs of beavers, which lie refused. He told 
 them he was surprised that people who had rob- 
 bed should come to him ; to which they replied 
 that they had heard it said that two Frenchmen 
 had been robbed, but none from their village had 
 been present at that wicked action. 
 
 Le Sueur answered, that he knew it was the 
 Mendeoueantons and not the Oujalespoitons ; 
 " but," continued he. '• you are Scioux: it is the 
 Scioux who have robbed me. and if I were to fol- 
 low your manner of acting I should break your 
 heads ; for is it not true, that when a stranger 
 (it is thus they call the Indians who are not 
 Scioux) has insulted a Scioux, Mendeoucanton. 
 Oujalespoitons, or others — all the villages revenge 
 upon the first one they meet?" 
 
 As they had nothing to answer to what he said 
 
 to them, they wept and repeated, according to 
 custom, " Ouaechissou ! ouaepanimanabo !" Le 
 Sueur told them to cease crying, and added that 
 the French had good hearts, and that they had 
 come into the country to have pity on them. At 
 the same time he made them a present, saying to 
 them, " Carry back your beavers and say to all 
 the Scioux. that they will have from me no more 
 powder or lead, and they will no longer smoke 
 any long pipe until they have made satisfaction 
 for robbing the Frenchman. 
 
 The same day the Canadians, who had been 
 sent off on the 22d. arrived without having found 
 the road which led to the Ayavois and Otoctatas. 
 On the 25th, Le Sueur went to the river with 
 three canoes, which he filled with green and blue 
 earth. It is taken from the hills near which are 
 very abundant mines of copper, some of which 
 was worked at Paris in lGiiG. by L"Iiuillier. one 
 of the chief collectors of the king. Stones were 
 also found there which would be curious, if 
 worked. 
 
 On the ninth of November, eight Mantanton 
 Scioux arrived, who had been sent by their chiefs 
 to say that the Mendeoueantons were still at tlieir 
 hik< on tin <n si of tin Mississippi, and they could 
 not come for a long time ; and that tor a single 
 village which had no good sense, the others ought 
 not to bear the punishment ; and that they were 
 willing to make reparation if they knew how. 
 Le Sueur replied that he was glad that they had 
 a disposition to do so. 
 
 On the loth the two Mantanton Scioux, who 
 had been sent expressly to say that all of the 
 Scioux of the east, and part of those of the west, 
 were joined together to come to the French, be- 
 cause they had heard that the Christianaux and 
 the Assinipoils were making war on them. 
 These two nations dwell above the fort on the 
 east side, more than eighty leagues on the Upper 
 Mississippi. 
 
 The Assinipoils speak Scioux, and are certainly 
 of that nation. It is only a few years since that 
 they became enemies. The enmity thus origi- 
 nated: The Christianaux, having the use of arms 
 before the Scioux, through the English at Hud- 
 son's Bay, they constantly warred upon the As- 
 sinipoils, who were their nearest neighbors. 
 The latter, being weak, sued for peace, and to 
 render it more lasting, married the Christianaux 
 
It 
 
 XXPLOltEKS AND PIONEEBS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 women. The other Soioux, who bad not made 
 the compact, continued the war; and, seeing some 
 Christianaux with the Assinipoils, broke their 
 heads. The Christianaux furnished the Assini- 
 poils with arms and merchandise. 
 
 On the 16th the Scioux returned to their vil- 
 lage, and it was reported that the Ayavois and 
 Otoctatas were gone to establish themselves to- 
 wards the Missouri River, near the Maha, who 
 dwell in that region. On the 26th the Mantan- 
 tons and Oujalespoitons arrived at the fort; and, 
 after they had encamped in the woods. Wah 
 kantape came to beg Le Sueur to go to his 
 lodge. He there found sixteen men with women 
 and children, with their faces daubed with black. 
 In the middle of the lodge were several buffalo 
 skins which were sewed for a carpet. After mo- 
 tioning him to sit down, they wept for the fourth 
 of an hour, and the chief gave him some wild 
 rice to eat (as was their custom), putting the 
 first three spoonsful to his mouth. After which, 
 he said all present were relatives of Tioscate, 
 whom Le Sueur took to Canada in 1695, and who 
 died there in 1696. 
 
 At the mention of Tioscate they began to weep 
 again, and wipe their tears and heads upon the 
 shoulders of Le Sueur. Then Wahkantape again 
 spoke, and said that Tioscate begged him to for- 
 get the insult done to the Frenchmen by the 
 Mendeoucantons, and take pity on his brethren 
 by giving them powder and balls whereby they 
 could defend themselves, and gain a living for 
 their wives and children, who languish in a coun- 
 try full of game, because they had not the means 
 of killing them. " Look," added the chief, " Be- 
 hold thy children, thy brethren, and thy sisters; 
 it is to thee to see whether thou wishest them to 
 die. They will live if thou givest them powder 
 and ball; they will die if thou refusest." 
 
 Le Sueur granted them their request, but as 
 the Scioux never answer on the spot, especially 
 in matters of importance, and as he had to speak 
 to them about his establishment he went out of 
 the lodge without saying a word. The chief and 
 all those within followed him as far as the door 
 of the fort; and when he had gone in, they went 
 around it three times, crying with all their 
 strength, " Atheouanan! " that is to say, " Father, 
 have pity on us." [Ate unyanpi, means Our 
 Father.] 
 
 The next day, he assembled in the fort the 
 principal men of both villages; and as it is not 
 possible to subdue the Scioux or to hinder them 
 from going to war, unless it be by inducing them 
 to cultivate the earth, he said to them that if 
 they wished to render themselves worthy of the 
 protection of the king, they must abandon their 
 erring life, and form a village near his dwelling, 
 where they would be shielded from the insults of 
 of their enemies; and that they might be happy 
 and not hungry, he would give them all the corn 
 necessary to plant a large piece of ground; that 
 the king, their and his chief, in sending him, had 
 forbidden him to purchase beaver skins, knowing 
 that this kind of hunting separates them and ex- 
 poses them to their enemies; and that in conse- 
 quence of this he had come to establish himself 
 on Blue River and vicinity, where they had many 
 times assured him were many kinds of beasts, 
 for the skins of which he would give them all 
 things necessary; that they ought to reflect that 
 they could not do without French goods, and that 
 the only way not to want them was, not to go to 
 war with our allied nations. 
 
 As it is customary with the Indians to accom- 
 pany their word with a present proportioned to 
 the affair treated of, he gave them fifty pounds of 
 powder, as many balls, six guns, ten axes, twelve 
 armsful of tobacco, and a hatchet pipe. 
 
 On the first of December, the Mantantons in- 
 vited Le Sueur to a great feast. Of four of their 
 lodges they had made one, in which were one 
 hundred men seated around, and every one his 
 dish before him. After the meal, Wahkantape, 
 the chief, made them all smoke, one after another, 
 in the hatchet pipe which had been given them. 
 He then made a present to Le Sueur of a slave 
 and a sack of wild rice, and said to him, showing 
 him his men: " Behold the remains of this great 
 village, which thou hast aforetimes seen so nu- 
 merous! All the others have been killed in war; 
 and the few men whom thou seest in this lodge, 
 accept the present thou hast made them, and are 
 resolved to obey the great chief of all nations, of 
 whom thou hast spoken to us. Thou oughtest 
 not to regard us as Scioux, but as French, and in- 
 stead of saying the Scioux are miserable, and have 
 no mind, and are fit for 'nothing but to rob and 
 steal from the French, thou shalt say my breth- 
 ren are miserable and have no mind, and we must 
 
D' IBERVILLE'S MEMOIR ON THE MISSISSIPPI TRIBES. 
 
 45 
 
 try to procure some for them. They rob us, but 
 I will take care that they do not lack iron, that is 
 to say, all kinds of goods. If thou dost this. I as- 
 sure thee that in a little time the Mantantons will 
 become Frenchmen, and they will have ndne of 
 those vices, with which thou reproachest us." 
 
 Having finished his speech, he covered his face 
 with his garment, and the others imitated him. 
 They wept over their companions who had died 
 in war, and chanted an adieu to their country in 
 a tone so gloomy, that one could not keep from 
 partaking of their sorrow. 
 
 Wahkantape then made them smoke again, and 
 distributed the presents, and said that he was go- 
 ing to the Mendeoucantons, to inform them of the 
 resolution, and invite them to do the same. 
 
 On the twelfth, three Mendeoucauton chiefs, 
 and a large number of Indians of the same vil- 
 lage, arrived at the fort, and the next day gave 
 satisfaction for robbing the Frenchmen. They 
 brought four hundred pounds of beaver skins, and 
 promised that the summer following, after their 
 canoes were built and they had gathered their 
 wild rice, that they would come and establish 
 themselves near the French. The same day they 
 returned to their village east of the Mississippi. 
 
 NAMES OF THE BANDS OF SCIOUX OF THE 
 EAST. WITH THEIR SIGNIFICATION. 
 
 Mantantons-— That is to say. Village of the 
 Great Lake which empties into a small one. 
 
 Mendeouacantons— Village of Spirit Lake. 
 
 Qtjiopetons— Village of the Lake with one 
 River. 
 
 Psiottmanitons— Village of AVild Rice Gath- 
 erers. 
 
 Ouadebatoxs— The River Village. 
 
 Ouaetemaxetoxs— Village of the Tribe who 
 dwell on the Point of the Lake. 
 
 SONGASQUTTONS— The Brave Village, 
 
 THE SCIOUX OF THE WEST. 
 
 TorcHOUAEsixioxs— The Village of the Pole. 
 
 Rsixchatoxs— Village of the Red AVild Rice. 
 
 Oimalespoitons— Village divided into many 
 small Bands. 
 
 Pkixoutaxhixhixtoxs — The Great AVild 
 Rice Village. 
 
 TtntaNGAOUGHIATONS — The Grand Lodge 
 Village. 
 
 Otjaepetons— Village of the Leaf. 
 
 Oughetgeodatons— Dung Village. 
 
 Ouapeoxtetoxs — Village of those who shoot 
 in the Large Pine. 
 
 Hinhanetons — Village of the Red Stone 
 Quarry. 
 
 The above catalogue of villages concludes the 
 extract that La Harpe has made from Le Sueur's 
 journal. 
 
 In the narrative of Major Long's second expe- 
 dition, there are just as many villages of the Gens 
 du Lac, or M'dewakantonwan Scioux mentioned, 
 though the names are different. After leaving 
 the Mille Lac region, the divisions evidently were 
 different, and the villages known by new names. 
 
 Charlevoix, who visited the valley of the Lower 
 Mississippi in 1722. says that Le Sueur spent a 
 winter in his fort on the banks of the Blue Earth, 
 and that in the following April he went up to the 
 mine, about a mile above. In twenty-two days 
 they obtained more than thirty thousand pounds 
 of the substance, four thousand of which were se- 
 lected and sent to Fiance. 
 
 On the tenth of February. 1702, Le Sueur came 
 pack to the post on the Gulf of Mexico, and found 
 D'Iberville absent, who, however, arrived on the 
 eighteenth of the next month', with a ship from 
 France, loaded with supplies. After a few weeks, 
 the Governor of Louisiana sailed again for the 
 old country, Le Sueur being a fellow passenger. 
 
 On board of the ship. D'Iberville wrote a mem- 
 orial upon the Mississippi valley, with sugges- 
 tions for carrying on commerce therein, which 
 contains many facts furnished by Le Sueur. A 
 copy of the manuscript was in possession of the 
 Historical Society of Minnesota, from which are 
 the following extracts: 
 
 " If the Sioux remain in their own country, 
 they are useless to us, being too distant. We 
 could have no commerce with them except that 
 of the beaver. M. Lr Sueur, who goes to France 
 to (/''■<■ on account of this country, is the proper per- 
 son to make these movements. He estimates the 
 Sioux at four thousand families, who could settle 
 upon the Missouri. 
 
 "He has spoken to me of another which he 
 calls the Mahas, composed of more than twelve 
 hundred families. The Ayooues (Ioways) and the 
 Octoctatas, their neighbors, are about three 
 hundred families. They occupy the lands be- 
 
40 
 
 EXPLOItEBS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 tween the Mississippi and the Missouri, about 
 one hundred leagues from the Illinois. These 
 savages do not know the use of arms, and a de- 
 scent might be made upon them in a river, which 
 is beyond the Wabash on the west. * * * 
 
 "The Assinibouel. Quenistinos, and people of 
 the north, who are upon the rivers which fall into 
 the Mississippi, and trade at Fort Kelson (Hud- 
 son Bay"), are about four hundred. We could 
 prevent them from going there if we wish." 
 
 " In four or five years we can establish a com- 
 merce with these savages of sixty or eighty thou- 
 sand buffalo skins; more than one hundred deer 
 skins, which will produce, delivered in France, 
 more than two million four hundred thousand 
 livres yearly. One might obtain for a buffalo 
 skin four or five pounds of wool, which sells for 
 twenty sous, two pounds of coarse hair at ten 
 sous. 
 
 "Besides, from smaller peltries, two hundred 
 thousand livres can be made yearly." 
 
 In the third volume of the " History and Sta- 
 tistics of the Indian Tribes," prepared under the 
 direction of the Commissioner of Indian affairs, 
 by Mr. Schoolcraft, a manuscript, a copy of which 
 was in possession of General Cass, is referred to as 
 containing the first enumeration of the Indians of 
 the Mississippi Valley. The following was made 
 thirty-four years earlier by D 'Iberville: 
 
 "The Sioux, Families, 4,000 
 
 Mahas, , 12,000 
 
 Octata and Ayoues, 300 
 
 Canses [Kansas], 1,500 
 
 Missouri, 1,500 
 
 Akansas, &c, 200 
 
 Manton [Mandan], 100 
 
 Panis [Pawnee], 2,000 
 
 Illinois, of the great village and Cama- 
 
 roua [Tamaroa], 800 
 
 Meosigamea [Metchigamias], .... 200 
 Kikapous and Mascoutens, .... 450 
 
 Miamis, . , 500 
 
 Chactas, 4,000 
 
 Chicachas, 2,000 
 
 Mobiliens and Chohomes, 350 
 
 Concaques [Conchas], 2,000 
 
 Ouma [Houmas], 150 
 
 Colapissa, • 250 
 
 Bayogoula, 100 
 
 People of the Fork, 200 
 
 Counica, &c. [Tonicas], 300 
 
 NMecheSj . 1,500 
 
 Belochy, [Biloxi] Pascoboula, .... 100 
 
 Total, 23,850 
 
 •• The savage tribes located in the places I have 
 marked out, make it necessary to establish three 
 posts on the Mississippi, one at the Arkansas, 
 another at the Wabash (Ohio), and the third at 
 the Missouri. At each post it would be proper 
 to have an officer with a detachment of ten sol- 
 diers with a sergeant and corporal. All French- 
 men should be allowed to settle there with their 
 families, and trade with the Indians, and they 
 might establish tanneries for properly dressing 
 the buffalo and deer skins for transportation. 
 
 " No Frenchman shall be allowed to follow the 
 Indians on their hunts, as it tends to keep them 
 hunters, as is seen in Canada, and when they are 
 in the woods, they do not desire to become tillers 
 of the soil. * * * * * * . * 
 
 " I have said nothing in this memoir of which 
 I have not personal knowledge or the most relia- 
 ble sources. The most of what I propose is 
 founded upon personal reflection in relation to 
 what might be done for the defence and advance- 
 ment of the" colony. ***** 
 * * * It will be absolutely necessary 
 that the king should define the limits of this 
 country in relation to the government of Canada. 
 It is important that the commandant of the 
 Mississippi should have a report of those who 
 inhabit the rivers that fall into the Mississippi, 
 and principally those of the river Illinois. 
 
 " The Canadians intimate to the savages that 
 they ought not to listen to us but to the governor 
 of Canada, who always speaks to them with large 
 presents, that the governor of Mississippi is mean 
 and never sends them any thing. This is true, 
 and what I cannot do. It is imprudent to accus- 
 tom the savages to be spoken to by presents, for, 
 with so many, it wouhi cost the king more than 
 the revenue derived from the trade. When they 
 I come to us, it will be necessary to bring them in 
 subjection, make them no presents, and compel 
 them to do what we wish, as if they were French- 
 men. 
 
 " The Spaniards have divided the Indians into 
 
 parties on this point, and we can do the same. 
 
 1 When one nation does wrong, we can cease to 
 
PEXICAUT DESCRIBES LIFE AT FORT L'HUILLIEB. 
 
 47 
 
 trade with them, and threaten to draw down the 
 hostility of other Indians. We rectify the diffi- 
 culty by having missionaries, who will bring 
 them into obedience secretly. 
 
 " The Illinois and Mascoutens have detained 
 the French canoes they find upon the Mississippi, 
 saying that the governors of Canada have given 
 them permission. I do not know whether this is 
 so, but if true, it follows that we have not the 
 liberty to send any one on the Mississippi. 
 
 '•'M. Le Sueur would have been taken if he 
 had not been the strongest. Only one of the 
 canoes he sent to the Sioux was plundered." * * * 
 
 Penicaufs account varies in some particulars 
 from that of La Harpe's. He calls the Mahkahto 
 Green River instead of Blue and writes: •• We 
 took our route by its mouth and ascended it forty 
 leagues, when we found another river falling in- 
 to the Saint Pierre, which we entered. "We 
 sailed this the Green River because it is of that 
 color by reason of a green earth which loosening 
 itself from from the copper mines, becomes dis- 
 solved and makes it green, 
 
 • A league up this river, we found a point 
 of land a quarter of a league distant from the 
 woods, and it was upon this point that M. Le 
 Sueur resolved to build his fort, because we could 
 not go any higher on account of the ice, it being 
 the last day of September. Half of our people 
 went hunting whilst the others worked on the 
 fort. We killed four hundred buffaloes, which 
 were our provisions for the winter, and which we 
 placed upon scaffolds in our fort, after having 
 skinned and cleaned and quartered them. We 
 also made cabins in the fort, and a magazine to 
 keep our goods. After having drawn up our 
 shallop within the inclosureof the fort, we spent 
 the winter in our cabins. 
 
 ■■ When we were working in our fort in the 
 beginning seven French traders from Canada 
 took refuge there. They had been pillaged and 
 stripped naked by the Sioux, a wandering nation 
 living only by hunting and plundering. Among 
 these seven persons there was a Canadian gen- 
 tleman of Le Sueur"sacquaintance, whom he rec- 
 ognized at once, and gave him some clothes, as 
 he did also to all the rest, and whatever else was 
 necessary for them. They remained with us 
 during the entire winter at our fort, where we 
 had not food enough for all, except buffalo meat 
 
 which we had not even salt to eat with. We had 
 a good deal of trouble the first two weeks in ac- 
 customing ourselves to it, having fever and di- 
 arrhoea and becoming so tired of it as to hate the 
 smell. But by degrees our bodies became adapt- 
 ed to it so well that at the end of six weeks there 
 was not one of us who could not eat sLx pounds 
 of meat a day. and drink four bowls of broth. 
 As soon as we were accustomed to this kind of 
 living it made us very fat, and then there was no 
 more sickness. 
 
 " When spring arrived we went to work in the 
 copper mine. This was the beginning of April of 
 this year [1701.] We took with us twelve labor- 
 ers and four hunters. This mine was situated 
 about three-quarters of a league from our post. 
 We took from the mine in twenty days more than 
 twenty thousand pounds weight of ore, of which 
 we only selected four thousand pounds of the 
 finest, which M. Le Sueur, who was a very good 
 judge of it, had carried to the fort, and which has 
 since been sent to France, though I have uot 
 learned the result. 
 
 •• This mine is situated at the beginning of a 
 very long mountain, which is upon the bank of 
 the river, so that boats can go right to the mouth 
 of the mine itself. At this place is the green 
 earth, which is a foot and a half in thickness, 
 and above it is a layer of earth as firm and 
 hard as stone, and black and burnt like coal by 
 the exhalation from the mine. The copper is 
 scratched out with a knife. There are no trees 
 upon this mountain. * * * After twenty-two 
 days 1 work, we returned to our fort. When the 
 Sioux, who belong to the nation of savages who 
 pillaged the Canadians, came they brought us 
 merchandize of furs. 
 
 "They had more than four hundred beaver 
 robes, each robe made of nine skins sewed to- 
 gether. M. Le Sueur purchased these and many 
 other skins which he bargained for, in the week 
 he traded with the savages. * * * * 
 AVe sell in return wares which come very dear to 
 the buyers, especially tobacco from Brazil, in the 
 proportion of a hundred crowns the pound; two 
 little horn-handled knives, and four leaden bul- 
 lets are equal to ten crowns in exchange for 
 skins ; and so with the rest. 
 
 ••In the beginning of May, we launched our 
 shallop in the water, and loaded it with green 
 
IS 
 
 EXPLORERS AND EIOXEERS OF MXXESOTA. 
 
 earth that had been taken out of the river, and 
 with the furs we had traded for, of which we had 
 three canoes full. M. Le Sueur before going 
 held council with M. D'Evaque [or Eraque] the 
 Canadian gentleman, and the three great chief s 
 of the Sioux, three brothers, and told them that 
 as he had to return to the sea. he desired them 
 to live in peace with M. D'Evaque, whom he left 
 in command at Fort L'Huillier, with twelve 
 Frenchmen. M. Le Sueur made a considerable 
 present to the three brothers, chiefs of the sava- 
 ges, desiring them to never abandon the French. 
 Afterward we the twelve men whom he had chosen 
 to go down to the sea with him embarked. In set- 
 ting out, M. Le Sueur promised to M. D'Evaque 
 and the twelve Frenchmen who remained with 
 him to guard the fort, to send up munitions of 
 war from the Illinois country as soon as he should 
 arrive there ; which he did, for on getting there 
 he sent off to him a canoe loaded with two thou- 
 sand pounds of lead and powder, with three of 
 our people in charge." 
 
 Le Sueur arrived at the French fort on the 
 Gulf of Mexico in safety, and in a few weeks, in 
 the spring of 1701, sailed for France, with his 
 kinsman, D'Iberville, the first governor of Lou- 
 isiana. 
 
 In the spring of the next year (1702) D'Evaque 
 came to Mobile and reported to D'Iberville, who 
 had come back from France, that he had been 
 attacked by the Foxes and Maskoutens, who killed 
 three Frenchmen who were working near Fort 
 L'Huillier, and that, being out of powder and 
 lead, he had been obliged to conceal the goods 
 which were left and abandon the post. At the 
 Wisconsin Kiver he had met Juchereau, formerly 
 criminal judge in Montreal, with thirty-five 
 men, on his way to establish a tannery for buffalo 
 skins at the Wabash, and that at the Illinois he 
 met the canoe of supplies sent by Bienville. 
 D'Iberville's brother. 
 
 La Motte Cadillac, in command at Detroit, in 
 a letter written on August 31st, 1703, alludes to 
 Le Sueur's expedition in these words: "Last 
 year they sent Mr. Boudor, a Montreal merchant, 
 into the country of the Sioux to join Le Su- 
 eur. He succeeded so well in that journey he 
 transported thither twenty-five or thirty thous- 
 and pounds of merchandize with which to trade 
 in all the country of the Outawas. This proved 
 
 to him an unfortunate investment, as he has 
 been robbed of a part of the goods by the Outa- 
 gamies. The occasion of the robbery by one of 
 our own allies was as follows. 1 speak with a 
 full knowledge of the facts as they occurred while 
 I was at Michillimackianc. From time immemo- 
 rial our allies have been at war with the Sioux, 
 and on my arrival there in conformity to the or- 
 der of M. Frontenac, the most able man who has 
 ever come into Canada, I attempted to negotiate 
 a truce between the Sioux and all our allies. 
 Succeeding in this negotiation I took the occa- 
 sion to turn their arms against the Iroquois with 
 whom we were then at war, and soon after I ef- 
 fected a treaty of peace between the Sioux and 
 the French and their allies which lasted two years. 
 
 "At the end of tha; time the Sioux came, in 
 great numbers, to the villages of the Miamis, un- 
 der pretense of ratifying the treaty. They were 
 well received by the Miamis, and, after spending 
 several days in their villages, departed, apparent- 
 ly perfectly satisfied with their good reception, as 
 they certainly had every reason to be. 
 
 " The Miamis, believing them already far dis- 
 tant, slept quietly; but the Sioux, who had pre- 
 meditated the attack, returned the same night to 
 the principal village of the Miamis, where most 
 of the tribe were congregated, and, taking them 
 by surprise, slaughtered nearly three thousand(?) 
 and put the rest to flight.. 
 
 "This perfectly infuriated all tne nations. 
 They came with their complaints, begging me to 
 join with them and exterminate the Sioux. But 
 the war we then had on our hands did not permit 
 it, so it became necessary to play the orator in a 
 long harangue. In conclusion I advised them to 
 •' weep their dead, and wrap them up, and leave 
 them to sleep coldly till the day of vengeance 
 should come;' telling them we must sweep the 
 land on this side of the Iroquois, as it was neces- 
 sary to extinguish even their memory, after which 
 the allied tribes could more easily avenge the 
 atrocious deed that the Sioux had just committed 
 upon them. In short, I managed them so well 
 that the affair was settled in the manner that I 
 proposed. 
 
 " But the twenty-five permits still existed, and 
 the cupidity of the French induced them to go 
 among the Sioux to trade for beaver. Our allies 
 complained bitterly of this, saying it was injust- 
 
TRADE FORBIDDEN WITH THE SIOUX. 
 
 49 
 
 ice to them, as they had taken up arms in our 
 quarrel against the Iroquois, while the French 
 traders were carrying munitions of war to the 
 Sioux to enable them to kill the rest of our allies 
 as they had the Miamis. 
 
 " I immediately informed M. Frontenae. and M. 
 Champigny having read the communication, and 
 commanded that an ordinance be publ ished at Mon- 
 treal forbidding the traders to go into the country 
 of the Sioux for the purpose of traffic under penalty 
 of a thousand francs fine, the confiscation of the 
 goods, and other arbitrary penalties. The ordi- 
 nance was sent to me and faithfully executed. 
 The same year [1699] I descended to Quebec, 
 having asked to be relieved. Since that time, in 
 spite of this prohibition, the French have con- 
 tinued to trade with the Sioux, but not without 
 being subject to affronts and indignities from our 
 allies themselves which bring dishonor on the 
 French name. * * * I do not consider it best 
 any longer to allow the traders to carry on com- 
 merce with the Sioux, under any pretext what- 
 
 ever, especially as M. Boudor has just been 
 robbed by the Fox nation, and M. Jucheraux has 
 given a thousand crowns, in goods, for the right 
 of passage through the country of the allies to 
 his habitation. 
 
 '• The allies say that Le Sueur has gone to the 
 Sioux on the Mississippi; that they are resolved 
 to oppose him, and if he offers any resistance they 
 will not be answerable for the consequences. 
 It would be well, therefore, to give Le Sueur 
 warning by the Governor of Mississippi. 
 
 ••The Sauteurs [Chippeways] being friendly 
 with the Sioux wished to give passage through 
 their country to M. Boudor and others, permit- 
 ting them to carry arms and other munitions of 
 war to this nation; but the other nations being 
 opposed to it, differences have arisen between 
 them which have resulted in the robbery of M. 
 Boudor. This has given occasion to the Sau- 
 teurs to make an outbreak upon the Sacs and 
 Foxes, killing thirty or forty of them. So there 
 is war among the people." 
 
10 
 
 EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF .MINNESOTA. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 EVENTS "WHICH LED TO BUILDING FORT BEAUHARNOIS ON LAKE PEPIN. 
 
 Re-Establishment of Mackinaw.— Sieur de Louvigny at Mackinaw.— De Lignery 
 at Mackinaw.— Louvigny Attacks ihe Foxes.— Da Luth's Post Rooccupied. — 
 Saint Pierre at La Poiute mi Lake Superior.— Preparations for ft Jesuit Mission 
 annnq the Sioux.— La Perriere Boucher's Expedition to Lake Pepin.— De 
 Gonor and Guiguas, Jesuit Missionaries.— Visit to Foxes and Winnebagoes.— 
 Wisconsin River Described.— Fort Beauharnois Built.— Fireworks Displayed.— 
 High Water at Lake Pepin. — De Gonor Visits Mackinaw.— Boucherville, Mont- 
 brun ami Gnrjuas Captured by Indians.— Montbrun's Escape.— Boucherville's 
 Presents to Indians.— Exaggerated Account of Father Guiguas' Capture.— Dis- 
 patches ConceruiriL' Fort Beauharnnis.— Sieur de la Jemeraye. — Saint Pierre at 
 Fort Beauharnois —Trouble between Sioux and Foxes —Sioux Visit Quebec— 
 De Lusignan Visits the Sioux Country.— Saint Pierre Noticed in the Travels 
 of Jonathan Carver and Lieutenant Pike. 
 
 After the Fox Indians drove away Le Sueur's 
 men, in 1702, from the Makahto, or Blue Earth 
 river, the merchants of Montreal and Quebec did 
 not encourage trade with the tribes beyond Mack- 
 inaw. 
 
 D'Aigreult, a French officer, sent to inspect 
 that post, in the summer of 1708, reported that 
 he arrived there, on the 19th of August, and 
 found there but fourteen or fifteen Frenchmen. 
 He also wrote: " Since there are now only a few 
 wanderers at Michilimackinack, the greater part 
 of the furs of the savages of the north goes to the 
 English trading posts on Hudson's Bay. The 
 Outawas are unable to make this trade by them- 
 selves, because the northern savages are timid, 
 and will not come near them, as they have often 
 been plundered. It is, therefore, necessary that 
 the French be allowed to seek these northern 
 tribes at the mouth of their own river, which 
 empties into Lake Superior." 
 
 Louis de la Porte, the Sieur De Louvigny, in 
 1690, accompanied by Nicholas Perrot, with a de- 
 tachment of one hundred and seventy Canadians 
 and Indians, came to Mackinaw, and until 1694 
 was in command, when he was recalled. 
 
 In 1712, Father Joseph J. Marest the Jesuit 
 missionary wrote, " If this country ever needs 
 M. Louvigny it is now ; the savages say it is ab- 
 solutely necessary that he should come for the 
 safety of the country, to unite the tribes and to 
 defend those whom the war has caused to return 
 to Michilimacinac. ***** 
 
 I do not know what course the Pottawatomies 
 will take, nor even what course they will pursue 
 who are here, if M. Louvigny does not come, es- 
 pecially if the Foxes were to attack them or us." 
 The next July, M. Lignery urged upon the au- 
 thorities the establishment of a garrison of trained 
 soldiers at Mackinaw, and the Intendant of Can- 
 ada wrote to the King of France : 
 
 " Michilimackinac might be re-established, 
 without expense to his Majesty, either by sur- 
 rendering the trade of the post to such individu- 
 als as will obligate themselves to pay all the ex- 
 penses of twenty-two soldiers and two officers; to 
 furnish munitions of war for the defense of the 
 fort, and to make presents to the savages. 
 
 " Or the expenses of the post might be paid by 
 the sale of permits, if the King should not think 
 proper to grant an exclusive commerce. It is ab- 
 solutely necessary to know the wishes of the King 
 concerning these two propositions ; and as M. 
 Lignery is at Michilimackinac, it will not be any 
 greater injury to the colony to defer the re-estab- 
 ment of this post, than it has been for eight or 
 ten years past." 
 
 The war with England ensued, and in April, 
 1713, the treaty of Utrecht was ratified. France 
 had now more leisure to attend to the Indian 
 tribes of the "West. 
 
 Early in 1714, Mackinaw was re-occupied, and 
 on the fourteenth of March, 1716, an expedition 
 under Lieutenant Louvigny, left Quebec. His 
 arrival at Mackinaw, where he had been long ex- 
 pected, gave confidence to the voyageurs, and 
 friendly Indians, and with a force of eight hun- 
 dred men, he proceeded against the Foxes in 
 Wisconsin. He brought with him two pieces of 
 cannon and a grenade mortar, and besieged the 
 fort of the Foxes, which he stated contained five 
 hundred warriors, and three thousand men, a 
 declaration which can scarcely be credited. After 
 
DES1BE FOB A N0B1HEBN BOUTE 10 THE PACIFIC. 
 
 51 
 
 three days of skirmishing, he prepared to mine 
 the fort, when the Foxes capitulated. 
 
 The paddles of the birch bark canoes and the 
 gay songs of the voyageurs now began to be heard 
 once more on the waters of Lake Superior and its 
 tributaries. In 1717, the post erected by Du 
 Luth, on Lake Superior near the northern boun- 
 dary of Minnesota, was re-occupied by Lt. Ro- 
 bertel de la Noue. 
 
 In view of the troubles among the tribes of the 
 northwest, in the month of September, 1718, Cap- 
 tain St. Pierre, who had great influence with the 
 Indians of "Wisconsin and Minnesota, was sent 
 with Ensign Linctot and some soldiers to re-oc- 
 cupy La Pointe on Lake Superior, now Bayfield, 
 in the northwestern part of Wisconsin. The 
 chiefs of the band there, and at Keweenaw, 
 had threatened war against the Foxes, who had 
 killed some of their number. 
 
 When the Jesuit Charlevoix returned to France 
 after an examination of the resources of Canada 
 and Louisiana, he urged that an attempt should 
 be made to reach the Pacific Ocean by an inland 
 route, and suggested that an expedition should 
 proceed from the mouth of the Missouri and fol- 
 low that stream, or that a post should be estab- 
 lished among the Sioux which should be the point 
 of departure. The latter was accepted, and in 
 1722 an allowance was made by the French Gov- 
 ernment, of twelve hundred livres, for two Jes- 
 uit missionaries to accompany those who should 
 establish the new post. D'Avagouf, Superin- 
 tendent of Missions, in May, 1723, requested the 
 authorities to grant a separate canoe for the con- 
 veyance of the goods of the proposed mission, 
 and as it was necessary to send a commandant 
 to persuade the Indians to receive the mission- 
 aries, he recommended SieurPachot, an officer of 
 experience. 
 
 A dispatch from Canada to the French govern- 
 ment, dated October 14, 1723, announced that 
 Father de la Chasse, Superior of the Jesuits, ex- 
 pected that, the next spring, Father Guymoneau, 
 and another missionary from Paris, would go to 
 the Sioux, but that they had been hindered by the 
 Sioux a few months before killing seven French- 
 men, on their May to Louisiana. The aged 
 Jesuit, Joseph J. Marest, who had been on Lake 
 Pepin in 1689 with Perrot, and was now in Mon- 
 treal, said that it was the wandering Sioux who 
 
 had killed the French, but he thought the sta- 
 tionary Sioux would receive Christian instruction. 
 
 The hostility of the Foxes had also prevented 
 the establishment of a fort and mission among the 
 Sioux. 
 
 On the seventh of June, 1726, peace was con- 
 cluded by De Lignery with the Sauks, Foxes, and 
 Winnebagoes at Green Bay; and Linctot, who 
 had succeeded Saint Pierre in command at La 
 Pointe, was ordered, by presents and the promise 
 of a missionary, to endeavor to detach the Dah- 
 kotahs from their alliance with the Foxes. At 
 this time Linctot made arrangements for peace 
 between the Ojibways and Dahkotas, and sent 
 two Frenchmen to dwell in the villages of the 
 latter, with a promise that, if they ceased to fight 
 the Ojibways, they should have regular trade, 
 and a "black robe" reside in their country. 
 
 Traders and missionaries now began to prepare 
 for visiting the Sioux, and in the spring of 1727 
 the Governor of Canada wrote that the fathers, 
 appointed for the Sioux mission, desired a case of 
 mathematical instruments, a universal astro- 
 nomic dial, a spirit level, chain and stakes, and a 
 telescope of six or seven feet tube. 
 
 On the sixteenth of June, 1727, the expedition 
 for the Sioux country left Montreal in charge of 
 the Sieur de la Perriere who was son of the dis- 
 tinguished and respected Canadian, Pierre Bou- 
 cher, the Governor of Three Elvers. 
 
 La Perriere had served in Newfoundland and 
 been associated with Ilertel de Rouville in raids i 
 into New England, and gamed an unenviable no- 
 toriety as the leader of the savages, while Rou- 
 ville led the French in attacks upon towns like 
 Haverhill. Massachusetts, where the Indians ex- 
 ultingly killed the Puritan pastor, scalped his 
 loving wife, and dashed out his infant's brains 
 against a rock. He was accompanied by his 
 brother and other relatives. Two Jesuit fathers, 
 De Gonor and Pierre Michel Guignas, were also 
 of the party. 
 
 In Shea's " Early French Voyages" there was 
 printed, for the first time, a letter from Father 
 Guignas, from the Brevoort manuscripts, written 
 on May 29, 1728, at Fort Beauharnois, on Lake 
 Pepin, which contains facts of much interest. 
 
 He writes: " The Scioux convoy left the end 
 of Montreal Island on the 16th of the month of 
 June last year, at 11 A. M., and reached Michili- 
 
EXPLOBEBS AND PIONEEBS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 mackinac the 22d of the month of July. This 
 post is two hundred and fifty-one leagues from 
 Montreal, almost due west, at 45 degrees 46 min- 
 utes north latitude. 
 
 " We spent the rest of the month at this post, 
 in the hope of receiving from day to day some 
 news from Montreal, and in the design of 
 strengthening ourselves against the alleged ex- 
 treme difficulties of getting a free passage through 
 the Foxes. At last, seeing nothing, we set out 
 on our march, the first of the month of August, 
 and. after seventy-three leagues quite pleasant 
 sail along the northerly side of Lake Michigan, 
 running to the southeast, we reached the Bay 
 [Green] on the 8th of the same month, at 5:30 p. 
 M. This post is at 44 degrees 43 minutes north 
 latitude. 
 
 " We stopped there two days, and on the 11th 
 in the morning, we embarked, in a very great 
 impatience to reach the Foxes. On the third day 
 after our departure from the bay, quite late in 
 the afternoon, in fact somewhat in the night, the 
 chiefs of the Puans [Winnebagoes] came out three 
 leagues from their village to meet the French, 
 with their peace calumets and some bear meat as 
 a refreshment, and the next day we were received 
 by that small nation, amid several discharges of 
 a few guns, and with great demonstrations. 
 
 " They asked us with so good a grace to do 
 them the honor to stay some time with them that 
 we granted them the rest of the day from noon, 
 and the following day. There may be in all the 
 village, sixty to eighty men, but all the men and 
 women of very tall stature, and well made. They 
 are on the bank of a very pretty little lake, in a 
 most agreeable spot for its situation and the 
 goodness of the soil, nineteen leagues from the 
 bay and eight leagues from the Foxes. 
 
 " Early the next morning, the 15th of the month 
 of August, the convoy preferred to continue its 
 route, with quite pleasant weather, but a storm 
 coming on in the afternoon, we arrived quite wet, 
 still in the rain, at the cabins of the Foxes, a nation 
 so much dreaded, and really so little to be dreaded. 
 From all that we could see, it is composed of 
 two hundred men at most, but there is a perfect 
 hive of children, especially boys from ten to 
 fourteen years old, well formed. 
 
 '• They are cabined on a little eminence on the 
 bank of a small river that bears their name, ex- 
 
 tremely tortuous or winding, so that you are con- 
 stantly boxing the compass. Yet it is apparently 
 quite wide, with a chain of hills on both sides, 
 but there is only one miserable little channel 
 amid this extent of apparent bed, which is a kind 
 of marsh full of rushes and wild rice of almost 
 impenetrable thickness. They have nothing but 
 mere bark cabins, without any kind of palisade or 
 other fortification. As soon as the French ca- 
 noes touched their shore they ran down with 
 their peace calumets, lighted in spite of the rain, 
 and all smoked. 
 
 " We stayed among them the rest of this day, 
 and all the next, to know what were their designs 
 and ideas as to the French post among the Sioux. 
 The Sieur Eeaume, interpreter of Indian lan- 
 guages at the Bay, acted efficiently there, and 
 with devotion to the King's service. Even if my 
 testimony, Sir, should be deemed not impartial, I 
 must have the honor to tell you that Bev. Father 
 Chardon, an old missionary, was of very great as- 
 sistance there, and the presence of three mission- 
 aries reassured these cut-throats and assassins of 
 the French more than all the speeches of the best 
 orators could have done. 
 
 " A general council was convened in one of the 
 cabins, they were addressed in decided friendly 
 terms, and they replied in the same way. A 
 small present was made to them. On their side 
 they gave some quite handsome dishes, lined with 
 dry meat. 
 
 On the following Sunday, 17th of the month 
 of August, very early in the morning, Father 
 Chardon set out, with Sieur Eeaume, to return 
 to the Bay, and the Sioux expedition, greatly re- 
 joiced to have so easily got over this difficulty, 
 which had everywhere been represented as so in- 
 surmountable, got under way to endeavor to 
 reach its journey's end. 
 
 "Never was navigation more tedious than 
 what we subsequently made from uncertainty as 
 to our course. No one knew it, and we got 
 astray every moment on water and on land for 
 want of a guide and pilots. We kept on, as it 
 were feeling our way for eight days, for it was 
 only on the ninth, about three o'clock p. m., that 
 we arrived, by accident, believing ourselves still 
 far off, at the portage of the Ouisconsin, which is 
 forty-five leagues from the Foxes, counting all 
 the twists and turns of this abominable river. 
 
SITUATION AND DESCRIPTION OF FORT BEAUHARNOIS. 
 
 This portage is half a league in length, and half 
 of that is a kind of marsh full of mud, 
 
 " The Ouisconsin is quite a handsome river, 
 but far below what we had been told, apparently, 
 as those who gave the description of it in Canada 
 saw it only in the high waters of spring. It is a 
 shallow river on a bed of quicksand, which forms 
 bars almost everywhere, and these often change 
 place. Its shores are either steep, bare mountains 
 or low points with sandy base. Its course is from 
 northeast to southwest. From the portage to its 
 mouth in the Mississippi, I estimated thirty-eight 
 leagues. The portage is at 43 deg. 24 min. north 
 latitude. 
 
 " The Mississippi from the mouth of the Ouis- 
 consin ascending, goes northwest. This beauti- 
 ful river extends between two chains of high, 
 bare and very sterile moimtains, constantly a 
 league, three-quarters of a league, or where it is 
 narrowest, half a league apart. Its centre is oc- 
 cupied by a chain of well wooded islands, so that 
 regarding from the heights above, you would 
 think you saw an endless valley watered on the 
 right and left by two large rivers ; sometimes, too, 
 you could discern no river. These islands are 
 overflowed every year, and would be adapted to 
 raising rice. Fifty-eight leagues from the mouth 
 of the Ouisconsin, according to my calculation, 
 ascending the Mississippi, is Lake Pepin, which 
 is nothing else but the river itself, destitute of 
 islands at that point, where it may be half a 
 league wide. This river, in what I traversed of 
 it, is shallow, and has shoals in several places, be- 
 cause its bed is moving sands, like that of the 
 Ouisconsin. 
 
 "On the 17th of September. 1727, at noon, we 
 reached this lake, which had been chosen as the 
 bourne of our voyage. "We planted ourselves on 
 the shore about the middle of the north side, on 
 a low point, where the soil is excellent. The 
 wood is very dense there, but is already thinned 
 in consequence of the rigor and length of the 
 winter, which has been severe for the climate, 
 for we are here on the parallel of 43 deg. 41 min. 
 It is true that the difference of the winter is 
 great compared to that of Quebec and Montreal, 
 for all that some poor judges say. 
 
 " From the day after our landing we put our 
 axes to the wood: on the fourth day following 
 the fort was entirely finished. It is a square plat 
 
 of one hundred feet, surrounded by pickets twelve 
 feet long, with two good bastions. For so small 
 a space there are large buildings quite distinct and 
 not huddled together, each thirty, thirty-eight, 
 and twenty-five feet long by sixteen feet wide. 
 
 " All would go well there if the spot w r ere not 
 inundated, but this year [1728], on the loth of 
 the month of April, we were obliged to camp out, 
 and the water ascended to the height of two feet 
 and eight inches in the houses, and it is idle to 
 say that it was the quantity of snow that fell 
 this year. The snow in the vicinity had melted 
 long before, and there was only a foot and a half 
 from the 8th of February to the loth of March; 
 you could not use snow-shoes. 
 
 ■• I have great reason to think that this spot is 
 inundated more or less every year; I have always 
 thonght so, but they were not obliged to believe 
 me, as old people who said that they had lived in 
 this region fifteen or twenty years declared that 
 it was never overflowed. We could not enter 
 our much-devastated houses until the 30th of 
 April, and the disorder is even now scarcely re- 
 paired. 
 
 " Before the end of October [1 727] all the houses 
 were finished and furnished, and each one found 
 himself tranquilly lodged at home. They then 
 thought only of going out to explore the hills and 
 rivers and to see those herds of all kinds of deer 
 of which they tell such stories in Canada. They 
 must have retired, or diminished greatly, since 
 the time the old voyayeurs left the country; they 
 are no longer in such great numbers, and are 
 killed with difficulty. 
 
 '■ After beating the field, for some time, all re- 
 assembled at the fort, and thought of enjoying a 
 little the fruit of their labors. On the 4th of No- 
 vember we did not forget it was the General's 
 birthday. Mass was said for him [Beauharnois, 
 Governor-General of Canada] in the morning, 
 and they were well disposed to celebrate the day 
 in the evening, but the tardiness of the pyro- 
 technists and the inconstancy of the weather 
 caused them to postpone the celebration to the 
 14th of the same month, when they set off some 
 very fine rockets and made the air ring with an 
 hundred shouts of Vive le Roy! and Vive Charles 
 de Beauharnois! It was on this occasion that the 
 wine of the Sioux was broached; it was par ex- 
 
o\ 
 
 EXI'LOUEKS AND PIONEEBS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 cclknce. although there axe no wines here finer 
 than in Canada. 
 
 -What contributed much to the amusement, 
 was the terror of some cabins of Indians, who 
 were at the time around the fort. When these 
 poor people saw the fireworks in the air, and the 
 stars fall from heaven, the women and children 
 began to take flight, and the most courageous of 
 the men to cry mercy, and implore us very earn- 
 estly to stop the surprising play of that wonder- 
 ful medicine. 
 
 " As soon as we arrived among them, they as- 
 sembled, in a few days, around the Trench fort to 
 the number of ninety-five cabins, which might 
 make in all one hundred and fifty men; for there 
 are at most two men in their portable cabins of 
 dressed skins, and in many there is only one. 
 This is all we have seen except a band of about 
 sixty men, who came on the 26th of the month of 
 February, who were of those nations called Sioux 
 of the Prairies. 
 
 i "At the end of November, the Indians set out 
 for their winter quarters. They do not, indeed, 
 go far, and we saw some of them all through the 
 winter; but from the second of the month of 
 April last, when some cabins repassed here to go 
 in search of them, [he] sought them in vain, du- 
 ring a week, for more than sixty leagues of the 
 Mississippi. He [La Perriere?] arrived yesterday 
 without any tidings of them, 
 i " Although I said above, that the Sioux were 
 alarmed at the rockets, which they took for new 
 phenomena, it must not be supposed from that 
 they were less intelligent than other Indians we 
 know. They seem to me more so ; at least they 
 are much gayer and open, apparently, and far 
 more dextrous thieves, great dancers, and great 
 medicine men. The men are almost all large and 
 well made, but the women are very ugly and dis- 
 gusting, which does not, however, check debauch- 
 ery among them, and is perhaps an effect of it." 
 
 In the summer of 1728 the Jesuit- De Gonor 
 left the fort on Lake Pepin, and, by way of Mack- 
 inaw, returned to Canada. The Poxes had now 
 become very troublesome, and De Lignery and 
 Beaujeu marched against their stronghold, to find 
 they had retreated to the Mississippi Kiver. 
 
 On the 12th of October, Boucherville, his bro- 
 ther Montbrun, a young cadet of enterprising 
 spirit, the Jesuit Guignas, and other Prenchmen, 
 
 eleven in all, left Fort Pepin to go to Canada, by 
 way of the Illinois River. They were captured 
 by the Mascoutens and Kickapoos, and detained 
 at the river " Au Bceuf ," which stream was prob- 
 ably the one mentioned by Le Sueur as twenty- 
 two leagues above the Illinois Eiver, although the 
 same name was given by Hennepin to the Chip- 
 pewa River, just below Lake Pepin. They were 
 held as prisoners, with the view of delivering 
 them to the Poxes. The night before the deliv- 
 ery the Sieur Montbrun and his brother and an- 
 other Frenchman escaped. Montbrun, leaving 
 his sick brother in the Illinois country, journeyed 
 to Canada and informed the authorities. 
 
 Boucherville and Guignas remained prisoners 
 for several months, and the former did not reach 
 Detroit until June, 1729, The account of expen- 
 ditures made during his captivity is interesting as 
 showing the value of merchandize at that time. 
 It reads as follows: 
 
 " Memorandum of the goods that Monsieur de 
 Boucherville was obliged to furnish in the ser- 
 vice of the King, from the time of his detention 
 among the Kickapoos, on the 12th of October, 
 1728, until his return to Detroit, in the year 1729, 
 in the month of June. On arriving at the Kick- 
 apoo village, he made a present to the young men 
 to secure their opposition to some evil minded 
 old warriors — 
 Two barrels of powder, each fifty pounds 
 
 at Montreal price, valued at the sum of 150 liv. 
 One hundred pounds of lead and balls 
 
 making the sum of 50 liv. 
 
 Four pounds of vermillion, at 12 francs 
 
 the pound * 48 fr. 
 
 Four coats, braided, at twenty francs. . . 80 fr. 
 Six dozen knives at four francs the dozen 24 fr. 
 Four hundred flints, one hundred gun- 
 worms, two hundred ramrods and one 
 hundred and fifty files, the total at the 
 
 maker's prices 90 liv. 
 
 After the Kickapoos refused to deliver them to 
 the Renards [Foxes] they wished some favors, and 
 I was obliged to give them the following which 
 would allow them to weep over and cover their 
 dead: 
 
 Two braided coats @ 20 fr. each 40fr. 
 
 Two woolen blankets @ 15 fr 30 
 
 One hundred pounds of powder @ 30 sons 75 
 One hundred pounds of lead @ 10 sous . . 25 
 
BOUCHER VILLE'S PRESENTS WHILE IN CAPTIVITY. 
 
 55 
 
 Two pounds of vermillion @ 12 fr 24fr. 
 
 Moreover, given to the Kenards to cover 
 their dead and prepare them for peace, 
 
 fifty pounds of powder, making 75 
 
 One hundred pounds of lead @ 10 sous. 50 
 
 Two pounds of vermillion @ 12 fr 21 
 
 During the winter a considerable party was 
 sent to strike hands with the Illinois. Given at 
 that time : 
 
 Two blue blankets @ 15 fr 30 
 
 Four men's shirts @ 6 fr 24 
 
 Four pairs of long-necked bottles @ 6 f r 24 
 
 Four dozen of knives @ 4 fr 16 
 
 Gun-worms, files, ramrods, and flints, es- 
 timated 40 
 
 Given to engage the Kickapoos to establish 
 themselves upon a neighboring isle, to protect 
 from the treachery of the Kenards— 
 
 Four blankets, @ 15f 60f 
 
 Two pairs of bottles. 6f 24 
 
 Two pounds of vermillion, 12f 24 
 
 Four dozen butcher knives, 6f 24 
 
 Two woolen blankets, (a 15f 30 
 
 Four pairs of bottles, @ 6f 24 
 
 Four shirts, @ 6f 24 
 
 Four dozen of knives, (w 4f 16 
 
 The Kenards having betrayed and killed their 
 brothers, the Kickapoos. 1 seized the favorable 
 opportunity, and to encourage the latter to avenge 
 themselves, I gave — 
 Twenty-live pounds of powder, @ 30sous 37f.l0s. 
 
 Twenty-five pounds of lead. (3 10s I2f.l0s. 
 
 Two guns at 30 livres each 60f 
 
 One half pound of vermillion 6f 
 
 Flints, guns, worms and knives 20f 
 
 The Illinois coming to the Kikapoos vil- 
 lage. I supported them at my expense, 
 and gave them powder, balls and shirts 
 
 valued at oOf 
 
 In departing from the Kikapoos village, I 
 gave them the rest of the goods for 
 
 their good treatment, estimated at 80f 
 
 In a letter, written by a priest, at New Orleans, 
 on July 12, 1730, is the following exaggerated ac- 
 count of the capture of Father Guignas: "We 
 always felt a distrust of the Fox Indians, although 
 they did not longer dare to undertake anything, 
 since Father Guignas has detached from their al- 
 liance the tribes of the Kikapous and Maskoutins. 
 You know, my Reverend Father, that, being in 
 
 Canada, he had the courage to penetrate even to 
 the Sioux near the sources of the Mississippi, at 
 the distance of eight hundred leagues from New 
 Orleans and five hundred from Quebec. Obliged 
 to abandon this important mission by the unfor- 
 tunate result of the enterprise against the Foxes, 
 he descended the river to repair to the Illinois. 
 On the 15th of October in the year 1728 he was 
 arrested when half way by the Kickapous and 
 Maskoutins. For four months he was a captive 
 among the Indians, where he had much to suffer 
 and everything to fear. The time at last came 
 when he was to be burned alive, when he was 
 adopted by an old man whose family saved his 
 life and procured his liberty. 
 
 •• Our missionaries who are among the Illinois 
 were no sooner acquainted with the situation 
 than they procured him all the alleviation they 
 were able. Everything which he received he em- 
 ployed to conciliate the Indians, and succeeded 
 to the extent of engaging them to conduct him to 
 the Illinois to make peace with the French and 
 Indians of this region. Seven or eight months 
 alter this peace was concluded, the Maskoutins 
 and Kikapous returned again to the Illinois coun- 
 try, and took back Father Guignas to spend the 
 winter, from whence, in all probability, he will 
 return to Canada." 
 
 In dispatches sent to France, in October, 1729, 
 by the Canadian government, the following refer- 
 ence is made to Fort Beauharnois : •• They agree 
 that the fort built among the Scioux, on the bor- 
 der of Lake Fepin, appears to be badly situated 
 on account of the freshets, but the Indians assure 
 that the waters rose higher in 1728 than it ever 
 did before. When Sieur de Laperriere located it 
 at that place it was on the assurance of the In- 
 dians that the waters did not rise so high." In 
 reference to the absence of Indians, is the fol- 
 lowing: 
 
 •■It is very true that these Indians did leave 
 shortly after on a hunting excursion, as they are 
 in the habit of doing, for their own support and 
 that of then families, who have only that means 
 of livelihood, as they do not cultivate the soil at 
 all. M. de Beauharnois has just been informed 
 that their absence was occasioned only by having 
 fallen in while hunting with a number of prairie 
 Scioux. by whom they were invited to occompany 
 them on a war expedition against the Mahas, 
 
56 
 
 EXPlOBESS AND PI0NEJEB8 OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 which invitation they accepted, and returned 
 only in the month of July following. 
 
 " The interests of religion, of the service, and 
 of the colony, are involved in the maintenance of 
 this establishment, which has been the more nec- 
 essary as there is no doubt but the Foxes, when 
 routed, would have found an asylum among the 
 Scioux had not the French been settled there, 
 and the docility and submission manifested by 
 the Foxes can not be attributed to any cause ex- 
 cept the attention entertained by the Scioux for 
 the French, and the offers which the former 
 made the latter, of which the Foxes were fully 
 cognisant. 
 
 " It is necessary to retain the Scioux in these 
 favorable dispositions, in order to keep the Foxes 
 in check and counteract the measures they might 
 adopt to gain over the Scioux, who will invaria- 
 bly reject their propositions so long as the French 
 remain in the country, and their trading post 
 shall continue there. But, despite all these ad- 
 vantages and the importance of preserving that 
 establishment, M. de Beauharnois cannot take 
 any steps until he has news of the French who 
 asked his permission this summer to go up there 
 with a canoe load of goods, and until assured that 
 those who wintered there have not dismantled 
 the fort, and that the Scioux continue in the same 
 sentiments. Besides, it does not seem very easy, 
 in the present conjuncture, to maintain that post 
 unless there is a solid peace with the Foxes; on 
 the other hand, the greatest portion of the tra- 
 ders, who applied in 1727 for the establishment 
 of that post, have withdrawn, and will not send 
 thither any more, as the rupture with the Foxes, 
 through whose country it is necessary to pass in 
 order to reach the Scioux in canoe, has led them 
 to abandon the idea. But the one and the other 
 case might be remedied. The Foxes will, in all 
 probability, come or send next year to sue for 
 peace; therefore, if it be granted to them on ad- 
 vantageous conditions, there need be no appre- 
 hension when going to the Sioux, and another 
 company could be formed, less numerous than 
 the first, through whom, or some responsible mer- 
 chants able to afford the outfit, a new treaty 
 could be made, whereby these difficulties would 
 be soon obviated. One only trouble remains, and 
 that is, to send a commanding and sub-offiGer, 
 and some soldiers, up there, which are absolutely 
 
 necessary for the maintenance of good order at 
 that post; the missionaries would not go there 
 without a commandant. This article, which re- 
 gards the service, and the expense of which must 
 be on his majesty's account, obliges them to ap- 
 ply for orders. They will, as far as lies in their 
 power, induce the traders to meet that expense, 
 which will possibly amount to 1000 livres or 
 1500 livres a year for the commandant, and in 
 proportion for the officer under him; but, as in 
 the beginning of an establishment the expenses 
 exceed the profits, it is improbable that any com- 
 pany of merchants will assume the outlay, and 
 in this case they demand orders on this point, as 
 well as his majesty's opinion as to the necessity 
 of preserving so useful a post, and a nation which 
 has already afforded proofs of its fidelity and at- 
 tachment. " 
 
 " These orders could be sent them by the way 
 of He Boyale, or by the first merchantmen that 
 will sail for Quebec. The time required to re- 
 ceive intelligence of the occurrences in the Scioux 
 country, will admit of their waiting for these 
 orders before doing anything." 
 
 Sieur de la Jemeraye, a relative of Sieur de la 
 Perriere Boucher, with a few French, during the 
 troubles remained in the Sioux country. After 
 peace was established with the Foxes, Legardeur 
 Saint Pierre was in command at Fort Beauhar- 
 nois, and Father Guignas again attempted to es- 
 tablish a Sioux mission. In a communication 
 dated 12th of October, 1736, by the Canadian au- 
 thorities is the following: "In regard to the 
 Scioux, Saint Pierre, who commanded at that 
 post, and Father Guignas, the missionary, have 
 written to Sieur de Beauharnois on the tenth and 
 eleventh of last April, that these Indians ap- 
 peared well intentioned toward the French, and 
 had no other fear than that of being abandoned 
 by them. Sieur de Beauharnois annexes an ex- 
 tract of these letters, and although the Scioux 
 seem very friendly , the result only can tell whether 
 this fidelity is to be absolutely depended upon, 
 for the unrestrained and inconsistent spirit which 
 composes the Indian character may easily change 
 it. They have not come over this summer as yet, 
 but M. de la St. Pierre is to get them to do so 
 next year, and to have an eye on their proceed- 
 ings." 
 
 The reply to this communication from Louis 
 
BE LUSIGNAN VISITS THE SIOUX COUNTRY. 
 
 XV. dated Versailles, May 10th, 1737, was in 
 these words : " As respects the Scioux, according 
 to what the commandant and missionary at that 
 post have written to Sieur de Beauharnois rela- 
 tive to the disposition of these Indians, nothing 
 appears to be wanting on that point. 
 
 •• But their delay in coming down to Montreal 
 since the time they have promised to do so, must 
 render their sentiments somewhat suspected, and 
 nothing but facts can determine whether their 
 fidelity can be absolutely relied on. But what 
 must still further increase the uneasiness to be 
 entertained in their regard is the attack on the 
 convoy of M. de Verandrie. especially if this officer 
 has adopted the course he had informed the 
 Marquis de Beauharnois he should take to have 
 revenge therefor." 
 
 The particulars of the attack alluded to will be 
 found in the next chapter. Soon after this the 
 Foxes again became troublesome, and the. post on 
 Lake Pepin was for a time abandoned by the 
 French. A dispatch in 1741 uses this language : 
 " The Marquis de Beauharnois 1 opinion respect- 
 ing the war against the Foxes, lias been the move 
 readily approved by the Baron de Longeuil, 
 Messieurs De la Chassaigne, La Come, de Ldg- 
 nery. LaXoue, and Duplessis-Fabert. whom he 
 had assembled at his house, as it appears from 
 all the letters that the Count has written for sev- 
 eral years, that he has nothing so much at heart as 
 the destruction of that Indian nation, which can 
 not be prevailed on by the presents and the good 
 treatment of the French, to live in peace, not- 
 withstanding all its promises. 
 
 " Besides, it is notorious that the Foxes have a 
 secret understanding with the Iroquois, to secure 
 a retreat among the latter, in case they be obliged 
 to abandon their villages. They have one already 
 secured among the Sioux of the prairies, with 
 whom they are allied ; so that, should they be 
 
 advised beforehand of the design of the French 
 to wage war against them, it would be easy for 
 them to retire to the one or the other before their 
 passage could be intersected or themselves at- 
 tacked in their villages.'" 
 
 In the summer of 17-13, a deputation of the 
 Sioux came down to Quebec, to ask that trade 
 might be resumed. Three years after this, four 
 Sioux chiefs came to Quebec, and asked that a 
 commandant might be sent to Fort Beauharnois ; 
 which was not granted. 
 
 During the winter of 1715-6, De Lusignan vis- 
 ited the Sioux country, ordered by the govern- 
 ment to hunt up the "coureurs des bois," and 
 withdraw them from the country. They started 
 to return with him, but learning that they would 
 be arrested at Mackinaw, for violation of law, 
 they ran away. While at the villages of the Sioux 
 of the lakes and plains, the chiefs brought to 
 this officer nineteen of their young men, bound 
 with cords, who had killed three Frenchmen, at 
 the Illinois. While he remained with them, they 
 made peace with the Ojibways of La Pointe, 
 with whom they had been at war for some time. 
 On his return, four chiefs accompanied him to 
 Montreal, to solicit pardon for their young braves. 
 The lessees of the trading-post lost many of 
 their peltries that winter in consequence of a lire. 
 Reminiscences of St. Pierre's residence at Lake 
 Pepin were long preserved. Carver, in 1766, "ob- 
 served the ruins of a French factory, where, il 
 is said. Captain St. Pierre resided, and carried on 
 a great trade with the Xadouessies before the re- 
 duction of Canada." 
 
 Fike. in 1805, wrote in his journal: " Just be- 
 low Pt. Le Sable, the French, who had driven the 
 Renards [Foxes] from Wisconsin, and chased 
 them up the Mississippi, built a stockade on this 
 lake, as a barrier against the savages. It became 
 a noted factory for the Sioux." 
 
EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 YEKENDRYE, THE EXPLORER OF NORTHERN MINNESOTA, AND DISCOVERER OF THE ROCKY 
 
 MOUNTAINS. 
 
 Conversation of Verendrye with Father De Gonor.— Parentage and Early Life.— 
 Old Indian Map Preserved.— Verendrye's Son and Nephew Explore Pigeon 
 River and Reach Rainy lake.— Father Messayer a Companion.— Fort St. Pierre 
 Established.— Lake of the Woods Reached and Fort St. Charles Built.— De la 
 Jemeraye's Map.— Fort on the Assinaboine River.— Verendrye's Son, Father 
 Onneau and Associates K ill.-.l by Su.ux, on Massacre Isle, in Lake of the Woods 
 —Fort La Reine.— Verendrye's Eldest Son, with Others, Reaches the Missouri 
 River.— Discovers the Rocky Mountains.— Returns to Lake of the Woods.— 
 Exploration of Saskatchewan River.— Sieur de la Verendrye Jr.— Verendrye 
 the Father, made Captain of the Older of St. Louis.— His Death.— The Swedish 
 Traveler, Kalm, Notices Verendrye.— Bougainville Describes Verendrye's Ex- 
 plorations.— Legardeur de St. Pierre at Fort La Reine.— Fort Jonquiere Estab- 
 lished.— De la Come Succeeds St. Pierre.— SI. Pierre Meets Washington at 
 French Creek, in Pennsylvania.— Killed in Battle, near Lake George. 
 
 Early in the year 1728, two travelers met at 
 the secluded post of Mackinaw, one was named 
 De Gonor, a Jesuit Father, who with Guignas, 
 had gone with the expedition, that the September 
 before had built Fort Beauharnois on the shores 
 of Lake Pepin, the other was Pierre Gualtier Va- 
 rennes, the Sieur de la Yerendrye the commander 
 of the post on Lake Nepigon of the north shore 
 of Lake Superior, and a relative of the Sieur de 
 la Perriere, the commander at Lake Pepin. 
 
 Verendrye was the son of Rene Gualtier Va- 
 rennes who for twenty-two years was the chief 
 magistrate at Three Rivers, whose wife was Ma- 
 rie Boucher, the daughter of his predecessor 
 whom he had married when she was twelve years 
 of age. He became a cadet in 1697, and in 1704 
 accompanied an expedition to New England. 
 The next year he was in Newfoundland and the 
 year following he went to France, joined a regi- 
 ment of Brittany and was in the conflict at Mal- 
 plaquet when the French troops were defeated 
 by the Duke of Marlborough. When he returned 
 to Canada he was obliged to accept the position 
 of ensign notwithstanding the gallant manner in 
 Avhich he had behaved. In time he became iden- 
 tified with the Lake Superior region. While at 
 Lake Nepigon the Indians assured him that there 
 was a communication largely by water to the 
 Pacific Ocean. One, named Ochagachs, drew a 
 rude map of the country, which is still preserved 
 among the French archives. Pigeon River is 
 
 marked thereon Mantohavagane, and the River 
 St. Louis is marked R. fond du L. Superior, and 
 the Indians appear to have passed from its head- 
 waters to Rainy Lake. Upon the western ex- 
 tremity is marked the River of the West. 
 
 De Gonor conversed much upon the route to 
 the Pacific with Verendrye, and promised to use 
 his influence with the Canadian authorities to 
 advance the project of exploration. 
 
 Charles De Beauharnois, the Governor of Can- 
 ada, gave Verendrye a respectful hearing, and 
 carefully examined the map of the region west of 
 the great lakes, which had been drawn by Ocha- 
 gachs (Otchaga), the Indian guide. Orders were 
 soon given to fit out an expedition of fifty men. 
 It left Montreal in 1731, under the conduct of his 
 sons and nephew De la Jemeraye, he not joining 
 the party till 1733, in consequence of the deten- 
 tions of business. 
 
 In the autumn of 1731, the party reached Rainy 
 Lake, by the Nantouagan, or Groselliers river, 
 now called Pigeon. Father Messayer, who had 
 been stationed on Lake Superior, at the Grosel- 
 liers river, was taken as a spiritual guide. At 
 the foot of Rainy Lake a post was erected and 
 called Fort St. Pierre, and the next year, having 
 crossed Minittie, or Lake of the Woods, they es- 
 tablished Fort St. Charles on its southwestern 
 bank. Five leagues from Lake Winnipeg they 
 established a post on the Assinaboine. An un- 
 published map of these discoveries by De la Jem- 
 eraye still exists at Paris. The river Winnipeg, 
 called by them Maurepas, in honor of the minis- 
 ter of France in 1734, was protected by a fort of 
 the same name. 
 
 About this time their advance was stopped by 
 the exhaustion of supplies, but on the 12th of 
 April, 1735, an arrangement was made for a sec- 
 ond equipment, and a fourth son joined the expe- 
 dition. 
 
 In June, 1736, while twenty-one of the expedi- 
 
DISCOVEBY OF THE EOCKY MOUNTAINS. 
 
 tion were camped upon an isle in the Lake of the 
 Woods, they were surprised by a band of Sioux 
 hostile to the French allies, the Cristinaux, and 
 all killed. The island, upon this account, is 
 called Massacre Island. A few days after, a 
 party of five Canadian voyageurs discovered their 
 dead bodies and scalped heads. Father Ouneau, 
 the missionary, was found upon one knee, an ar- 
 row in his head, his breast bare, his left hand 
 touching the ground, and the right hand raised. 
 
 Among the slaughtered was also a son of Ver- 
 endrye, who had a tomahawk in his back, and his 
 body adorned with garters and bracelets of porcu- 
 pine. The father was at the foot of the Lake of 
 the Woods when he received the news of his son's 
 murder, and about the same time heard of the 
 death of his enterprising nephew, Dufrost de la 
 Jemeraye, the son of his sister Marie Reine de 
 Varennes, and brother of Madame Youville, the 
 foundress of the Ilospitaliers at Montreal. 
 
 It was under the guidance of the latter that 
 the party had, in 1731, mastered the difficulties 
 of the Xantaouagon, or Croselliers river. 
 
 On the 3d of October, 1738, they built an ad- 
 vanced post, Fort La Reine, on the river Assini- 
 boels, now Assinaboine, which they called St 
 Charles, and beyond was a branch called St. 
 Pierre. These two rivers received the baptismal 
 name of Verendrye. which was Pierre, and Gov- 
 ernor Beauhamois, which was Charles. The post 
 became the centre of trade and point of departure 
 for explorations, either north or south. 
 
 It was by ascending the Assinaboine, and by 
 the present trail from its tributary. Mouse river, 
 they reached the country of the Mantanes. and in 
 1741, came to the upper Missouri, passed the Yel- 
 low Stone, and at length arrived at the Rocky 
 Mountains. The party was led by the eldest son 
 and his brother, the chevalier. They left the 
 Lake of the Woods on the :29th of April, 174:2. 
 came in sight of the Rocky Mountains on the 1st 
 of January, 1743, and on the li2t.li ascended them. 
 On the route they fell in with the Beaux Hom- 
 mes, Pioya, Petits Renards. and Arc tribes, and 
 stopped among the Snake tribe, but coidd go no 
 farther in a southerly direction, owing to a war 
 between the Arcs and Snakes. 
 
 On the 19th of May, 1744, they had returned to 
 the upper Missouri, and, in the country of the 
 Petite Cerise tribe, they planted on an eminence 
 
 a leaden plate of the arms of France, and raised 
 a monument of stones, which they called Beau- 
 hamois. They returned to the Lake of the Woods 
 on the 2d of July. 
 
 North of the Assiniboine they proceeded to 
 Lake Dauphin, Swan's Lake, explored the riv- 
 er "Des Biches,"' and ascended even to the 
 fork of the Saskatchewan, which they called Pos- 
 koiac. Two forts were subsequently established, 
 one near Lake Dauphin and the other on the 
 river --des Biches," called Fort Bourbon. The 
 northern route, by the Saskatchewan, was thought 
 to have some advantage over the Missouri, be- 
 cause there was no danger of meeting with the 
 Spaniards. 
 
 Governor Beauhamois having been prejudiced 
 against Verendrye by envious persons, De Noy- 
 elles was appointed to take command of the 
 posts. During these difficulties, we find Sieur de 
 la Verendrye. Jr., engaged in other duties. In 
 August, 1747. he arrives from Mackinaw at Mon- 
 treal, and in the autumn of that year he accom- 
 panies St. Pierre to Mackinaw, and brings back 
 the convoy to Montreal. In February, 174S, with 
 live Canadians, live Cristenaux. two Ottawas, and 
 one Sauteur, he attacked the Mohawks near 
 Schenectady, and returned to Montreal with two 
 scalps, one that of a chief. On June 20th, 1748, 
 it is recorded that Chevalier de hi Verendrye de- 
 parted from Montreal for the head of Lake Supe- 
 rior. Margry states that he perished at sea in 
 November, 17(>4, by the wreck of the " Auguste." 
 
 Fortunately, Galissioniere the successor of 
 Beauhamois, although deformed and insignifi- 
 cant in appearance, was fair minded, a lover of 
 science, especially botany, and anxious to push 
 discoveries toward the Pacific. Verendrye the 
 father was restored to favor, and made Captain 
 of the Order of St. Loins, and ordered to resume 
 explorations, but he died on December 6th, 1749, 
 while planning a tour up the Saskatchewan. 
 
 The Swedish Professor, Kalm, met him in Can- 
 ada, not long before his decease, and had inter- 
 esting conversations with him about the furrows 
 on the plains of the Missouri, which he errone- 
 ously conjectured indicated the former abode of 
 an agricultural people. These ruts are familiar 
 to modern travelers, and may be only buffalo 
 trails. 
 
 Father Coquard, wno had been associated with 
 
EXPLORE KS AND P10NEEHS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 Verendrye, says that they first met the Mantanes, 
 and next the Btoohets. After tliese were the 
 Gros Ventres, the Crows, the Flat Heads, the 
 Black Feet, and Dog Feet, who were established 
 on the Missouri, even up to the falls, and that 
 about thirty leagues beyond they found a narrow 
 pass in the mountains. 
 
 Bougainville gives a more full account: he says: 
 "He who most advanced this discovery was 
 the Sieur de la Veranderie. He went from Fort 
 la Reine to the Missouri. He met on the banks 
 of this river the Mandans, or White Beards, who 
 had seven villages with pine stockades, strength- 
 ened by a ditch. Next to these were the Kinon- 
 gewiniris. or the Brochets, in three villages, and 
 toward the upper part of the river were three 
 villages of the Mahantas. All along the mouth 
 of the Wabeik, or Shell River, were situated 
 twenty-three villages of the Panis. To the south- 
 west of this river, on the banks of the Ouanarade- 
 ba, or La Graisse, are the Hectanes or Snake 
 tribe. They extend to the base of a chain of 
 mountains which runs north northeast. South 
 of this is the river Karoskiou, or Cerise Pelee, 
 which is supposed to flow to California. 
 
 " He found in the immense region watered by 
 the Missouri, and in the vicinity of forty leagues, 
 the Mahantas, the Owiliniock, or Beaux Hom- 
 ines, four villages; opposite the Brochets the Black 
 Feet, three villages of a hundred lodges each; op- 
 posite the Mandans are the Ospekakaerenousques, 
 or Flat Heads, four villages; opposite tha Panis 
 are the Arcs of Cristinaux, and Utasibaoutchatas 
 of Assiniboel, three villages; following these the 
 Makesch, or Little Foxes, two villages; the Pi- 
 wassa, or great talkers, three villages; the. Ka- 
 kokoschena, or Gens de la Pie, five villages; the 
 Kiskipisounouini,, or the Garter tribe, seven vil- 
 lages." 
 
 Galassoniere was succeeded by Jonquiere in 
 the governorship of Canada, who proved to be a 
 grasping, peevish, and very miserly person. For 
 the sons of Verendrye he had no sympathy, and 
 forming a clique to profit by their father's toils, 
 
 he determined to send two expeditions toward 
 the Pacific Ocean, one by the Missouri and the 
 other by the Saskatchewan. 
 
 Father Coquard, one of the companions of Ve- 
 rendrye, was consulted as to the probability of 
 rinding a pass in the Rocky Mountains, through 
 which they might, in canoes, reach the great 
 lake of salt water, perhaps Puget's Sound. 
 
 The enterprise was at length confided to two 
 experienced officers, Lamarque de Marin and 
 Jacques Legardeur de Saint Pierre. The former 
 was assigned the way, by the Missouri, and to 
 the latter was given the more northern route; 
 but Saint Pierre in some way excited the hostil- 
 ity of the Cristinaux, who attempted to kill him, 
 and burned Fort la Reine. His lieutenant, Bou- 
 cher de Niverville, who had been sent to establish 
 a post toward the source of the Saskatchewan, 
 failed on account of sickness. Some of his men, 
 however, pushed on to the Rocky Mountains, 
 and in 1753 established Fort Jonquiere. Henry 
 says St. Pierre established Fort Bourbon. 
 
 In 1753, Saint Pierre was succeeded in the 
 command of the posts of the West, by de la 
 Corne, and sent to French Creek, in Pennsylva- 
 nia. He had been but a few days there when he 
 received a visit from Washington, just entering 
 upon manhood, bearing a letter from Governor 
 Dinwiddie of Virginia, complaining of the en 
 croachments of the French. 
 
 Soon the clash of arms between France and 
 England began, and Saint Pierre, at the head of 
 the Indian allies, fell near Lake George, in Sep- 
 tember, 1755, in a battle with the English. After 
 the seven years' war was concluded, by the treaty 
 of Paris, the French relinquished all their posts 
 in the Northwest, and the work begun by Veren- 
 drye, was, in 1805, completed by Lewis and 
 Clarke ; and the Northern Pacific Railway is fast 
 approaching the passes of the RoGky Mountains, 
 through the valley of the Yellow Stone, and from 
 thence to the great land-locked bay of the ocean, 
 Puget's Sound. 
 
EFFECT OF THE ENGLISH AND FRENCH WAR. 
 
 61 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 EFFECT OF 
 
 ENGLISH AND i'KEXCH WAR. 
 
 English Influence Increasing.— Le Dnc Robbed at Lake Superior.— St. Pierre at 
 Mackinaw. — Escape ot Indian Prisoners. — La Ronde and Verendrye. — Influence 
 of Sieur Marin — St. Pierre Recalled from Winnipeg Region.— Interview with 
 Washington.— Langlade Urges Attack Upon Troops of Braddock.— Saint Pierre 
 Killed in Battle. — Marin's Boldness. — Rogers, a Partisan Ranger, Commands at 
 Mackinaw. — At Ticonderoga. — French Deliver np the Posts in Canada. — Capt. 
 Balfour Takes Possession of Mackinaw and Green Bay. — Lieut. Gorrell in Com. 
 mand at Green Bay.— Sioux Visit Green Bay. — Pennensha a French Trader 
 Among the Sioux.— Treaty of Paris. 
 
 English influence produced increasing dissatis- 
 faction among the Indians that -were beyond 
 Mackinaw. Xot only were the voyageurs robbed 
 and maltreated at Sault St. Marie and other points 
 on Lake Superior, but even the commandant at 
 Mackinaw was exposed to insolence, and there 
 was no security anywhere. 
 
 On the twenty-third of August, 1747, Philip Le 
 Due arrived at Mackinaw from Lake Superior, 
 stating that he had been robbed of his goods at 
 Kamanistigoya, and that the Ojibways of the 
 lake were favorably disposed toward the English. 
 The Dahkotahs were also becoming unruly in the 
 absence of French officers. 
 
 In a few weeks after Le Due's robbery. St. 
 Pierre left Montreal to become commandant at 
 Mackinaw, and Vercheres was appointed for the 
 post at Green Bay. In the language of a docu- 
 ment of the day, St. Pierre was " a very good 
 officer, much esteemed among all the nations of 
 those parts ; none more loved and feared." On 
 his arrival, the savages were so cross, that he ad- 
 vised that no Frenchman should come to trade. 
 
 By promptness and boldness, he secured the 
 Indians who had murdered some Frenchmen, 
 and obtained the respect of the tribes. While 
 the three murderers were being conveyed in a 
 canoe down the St. Lawrence to Quebec, in charge 
 of a sergeant and seven soldiers, the savages, with 
 characteristic cunning, though manacled, suc- 
 ceeded in killing or drowning the guard. Cutting 
 their irons with an axe, they sought the woods, 
 and escaped to their own country. '• Thus,'' 
 writes Galassoniere, in 1748, to Count Maurepas, 
 
 was lost in a great measure the fruit of Sieur St. 
 Pierre's good management, and of all the fatigue 
 I endured to get the nations who surrendered 
 these rascals to listen to reason." 
 
 On the twenty-first of June of the next year, 
 La Ronde started to La Pointe, and Yerendrye 
 for West Sea, or Fon du Lac, Minnesota. 
 
 Under the influence of Sieur Marin, who was 
 in command at Green Bay in 17-53. peaceful re- 
 lations were in a measure restored between the 
 French and Indians. 
 
 As the war between England and France deep- 
 ened, the officers of the distant French posts 
 were called in and stationed nearer the enemy. 
 Legardeur St. Pierre, was brought from the Lake 
 Winnipeg region, and. in December, 1753, was in 
 command of a rude post near Erie. Pennsylvania. 
 Langlade, of Green Bay. Wisconsin, arrived early 
 in July. 1755, at Fort Duquesne. With Beauyeu 
 and De Lignery. who had been engaged in fight- 
 ing the Fox Indians, he left that fort, at nine 
 o"clock of the morning of the 9th of July, and, a 
 little after noon, came near the English, who had 
 halted on the south shore of the Monongahela, 
 and were at dinner, witli their arms stacked. By 
 the urgent entreaty of Langlade, the western 
 half-breed, Beauyeu, the officer in command or- 
 dered an attack, and Braddock was overwhelmed, 
 and Washington was obliged to say, " We have 
 been beaten, shamefully beaten, by a handful of 
 Frenchmen." 
 
 Under Baron Dieskau. St. Pierre commanded 
 the Indians, in September. 1755, during the cam- 
 paign near Lake George, where he fell gallantly 
 fighting the English, as did his commander. 
 The Rev. Claude Coquard. alluding to the French 
 defeat, in a letter to his brother, remarks: 
 
 •• We lost, on that occasion, a brave officer. M. 
 de St. Pierre, and had his advice, as well as that 
 of several other Canadian officers, been followed. 
 Jonckson [Johnson] was irretrievably destroyed. 
 
EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 and we should have been spared the trouble we 
 
 have had this year." 1 
 
 Other officers who had been stationed on the 
 borders of Minnesota also distinguished them- 
 selves during the French war. The Marquis 
 Montcalm, in camp at Ticonderoga, on the twen- 
 ty-seventh of July, 1757, writes to Vaudreuil, 
 Governor of Canada: 
 
 " Lieutenant Marin, of the Colonial troops, who 
 has exhibited a rare audacity, did not consider 
 himself bound to halt, although his detachment 
 of about four hundred men was reduced to about 
 two hundred, the balance having been sent back 
 on account of inability to follow. He carried off 
 a patrol of ten men, and swept away an ordinary 
 guard of fifty like a wafer; went up to the en- 
 emy "s camp, under Fort Lydias (Edward), where 
 he was exposed to a severe fire, and retreated like 
 a warrior. He was unwilling to amuse himself 
 making prisoners; he brought in only one, and 
 thirty-two scalps, and must have killed many men 
 of the enemy, in the midst of whose ranks it was 
 neither wise nor prudent to go in search of scalps. 
 The Indians generally all behaved well. * * * 
 The Outaouais, who arrived with me, and whom 
 I designed to go on a scouting party towards the 
 lake, had conceived a project of administering a 
 corrective to the English barges. * * * On 
 the day before yesterday, your brother formed a 
 detachment to accompany them. I arrived at his 
 camp on the evening of the same day. Lieuten- 
 ant de Corbiere, of the Colonial troops, was re- 
 turning, in consequence of a misunderstanding, 
 and as I knew the zeal and intelligence of that 
 officer, I made him set out with a new instruc- 
 tion to join Messrs de Langlade and Hertel de 
 Chantly. They remained in ambush all day and 
 night yesterday; at break of day the English ap- 
 peared on Lake St. Sacrament, to the number of 
 twenty-two barges, under the command of Sieur 
 Parker. The whoops of our Indians impressed 
 them with such terror that they made but feeble 
 resistance, and only two barges escaped." 
 
 After De Corbiere 's victory on Lake Cham- 
 plain, a large French army was collected at Ti- 
 conderoga, with which there were many Indians 
 from the tribes of the Northwest, and the Ioways 
 appeared for the first time in the east. 
 
 It is an interesting fact that the English offi- 
 cers who were in frequent engagements with St. 
 
 Pierre, Lusignan, Marin, Langlade, and others, 
 became the pioneers of the British, a few years 
 afterwards, in the occupation of the outposts of 
 the lakes, and in the exploration of Minnesota. 
 
 Eogers, the celebrated captain of rangers, sub- 
 sequently commander of Mackinaw, and Jona- 
 than Carver, the first British explorer of Minne- 
 sota, were both on duty near Lake Champlain,the 
 latter narrowly escaping at the battle of Fort 
 George. 
 
 On Christmas eve, 1757, Eogers approached 
 Fort Ticonderoga, to fire the outhouses, but was 
 prevented by discharge of the cannons of the 
 French. 
 
 He contented himself with killing fifteenbeeves, 
 on the horns of one of which he left this laconic 
 and amusing note, addressed to the commander 
 of the post: 
 
 '•I am obliged to you, Sir, for the repose you 
 have allowed me to take; I thank you for the fresh 
 meat you have sent me, I request you to present 
 my compliments to the Marquis du Montcalm." 
 
 On the thirteenth of March, 1758, Durantaye, 
 formerly at Mackinaw, had a skirmish with Eog- 
 ers. Both had been trained on the frontier, and 
 they met "as Greek met Greek." The conflict 
 was fierce, and the French victorious. The In- 
 dian allies, finding a scalp of a chief underneath 
 an officer's jacket, were furious, and took one 
 hundred and fourteen scalps in return. When 
 the French returned, they supposed that Captain 
 Eogers was among the killed. 
 
 At Quebec, when Montcalm and "Wolfe fell, 
 there were O jib ways present assisting the French 
 
 The Indians, returning from the expeditions 
 against the English, were attacked with small- 
 pox, and many died at Mackinaw. 
 
 On the eighth of September, 1760, the French 
 delivered up all their posts in Canada. A few 
 days after the capitulation at Montreal, Major 
 Eogers was sent with English troops, to garrison 
 the posts of the distant Northwest. 
 
 On the eighth of September, 1761, a year after 
 the surrender, Captain Balfour, of the eightieth 
 regiment of the British army, left Detroit, with 
 a detachment to take possession of the French 
 forts at Mackinaw and Green Bay. Twenty-five 
 soldiers were left at Mackinaw, in command of 
 Lieutenant Leslie, and the rest sailed to Green 
 Bay, under Lieutenant Gorrell of the Eoyal 
 
PENNENSHA WHITES A LETTER FOB THE SIOUX. 
 
 Americans, where they arrived on the twelfth of 
 October. The fort had been abandoned for sev- 
 eral years, and was in a dilapidated condition. 
 In charge- of it there was left a lieutenant, a cor- 
 poral, and fifteen soldiers. Two English traders 
 arrived at the same time, McKay from Albany, 
 and Goddard from Montreal. 
 
 Gorrell in his journal alludes to the Minnesota 
 Sioux. lie writes— 
 
 " On March 1, 1763, twelve warriors of the Sous 
 came here. It is certainly the greatest nation of 
 Indians ever yet found. Not above two thousand 
 of them were ever armed with firearms ; the rest 
 depending entirely on bows and arrows, which 
 they use with more skill than any other Indian 
 nation in America. They can shoot the wildest 
 and largest beasts in the woods at seventy or one 
 hundred yards distant. They are remarkable for 
 their dancing, and the other nations take the 
 fashions from them. ***** This nation 
 is always at war with the Chippewas, those who 
 destroyed Mishamakinak. They told me with 
 warmth that if ever the Chippewas or any other 
 Indians wished to obstruct the passage of the 
 traders coming up, to send them word, and they 
 would come and cut them oft' from the face of 
 the earth ; as all Indians were their slaves or dogs. 
 I told them I was glad to see them, and hoped to 
 have a lasting peace with them. They then gave 
 me a letter wrote in French, and two belts of 
 wampum from their king, in which he expressed 
 great joy on hearing of there being English at 
 his post. The letter was written by a French | 
 trader whom I had allowed to go among them 
 last fall, with a promise of his behaving well ; 
 which he did, better than any Canadian I ever 
 knew. ***** With regard to traders. I 
 would not allow any to go amongst them, as I 
 
 then understood they lay out of the government 
 of Canada, but made no doubt they would have 
 traders from the Mississippi in the spring. They 
 went away extremely well pleased. June 14th, 
 1763, the traders came down from the Sack coun- 
 try, and confirmed the news of Landsmg and his 
 son being killed by the French. There came with 
 the traders some Puans, and four young men with 
 one chief of the Avoy [Ioway] nation, to demand 
 traders. ***** 
 
 '• On the nineteenth, a deputation of Winneba- 
 goes, Sacs, Foxes and Menominees arrived with 
 a Frenchman named Pennensha. This Pennen- 
 sha is the same man who wrote the letter the 
 Sous brought with them in French, and at the 
 same time held council with that great nation in 
 favour of the English, by which he much promo- 
 ted the interest of the latter, as appeared by the 
 behaviour of the Sous. He brought with him a 
 pipe from the Sous, desiring that as the road is 
 now clear, they would by no means allow the 
 Chippewas to obstruct it, or give the English any 
 disturbance, or prevent the traders from coming 
 up to them. If they did so they would send all 
 their warriors and cut them off." 
 
 In July, 1763, there arrived at Green Bay, 
 Bruce, Fisher; and Roseboom of Albany, to en- 
 gage in the Indian trade. 
 
 By the treaty of Paris of 1763, France ceded to 
 (.real Britain all of the country east of the Mis- 
 sissippi, and to Spain the whole of Louisiana, so 
 that the latter power for a time held the whole 
 region between the Mississippi River and the Pa- 
 cific Ocean, and that portion of the city of Min- 
 neapolis known as the East Division was then 
 governed by the British, while the West Division 
 was subject to the Spanish code. 
 
EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNES01A. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 JONATHAN CARVER, THE FIRST BRITISH TRAVELER AT FALLS OF SAINT ANTHONY. 
 
 Carters Early Life.— In the Battle near Lake George.— Arrives at Mackinaw.- 
 Old Fori at Given Bay.— Winnebago Village.— Description of Prairie ilu Cliien. 
 Earthworks on Banks of Lake Pepin.— Sioux Bands Described.— Cave and 
 Burial Place in Suburbs of St. Paul.— The Falls of Saint Anthony.— Burial 
 Rites of tLe Sioux.— Speech of a Sioux Chief.— Schiller's Poem of the Death 
 Song. — Sir John Herschel's Translation. —Sir E. Bnlwer Lytton's Version.— 
 Correspondence of Sir William Jubnson ---Carver's Project for Opening a Route 
 to the Pacific— Supposed Origin of the Sioux.— Carver's Claim to Lands Ex- 
 amined.— Alleged Deed.— Testimony of Rev. Samuel Peters.— Communication 
 from Gen. Leavenworth. ---Report of II. S. Senate Committee. 
 
 Jonathan Carver was a native of Connecticut 
 His grandfather, William Carver, was a native of 
 Wigan, Lancashire, England, and a captain in 
 King William's army during the campaign in 
 Ireland, and for meritorious services received an 
 appointment as an officer of the colony of Con- 
 necticut. 
 
 His father was a justice of the peace in the 
 new world, and in 1732, the subject of this sketch 
 was born. At the early age of fifteen he was 
 called to mourn the death of his father. He then 
 commenced the study of medicine, but his roving 
 disposition could not bear the confines of a doc- 
 tor's office, and feeling, perhaps, that his genius 
 would be cramped by pestle and mortar, at the 
 age of eighteen he purchased an ensign's commis- 
 sion in one of the regiments raised during the 
 French war. He was of medium stature, and of 
 strong mind and quick perceptions. 
 
 In the year 1757, he was captain under Colonel 
 Williams in the battle near Lake George, where 
 Saint Pierre was killed, and narrowly escaped 
 with his life. 
 
 After the peace of 1763, between France and 
 England was declared, Carver conceived the pro- 
 ject of exploring the Northwest. Leaving Boston 
 in the month of June, 1766, he arrived at Macki- 
 naw, then the most distant British post, in the 
 month of August. Having obtained a credit on 
 some French and English traders from Major 
 Rogers, the officer in command, he started with 
 them on the third day of September. Pursuing 
 the usual route to Green Bay, they arrived there 
 on the eighteenth. 
 
 The French fort at that time was standing, 
 though much decayed. It was, some years pre- 
 vious to his arrival, garrisoned for a short time 
 by an officer and thirty English soldiers, but they 
 having been captured by the Menominees, it was 
 abandoned. 
 
 In company with the traders, he left Green 
 Bay on the twentieth, and ascending Fox river, 
 arrived on the twenty-fifth at an island at the 
 east end of Lake Winnebago, containing about 
 fifty acres. 
 
 Here he found a Winnebago village of fifty 
 houses. He asserts that a woman was in author- 
 ity. In the month of October the party was at 
 the portage of the Wisconsin, and descending 
 that stream, they arrived, on the ninth at a town 
 of the Sauks. While here he visited some lead 
 mines about fifteen miles distant. An abundance 
 of lead was also seen in the village, that had been 
 brought from the mines. 
 
 On the tenth they arrived at the first village of 
 the " Ottigaumies" [Foxes] about five miles be- 
 fore the AVisconsin joins the Mississippi, he per- 
 ceived the remnants of another village, and 
 learned that it had-been deserted about thirty 
 years before, and that the inhabitants soon after 
 their removal, built a town on the Mississippi, 
 near the mouth of the " Ouisconsin," at a place 
 called by the French La Prairie les Chiens, which 
 signified the Dog Plains. It was a large town, 
 and contained about three hundred families. 
 The houses were built after the Indian manner, 
 and pleasantly situated on a dry rich soil. 
 
 He saw here many houses of a good size and 
 shape. This town was the great mart where all 
 the adjacent tribes, and where those who inhabit 
 the most remote branches of the Mississippi, an- 
 nually assemble about the latter end of May, 
 bringing with them their furs to dispose of to the 
 traders. But it is not always that they conclude 
 their sale here. This was determined by a gen 
 
SUPPOSED FORTIFICATIONS NEAR LAKE PEPIN. 
 
 65 
 
 eral council of the chiefs, who consulted whether 
 it would be more conducive to their interest to 
 sell their goods at this place, or to carry them 
 on to Louisiana or Mackinaw. 
 
 At a small stream called Yellow River, oppo- 
 site Prairie du Chieu, the traders who had thus 
 far accompanied Carver took up their residence 
 for the winter. 
 
 From this point he proceeded in a canoe, with 
 a Canadian voyageur and a Mohawk Indian as 
 companions. Just before reaching Lake Pepin, 
 while his attendants were one day preparing din- 
 ner, he walked out and was struck with the pecu- 
 liar appearance of the surface of the country, and 
 thought it was the site of some vast artificial 
 earth-work. It is a fact worthy of remembrance, 
 that he was the first to call the attention of the 
 civilized world to the existence of ancient monu- 
 ments in the Mississippi valley. We give his own 
 description : 
 
 " On the first of November I reached Lake 
 Pepin, a few miles below which I landed, and, 
 whilst the servants were preparing my dinner. I 
 ascended the bank to view the country. I had 
 not proceeded far before I came to a fine, level, 
 open plain, on which I perceived, at a little dis- 
 tance, a partial elevation that had the appearance 
 of entrenchment. On a nearer inspection I had 
 greater reason to suppose that it had really been 
 intended for this many centuries ago. Notwith- 
 standing it was now covered with grass, I could 
 plainly see that it had once been a breastwork of 
 about four feet in height, extending the best part 
 of a mile, and sufficiently capacious to cover five 
 thousand men. Its form was somewhat circular 
 and its flanks reached to the river. 
 
 " Though much defaced by time, every angle 
 was distinguishable, and appeared as regular and 
 fashioned with as much military skill as if planned 
 by Vauban himself. The ditch was not visible, 
 but I thought, on examining more curiously, that 
 I could perceive there certainly had been one. 
 From its situation, also. I am convinced that it 
 must have been designed for that purpose. It 
 fronted the country, and the rear was covered by 
 the river, nor was there any rising ground for a 
 considerable way that commanded it; a few 
 straggling lakes were alone to be seen near it. 
 In many places small tracks were worn across it 
 by the feet of the elks or deer, and from the depth 
 
 of the bed of earth by which it was covered, I was 
 able to draw certain conclusions of its great anti- 
 quity. I examined all the angles, and every part 
 with great attention, and have often blamed my- 
 self since, for not encamping on the spot, and 
 drawing an exact plan of it. To show that this 
 description is not the offspring of a heated imag- 
 ination, or the chimerical tale of a mistaken trav- 
 eler, I find, on inquiry since my return, that 
 Mons. St. Pierre, and several traders have at dif- 
 ferent times, taken notice of similar appearances, 
 upon which they have formed the same conjec- 
 tures, but without examining them so minutely 
 as I did. How a work of this kind could exist in 
 a country that has hitherto (according to the gen- 
 erally received opinion) been the seat of war to 
 untutored Indians alone, whose whole stock of 
 military knowledge has only, till within two cen- 
 turies, amounted to drawing the bow, and whose 
 only breastwork even at present is the thicket, I 
 know not. I have given as exact an account as 
 possible of this singular appearance, and leave to 
 future explorers of those distant regions, to dis- 
 cover whether it is a production of nature or art. 
 Perhaps the hints I have here given might lead 
 to a more perfect investigation of it, and give us 
 very different ideas of the ancient state of realms 
 that we at present believe to have been, from the 
 earliest period, only the habitations of savages." 
 
 Lake Pepin excited his admiration, as it has 
 that of every traveler since his day. and here he 
 remarks : " I observed the ruins of a French fac- 
 tory, where it is said Captain St. Pierre resided, 
 and carried on a very great trade with the Nau- 
 dowessies. before the reduction of Canada." 
 
 Carver'8 first acquaintance with the Dahkotahs 
 commenced near the river St. Croix. It would 
 seem that the erection of trading posts on Lake 
 Pepin had enticed them from their old residence 
 on Rum river and Mille Lacs. 
 
 He says: "Near the river St. Croix reside 
 bands of the Naudowessie Indians, called the 
 River Bands. This nation is composed at pres- 
 ent of eleven bands. They were originally 
 twelve, but the Assinipoils, some years ago, re- 
 volting and separating themselves from the oth- 
 ers, there remain at this time eleven. Those I 
 met here are termed the River Bands, because 
 they chiefly dwell near the banks of this river; 
 the other eight are generally distinguished by the 
 
EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 title of Nadowessies of the Plains, and inhabit a 
 country more to the westward. The names of 
 the former are Nohogatawonahs, the Mawtaw- 
 bauntowahs, and Shashweentowahs. 
 
 Arriving at what is now a suburb of the cap- 
 ital of Minnesota, he continues: "About thir- 
 teen miles below the Falls of St. Anthony, at 
 which 1 arrived the tenth day after I left Lake 
 Pepin, is a remarkable cave, of an amazing depth. 
 The Indians term it "Wakon-teebe [Wakan-tipi]. 
 The entrance into it is about ten feet wide, the 
 height of it five feet. The arch within is fifteen 
 feet high and about thirty feet broad; the bottom 
 consists of fine, clear sand. About thirty feet 
 from the entrance begins a lake, the water of 
 which is transparent, and extends to an unsearch- 
 able distance, for the darkness of the cave pre- 
 ents all attempts to acquire a knowledge of it.] 
 I threw a small pebble towards the nterior part 
 of it with my utmost strength. I could hear that 
 it fell into the water, and, notwithstanding it was 
 of a small size, it caused an astonishing and ter- 
 rible noise, that reverberated through all those 
 gloomy regions. I found in this cave many In- 
 dian hieroglyphics, which appeared very ancient, 
 for time had nearly covered them with moss, so 
 that it was with difficulty I could trace them. 
 They were cut in a rude manner upon the inside 
 of the wall, which was composed of a stone so ex- 
 tremely soft that it might be easily penetrated 
 with a knife; a stone everywhere to be found 
 near the Mississippi. 
 
 " At a little distance from this dreary cavern, 
 is the burying-place of several bands of the Nau- 
 dowessie Indians. Though these people have no 
 fixed residence, being in tents, and seldom but a 
 few months in one spot, yet they always bring 
 the bones of the dead to this place. 
 
 "Ten miles below the Falls of St. Anthony, 
 the river St. Pierre, called by the natives Wada- 
 paw Menesotor, falls into the Mississippi from the 
 west. It is not mentioned by Father Hennepin, 
 though a large, fair river. This omission, I con- 
 sider, must have proceeded from a small island 
 [Pike's] that is situated exactly in its entrance." 
 
 When he reached the Minnesota river, the ice 
 became so troublesome that he left his canoe in 
 the neighborhood of what is now St. Anthony, 
 and walked to St. Anthony, in company with a 
 young Winnebago chief, who had never seen the 
 
 curling waters. The chief, on reaching the emi- 
 nence some distance below Clieever's, began to 
 invoke his gods, and offer oblations to the spirit 
 in the waters. 
 
 "In the middle of the Falls stands a small 
 island, about forty feet broad and somewhat lon- 
 ger, on which grow a few cragged hemlock and 
 spruce trees, and about half way between this 
 island and the eastern shore is a rock, lying at 
 the very edge of the Falls, in an oblique position, 
 that appeared to be about five or six feet broad, 
 and thirty or forty long. At a little distance be- 
 low the Falls stands a small island of about an 
 acre and a half, on which grow a great number of 
 oak trees." 
 
 From this description, it would appear that the 
 little island, now some distance below the Falls, 
 was once in the very midst, and shows that a con- 
 stant recession has been going on, and that in 
 ages long past they were not far from the Minne- 
 sota river. 
 
 No description is more glowing than Carver's 
 of the country adjacent: 
 
 " The country around them is extremely beau- 
 tiful. It is not an uninterrupted plain, where the 
 eye finds no relief, but composed of many gentle 
 ascents, which in the summer are covered with 
 the finest verdure, and interspersed with little 
 groves that give a pleasing variety to the pros- 
 pect. On the whole, when the Falls are inclu- 
 ded, which may be seen at a distance of four 
 miles, a more pleasing and picturesque view, I 
 believe, cannot be found throughout the uni- 
 verse." 
 
 " He arrived at the Falls on the seventeenth of 
 November, 1766, and appears to have ascended as 
 far as Elk river. 
 
 On the twenty-fifth of November, he had re- 
 turned to the place opposite the Minnesota, where 
 he had left his canoe, and this stream as yet not 
 being obstructed with ice, he commenced its as- 
 cent, with the colors of Great Britain flying at 
 the stern of his canoe. There is no doubt that 
 he entered this river, but how far he explored it 
 cannot be ascertained. He speaks of the Eapids 
 near Shakopay, and asserts that he went as far as 
 two hundred miles beyond Mendota. He re- 
 marks: 
 
 " On the seventh of December, I arrived at the 
 utmost of my travels towards the West, where I 
 
 
SIOUX BURIAL ORATION VERSIFIED BY SCHILLER. 
 
 met a large party of the Xaudowessie Indians, 
 among whom I resided some months." 
 
 After speaking of the upper bands of the Dah- 
 kotahs and their allies, he adds that he " left the 
 habitations of the hospitable Indians the latter 
 end of April, 1767, but did not part from them 
 for several days, as I was accompanied on my 
 journey by near three hundred of them to the 
 mouth of the river St. Pierre. At this season 
 these bands annually go to the great cave (Day- 
 ton's Bluff) before mentioned. 
 
 When he arrived at the great cave, and the In- 
 dians had deposited the remains of their deceased 
 friends in the burial-place that stands adjacent 
 to it, they held their great council to which he 
 was admitted. 
 
 "When the Xaudowessies brought their dead for 
 interment to the great cave (St. Paul), I attempted 
 to get an insight into the remaining burial rites, 
 but whether it was on account of the stench 
 which arose from so many dead bodies, or whether 
 they chose to keep this part of their custom secret 
 from me, I could not discover. I found, however, 
 that they considered my curiosity as ill-timed, 
 and therefore I withdrew. * * 
 
 One formality among the Xaudowessies in 
 mourning for the dead is very different from any 
 mode I observed in the other nations through 
 which I passed. The men, to show how great 
 their sorrow is, pierce the flesh of their arms 
 above the elbows with arrows, and the womtn 
 cut and gash their legs with broken flints till the 
 blood flows very plentifully. * * 
 
 After the breath is departed, the body is 
 dressed in the same attire it usually wore, his 
 face is painted, and he is seated in an erect pos- 
 ture on a mat or skin, placed in the middle of the 
 hut, with his weapons by his side. His relatives 
 seated around, each in turn harangues the de- 
 ceased; and if he has been a great warrior, re- 
 counts his heroic actions, nearly to the following 
 purport, which in the Indian language is extreme- 
 ly poetical aud pleasing 
 
 ; - You still sit among us, brother, your person 
 retains its usual resemblance, and continues sim- 
 ilar to ours, without any visible deficiency, ex- 
 cept it has lost the power of action! But whither 
 is that breath flown, which a few hours ago sent 
 up smoke to the Great Spirit? Why are those 
 lips silent, that lately delivered to us expressions 
 
 and pleasing language? Why are those feet mo- 
 tionless, that a few hours ago were fleeter than 
 the deer on yonder mountains? Why useless 
 hang those arms, that could climb the tallest tree 
 or draw the toughest bow? Alas, every part of 
 that frame which we lately beheld with admira- 
 tion and wonder has now become as inanimate as 
 it was three hundred years ago! We will not, 
 however, bemoan thee as if thou wast forever 
 lost to us, or that thy name would be buried in 
 oblivion; thy soul yet lives in the great country 
 of spirits, with those of thy nation that have gone 
 before thee; aud though we are left behind to 
 perpetuate thy fame, we will one day join thee. 
 
 " Actuated by the respect we bore thee whilst 
 living, we now come to tender thee the last act of 
 kindness in our power; that thy body might not 
 he neglected on the plain, and become a prey to 
 the beasts of the field or fowls of the air, and we 
 will take care to lay it with those of thy predeces- 
 sors that have gone before thee; hoping at the 
 sauie time that thy spirit will feed with their 
 spirits, and be ready to receive ours when we 
 shall also arrive at the great country of souls.'' 
 
 For this speech Carver is principally indebted 
 to his imagination, but it is well conceived, and 
 suggested one of Schiller's poems, which Goethe 
 considered one of his best, and wished " he had 
 made a dozen such." 
 
 Sir E. Lytton Bulwer the distinguished novelist, 
 and Sir John Herschel the eminent astronomer, 
 have each given a translation of Schiller's ' ' Song 
 of the Xadowessee Chief." 
 
 SIR E. L. BULWEK'S TRANSLATION*. 
 
 See on his mat— as if of yore, 
 
 All life-like sits he here ! 
 With that same aspect which he wore 
 
 When light to him was dear 
 
 But where the right hand's strength ? and where 
 
 The breath that loved to breathe 
 To the Great Spirit, aloft in air. 
 
 The peace pipe's lusty wreath ? 
 
 And where the hawk-like eye, alas ! 
 
 That wont the deer pursue, 
 Along the waves of rippling grass, 
 
 Or fields that shone with dew ? 
 
EXPLORERS AND PIONEEBS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 Axe those the limber, bounding' feet 
 That swept the winter's snows ? 
 
 What stateliest stag so fast and fleet? 
 Their speed outstripped the roe's ! 
 
 These arms, that then the steady bow 
 
 Could supple from it's pride, 
 How stark and helpless hang they now 
 
 Adown the stiffened side ! 
 
 Yet weal to him — at peace he stays 
 
 Wherever fall the snows ; 
 Where o'er the meadows springs the maize 
 
 That mortal never sows. 
 
 Where birds are blithe on every brake- 
 Where orests teem with deer— _ 
 
 Where glide the fish through every lake — 
 One chase from year to year ! 
 
 With spirits now he feasts above ; 
 
 All left us to revere 
 The deeds we honor with our love, 
 
 The dust we bury here. 
 
 Here bring the last gift ; loud and shrill 
 Wail death dirge for the. brave ; 
 
 What pleased him most in life, may still 
 Give pleasure in the grave. 
 
 We 1 ly the axe beneath his head 
 He swung when strength was strong— 
 
 The bear on which his banquets fed, 
 The way from earth is long. 
 
 And here, new sharpened, place the knife 
 
 That severed from the clay. 
 From which the axe had spoiled the life, 
 
 The conquered scalp away. 
 
 The paints that deck the dead, bestow ; 
 
 Yes, place them in his hand, 
 That red the kingly shade may glow 
 
 Amid the spirit land. 
 
 SIR JOHN HERSCHEL'S TRANSLATION. 
 
 See, where upon the mat he sits 
 
 Erect, before his door, 
 With just the same majestic air 
 
 That once in life he wore. 
 
 But where is fled his strength of -limb, 
 
 The whirlwind of his breath, 
 To the Great Spirit, when he sent 
 
 The peace pipe's mounting wreath? 
 
 Where are those falcon eyes,- which late 
 
 Along the plain could trace, 
 Along the grass's dewy waves 
 
 The reindeer's printed pace? 
 
 Those legs, which once with matchless speed, 
 
 Flew through the drifted snow, 
 Surpassed the stag's unwearied course, 
 
 Outran the mountain roe? 
 
 Those arms, once used with might and main, 
 
 The stubborn bow to twang? 
 See, see, their nerves are slack at last, 
 
 All motionless they hang. 
 
 'Tis well with him, for he is gone 
 
 Where snow no more is found, 
 Where the gay thorn's perpetual bloom 
 
 Decks all the field around. 
 
 Where wild birds sing from every spray, 
 
 Where deer ccme sweeping by, 
 Where fish from every lake afford 
 
 A plentiful supply. 
 
 With spirits now he feasts above, 
 
 And leaves us here alone, 
 To celebrate his valiant derds, 
 
 And round his grave to moan. 
 
 Sound the death song, bring forth the gifts, 
 
 The last gifts of the dead,— 
 Let all which yet may yield him joy 
 
 Within his grave be laid. 
 
 The hatchet place beneath his head 
 
 Still red with hostile blood; 
 And add, because the way is long, 
 
 The bear's fat limbs for food. 
 
 The scalping-knife beside him lay, 
 
 With paints of gorgeous dye, 
 That in the land of souls his form 
 
 May shine triumphantly. 
 
 It appears from other sources that Carver's 
 visit to the Dahkotahs was of some effect in bring- 
 ing about friendly intercourse between them and 
 the commander of the English force at Mackinaw. 
 
CABVEB'S PROJECT FOB A BOUTE TO THE PACIFIC. 
 
 69 
 
 The earliest mention of the Dahkotas, in any 
 public British documents that -we know of, is in 
 the correspondence between Sir William Johnson, 
 Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Colony 
 of iNew York, and General Gage, in command of 
 the forces. 
 
 On the eleventh of September, less than six 
 months after Carver's speech at Dayton's Bluff, 
 and the departure of a number of chiefs to the 
 English fort at Mackinaw, Johnson writes to 
 General Gage: " Though I wrote to you some 
 days ago, yet I would not mind saying something 
 again on the score of the vast expenses incurred, 
 and, as I understand, still incurring at Michili- 
 mackinac, chiefly on pretence of making a peace 
 between the Sioux and Chippeweighs, with which 
 I think we have very little to do, in good policy 
 or otherwise."' 
 
 Sir William Johnson, in a letter to Lord Hills- 
 borough, one of his Majesty's ministers, dated 
 August seventeenth, 1768, again refers to the 
 subject: 
 
 "Much greater part of those who go a trading 
 are men of such circumstances and disposition as 
 to venture their persons everywhere for extrava- 
 gant gains, yet the consequences to the public 
 are not to be slighted, as we may be led into a 
 general quarrel through their means. The In- 
 dians in the part adjacent to Michilimackinac 
 have been treated with at a very great expense 
 for some time previous. 
 
 ••Major Rodgers brings a considerable charge 
 against the former for mediating a peace between 
 some tribes of the Sioux and some of the Chippe- 
 weighs, which, had it been attended with success, 
 ■would only have been interesting to a very few- 
 French, and others, that had goods in that part 
 of the Indian country, but the contrary has hap- 
 pened, and they are now more violent, and war 
 against one another." 
 
 Though a wilderness of over one thousand miles 
 intervened between the Falls of St. Anthony and 
 the white settlements of the English, Carver was 
 fully impressed with the idea that the State how 
 organized under the name Of Minnesota, on ac- 
 count of its beauty and fertility, would attract 
 settlers. 
 
 Speaking of the advantages of the country, he 
 says that the future population will be "able to 
 convej their produce to the seaports with great 
 
 facility', the current of the river from its source 
 to its entrance into the Gulf of Mexico being ex- 
 tremely favourable for doing this in small craft 
 This might also m time be facilitated by canals or 
 shorter cuts, and a communication opened by water 
 with New York, by way of the Lakes.'''' 
 
 The subject of this sketch was also confident 
 that a route would be discovered by way of the 
 Minnesota river, which "would open a passage 
 to China and the English settlements in the East 
 Indies." 
 
 Carver, having returned to England, interested 
 Whit worth, a member of parliament, in the 
 northern route. Had not the American Revolu- 
 tion commenced, they proposed to have built a 
 fort at Lake Pepin, to have proceeded up the 
 Minnesota until they found, as they supposed 
 they could, a branch of the Missouri, and from 
 thence, journeying over the summit of lands un- 
 til they came to a river which they called Oregon, 
 they expected to descend to the Pacific. 
 
 Carver, in common with other travelers, had 
 Lis theory in relation to the origin of the Dahko- 
 tahs. lie supposed that they came from Asia. 
 He remark.:- •• But tliic might have been at dif- 
 ferent times and from various parts — from Tar- 
 tary. China, Japan, for the inhabitants of these 
 places resemble each other. * * * 
 
 " It is very evident that some of the r.ames and 
 customs of the American Indians resemble those 
 of the Tartars, and I make no doubt but that in 
 some future era. and this not far distant, it will 
 be reduced to certainty that during some of the 
 wars between the Tartars and Chinese a part of 
 the inhabitauts of the northern provinces were 
 driven from their native country, and took refuge 
 in some of the isles before mentioned, and from 
 thence found their way into America. * * * 
 
 •• Many words are used both by the Chinese and 
 the Indians which have a resemblance to each 
 other, not only in their sound, but in their signi- 
 fication. The Chinese call a slave Shungo; and 
 the Xaudowessic Indians, whose language, from 
 their little intercourse with the Europeans, is 
 least corrupted, term a dog Shungush [Shoan- 
 kah]. The f jrmcr denominate one species of their 
 tea Shoushong; the latter call their tobacco Shou- 
 sas-sau [Chanshasha]. Many other of the words 
 used by the Indians contain the syllables c/ie, 
 chaw, and chu, after the dialect of the Chinese." 
 
70 
 
 EXPLOBEES AND PIONEEHS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 The comparison of languages has become a rich 
 source of his'., rical knowledge, yet many of the 
 analogies traced are fanciful. The remark of 
 llumbolt in " Cosmos'' is worthy of remembrance. 
 ■As the structure of American idioms appears 
 remarkably strange to nations speaking the mod- 
 ern languages of Western Europe, and who readily 
 suffer themselves to be led away by some acci- 
 dental analogies of sound, theologians have gen- 
 erally believed that they could trace an affinity 
 with the Hebrew, Spanish colonists with the 
 Basque and the English, or Trench settlers with 
 Gaelic, Erse, or the Bas Breton. I one day met 
 on the coast of Peru, a Spanish naval officer and 
 an English whaling captain, the former of whom 
 declared that he had heard Basque spoken at Ta- 
 hiti; the other, Gaelic or Erse at the Sandwich 
 Islands." 
 
 Carver became very poor while in England, 
 and was a clerk in a lottery-office. He died in 
 1780, and left a widow, two sons, and five daught- 
 ers, in New England, and also a child by another 
 wife that he had married in Great Britain 
 
 After his death a claim was urged for the land 
 upon which the capital of Minnesota now stands' 
 and for many miles adjacent. As there are still 
 many persons who believe that they have some 
 right through certain deeds purporting to be from 
 the heirs of Carver, it is a matter worthy of an 
 investigation. 
 
 Carver says nothing in his book of travels in re- 
 lation to a grant from the Dahkotahs, but after 
 he was buried, it was asserted that there was a 
 deed belonging to him in existence, conveying 
 valuable lands, and that said deed was executed 
 at the cave now in the eastern suburbs of Saint 
 Paul. " 
 
 DEED PURPORTING TO HAVE BEEN GIVEN AT 
 THE CAVE IN THE BLUFF BELOW ST. PAUL. 
 
 " To Jonathan Carver, a chief under the most 
 mighty and potent George the Third, King of the 
 English and other nations, the fame of whose 
 warriors has reached our ears, and has now been 
 fully told us by our good brother Jonathan, afore- 
 said, whom we rejoice to have come among us, 
 and bring us good news from his country. 
 
 "We, chiefs of the Naudowessies, who have 
 hereunto set our seals, do by these presents, for 
 ourselves and heirs forever, in return for the aid 
 and other good services done by the said Jona- 
 
 than to ourselves and allies, give grant and con- 
 vey to him, the said Jonathan, and to his heirs 
 and assigns forever, the whole of a certain tract 
 or territory of land, bounded as follows, viz: from 
 the Falls of St. Anthony, running on the east 
 bank of the Mississippi, nearly southeast, as far 
 as Lake Pepin, where the Chippewa joins the 
 Mississippi, and from thence eastward five days 
 travel, accounting twenty English miles per day; 
 and from thence again to the Falls of St. Anthony, 
 on a direct straight line. We do for ourselves, 
 heirs, and assigns, forever give unto the said Jo- 
 nathan, his heirs and assigns, with all the trees, 
 rocks, and rivers therein, reserving the sole lib- 
 erty of hunting and fishing on land not planted 
 or improved by the said Jonathan, his heirs and 
 assigns, to which we have affixed our respective 
 seals. 
 
 " At the Great Cave, May 1st, 1767. 
 
 "Signed, HAWNOPAWJATIN. 
 
 OTOHTGNGOOMLISHEAW. " 
 
 The original deed was never exhibited by the 
 assignees of the heirs. By his English wife Car- 
 ver had one child, a daughter Martha, who was 
 cared for by Sir Kichard and Lady Pearson. In 
 time she eloped and married a sailor. A mercan- 
 tile firm in London, thinking that money could 
 be made, induced the newly married couple, the 
 day after the wedding, to convey the grant to 
 them, with the understanding that they were to 
 have a tenth of the profits. 
 
 The merchants despatched an agent by the 
 name of Clarke to go to the Dahkotahs, and ob- 
 tain a new deed; but on his way he was murdered 
 in the state of New York. 
 
 In the year 1794, the heirs of Carver's Ameri- 
 can wife, in consideration of fifty thousand pounds 
 sterling, conveyed their interest in the Carver 
 grant to Edward Houghton of Vermont. In the 
 year 1806, Samuel Peters, who had been a tory 
 and an Episcopal minister during the Kevolu- 
 tionary war, alleges, in a petition to Congress, 
 that he had also purchased of the heirs of Carver 
 their rights to the grant. 
 
 Before the Senate committee, the same year, 
 he testified as follows: 
 
 " In the year 1774, I arrived there (London), 
 and met Captain Carver. In 1775, Carver had a 
 hearing before the king, praying his majesty's 
 approval of a deed of land dated May first, 1767, 
 
UNITED STATES REJECT CARVERS CLAIM. 
 
 and sold and granted to him by the Naudowissies. 
 The result was his majesty approved of the -exer- 
 tions and bravery of Captain Carver among the 
 Indian nations, near the Falls of St. Anthony, in 
 the Mississippi, gave to said Carver 12,111. 13s. 8d. 
 sterling, and ordered a frigate to be prepared, 
 and a transport ship to carry one hundred and 
 fifty men, under command of Captain Carver, with 
 four others as a committee, to sail the next June 
 to New Orleans, and then to ascend the Missis- 
 sippi, to take possession of said territory conveyed 
 to Captain Carver ; but the battle of Bunker Hill 
 prevented." 
 
 In 1821, General Leavenworth, having made 
 inquiries of the Dahkotahs. in relation to the 
 alleged claim, addressed the following to the 
 commissioner of the land office : 
 
 " Sir:— Agreeably to your request, I have the 
 honour to inform you what I have understood 
 from the Indians of the Sioux Nation, as well as 
 some facts within my own knowledge, as to what 
 is commonly termed Carvers Grant. The grant 
 purports U> be made by the chiefs of the Sioux 
 of the Plains, and one of the chiefs uses the sign 
 of a serpent, and the other of a turtle, purport- 
 ing that their names are derived from those ani- 
 mals. 
 
 '•The land lies on the east side of the Mississ- 
 ippi. The Indians do not recognize or ackuowl 
 edge the grant to be valid, and they among others 
 assign the following reasons: 
 
 "1. The Sioux of the Plains never owned a 
 foot of land on the east side of the Mississippi. 
 The Sioux Xation is divided into two grand di- 
 visions, viz: The Sioux of the Lake; or perhaps 
 more literally Sioux of the River, and Sioux of 
 the Plain. The former subsists by hunting and 
 fishing, and usually move from place to place by 
 water, in canoes, during the summer season, and 
 travel on the ice in the winter, when not on 
 their hunting excursions. The latter subsist en- 
 tirely by hunting, and have no canoes, nor do 
 they know but little about the use of them. They 
 reside in the large prairies west of the Mississippi, 
 and follow the buffalo, upon which they entirely 
 subsist; these are called Sioux of the Plain, and 
 never owned land east of the Mississippi. 
 
 " 2. The Indians say they have no knowledge 
 of any such chiefs as those who have signed the 
 grant to Carver, either amongst the Sioux of the 
 
 River or the Sioux of the Plain. They say that 
 if Captain Carver did ever obtain a deed or 
 grant, it was signed by some foolish young men 
 who were not chiefs and who were not author- 
 ized to make a grant. Among the Sioux of the 
 River there are no such names. 
 
 "3. They say the Indians never received any- 
 thing for the land, and they have no intention to 
 part with it without a consideration. From my 
 knowledge of the Indians, I am induced to think 
 they would not make so considerable a grant, and 
 have it to go into full effect without receiving a 
 substantial consideration. 
 
 '• 4. They have, and ever have had, the pos- 
 session of the land, and intend to keep it. I 
 know that they are very particular in making 
 every person who wishes to cut timber on that 
 tract obtain their permission to do so, and to ob- 
 tain payment for it. In the mouth of May last, 
 some Frenclimen brought a large raft of red cedar 
 timber out of the Chippewa River, which timber 
 was cut on the tract before mentioned. The In- 
 dians at one of the villages on the Mississippi, 
 where the principal chief resided, compelled the 
 Frenchmen to land the raft, and would not per- 
 mit them to pass until they had received pay for 
 the timber, and the Frenchmen were compelled 
 to leave their raft with the Indians until they 
 went to Prairie du Chien, and obtained the nec- 
 essary articles, and made the payment required." 
 
 On the twenty-third of January, 1823, the Com- 
 mittee of Public Lands made a report on the 
 claim to the Senate, which, to every disinterested 
 person, is entirely satisfactory. After stating 
 the facts of the petition, the report continues: 
 
 " The Rev. Samuel Peters, in his petition, fur- 
 ther states that Lefei, the present Emperor of 
 the Sioux and Naudowessies, and Red "Wing, a 
 sachem, the heirs and successors of the two gmnd 
 chiefs who signed the said deed to Captain Car- 
 ver, have given satisfactory and positive proof 
 that they allowed their ancestors' deed to be gen- 
 uine, good, and valid, and that Captain Carver's 
 heirs and assigns are the owners of said territory, 
 and may occupy it free of all molestation. 
 
 The committee have examined and considered 
 the claims thus exhibited by the petitioners, and 
 remark that the original deed is not produced, nor 
 any competent legal evidence offered of its execu- 
 tion ; nor is there any proof that the persons, who 
 
72 
 
 EXPLOBEBS AND PIONEEBS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 it is alleged made the deed, were the chiefs of 
 said tribe, nor that (if chiefs) they had authority 
 to grant and give away the land belonging to their 
 tribe. The paper annexed to the petition, as a 
 copy of said deed, has no subscribing witnesses ; 
 and it would seem impossible, at this remote pe- 
 riod, to ascertain the important fact, that the per- 
 sons who signed the deed comprehended and 
 understood the meaning and effect of their act. 
 
 " The want of proof as to these facts, would 
 interpose in the waj of the claimants insuperable 
 difficulties. But, in the opinion of the committee, 
 the claim is not such as the United States are 
 under any obligation to allow, even if the deed 
 were proved in legal form. 
 
 " The British government, before the time when 
 the alleged deed bears date, had deemed it pru- 
 dent and necessary for the preservation of peace 
 with the Indian tribes under their sovereignty, 
 protection and dominion, to prevent British sub- 
 jects from purchasing lands from the Indians, 
 and this rule of policy was made known and en- 
 forced by the proclamation of the king of Great 
 Britain, of seventh October, 1763, which contains 
 an express prohibition. 
 
 " Captain Carver, aware of the law, and'know- 
 ing that such a contract could not vest the legal 
 title in him, applied to the British government to 
 ratify and confirm the Indian grant, and, though 
 it was competent for that government then to 
 confirm the grant, and vest the title of said land 
 
 in him, yet, from some cause, that government 
 did not think proper to do it. 
 
 '• The territory has since become the property 
 of the United States, and an Indian grant not 
 good against the British government, would ap- 
 pear to be not binding udoii the United States 
 government. 
 
 " What benefit the British government derived 
 from the services of Captain Carver, by. his trav- 
 els and residence among the Indians, that gov- 
 ernment alone could determine, and alone could 
 judge what remuneration those services deserved. 
 
 " One fact appears from the declaration of Mr. 
 Peters, in his statement in writing, among the 
 papers exhibited, namely, that the British gov- 
 ernment did give Captain Carver the sum of one 
 thousand three hundred and seventy-five pounds 
 six shillings and eight pence sterling. To the 
 United States, however, Captain Carver rendered 
 no services which could be assumed as any equit- 
 able ground for the support of the petitioners' 
 claim. 
 
 " The committee being of opinion that the 
 United States are not bound in law and equity to 
 confirm the said alleged Indian grant, recom- 
 mend the adoption of the resolution: 
 
 " ' Besolved, That the prayer of the petitioners 
 ought not to be granted." ' 
 
 Lord Palmerston stated in 1839, that no trace 
 could be found in the records of the British 
 office of state papers, showing any ratification of 
 the Carver grant. 
 
EXPLORATIONS BY LIEUTENANT Z. M. PIKE. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 EXPLORATION BY THE FIRST UNITED STATES ARMY OFFICER, LIETJTENANT Z. M. PIKE. 
 
 Trading Posts at the beginning of Nineteenth Century.— Sandy Lake Fort. — 
 Leech Lake Fort.— William Morrison, before Schoolcraft at Itasca Lake.— Divi- 
 sion of Northwest Territory. — Organization of Indiana, Michigan and Upper 
 Louisiana. — Notices of Woud, Frazer, Fisher, Cameron, Faribault.— Early 
 Traders— Pike's Council at Mouth of Minnesota River— Grant for Military 
 Posts.— Encampment at Falls of St. Anthony.— Block House near Swan River. 
 —Visit to Sandy and Leech Lakes.— British Flag Shot at and Lowered.— 
 Thompson, Topographer of Northwest Company.— Pike at Dickson's Trading 
 Post.— Returns to Mendota.— Fails to find Carver's Cave. — Conference with, 
 Little Crow. —Cameron sells Liquor to Indians. 
 
 At the beginning of the present century, the 
 region now known as Minnesota, contained no 
 white men, except a few engaged in the f ur trade. 
 In the treaty effected by Hon. John Jay, Great 
 Britain agreed to withdraw her troops from all 
 posts and places within certain boundary lines. 
 on or before the first of June, 1796. but all Brit- 
 ish settlers and traders might remain for one 
 year, and enjoy all their former privileges, with- 
 out being obliged to be citizens of the United 
 States of America. 
 
 In the year 1800. the trading posts of Minnesota 
 were chiefly held by the Northwest Company, 
 and their chief traders resided at Sandy Lake, 
 Leech Lake, and Fon du Lac, on St. Louis River. 
 In the year 1794, this company built a stockade 
 one hundred feet square, on the southeast end of 
 Sandy Lake. There were bastions pierced for 
 small arms, in the southeast and in the northwest 
 corner. The pickets which surrounded the post 
 were thirteen feet high. On the north side there 
 was a gate ten by nine feet ; on the west side, one 
 six by five feet, and on the east side a third gate 
 six by five feet. Travelers entering the main 
 gate, saw on the left a one story building twenty 
 feet square, the residence of the superintendent, 
 and on the left of the east gate, a building twenty- 
 five by fifteen, the quarters of the voyager.rs. 
 Entering the western gate, on the left was a stone 
 house, twenty by thirty feet, and a house twenty 
 by forty feet, used as a store, and a workshop, 
 and a residence for clerks. On the south shore 
 of Leech Lake there was another establishment, 
 a little larger. The stockade was one hundred . 
 
 and fifty feet square. The main building was 
 sixty by twenty-five feet, and one and a half story 
 in height, where resided the Director of the fur 
 trade of the Fond du Lac department of the North- 
 west Company. In the centre was a small store, 
 twelve and a half feet square, and near the main 
 gate was flagstaff fifty feet in height, from 
 which used to float the flag of Great Britain. 
 
 "William Morrison was, in 1802, the trader at 
 Leech Lake, and in 1804 he was at Elk Lake, the 
 source of the Mississippi, thirty-two years after- 
 wards named by Schoolcraft, Lake Itasca. 
 
 The entire force of the Northwest Company, 
 west of Lake'Superior, in 1805, consisted of three 
 accountants, nineteen clerks, two interpreters, 
 eighty-live canoe men, and with them were 
 twenty-nine Indian or half-breed women, and 
 about fifty children. 
 On the seventh of May, 1800,' the Northwest 
 J Territory, which included all of the western 
 country east of the Mississippi, was divided. 
 The portion not designated as Ohio, was organ- 
 ized as the Territory of Indiana. 
 
 On the twentieth of December, 1803, the 
 province of Louisiana, of which that portion of 
 Minnesota west of the Mississippi was a part, 
 was officially delivered up by the French, who 
 had just obtained it from the Spaniards, accord- 
 ing to treaty stipnlations. 
 
 To the transfer of Louisiana by France, after 
 twenty days' possession, Spain at first objected ; 
 but in 1S04 withdrew all opposition. 
 
 President Jefferson now deemed it an object 
 of paramount importance for the United States 
 to explore the country so recently acquired, and 
 make the acquaintance of the tribes residing 
 therein ; and steps were taken for an expedition 
 to the upper Mississippi. 
 
 Early in March, 1804, Captain Stoddard, of the 
 United States army, arrived at St. Louis, the 
 agent of the French Republic, to receive from 
 
EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 the Spanish authorities the possession of the 
 country, which he ini mediately transferred to the 
 United States. 
 
 As the old settlers, on the tenth of March, saw 
 the ancient Has of Spain displaced by that of the 
 United States, the tears coursed down their 
 cheeks. 
 
 On the twentieth of the same month, the terri- 
 tory of Upper Louisiana was constituted, com- 
 prising the present states of Arkansas, Missouri, 
 Iowa, and a large portion of Minnesota. 
 
 On the eleventh of January, 1805, the terri- 
 tory of Michigan was organized. 
 
 The first American officer who visited Minne- 
 sota, on business of a public nature, was one who 
 was an ornament to his profession, and in energy 
 and endurance a true representative of the citi- 
 zens of the United States. We refer to the 
 gallant Zebulon Montgomery Pike, a native of 
 New Jersey, who afterwards fell in battle at 
 York, Upper Canada, and whose loss was justly 
 mourned by the whole nation. 
 
 When a young lieutenant, he was ordered by 
 General Wilkinson to visit the region now known 
 as Minnesota, and expel the British traders who 
 were found violating the laWs of the United 
 States, and form alliances with the Indians. 
 With only a few common soldiers, he was obliged 
 to do the work of several men. At times he 
 would precede his party for miles to reconnoitre, 
 and then he would do the duty of hunter. 
 
 During the day he would perform the part of 
 surveyor, geologist, and astronomer, and at night, 
 though hungry and fatigued, his lofty enthu- 
 siasm kept him awake until he copied the notes, 
 and plotted the courses of the day. 
 
 On the 4th day of September, 1805, Pike ar- 
 rived at Prairie du Chien, from St. Louis, and 
 was politely treated by three traders, all born un- 
 der the flag of the United States. One was named 
 Wood, another Prazer, a native of Vermont, 
 who, when a young man became a clerk of one 
 Blakely, of Montreal, and thus became a fur 
 trader. The third w^as Henry Pisher, a captain 
 of the Militia, and Justice of the Peace, whose 
 wife was a daughter of Goutier de Verville. 
 Fisher was said to have been a nephew of Pres- 
 dent Monroe, and later in life traded at the 
 sources of the Minnesofa. One of his daughters 
 was the mother of Joseph Eolette, Jr., a mem- 
 
 ber of the early Minnesota Legislative assem- 
 blies. On the eighth of the month Lieutenant 
 Pike left Prairie du Chien, in twobatteaux, with 
 Sergeant Henry Kennerman, Corporals William 
 E. Mack and Samuel Bradley, and ten privates. 
 
 At La Crosse, Prazer, of Prairie du Chien, 
 overtook him, and at Sandy point of Lake Pepin 
 he found a trader, a Scotchman by the name of 
 Murdoch Cameron, with his son, and a young 
 man named John Eudsdell. On the twonty- 
 first he breakfasted with the Kaposia band of 
 Sioux, who then dwelt at the marsh below Day- 
 ton's Bluff, a few miles below St. Paul. The 
 same day he passed three miles from Mendota 
 the encampment of J. B. Paribault, a trader and 
 native of Lower Canada, then about thirty years 
 of age, in which vicinity he continued for more 
 than fifty years. He married Pelagie the daugh- 
 ter of Francis Kinnie by an Indian woman, 
 and his eldest son, Alexander, born soon after 
 Pike's visit, was the founder of the town of 
 Faribault. 
 
 Arriving at the confluence of the Minnosota 
 and the Mississippi Bivers, Pike and his soldiers 
 encamped on the Northeast point of the island 
 which still bears his name. The next day was 
 Sunday, and he visited Cameron, at his trading 
 post on the Minnesota Biver, a short distance 
 above Mendota. 
 
 On Monday, the 23d of September, at noon, 
 he held a Council with the Sioux, under a cover- 
 ing made by suspending sails, and gave an ad- 
 mirable talk, a portion of which was as follows : 
 3 " Brothers, I am happy to meet you here, at 
 this council fire which your father has sent me to 
 kindle, and to take you by the hands, as our chil- 
 dren. We having but lately acquired from the 
 Spanish, the extensive territory of Louisiana, our 
 general has thought proper to send out a number 
 of his warriors to visit all his red children ; to tell 
 them his will, and to hear what request they may 
 have to make of their father. I am happy the 
 choice fell on me to come this road, as I find 
 my brothers, the Sioux, ready to listen to my 
 words. 
 
 " Brothers, it is the wish of our government to 
 establish military posts on the Upper Mississippi, 
 at such places as might be thought expedient. I 
 have, therefore, examined the country, and have 
 pitched on the mouth of the river St. Croix, this 
 
GEANT OF LAND FROM THE SIOUX. 
 
 7-3 
 
 place, and the Falls of St. Anthony ; I therefore 
 wish you to grant to the United States, nine 
 miles square, at St. Croix, and at this place, from 
 a league below the confluence of the St. Peter's 
 and Mississippi, to a leagueabove St. Anthony, 
 extending three leagues on each side of the river ; 
 and as we are a people who are accustomed to 
 have all our acts written down, in order to have 
 them handed to our children, I have drawn up a 
 form of an agreement, which we will both sign, 
 in the presence of the traders now present. After 
 we know the terms, we will fill it up, and have it 
 read and interpreted to you. 
 
 " Brothers, those posts are intended as a bene- 
 fit to you. The old chiefs .now present mast see 
 that their situation improves by a communication 
 with the whites. It is the intention of the United 
 States to establish at those posts factories, in 
 which the Indians may procure all their tilings 
 at a cheaper and better rate than they do now. or 
 than your traders can afford to sell them to you, 
 as they aie single men, who come from far in 
 small boats; but your fathers are many and 
 strong, and will come with a strong arm. in large 
 boats. There will also be chiefs here, who can 
 attend to the wants of their brothers, without 
 their sending or going all the way to St. Louis, 
 and will see the traders that go up your rivers, 
 and know that they are good men. * * * * 
 
 "Brothers, I now present you with some of 
 your father's tobacco, and some other trifling 
 things, as a memorandum of my good will, and 
 before my departure I will give you some liquor 
 to clear your throats." 
 
 The traders, Cameron and Frazer. sat with 
 Pike. His interpreter was Pierre llosseau. 
 Among the Chiefs present were Le Petit Cor- 
 beau (Little Crow), and Way-ago Enagee,*and 
 L*Orignal Leve or Rising Moose. It was with 
 difficulty that the chiefs signed the following 
 agreement; not that they objected to the lan- 
 guage, but because they thought their word 
 should be taken, without any mark ; but Pike 
 overcame their objection, by saying that he wished 
 them to sign it on his account. 
 
 "Whereas, at a conference held between the 
 United States of America and the Sioux na- 
 tion of Indians, Lieutenant Z. M. Pike, of the 
 army of the United States, and the chiefs and 
 warriors of said tribe, have agreed to the follow- 
 
 ing articles, which, when ratified and approved of 
 by the proper authority, shall be binding on both 
 parties : 
 
 Art. 1. That the Sioux nation grant unto the 
 United States, for the purpose of establishment 
 of military posts, nine miles square, at the mouth 
 of the St. Croix, also from below the confidence 
 of the Mississippi and St. Peter's, up the Missis- 
 sippi to include the Falls of St. Anthony, extend- 
 ing nine miles on each side of the river ; that the 
 Sioux Nation grants to the United States the full 
 sovereignty and power over said district forever. 
 
 Akt. 2. That in consideration of the above 
 grants, the United States shall pay [filled up by 
 the Senate with 2.000 dollars]. 
 
 Akt. 3. The United States promise, on their 
 part, to permit the Sioux to pass and repass, hunt, 
 or make other use of the said districts, as they 
 have formerly done, without any other exception 
 than those specified in article first. 
 
 In testimony whereof, we, the undersigned, 
 have hereunto set our hands and seals, at the 
 mouth of the river St. Peter's, on the 23d day of 
 September, 1805. 
 
 Z.M.PIKE, [L. S.] 
 1st Lieutenant and agent at the above conference. 
 
 his 
 
 LE PETIT CORBEAU, X [L. S.] 
 
 mark 
 
 his 
 
 WAY-AGO ENAGEE. H [L. S.] 
 
 mark " 
 
 The following entries from Pike's Journal, des- 
 criptive of the region around the city of Minne- 
 apolis, seventy-five years ago, are worthy of pres- 
 ervation: 
 
 "Sept. 26th, Tliursday. — Embarked atthe usual 
 hour, and after much labor in passing through 
 the rapids, arrived at the foot of the Falls about 
 three or four o'clock ; unloaded my boat, and had 
 the principal part of her cargo carried over the 
 portage. With the other boat, however, full 
 loaded, they were not able to get over the last 
 shoot, and encamped about six yards below. I 
 pitched my tent and encamped above the shoot. 
 The rapids mentioned in this day's march, might 
 properly be called a continuation of the Falls of 
 St. Anthony, for they are equally entitled to this 
 appellation, with the Falls of the Delaware and 
 
76 
 
 EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 Susquehanna. Killed one deer. Distance nine 
 miles 
 
 Sept. 27th, Friday. Brought over the residue 
 of my loading this morning. Two men arrived 
 froinMr. Frazer, on St. Peters, for my dispatches. 
 This business, closing and sealing, appeared like 
 a las", adieu to the civilized world. Sent a large 
 packet to the General, and a letter to Mrs. Pike, 
 with a short note to Mr. Frazer. Two young 
 Indians brought my Hag across by land, who ar- 
 rived yesterday, just as we came in sight of the 
 Fall. I made them a present for their punctual- 
 ity and expedition, and the danger they were ex- 
 posed to from the journey. Carried our boats out 
 of the river, as far as the bottom of the hill. 
 
 Sept. 28th , Saturday.— Brought my barge over, 
 and put her in the river above the Falls. While 
 we were engaged with her three-fourths miles 
 from camp, seven Indians painted black, appeared 
 on the heights. We had left our guns at the 
 camp and were entirely defenceless. It occurred 
 tome that they were the small party of Sioux who 
 were obstinate, and would go to war, when the 
 other part of the bands came in; these they 
 proved to be ; they were better armed than any I 
 had ever seen; having guns, bows, arrows, clubs, 
 spears, and some of them even a case of pistols. 
 I was at that time giving my men a dram ; and 
 giving the cup of liquor to the first, he drank it 
 off ; but I was more cautious with the remainder. 
 I sent my interpreter to camp with them, to wait 
 my coming ; wishing to purchase one of their war 
 clubs, it being made of elk horn, and decorated 
 with inlaid work. This and a set of bows and 
 arrows I wished to get as a curiosity. But the 
 liquor I had given him began to operate, he came 
 back for me, but refusing to go till I brought my 
 boat, he returned, and (I suppose being offended) 
 borrowed a canoe and crossed the river. In the 
 afternoon got the other boat near the top of the 
 hill, when the props gave way, and she slid all the 
 way down to the bottom, but fortunately without 
 injuring any person. It raining very hard, we 
 left her. Killed one goose and a racoon. 
 
 Sept. 29th, Sunday.— I killed a remarkably 
 large racoon. Got our large boat over the port- 
 age, and put her in the river, at the upper land- 
 ing ; this night the men gave sufficient proof of 
 their fatigue, by all throwing themselves down to 
 sleep, preferring rest to supper. This day I had 
 
 but fifteen men out of twenty-two ; the others 
 were sick. This voyage could have been per- 
 formed with great convenience, if we had taken 
 our departure in June. But the proper time 
 would be to leave the Illinois as soon as the ice 
 would permit, when the river would be of a good 
 height. 
 
 Sept. 30th, Monday. — Loaded my boat, moved 
 over and encamped on the Island. The large boats 
 loading likewise, we went over and put on board. 
 In the mean time, I took a survey of the Falls, 
 Portage, etc. If it be possible to pass the Falls 
 in high water, of which I am doubtful, it must 
 be on the East side, about thirty yards from 
 shore ; as there are three layers of rocks, one be- 
 low the other. The pitch off of either, is not 
 more than five feet ; but of this I can say more 
 on my return. 
 
 On the tenth of October, the expedition 
 reached some arge island below Sauk Rapids, 
 where in 1797, Porlier and Joseph Renville had 
 wintered. Six days after this, he reached the 
 Rapids in Morrison county, which still bears his 
 name, and he writes: "When we arose in the 
 morning, found that snow had fallen during the 
 night, the ground was covered and it continued 
 to snow. This, indeed, was but poor encourage- 
 ment for attacking the Rapids, in which we were 
 certain to wade to our necks. I was determined, 
 however, if possible to make la riviere de Cor- 
 beau, [Crow Wing River], the highest point was 
 made by traders in their bark canoes. We em- 
 barked, and after four hours work, became so 
 benumbed with cold that our limbs were perfectly 
 useless. We put to shore on the opposite side of 
 the river, about two-thirds of the way up the 
 rapids. Built a large fire ; and then discovered 
 that«our boats were nearly half full of water; 
 both having sprung large leaks so as to oblige me 
 to keep three hands bailing. My sergeant (Ken- 
 nerman) one of the stoutest men I ever knew, 
 broke a blood-vessel and vomited nearly two 
 quarts of blood. One of my corporals (Bradley) 
 also evacuated nearly a pint of blood, when he 
 attempted to void his urine. These unhappy 
 circumstances, in addition to the inability of 
 four other men whom we were obliged to leave 
 on shore, convinced me, that if I had no regard 
 for my own health and constitution, I should 
 have some for those poor fellows, who were kill- 
 
PIKES BLOCK MOUSE NEAR SWAN RIVER. 
 
 77 
 
 ing themselves to obey my orders. After we had 
 breakfast and refreshed ourselves, we went down 
 to our boats on the rocks, where I was obliged to 
 leave them. I then informed my men that we 
 would return to the camp and there leave some 
 of the party and our large boats. This informa- 
 tion was pleasing, and the attempt to reach the 
 camp soon accomplished. My reasons for this 
 step have partly been already stated. The nec- 
 essity of unloading and refitting my boats, the 
 beauty and convenience of the spot for building 
 huts, the fine pine trees for peroques, and the 
 quantity of game, were additional inducements. 
 We immediately unloaded our boats and secured 
 their cargoes. In the evening I went out upon a 
 small, but beautiful creek, which emptied into 
 the Falls, for the purpose of selecting pine trees' 
 to make canoes. Saw five deer, and killed one 
 buck weighing one hundred and thirty-seven 
 pounds. By my leaving men at this place, and 
 from the great quantities of game in its vicinity, 
 I was ensured plenty of provision for my return 
 voyage. In the party left behind was one hunter, 
 to be continually employed, who would keep our 
 stock of salt provisions good. Distance two 
 hundred and thirty-three and a half miles above 
 the Falls of St. Anthony. 
 
 Having left his large boats and some soldiers 
 at this point, he proceeded to the vicinity of 
 Swan River where he erected a block house, and 
 on the thirty-first of October he writes: ''En- 
 closed my little work completely with pickets. 
 Hauled up my two boats and turned them over 
 on each side of the gateways; by which means 
 a defence was made to the river, and had it not 
 been for various political reasons, 1 would have 
 laughed at the attack of eight hundred or a 
 thousand savages, if all my party were within. 
 For. except accidents, it would only have afford- 
 ed amusement, the Indians having no idea of 
 taking a place by storm. Found myself power- 
 fully attacked witli the fantastics of the brain, 
 called ennui, at the mention of which I had 
 hitherto scoffed ; but my books being packed up, 
 I was like a person entranced, and could easily 
 conceive why so many persons who have been 
 confined to remote places, acquire the habit of 
 drinking to excess, and many other vicious prac- 
 tices, which have been adopted merely to pass 
 time. 
 
 During the next month he hunted the buffalo 
 which were then in that vicinity. On the third 
 of December he received a visit from Eobert 
 Dickson, afterwards noted in the history of the 
 country, who was then trading about sixty miles 
 below, on the Mississippi. 
 
 On the tenth of December with some sleds he 
 continued his journey northward, and on the last 
 day of the year passed Pine River. On the third 
 of January, 1806, he reached the trading post at 
 Red Cedar, now Cass Lake, and was quite indig- 
 nant at finding the British flag floating from the 
 staff. The night after this his tent caught on 
 fire, and he lost some valuable and necessary 
 clothing. On the evening of the eighth he reach- 
 ed Sandy Lake and was hospitably received by 
 Grant, the trader in charge. He writes . 
 
 '• Jax. 9th, Thursday. — Marched the corporal 
 early, in order that our men should receive 
 assurance of our safety and success. He carried 
 with him a small keg of spirits, a present from 
 Mr. Grant. The establishment of this place was 
 formed twelve years since, by the North-west 
 Company, and was formerly under the charge of 
 a Mr. Charles Brusky. It has attained at present 
 such regularity, as to permit the superintendent 
 to live tolerably comfortable. They have horses 
 they procured from Red River, of the Indians ; 
 raise plenty of Irish potatoes, catch pike, suckers, 
 pickerel, and white fish in abundance. They 
 have also beaver, deer, and moose; but the pro- 
 vision they chiefly depend upon is wild oats, of 
 which they purchase great quantities from the 
 savages, giving at the rate of about one dollar 
 and a half per bushel. But fl mr, pork, and salt, 
 are almost interdicted to persons not principals 
 in the trade. Flour sells at half a dollar ; salt a 
 dollar: pork eighty cents; sugar half a dollar ; 
 and tea four dollars and fifty cents per pound. 
 The sugar is obtained from the Indians, and is 
 made from the maple tree." 
 
 He remained at Sandy Lake ten days, and on 
 the last day two men of the Northwest Company 
 arrived with letters from Fon du Lac Superior, 
 one of. which was from Athapuscow, and had 
 been since May on the route. 
 
 On the twentieth of January began his journey 
 to Leech Lake, which he reached on the first of 
 February, and was hospitably received by Hugh 
 
EXPLOKEKS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 McGillis, the head of the Northwest Company at 
 
 this post. 
 
 A Mr. Anderson, in the employ of Robert 
 Dickson, was residing at the west end of the lake. 
 While here he hoisted the American flag in the 
 tort. The English yacht still flying at the top of 
 the flagstaff, he directed the Indians and his sol- 
 diers to shoot at it. They soon broke the iron 
 pin to which it was fastened, and it fell to the 
 ground. He was informed by a venerable old 
 Ojibway chief, called Sweet, that the Sioux dwelt 
 there when Ire was a youth. On the tenth of 
 February, at ten o'clock, he left Leech Lake with 
 Corporal Bradley, the trader McGillis and two of 
 his men, and at sunset arrived at lied Cedar, now 
 Cass Lake. At this place, in 1798, Thompson, 
 employed by the Northwest Company for three 
 years, in topographical surveys, made some ob- 
 servations, lie believed that a line from the 
 Lake of the Woods would touch the sources of 
 the Mississippi. Pike, at this point, was very 
 kindly treated by a Canadian named Roy, and his 
 Ojibway squaw. On his return home, he reached 
 Clear River on the seventh of April, where he 
 found his canoe and men, and at night was at 
 Grand Rapids, Dickson's trading post. He talked 
 until four o'clock the next morning with this 
 person and another trader named Porlier. He 
 forbade while there, the traders Greignor [Grig- 
 non] and La Jennesse, to sell any more liquor to 
 Indians, who had become very drunken and un- 
 ruly. On the tenth he again reached the Falls 
 of Saint Anthony. He writes in his journal as 
 follows : 
 
 April 11th, Friday. — Although it snowed very 
 hard we brought over both boats, and descended 
 the river to the island at the entrance of the St. 
 Peter's. I sent to the chiefs and informed them 
 I had something to communicate to them. The 
 Fils de Pincho immediately waited on me, and 
 informed me that he w r ould provide a place for 
 the purpose. About sundown I was sent for and 
 introduced into the council-house, where T found 
 a great many chiefs of the Sussitongs, Gens de 
 Feuilles, and the Gens du Lac. The Yanctongs 
 had not yet come down. They were all awaiting 
 for my arrival. There were about one hundred 
 lodges, or six hundred people; we were saluted 
 on our crossing the river with ball as usual. The 
 council-house was two large lodges, capable of 
 
 containing three hundred men. In the upper 
 were forty chiefs, and as many pipes set against 
 the poles, alongside of which I had the Santeur's 
 pipes arranged. I then informed them in short 
 detail, of my transactions with the Santeurs; but 
 my interpreters were not capable of making them- 
 selves understood. I was therefore obliged to 
 omit mentioning every particular relative to the 
 rascal who fired on my sentinel, and of the scoun- 
 drel who broke the Fols Avoins' canoes, and 
 threatened my life; the interpreters, however, in- 
 formed them that I wanted some of their princi- 
 pal chiefs to go to St. Louis; and that those who 
 thought proper might descend to the prairie, 
 where we would give them more explicit infor- 
 mation. They all smoked out of the Santeur's 
 pipe, excepting three, who were painted black, 
 and were some of those who lost their relations 
 last winter. I invited the Fils de Pinchow, and 
 the son of the Killeur Rouge, to come over and 
 sup with me; when Mr. Dickson and myself en- 
 deavored to explain what I intended to have said 
 to them, could I have made myself understood; 
 that at the prairie w r e would have all things ex- 
 plained; that I was desirous of making a better 
 report of them than Captain Lewis could do from 
 their treatment of him. The former of those 
 savages was the person who remained around my 
 post all last winter, and treated my men so well; 
 they endeavored to excuse their people. 
 
 "April 12th, Saturday. — Embarked early. Al- 
 though my interpreter had been frequently up the 
 river, he could not tell me where the cave (spoken 
 of by Carver) could be found ; we carefully 
 sought for it, but in vain. At the Indian village, 
 a few miles below St. Peter's, we were about to 
 pass a few lodges, but on receiving a very partic- 
 ular invitation to come on shore, we landed, and 
 were received in a lodge kindly; they presented 
 us sugar. I gave the proprietor a dram, and was 
 about to depart when he demanded a kettle of 
 liquor; on being refused, and after I had left the 
 shore, he told me he did not like the arrange- 
 ments, and that he would go to war this summer. 
 I directed the interpreter to tell him that if I 
 returned to St. Peter's with the troops, I would 
 settle that affair with him. On our arrival at the 
 St. Croix, I found the Pettit Corbeau with his 
 people, and Messrs. Frazer and Wood. We had 
 a conference, when the Pettit Corbeau made 
 
 — . 
 
CAMERON SELLS LIQUOB TO INDIAN'S. 
 
 79 
 
 many apologies for the misconduct of his people; 
 he represented to us the different manners in 
 which the young warriors had been inducing him 
 to go to war; that he had been much blamed for 
 dismissing his party last fall; but that he was de- 
 termined to adhere as far as lay in his power to 
 our instructions; that he thought it most prudent 
 to remain here and restrain the warriors. lie 
 then presented me with a beaver robe and pipe, 
 and his message to the general. That he was 
 determined to preserve peace, and make the road 
 clear; also a remembrance of his promised medal. 
 I made a reply, calculated to confirm him in his 
 good intentions, and assured him that he should 
 not be the less remembered by his father, although 
 not present. I was informed that, notwithstand- 
 ing the instruction of his license, and my par- 
 ticular request. Murdoch Cameron had taken 
 liquor and sold it to the Indians on the river St. 
 Peter's, and that his partner below had been 
 
 equally imprudent. I pledged myself to prose- 
 cute them according to law; for they have been 
 the occasion of great confusion, and of much 
 injury to the other traders. This day met a 
 canoe of Mr. Dickson's loaded with provisions, 
 under the charge of Mr. Anderson, brother of 
 the Mr. Anderson at Leech Lake. He politely 
 offered me any provision he had on board (for 
 which Mr. Dickson had given me an order), but 
 not now being in want, I did not accept of any. 
 This day. for the first time, I observed the trees 
 beginning to bud, and indeed the climate seemed 
 to have changed very materially since we passed 
 the Falls of St. Anthony." 
 
 The strife of political parties growing out of 
 the French Eevolution, and the declaration of 
 war against Great Britain in the year 1S12, post- 
 poned the military occupation of the Upper 
 Mississippi by the United States of America, for 
 several years. 
 
EXPLORERS AXD PIOXEEES OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE VAI/LEY OF THE TIPPER MISSISSIPPI DURING SECOND "WAR "WITH GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 Dickson and other traders hostile — American stockade at Prairie du Chien — Fort 
 Shelby surrenders to Lt. Col. "William McKay— Loyal traders Provencalle and 
 Faribault— Rising Moose or Ono-eyed Sioux— Capt. Bulger evacuates Fort 
 McKay— Intelligence of Peace. 
 
 Notwithstanding the professions of friendship 
 made to Pike, in the second war with Great Brit- 
 ain, Dickson and others were found bearing arms 
 against the Republic. 
 
 A year after Pike left Prairie du Chien, it was 
 evident, that under some secret influence, the 
 Indian tribes were combining against the United 
 States. In the year 1809 , Nicholas Jarrot declared 
 that the British traders were furnishing the sav- 
 ages with guns for hostile purposes. On the first 
 of May, 1812, two Indians were apprehended at 
 Chicago, who were on their way to meet Dickson 
 at Green Bay. They had taken the precaution 
 to hide letters in their moccasins, and bury them 
 in the ground, and were allowed to proceed after 
 a brief detention. Frazer, of Prairie du Chien, 
 who had been with Pike at the Council at the 
 mouth of the Minnesota River, was at the port- 
 age of the "Wisconsin when the Indians delivered 
 these letters, which stated that the British flag 
 would soon be flying again at Mackinaw. At 
 Green Bay, the celebrated warrior,' Black Hawk, 
 was placed in charge of the Indians who were to 
 aid the British. The American troops at Macki- 
 naw were obliged, on the seventeenth of July, 
 1812, to capitulate without firing a single gun. 
 One who was made prisoner, writes from Detroit 
 to the Secretary of War : 
 
 " The persons who commanded the Indians are 
 Robert Dickson, Indian trader, and John Askin, 
 Jr., Indian agent, and his son. The latter two 
 were painted and dressed after the manner 
 of the Indians. Those who commanded the 
 Canadians are John Johnson, Crawford, Pothier, 
 Armitinger, La Croix, Rolette, Pranks, Living- 
 ston, and other traders, some of whom were lately 
 concerned in smuggling British goods into the 
 
 Indian country, and, in conjunction with others, 
 have been using their utmost efforts, several 
 months before the declaration of war, to excite 
 the Indians to take up arms. The least resist- 
 ance from the fort would have been attended 
 with the destruction of all the persons who fell 
 into the hands of the British, as I have been as- 
 sured by some of the British traders," 
 
 On the first of May, 1814, Governor Clark, 
 with two hundred men, left St. Louis, to build a 
 fort at the junction of the Wisconsin and Missis- 
 sippi. Twenty days before he arrived at Prairie 
 du Chien, Dickson had started for Mackinaw 
 with a band of Dahkotahs and Winnebagoes. 
 The place was left in command of Captain Deace 
 and the Mackinaw Fencibles. The Dahkotahs 
 refusing to co-operate, when the Americans made 
 their appearance they fled. The Americans took 
 possession of the old Mackinaw house, in which 
 they found nine or ten trunks of papers belong- 
 ing to Dickson. From one they took the follow- 
 ing extract : 
 
 "'Arrived, from below, a few Winnebagoes 
 with scalps. Gave them tobacco, six pounds 
 powder and six pounds ball.' " 
 
 A fort was immediately commenced on the 
 site of the old residence of the late H. L. Dous- 
 man, which was composed of two block-houses 
 in the angles, and another on the bank of the 
 river, with a subterranean communication. In 
 honor of the governor of Kentucky it was. named 
 " Shelby." 
 
 The fort was in charge of Lieutenant Perkins, 
 and sixty rank and file, and two gunboats, each 
 of which carried a six-pounder; and several 
 howitzers were commanded by Captains Yeiser, 
 Sullivan, and Aid-de-camp Kennerly. 
 
 The traders at Mackinaw, learning that the 
 Americans had built a fort at the Prairie, and 
 knowing that as long as they held possession 
 they would be cut off from the trade with the 
 
LOYALTY OF FARIBAULT AND THE ONE-EYED SIOUX. 
 
 81 
 
 Dahkotahs, immediately raised an expedition to 
 capture the garrison. 
 
 The captain was an old trader by the name of 
 McKay, and under him was a sergeant of ar- 
 tillery, with a brass six-pounder, and three or 
 four volunteer companies of Canadian voyageurs, 
 officered by Captains Griguon, Kolette and An- 
 derson, with Lieutenants Brisbois and Duncan 
 Graham, all dressed in red coats, with a number 
 of Indians. 
 
 The Americans had scarcely completed their 
 rude fortification, before the British force, guid- 
 ed by Joseph Kolette, Sr., descended in canoes 
 to a point on the Wisconsin, several miles from 
 the Prairie, to which they marched in battle 
 array. McKay sent a flag to the Fort demanding 
 a surrender. Lieutenant Perkins replied that he 
 would defend it to the last. 
 
 A fierce encounter took place, in which the 
 Americans were worsted. The officer was 
 wounded, several men were killed and one of 
 their boats captured, so that it became necessary 
 to retreat to St. Louis. Fort Shelby after its 
 capture, was called Fort McKay. 
 
 Among the traders a few remained loyal, es- 
 pecially Provencalle and J. B. Faribault, traders 
 among the Sioux. Faribault was a prisoner 
 among the British at the time Lieut. Col. Wm. 
 McKay was preparing to attack Fort Shelby, and 
 he refused to perform any service, Faribault's 
 wife, who was at Prairie du Cliien, not knowing 
 that her husband was a prisoner in the hands of 
 the advancing foe, fled with others to the Sioux 
 village, where is now the city of Winona. Fari- 
 bault was at length released on parole and re- 
 turned to his trading post. 
 
 Pike writes of his flag, that " being in doubt 
 whether it had been stolen by the Indians, or had 
 fallen overborn d and floated away, I sent for my 
 friend the Orignal Leve.'' He also calls the 
 Chief, Rising Moose, and gives his Sioux name 
 Tahamie. He was one of those, who in 1805, 
 signed the agreement, to surrender land at the 
 junction of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers 
 to the United States. He had but one eye, 
 having lost the other when a boy, belonged to 
 the Wapasha band of the Sioux, and proved 
 true to the flag which had waved on the day he 
 sat in council with Pike. 
 
 In the fall of 1814, with another of the same 
 6 
 
 nation, he ascended the Missouri under the pro- 
 tection of the distinguished trader, Manual Lisa, 
 as far as the Au Jacques or James River, and 
 from thence struck across the country, enlisting 
 the Sioux in favour of the L T nited States, and at 
 length arrived at Prairie du Chien. On his arri- 
 val, Dickson accosted him, and inquired from 
 whence he came, and what was his business ; at 
 the same time rudely snatching his bundle from 
 his shoulder, and searching for letters. The 
 "one-eyed warrior"' told him that he was from 
 St. Louis, and that he had promised the white 
 chiefs there that he would go to Prairie du Chien, 
 and that he had kept his promise 
 
 Dickson then placed him in confinement in 
 Fort McKay, as the garrison was called by the 
 British, and ordered him to divulge what infor- 
 mation he possessed, or he would put him to 
 death. But the faithful fellow r said he would 
 impart nothing, and that he was ready for death 
 if he wished to kill him. Finding that confine- 
 ment had no effect, Dickson at last liberated him. 
 He then left, and visited the bands of Sioux on 
 the Upper Mississippi, with which he passed the 
 winter. When he returned in the spring, Dick- 
 son had gone to Mackinaw, and Capt. A. Bulger, 
 of the Royal Xew Foundland Regiment, was in 
 command of the fort. 
 
 On the twenty-third of May, 1815, Capt. Bul- 
 ger, WTote from Fort McKay to Gov. Clark at St. 
 Louis: "Official intelligence of peace reached 
 me yesterday. I propose evacuating the fort, 
 taking with me the guns captured in the fort. * 
 * * * I have not the smallest hesitation in 
 declaring my decided opinion, that the presence 
 of a detachment of British and United Slates 
 troops at the same time, would be the means of 
 embroiling one party or the other in a fresh rup- 
 ture with the Indians, which I presume it is the 
 wish of both governments to avoid." 
 
 The next month the " One-Eyed Sioux," with 
 three other Indians and a squaw, visited St. Louis, 
 and he informed Gov. Clark, that the British 
 commander left the cannons in the fort when he 
 evacuated, but in a day or two came back, took 
 the cannons, and fired the fort with the American 
 flag flying, but that he rushed in and saved it 
 from being burned. From this time, the British 
 flag ceased to float in the Valley of the Missis- 
 sippi. 
 
EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 LONG'S EXPEDITION, A. D. l817, IN A SIX-OARED SKIFF, TO THE FALLS OF SAINT ANTHONY. 
 
 Carver s Grandsons. — Roque, Sioux Interpreter. — Wapashaw s Village and Its 
 Vicinity.— A Sacred Dance.— Indian Village Below Dayton's Bluff.— Carver's 
 Cave.— Fountain Cave.— Falls of St. Anthony Described.— Site or a Fort. 
 
 Major Stephen H. Long, of the Engineer Corps 
 of the United States Army, learning that there 
 was little or no danger to be apprehended from 
 the Indians, determined to ascend to the Falls- of 
 Saint Anthony, in a six-oared skiff presented to 
 him by Governor Clark, of Saint Louis. His 
 party consisted of a Mr. Hempstead, a native of 
 New London, Connecticut, who had been living 
 at Prairie du Chien, seven soldiers, and a half- 
 breed interpreter, named Roque. A bark canoe 
 accompanied them, containing Messrs. Gun and 
 King, grandsons of the celebrated traveler, Jona- 
 than Carver. 
 
 On the ninth ot «,uly, 1817, the expedition left 
 Prairie du Chien, and on the twelfth arrived at 
 " Trempe a l'eau." He writes : 
 
 " When we stopped for breakfast, Mr. Hemp- 
 stead and myself ascended a high peak to take a 
 view of the country. It is known by the name 
 of the Kettle Hill, having obtained this appella- 
 tion from the circumstance of its having numer- 
 ous piles of stone on its top, most of them 
 fragments of the rocky stratifications which 
 constitute the principal part of the hill, but some 
 of them small piles made by the Indians. These 
 at a distance have some similitude of kettles 
 arranged along upon the ridge and sides of the 
 hill. Trom this, or almost any other eminence in 
 its neighborhood, the beauty and grandeur of the 
 prospect would baffle the skill of the most inge- 
 nious pencil to depict, and that of the most ac- 
 complished pen to describe. Hills marshaled 
 into a variety of agreeable shapes, some of them 
 towering into lofty peaks, while others present 
 broad summits embellished with contours and 
 slopes in the most pleasing manner ; champaigns 
 and waving valleys; forests, lawns, and parks 
 alternating with each other; the humble Missis- 
 
 sippi meandering far below, and occasionally 
 losing itself in numberless islands, give variety 
 and beauty to the picture, while rugged cliffs and 
 stupendous precipices here and there present 
 themselves as if to add boldness and majesty to 
 the scene. In the midst of this beautiful scenery 
 is situated a village of the Sioux Indians, on an 
 extensive lawn called the Aux Aisle Prairie ; at 
 which we lay by for a chort time. On our arrival 
 the Indians hoisted two American flags, and we 
 returned the compliment by discharging our 
 blunderbuss and pistols. They then fired several 
 guns ahead of us by way of a salute, after which' 
 we landed and were received with much friend- 
 ship. The name of their chief is Wauppaushaw, 
 or the Leaf, commonly called by a name of the 
 same import in French, La Feuille, or La Eye, 
 as it is pronounced in English. He is considered 
 one of the most honest and honorable of any of 
 the Indians, and endeavors to inculcate into the 
 minds of his people the sentiments and principles 
 adopted by himself. He was not at home at the 
 time I called, and I had no opportunity of seeing 
 him. The Indians, as I suppose, with the ex- 
 pectation that I had something to communicate 
 to them, assembled themselves at the place 
 where I landed and seated themselves upon the 
 grass. I inquired if their chief was at home, 
 and was answered in the negative. I then told 
 them I should be very glad to see him, but as he 
 was absent I would call on him again in a few 
 days when I should return. I further told them 
 that our father, the new President, wished to ob- 
 tain some more information relative to his red 
 children, and that I was on a tour to acquire any 
 intelligence he might stand in need of. With 
 this they appeared well satisfied, and permitted 
 Mr. Hempstead and myself to go through their 
 village. While I was in the wigwam, one of the 
 subordinate chiefs, whose name was Wazzecoota, 
 or Shooter from the Pine Tree, volunteered to 
 
INITIATION OF A WABBIOB BY A SACBED DANCE. 
 
 83 
 
 accompany me up the river. I accepted of his 
 services, and he was ready to attend me on the 
 tour in a very short time. "When we hove in 
 sight the Indians were engaged in a ceremony 
 called the Bear Dance; a ceremony which they 
 are in the habit of performing when any young 
 man is desirous of bringing himself into particu- 
 lar notice, and is considered a kind of initiation 
 into the state of manhood. I went on to the 
 ground where they had their performances, 
 which were ended sooner than usual on account 
 of our arrival. There was a kind of flag made 
 of fawn skin dressed with the hair on, suspended 
 on a pole. Upon the flesh side of it were drawn 
 certain rude figures indicative of the dream 
 which it is necessary the young man should have 
 dreamed, before he can be considered a proper 
 candidate for this kind of initiation ; with this a 
 pipe was suspended by way of sacrifice. Two 
 arrows were stuck up at the foot of the pole, 
 and fragments of painted feathers, etc., were 
 strewed about the ground near to it. These per- 
 tained to the religious rites attending the cere- 
 mony, which consists in bewailing and self -mor- 
 tification, that the Good Spirit may be induced 
 to pity them and succor their undertaking. 
 
 "At the distance of two or three hundred 
 yards from the flag, is an excavation which they 
 call the bear's hole, prepared for the occasion. 
 It is about two feet deep, and has two ditches, 
 about one foot deep, leading across it at right an- 
 gles. The young hero of the farce places himself 
 in this hole, to be hunted by the rest of the young 
 meu, all of whom on this occasion are dressed in 
 their best attire and painted in their neatest style. 
 The hunters approach the hole in the direction of 
 one of the ditches, and discharge their guns, 
 which were previously loaded for the purpose 
 with blank cartridges, at the one who acts the 
 part of the bear; whereupon he leaps from his 
 den, having a hoop in each hand, and a wooden 
 lance ; the hoops serving as forefeet to aid him 
 in characterizing his part, and his lance to defend 
 him from his assailants. Thus accoutred he 
 dances roimd the place, exhibiting various feats 
 of activity, while the other Indians pursue him 
 and endeavor to trap him as he attempts to re- 
 turn to his den, to effect which he is privileged to 
 use any violence he pleases with impunity against 
 
 his assailants, and even to taking the life of any 
 of them. 
 
 " This part of the ceremony is performed three 
 times, that the bear may escape from his den 
 and return to it again through three of the ave- 
 nues communicating with it. On being hunted 
 from the fourth or last avenue, the bear must 
 make his escape through all hib pursuers, if pos- 
 sible, and flee to the woods, wher . he i^ tj remain 
 through the day. This, however, is seldom or 
 never accomplished, as all the young men exert 
 themselves to the utmost in order to trap him. 
 When caught, he must retire to a lodge erected for 
 his reception in the field, where he is to be se- 
 cluded from all society through the day, except 
 one of his particular friends whom he is allowed 
 to take with him as an attendant. Here he 
 smokes and performs various other rites which 
 superstition has led the Indians to believe are sa- 
 cred. After this ceremony is ended, the young 
 Indian is considered qualified to act any part as 
 an efficient member of their community. The 
 Indian who has the good fortune to catch the 
 bear and overcome him when endeavoring to 
 make his escape to the woods, is considered a 
 candidate for preferment, and is on the first suit- 
 able occasion appointed the leader of a small war 
 party, in order that he may further have an op- 
 portunity to test his prowess and perform more 
 essential service in behalf of his nation. It is 
 accordingly expected that he will kill some of 
 their enemies and return with their scalps. I re- 
 gretted very much that I had missed the oppor- 
 tunity of witnessing this ceremony, which is 
 never performed except when prompted by the 
 particular dreams of one or other of the young 
 men, who is never complimented twice in the 
 same manner on account of his dreams." 
 
 On the sixteenth he approached the vicinity of 
 where is now the capital of Minnesota, and 
 writes : "Set sail at half past four this morning 
 with a favorable breeze. Passed an Indian bury- 
 ing ground on our left, the first that I have seen 
 surrounded by a fence. In the centre a pole is 
 erected, at the foot of which religious rites are 
 performed at the burial of an Indian, by the 
 particular friends and relatives of the deceased. 
 Upon the pole a flag is suspended when any per- 
 son of extraordinary merit, or one who is very 
 much beloved, is buried. In the enclosure were 
 
M 
 
 EXPLOBEBS AND PIONEEBS OF MINNES07A. 
 
 two scaffolds erected also, about six feet high 
 ami six feet square. Upon one Of them were two 
 cotl'ms containing dead bodies. Passed a Sioux 
 village on our right containing fourteen cabins. 
 The name of the chief is the Petit Corbeau, or 
 Little Raven. The Indians were all absent on a, 
 hunting party rip the River St. Croix, which 
 is but a little distance across the country from 
 the village. Of this we were very glad, as this 
 band are said to be the most notorious beggars 
 of all the Sioux on the Mississippi. One of their 
 cabins is furnished with loop holes, and is sit- 
 uated so near the water that the opposite side 
 of the river is within musket-shot range from 
 the building. By this means the Petit Corbeau 
 is enabled to exercise a command over the pass- 
 age of the river and has in some instances com- 
 pelled traders to land with their goods, and in- 
 duced them, probably through fear of offending 
 him, to bestow presents to a considerable amount, 
 before he would suffer them to pass. The cabins 
 are a kind of stockade buildings, and of a better 
 appearance than any Indian dwellings I have 
 before met with. 
 
 " Two miles above the village, on the same 
 side of the river, is Carver's Cave, at which we 
 stopped to breakfast. However interesting it 
 may have been, it does not possess that character 
 in a very high degree at present. Wo descend- 
 ed it with lighted candles to its lower extremity. 
 The entrance is very low and about eight feet 
 broad, so that a man in order to enter it must be 
 completely prostrate. The angle of descent 
 within the cave is about 25 deg. The flooring 
 is an inclined plane of quicksand, formed of the 
 rock in wdiich the cavern is formed. The dist- 
 ance from its entrance to its inner extremity is 
 twenty-four paces, and the width in the broadest 
 part about nine, and its greatest height about 
 seven feet. In shape it resembles a bakers's oven. 
 The cavern was once probably much more ex- 
 tensive. My interpreter informed me that, since 
 his remembrance, the entrance was not less 
 than ten feet high and its length far greater than 
 at present. The rock in which it is formed is 
 a very white sandstone, so friable that the frag- 
 ments of it will almost crumble to sand when 
 taken into the hand. A few yards below the 
 mouth of the cavern is a very copious spring of 
 fine water issuing from the bottom of the cliff. 
 
 " Five miles above this is the Fountain Cave, 
 on the same side of the river, formed in the same 
 kind of sandstone but of a more pure and fine 
 quality. It is far more curious and interesting 
 than the former. The entrance of the cave is a 
 large winding hall about one hundred and fifty 
 feet in length, fifteen feet in width, and from 
 eight to sixteen feet in height, finely arched 
 overhead, and nearly perpendicular. Next suc- 
 ceeds a narrow passage and difficult of entrance, 
 which opens into a moat beautiful circular room, 
 finely arched above, and about forty feet in di- 
 ameter. The cavern then continues a meander- 
 ing course, expanding occasionally into small 
 rooms of a circular form. We penetrated about 
 one hundred and fifty yards, till our candles 
 began to fail us,, when we returned. To beauti- 
 fy and embellish the scene, a fine crystal stream 
 flows through the cavern, and cheers the lone- 
 some dark retreat with its enlivening murmurs. 
 The temperature of the water in the cave was 
 46 deg., and that of the air 60 deg. Entering 
 this cold retreat from an atmosphere of 89 deg. , 
 I thought it not prudent to remain in it long 
 enough to take its several dimensions and me- 
 ander its courses ; particularly as we had to wade 
 in water to our knees in many places in order to 
 penetrate as far as we went. The fountain sup- 
 plies an abundance of water as fine as I ever 
 drank. This cavern I was informed by my 
 interpreter, has been discovered but a few years. 
 That the Indians formerly living in its neighbor- 
 hood knew nothing of it till within six years 
 past. That it is not the same as that described 
 by Carver is evident, not only from this circum- 
 stance, but also from the circumstance that in- 
 stead of a stagnant pool, and only one accessible 
 room of a very different form, this cavern has 
 a brook running through it, and at least four 
 rooms in succession, one after the other. Car- 
 ver's Cave is fast filling up with sand, so that 
 no water is now found in it, whereas this, from 
 the very nature of the place, must be enlarging, 
 as the fountain will carry along with its current 
 all the sand that falls into it from the roof and 
 sides of the cavern." 
 
 On the night of the sixteenth, he arrived at the 
 Falls of Saint Anthony and encamped on the east 
 shore just below the cataract. He writes in his 
 journal : 
 
DESCRIPTION OF FALLS OF SAINT ANTHONY. 
 
 85 
 
 "The place where we encamped last night need- 
 ed no embellishment to render it romantic in the 
 highest degree. The banks on both sides of the 
 river are about one hundred feet high, decorated 
 with trees and shrubbery of various kinds. The 
 post oak, hickory, walnut, linden, sugar tree, 
 white birch, and the American box ; also various 
 evergreens, such as the pine, cedar, juniper, 
 etc., added their embellishments to the scene. 
 Amongst the shrubery were the prickly ash, 
 plum, and cherry tree, the gooseberry, the black 
 and red raspberry, the chokeberry, grape vine, 
 etc. There were also various kinds of herbage 
 and flowers, among which were the wild paisley. 
 rue, spikenard, etc., red and white roses, morning 
 glory and various other handsome flowers. A 
 few yards below us was a beautiful cascade of 
 fine spring water, pouring down from a project- 
 ing precipice about one hundred feet hight. On 
 our left was the Mississippi hurrying through its 
 channel with great velocity, and about three 
 quarters of a mile above us. in plain view, was 
 the majestic cataract of the Falls of St. Anthony. 
 The murmuring of the cascade, the roaring of the 
 river, and the thunder of the cataract, all contrib- 
 uted to render the scene the most interestingand 
 magnifieient of any I ever before witnessed/' 
 
 '•The perpendicular fall of the water at the 
 cataract, was stated by Pike in his journal, as six- 
 teen and a half feet, which I found to be true by 
 actual measurement. To this height, however. 
 four or five feet may be added for the rapid des- 
 cent which immediately succeeds to the perpen- 
 dicular fall within a few yards below. Immedi- 
 ately at the cataract the river is divided into two 
 parts by an island which extends considerably 
 above and below the cataract, and is about five 
 hundred yards long. The channel on the right 
 side of the Island is about three times the width 
 of that on the left. The quauity of water pass- 
 ins through them is not, however, in the same 
 proportion, as about one-third part of the whole 
 passes through the left channel. In the broadest 
 channel, just below the cataract, is a small island 
 also, about fifty yards in length and thirty in 
 breadth. Both of these islands contain the same 
 kind of rocky formation as the banks of the river, 
 and are nearly as high. Besides these, there are 
 immediately at the foot of the cataract, two 
 islands of very inconsiderable size, situated in 
 
 the right channel also. The rapids commence 
 several hundred yards above the cataract and 
 continue about eight miles below. The fall of 
 the water, beginning at the head of the rapids, 
 and extending two hundred and sixty rods down 
 the river to where the portage road commences, 
 below the cataract is, according to Pike, fifty- 
 eight feet. If this estimate be correct the whole 
 fall from the head to the foot of the rapids, is not 
 probably much less than one hundred feet. But 
 as I had no instrument sufficiently accurate to 
 level, where the view must necessarily be pretty 
 extensive, I took no pains to ascertain the extent 
 of the fall. The mode I adopted to ascertain 
 the height of a cataract, was to suspend a line 
 and plummet from the table rock on the south 
 side of the river, which at the same time had 
 very little water passing over it as the river was 
 unusually low. The rocky formations at this 
 place were arranged in the following order, from 
 the surface downward. A coarse kind of lime- 
 stone in thin strata containing considerable silex; 
 a kind of soft friable stone of a greenish color 
 and slaty fracture, probably containing - lime, 
 aluminum and silex ; a very beautiful satratifica- 
 tion of shell limestone, in thin plates, extremely 
 regular in its formation and containing a vast 
 n umber of shells, all apparently of the same 
 kind. This formation constitutes the Table Kock 
 of the cataract. The next in order is a white or 
 yellowish sandstone, so easily crumbled that it 
 deserves the name of a sandbank rather than that 
 of a rock. It is of various depths, from ten to 
 fifty or seventy-five feet, and is of the same char- 
 acter with that found at the caves before des- 
 cribed. The next in order is a soft friable sand- 
 stone, of a greenish color, similar to that resting 
 upon the shell limestone. These stratifications 
 occupied the whole space from the low water 
 mark nearly to the top of the bluffs. On the east, 
 or rather north side of the river, at the Falls, are 
 high grounds, at the distance of half a mile from 
 the river, considerably more elevated than the 
 bluffs, and of a hilly aspect. 
 
 Speaking of the bluff at the confluence o. Jie 
 Mississippi and Minnesota, he writes: "A military 
 work of considerable magnitude might be con- 
 structed on the point, and might be rendered 
 sufficiently secure by occupying the commanding 
 height in the rear in a suitable manner, as the 
 
B6 
 
 EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 latter would control not only the point, but all 
 the neighboring heights, to the full extent of a 
 twelve pounder's range. The work on the point 
 would be necessary to control the navigation of 
 the two rivers. But without the commanding 
 work in the rear, would be liable to be greatly 
 annoyed from a height situated directly opposite 
 
 on the other side of the Mississippi, which is 
 here no more than about two hundred and fifty 
 yards wide. This latter height, however, would 
 not be eligible for a permanent post, on account 
 of the numerous ridges and ravines situated im- 
 mediately in its rear." 
 
EARLY HISTORY OF RED RIVER VALLEY. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 TH03IAS DOTXGLAS, EARL OF SELKIRK, AND THE RED RrVER VALLEY. 
 
 fcrly travelers to Lake Winnipeg— Earliest Map by the Indian Otchaga— Benin's 
 allusion to it— Verendrye's Map— De la Jemeraye's Map— Fort La Reine— Fort 
 on Red River abandoned— Origin of name Red Lake— Earl of Selkirk— Ossini- 
 boia described— Scotch immigrants at Pemhina— Strife of trading companies— 
 Earl of Selkirk visits America— Governor Serople Killed— Romantic life of John 
 Tanner, and his son James — Letter relative to Selkirk's tour through Minne- 
 
 The valley of the Red River of the North is 
 not only an important portion of Minnesota, but 
 has a most interesting history. 
 
 "While there is no evidence that Groselliers, the 
 first white man who explored Minnesota, ever 
 visited Lake Winnipeg and the Red River, yet he 
 met the Assineboines at the head of Lake Supe- 
 rior and at Lake Nepigon, while on his way by a 
 northeasterly trail to Hudson's Bay, and learned 
 something of this region from them, 
 i The first person, of whom we have an account, 
 "who visited the region, was an Englishman, who 
 came in 1692, by way of York River, to "Winni- 
 peg. 
 
 Ochagachs, or Otchaga, an intelligent Indian, in 
 1728, assured Pierre Gualtier de Varenne, known 
 in history as the Sieur Verendrye, while he was 
 stationed at Lake Nepigon, that there was a 
 communication, largely by water, west of Lake 
 Superior, to the Great Sea or Pacific Ocean. The 
 rude map, drawn by this Indian, was sent to 
 France, and is still preserved. Upon it is marked 
 Kamanistigouia, the fort first established by Du 
 Luth. Pigeon Paver is called Mantohavagane. 
 Lac Sasakanaga is marked, and Rainy Lake is 
 named Tecamemiouen. The river St. Louis, of 
 Minnesota, is R. fond du L. Superior. The 
 French geographer, Bellin, in his " Remarks 
 upon the map of North America," published in 
 1755, at Paris, alludes to this sketch of Ochagachs, 
 and says it is the earliest drawing of the region 
 west of Lake Superior, in the Depot de la Marine. 
 
 After this Verendrye, in 1737, drew a map, 
 which remains unpublished, which shows Red 
 Lake in Northern Minnesota, and the point of 
 the Big "Woods in the Red River Valley. There 
 
 is another sketch in the archives of France, 
 drawn by De la Jemeraye. He was a nephew of 
 Verendrye, and, under his uncle's orders, he was 
 in 1731, the first to advance from the Grand 
 Portage of Lake Superior, by way of the Nalao- 
 uagan or Groselliers, now Pigeon River, to Rainy 
 Lake. On this appears Fort Rouge, on the south 
 bank of the Assineboine at its junction with the 
 Red River, and on the Assineboine, a post estab- 
 lished on October 3, 1738, and called Fort La 
 Reine. Bellin describes the fort on Red River, 
 but asserts that it was abandoned because of its 
 vicinity to Fort La Reine, on the north side of 
 the Assinneboine, and only about nine miles by 
 a portage, from Swan Lake. Red Lake and Red 
 River were so called by the early French explo- 
 rers, on account of the reddish tint of the waters 
 after a storm. 
 
 Thomas Douglas, Earl of Selkirk, a wealthy, 
 kind-hearted but visionary Scotch nobleman, at 
 the commencement of the present century formed 
 the design of planting a colony of agriculturists 
 west of Lake Superior. In the year 1811 he 
 obtained a grant of land from the Hudson Bay 
 Company called Ossiniboia, which it seems 
 strange has been given up by the people of Man- 
 itoba. In the autumn of 1812 a few Scotchmen 
 with their families arrived at Pembina, in the 
 Red River Valley, by way of Hudson Bay, where 
 they passed the winter. In the winter of 1813-14 
 they were again at Fort Daer or Pembina. The 
 colonists of Red River were rendered very un- 
 happy by the strife of rival trading companies. 
 
 In the spring of 1815, McKenzie and Morrison, 
 traders of the Northwest company, at Sandy 
 Lake, told the Ojibway chief there, that they 
 would give him and his band all the goods and 
 rum at Leech or Sandy Lakes, if they would an- 
 noy the Red River settlers. 
 
 The Earl of Selkirk hearing of the distressed 
 condition of his colony, sailed for America, and 
 
EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 in the fall of 1815, arrived at New York City. 
 Proceeding to Montreal he found a messenger 
 who had traveled on foot in mid-winter from the 
 Red River by way of Red Lake and Fon du Lac, 
 of Lake Superior. He sent back by this man, 
 kind messages to the dispirited settlers, but one 
 night he was way-laid near Fon.du Lac, and 
 robbed of his canoe and dispatches. An Ojib- 
 way chief at Sandy Lake, afterwards testified 
 that a trader named Grant offered him rum and 
 tobacco, to send persons to intercept a bearer of 
 dispatches to Red River, and soon the messenger 
 was brought in by a negro and some Indians. 
 
 Failing to obtain military aid from the 
 British authorities in Canada, Selkirk made an 
 engagement with four officers and eighty privates, 
 of the discharged Meuron regiment, twenty of 
 the De Watteville, and a few of the Glengary 
 Fencibles, which had served in the late war with 
 the United States, to accompany him to Red 
 River. They were to receive monthly wages for 
 navigating the boats to Red River, to have lands 
 assigned them, and a free passage if they wished 
 to return. 
 
 When he reached Sault St. Marie, he received 
 the intelligence that the colony had again been 
 destroyed, and that Semple, a mild, amiable, but 
 not altogether judicious man, the chief governor 
 of the factories and territories of the Hudson 
 Bay company, residing at Red River, had been 
 killed. 
 
 Schoolcraft, in 1832, says he saw at Leech 
 Lake, Majegabowi, the man who had killed Gov. 
 Semple, after he fell wounded from his horse. 
 
 Before he heard of the death of Semple, the 
 Earl of Selkirk had made arrangements to visit 
 his colony byway of Fon du Lac, on the St. Louis 
 River, and Red Lake of Minnesota, but he now 
 changed his mind, and proceeded with his force 
 to Fort William, the chief trading post of the 
 Northwest Company on Lake Superior ; and ap- 
 prehending the principal partners, warrants of 
 commitment were issued, and they were forward- 
 ed to the Attorney-General of Upper Canada. 
 
 While Selkirk was engaged at Fort William, 
 a party of emigrants in charge of Miles McDon- 
 nel, Governor, and Captain D'Orsomen, went 
 forward to reinforce the colony. At Rainy 
 Lake they obtained the guidance of a man who 
 had all the characteristics of an Indian, and yet 
 
 had a bearing which suggested a different origin. 
 By his efficiency and temperate habits, he had se- 
 cured the respect of his employers, and on the Earl 
 of Selkirk's arrival at Red River, his attention was 
 called to him, and in his welfare he became 
 deeply interested. By repeated conversations 
 with him, memories of a different kind of exist- 
 ence were aroused, and the light of other days 
 began to brighten. Though he had forgotten his 
 father's name, he furnished sufficient data for 
 Selkirk to proceed with a search for his relatives. 
 Visiting the United States in 1817, he published 
 a circular in the papers of the Western States, 
 which led to the identification of the man. 
 
 It appeared from his own statement, and 
 those of his friends, that his name was John 
 Tanner, the son of a minister of the gospel, win , 
 about the year 1790, lived on the Ohio river, near 
 the Miami. Shortly after his location there, a 
 band of roving Indians passed near the house, 
 aud found John Tanner, then a little boy, filling 
 his hat with walnuts from under a tree. They 
 seized him and fled. The party was led by an 
 Ottawa whose wife had lost a son. To compen- 
 sate for his death, the mother begged that a boy 
 of the same age might be captured. 
 
 Adopted by the band, Tanner grew up an 
 Indian in his tastes and habits, and was noted 
 for bravery. Selkirk was successful in finding 
 his relatives. After twenty-eight years of sepa- 
 ration, John Tanner in 1818, met his brother 
 Edward near Detroit, and went with him to his 
 home in Missouri. He soon left his brother, and 
 went back to the Indians. For a time he was 
 interpreter for Henry R. Schoolcraft, but became 
 lazy and ill-natured, and in 1836, skulking behind 
 some bushes, he shot and killed Schoolcraft's 
 brother, and fled to the wilderness, where, in 
 1847, he died. His son, James, was kindly treat- 
 ed by the missionaries to the Ojibways of Minne- 
 sota - , but he walked in the footsteps of his father. 
 In the year 1851, he attempted to impose upon 
 the Fresbyterian minister in Saint Paul, and, 
 when detected, called upon the Baptist minister, 
 who, believing him a penitent, cut a hole in the 
 ice, and received him into the church by immer- 
 sion. In time, the Baptists found him out, when 
 he became an Unitarian missionary, and, at last, 
 it is said, met a death by violence. , 
 
 Lord Selkirk was in the Red River Valley 
 
EARL OF SELKIRK VISITS SAINT LOUIS. 
 
 so 
 
 during the summer of 1817, and on the eighteenth 
 of July concluded a treaty with the Crees and 
 Saulteaux, for a tract of land beginning at the 
 mouth of the Eed River, and extending along 
 the same as far as the Great Forks (now Grand 
 Forks) at the mouth of Red Lake River, and 
 along the Assinniboine River as far as Musk Rat 
 River, and extending to the distance of six miles 
 from Fort Douglas on every side, and likewise 
 from Fort Daer (Pembina) and also from the 
 Great Forks, and in other parts extending to the 
 distance of two miles from the banks of the said 
 rivers. 
 
 Having restored order and confidence, attend- 
 ed by three or four persons he crossed the plains 
 to the Minnesota River, and from thence pro- 
 ceeded to St. Louis. The Indian agent at 
 Prairie du Chien was not pleased with Selkirk's 
 trip through Minnesota; and on the sixth of 
 February, 1818, wrote the Governor of Illinois 
 under excitement, some groundless suspicions : 
 
 •• What do you suppose, sir, has been the re- 
 sult of the passage through my agency of this 
 British nobleman? Two entire bands, and part 
 of a third, all Sioux, have deserted us and joined 
 Dickson, who has distributed to them large quan- 
 tities of Indian presents, together with flags. 
 medals, etc. Knowing this, what must have been 
 my feelings on hearing that his lordship had met 
 with a favourable reception at St. Louis. The 
 newspapers announcing his arrival, and general 
 Scottish appearance, all tend to discompose me ; 
 believing as I do, that he is plotting with his 
 friend Dickson our destruction— sharpening the 
 savage scalping knife, and colonizing a tract of 
 country, so«remote as that of the Red River, for 
 the purpose, no doubt, of monopolizing the fur 
 and peltry trade of this river, the Missouri and 
 their waters ; a trade of the first importance to 
 our Western States and Territories. A courier 
 who had arrived a few days since., confirms the 
 belief that Dickson is endeavouring to undo what 
 I have done, and secure to the British govern- 
 ment the affections of the Sioux, and subject the 
 Northwest Company to his lordship. * * * 
 
 Dickson, as I have before observed, is situated 
 near the head of the St. Peter's, to which place 
 he transports his goods from Selkirk's Red River 
 establishment, in carts made for the purpose. 
 The trip is performed in five days, sometimes 
 less. He is directed to build a fort on the high- 
 est land between Lac du Traverse and Red River, 
 which he supposes will be the established bines. 
 This fort will be defended by twenty men, with 
 two small pieces of artillery." 
 
 In the year 1820, at Berne, Switzerland, a cir- 
 cular was issued, signed, R. May D'TJzistorf, 
 Captain, in his Britannic Majesty's service, and 
 agent Plenipotentiary to Lord Selkirk. Like 
 many documents to induce emigration, it was so 
 highly colored as to prove a delusion and a 
 snare. The climate was represented as "mild 
 and healthy." " "Wood either for building or 
 fuel in the greatest plenty," and the country 
 supplying " in profusion, whatever can be re- 
 quired for the convenience, pleasure or comfort 
 of lire." Remarkable statements considering 
 that every green thing had been devoured the 
 year before by grasshoppers. 
 
 Under the influence of these statements, a num- 
 ber were induced to embark. In the spring of 
 1821, about two hundred persons assembled on 
 the banks of the Rhine to proceed to the region 
 Avest of Lake Superior. Having descended the 
 Rhine to the vicinity of Rotterdam, they went 
 aboard the ship "Lord Wellington," and after a 
 voyage across the Atlantic, and amid the ice- 
 floes of Hudson's Bay. they reached York Fort. 
 Here they debarked, and entering batteaux, as'- 
 cended Xelson River for twenty days, when they 
 came to Lake "Winnipeg, and coasting along the 
 west shore they reached the Red River of the 
 North, to feel that they had been deluded, and 
 to long for a milder clime. If they did not sing 
 the Switzer's Song of Home, they appreciated its 
 sentiments, and gradually these immigrants re- 
 moved to' the banks of the Mississippi River. 
 Some settled in Minnesota, and were the first t<: 
 raise cattle, and till the soil. 
 
EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 FORT SNEXi/LNGr DURING ITS OCCUPANCY BY COMPANIES OF THE FIFTH REGIMENT IT. S. INFANTRY, 
 A. D. 1819, TO A. D. 1827. 
 
 Orders for military occupation of Upper Mississippi— Leavenworth and Forsyth 
 at Prairie du Chien— Birth in Camp— Troops arrive at Mendota — Cantonment 
 Established— Wheat carried to Pembina— Notice of Devotion, Prescott, and 
 Major Taliaferro— Camp Cold Water Established— Col. Snelling takes command 
 —Impressive Scene— Officers in 1820— Condition of the Fort in 1821— Saint 
 Anthony Mill— Alexis Bailly takes cattle to Pembina— Notice of Beltrami— 
 Arrival of first Steamboat— Major Long's Expedition to Northern Boundary- 
 Beltrami visits the northern sources oi'the Mississippi— First flour mill— First 
 Sunday School— Great flood in 1826. African slaves at the Fort— Steamboat 
 Arrivals — Duels— Notice of William Joseph Snelling — Indian fight at the Fort- 
 Attack upon keel boats— General Gaines' report— Removal of Fifth Regiment- 
 Death of Colonel Snelling. 
 
 The rumor that Lord Selkirk was founding a 
 colony on the borders of the United States, and 
 that the British trading companies within the 
 boundaries of what became the territory of Min- 
 nesota, convinced the authorities at Washington 
 of the importance of a military occupation of the 
 valley of the Upper Mississippi. 
 
 By direction of Major General Brown, the fol- 
 lowing order, on the tenth of February, 1819, was 
 issued : 
 
 " Major General Macomb, commander of the 
 Fifth Military department, will without delay, 
 concentrate at Detroit the Fifth Regiment of In- 
 fantry, excepting the recruits otherwise directed 
 by the general order herewith transmitted. As 
 soon as the navigation of the lakes will admit, he 
 will cause the regiment to be transported to Fort 
 Howard; from thence, by the way of the Fox 
 and Wisconsin Rivers, to Prairie du Chien, and, 
 after detaching a sufficient number of companies 
 to garrison Forts Crawford and Armstrong, the 
 remainder will proceed to the mouth of the River 
 St. Peter's, where they will establish a post, at 
 which the headquarters of the regiment will be 
 located. The regiment, previous to its depar- 
 ture, will receive the necessary supplies of cloth- 
 ing, provisions, arms, and ammunition. Imme- 
 diate application will be made to Brigadier Gen- 
 eral Jesup, Quartermaster General, for funds 
 necessary to execute the movements required by 
 this order." 
 
 On the thirteenth of April, this additional order 
 was issued, at Detroit ; "~" ■> 
 
 "The season having now arrived when the 
 lakes may be navigated with safety, a detach- 
 ment of the Fifth Regiment, to consist of Major 
 Marston's and Captain Fowle's companies, under 
 the command of Major Muhlenburg, will proceed 
 to Green Bay. Surgeon's Mate, R. M. Byrne, of 
 the Fifth Regiment, will accompany the detach- 
 ment. The Assistant Deputy Quartermaster 
 General will furnish the necessary transport, and 
 will send by the same opportunity two hundred 
 barrels of provisions, which he will draw from the 
 contractor at this post. The provisions must be 
 examined and inspected, and properly put up for 
 transportation. Colonel Leavenworth will, with- 
 out delay, prepare his regiment to move to the 
 post on the Mississippi, agreeable to the Divi- 
 sion order of the tenth of February. The Assist- 
 ant Deputy Quartermaster General will furnish 
 the necessary transportation, to be ready by the 
 first of May next. The Colonel will make requi- 
 sition for such stores, ammunition, tools and 
 implements as may be required, and he be able to 
 take with him on the expedition. Particular in- 
 structions will be given to the Colonel, explaining 
 the objects of his expedition." 
 
 EVENTS OF THE YEAR 1819. 
 
 On Wednesday, the last day of June, Col. Leav- 
 enworth and troops arrived from Green Bay, at 
 Prairie du Chien. Scarcely had they reached 
 this point when Charlotte Seymour, the wife of 
 Lt. Nathan Clark, a native of Hartford, Ct., 
 gave birth to a daughter, whose first baptismal 
 name was Charlotte, after her mother, and the 
 second Ouisconsin, given by the officers in view 
 of the fact that she was born at the junction of 
 that stream with the Mississippi. 
 
 In time Charlotte Ouisconsin married a young 
 Lieutenant, a native of Princeton, New Jersey, 
 and a graduate of West Point, and still resides 
 with her husband, General H. P. Van Cleve, in 
 
 
COL. LEAVENWORTH ABBIVES AT MENDOTA 
 
 91 
 
 the city of Minneapolis, living to do good as she 
 has opportunity. 
 
 In June, under instructions from the War 
 Department, Major Thomas Forsyth, connected 
 with the office of Indian affairs, left St. Louis 
 -with two thousand dollars worth of goods to be 
 distributed among the Sioux Indians, in accor- 
 dance with the agreement of 1805, already re- 
 ferred to, by the late General Pike. 
 
 About nine o'clock of the morning of the fifth 
 of July, he joined Leavenworth and his command 
 at Prairie du Chien. Some time was occupied by 
 Leavenworth awaiting the arrival of ordnance, 
 provisions and recruits, but on Sunday morning, 
 the eighth of August, about eight o'clock, the 
 expedition set out for the point now known as 
 Mendota. The flotilla was quite imposing ; there 
 were the Colonel's barge, fourteen batteaux with 
 ninety-eight soldiers and officers, two large canal 
 or Mackinaw boats, filled with various stores, and 
 Porsyth's keel boat, containing goods and pres- 
 ents for the Indians. On the twenty-third of 
 August, Forsyth reached the mouth of the Min- 
 nesota with his boat, and the next morning Col. 
 Leavenworth arrived, and selecting a place at 
 Mendota, near the present railroad bridge, he 
 ordered the soldiers to cut down trees and make 
 a clearing. On the next Saturday Col. Leaven- 
 worth, Major Vose, Surgeon Purcell, Lieutenant 
 Clark and the wife of Captain Gooding ivited 
 the Falls of Saint Anthony with Forsyth, in 
 his keel boat. 
 
 Early in September two more boats and a bat- 
 teaux, with officers and one hundred and twenty 
 recruits, arrived. 
 
 During the winter of 1820,Laidlow and others, 
 in behalf of Lord Selkirk's Scotch settlers at 
 Pembina, whose crops had been destroyed by 
 grasshoppers, passed the Cantonment, on their 
 way to Prairie du Chien, to purchase wheat. 
 Upon the fifteenth of April they began their 
 return with their Mackinaw boats, each loaded 
 with two hundred bushels of wheat, one hundred 
 of oats, and thirty of peas, and reached the mouth 
 of the Minnesota early in May. Ascending this 
 stream to Big Stone Lake, the boats were drawn 
 on rollers a mile and a half to Lake Traverse, 
 and on the third of June arrived at Pembina and 
 cheered the desponding and needy settlers of the 
 Selkirk colony. 
 
 The first sutler of the post was a Mr. Devotion. 
 He brought with him a young man named Phi- 
 lander Prescott, who was born in 1S01, at Phelps- 
 town, Ontario county, New York. At first they 
 stopped at Mud Hen Island, in the Mississippi 
 below the mouth of the St. Croix River. Coming 
 up late in the year 1819, at the site of the pres- 
 ent town of Hastings they found a keel-boat 
 loaded with supplies for the cantonment, in charge 
 of Lieut. Oliver, detained by the ice. 
 
 Amid all the changes of the troops, Mr. Pres- 
 cott remained nearly all his life in the vicinity of 
 the post, to which he came when a mere lad, and 
 was at length killed in the Sioux Massacre. 
 
 EVENTS OF THE YEAR 1820 
 
 In the spring of 1820, Jean Baptiste Faribault 
 brought up Leavenworth's horses from Prairie 
 du Chien. 
 
 The first Indian Agent at the post was a former 
 army officer, Lawrence Taliaferro, pronounced 
 Toliver. As he had the confidence of the Gov- 
 ernment for twenty-one successive years, he is 
 deserving of notice. 
 
 His family was of Italian origin, and among 
 the early settlers of Virginia. He was born in 
 1794, in King "William county in that State, and 
 when, in 1812, war was declared against Great 
 Britain, with four brothers, he entered the army, 
 and was commissioned as Lieutenant of the 
 Thirty-fifth Infantry. He behaved gallantly at 
 Fort Erie and Sackett's Harbor, and after peace 
 was declared, he was retained as a First Lieuten- 
 ant of the Third Infantry. In 1816 he was sta- 
 tioned at Fort Dearborn, now the site of Chicago. 
 "While on a furlough, he called one day upon 
 President Monroe, who told him that a fort would 
 be built near the Falls of Saint Anthony, and an 
 Indian Agency "established, to which he offered 
 to appoint him. His commission was dated 
 March 27th, 1819, and he proceeded in due time 
 to his post. 
 
 On the fifth day of May, 1820, Leavenworth 
 left his winter quarters at Mendota, crossed the 
 stream and made a summer camp near the 
 present military grave yard, which in consequence 
 of a fine spring has been called " Camp Cold 
 "Water." The Indian agency, under Taliaferro, - 
 remained for a time at the old cantonment. 
 
 The commanding officer established a fine 
 
18 
 
 EXPLOBEIiS AND PIONEERS OF 3IINNES0TA. 
 
 garden in the bottom lands of the Minnesota, 
 and on the fifteenth of June the earliest garden 
 peas were eaten. The first distinguished visitors 
 at the new encampment were Governor Lewis 
 Cass, of .Michigan, and Henry Schoolcraft, who 
 arrived in July, by way of Lake Superior and 
 Sandy Lake. 
 
 The relations between Col. Leavenworth and 
 Indian Agent Taliaferro were not entirely har- 
 monious, growing out of a disagreement of views 
 relative to the treatment of the Indians, and on 
 the day of the arrival of Governor Cass, Tel- 
 iaferro writes to Leavenworth : 
 
 •■ As it is now understood that I am agent for 
 Indian affairs in this country, and you are about 
 to leave the upper Mississippi, in all probability 
 hi the course of a month or two, I beg leave to 
 suggest, for the sake of a general understanding 
 with the Indian tribes in this country, that any 
 medals, you may possess, would by being turned 
 over to me, cease to be a topic of remark among 
 the different Indian tribes under my direction. 
 I will pass to you any voucher that may be re- 
 quired, and I beg leave to observe that any pro- 
 gress in influence is much impeded in conse- 
 quence of this frequent intercourse with the gar- 
 rison." 
 
 In a few days, the disastrous effect of Indians 
 mingling with the soldiers was exhibited. On 
 the third of August, the agent wrote to Leaven- 
 worth: 
 
 " His Excellency Governor Cass during his 
 visit to this post remarked to me that the Indians 
 jn this quarter were spoiled, and at the same 
 time said they should not be permitted to enter 
 the camp. Air unpleasant affair has lately taken 
 place ; I mean the stabbing of the old chief 
 Mahgossau by his comrade. This was caused, 
 doubtless, by an anxiety to obtain the chief's 
 whiskey. I beg, therefore, that no whiskey 
 whatever be given to any Indians, unless it be 
 through their proper agent. While an overplus 
 of whiskey thwarts the benificent and humane 
 policy of the government, it entails misery upon 
 the Indians, and endangers their lives." 
 
 A few days after this note was written Josiah 
 Snelling, who had been recently promoted to the 
 Colonelcy of the Fifth Eegiment, arrived with 
 his family, relieved Leavenworth, and infused 
 new life and energy. A little while before his 
 
 arrival, the daughter of Captain Gooding was 
 married to Lieutenant Green, the Adjutant of 
 the regiment, the first marriage of white persons 
 hi Minnesota. Mrs. Snelling, a few days after 
 her arrival, gave birth to a daughter, the first 
 white child born in Minnesota, and after a brief 
 existence of thirteen months, she died and was 
 the first interred in the military grave yard, and 
 for years the fctone which marked its resting, 
 place, was visible. 
 
 The earliest manuscript in Minnesota, written 
 at the Cantonment, is dated October 4, 1820, and 
 is in the handwriting of Colonel Snelling. It 
 reads : " In justice to Lawrence Taliaferro, Esq., 
 Indian Agent at this post, we, the undersigned, 
 officers of the Fifth Eegiment here stationed, 
 have presented him this paper, as a token, not 
 only of our individual respect and esteem, but as 
 an entire approval of his conduct and deportment 
 as a public agent in this quarter. Given at St. 
 Peter, this 4th day of October, 1820. 
 
 J. Snelling, 
 
 Col. 5th Inf. 
 S. Btjrbank, 
 
 Br. Major. 
 David Perry, 
 Captain. 
 
 D. Gooding, 
 Brevet Captain. 
 
 J. Plympton, 
 
 Lieutenant. 
 
 E. A. McCabe, 
 
 Lieutenant. 
 
 H". Clark, 
 
 Lieutenant. 
 Jos. Hare, 
 
 Lieutenant. 
 Ed. Purcell, 
 
 Surgeon, 
 P. E. Green, 
 
 Lieut, and Adjt. 
 W. G. Camp, 
 
 Lt. and Q. M. 
 H. "Wilkins, 
 
 Lieutenant." 
 
 During the summer of 1820, a party of the 
 Sisseton Sioux killed on the Missouri, Isadore 
 Poupon, a half-breed, and Joseph Andrews, a 
 Canadian engaged in the fur trade. The Indian 
 Agent, through Colin Campbell, as interpreter, 
 notified the Sissetons that trade would cease 
 with them, until the murderers were delivered. 
 At a council held at Big Stone Lake, one of the 
 murderers, and the aged father of another, agreed 
 to surrender themselves to the commanding 
 
 On the twelfth of November, accompanied by 
 their friends, they approached the encampment 
 in solemn procession, and marched to the centre 
 of the parade. Eirst appeared a Sisseton bear- 
 ing a British flag ; then the murderer and the de- 
 voted father of another, their arms pinioned, and 
 
 _-r 
 
 — 
 
ARRIVAL OF THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. 
 
 large wooden splinters thrust through the flesh 
 above the elbows indicating their contempt for 
 pain and death ; in the rear followed friends and 
 relatives, with them chanting the death dirge. 
 Having arrived in front of the guard, fire was 
 kindled, and the British flag burned; then the 
 murderer delivered up his medal, and both prison- 
 ers were surrounded. Col. Snelling detained the 
 old chief, while the murderer was sent to St. 
 Louis for trial. 
 
 EVENTS OF THE YEAR 1821. 
 
 Col. Snelling built the fort in the shape of a 
 lozenge, in view of the projection between the 
 two rivers. The first row of barracks was of 
 hewn logs, obtained from the pine forests of Bum 
 River, but the other buildings were of stone. 
 Mrs. Van Cleve, the daughter of Lieutenant, 
 afterwards Captain Clark, writes : 
 
 •• In 1S21 the fort, although not complete, was 
 fit for occupancy. My father had assigned to 
 him the quarters next beyond the steps leading 
 to the Commissary's stores, and during the year 
 my little sister Juliet was born there. At a later 
 period my father and Major Garland obtained 
 permission to build more commodious quarters 
 outside the walls, and the result was the two 
 stone houses afterwards occupied by the Indian 
 Agent and interpreter, lately destroyed." 
 
 Early in August, a young and intelligent mixed 
 blood, Alexis Bailly. in after years a member of 
 the legislature of Minnesota, left the cantonment 
 with the first drove of cattle for the Selkirk Set- 
 tlement, and the next winter returned with Col. 
 Robert Dickson and Messrs. Laidlow and Mac- 
 kenzie. 
 
 The next month, a party of gissetons visited 
 the Indian Agent, and told him that they had 
 started with another of the murderers, to which 
 reference has been made, but that on the way he 
 had, through fear of being hung, killed himself. 
 
 This fall, a mill was constructed for the use of 
 the garrison, on the west side of St. Anthony 
 Falls,under the supervision of Lieutenant McCabe. 
 During the fall, George Gooding, Captain by 
 brevet, resigned, and became Sutler at Prairie du 
 Chien. He was a native of Massachusetts, and 
 entered the army as ensign in 1808. In 1810 he 
 became a Second Lieutenant, and the next year 
 was wounded at Tippecanoe. 
 
 In the middle of October, there embarked on 
 the keel-boat " Saucy Jack," for Prairie du Chien, 
 Col. Snelling, Lieut. Baxley, Major Taliaferro, 
 I and Mrs. Gooding, 
 
 EVENTS OF 1822 AND 1823. 
 
 Early in January, 1822, there came to the Fort 
 from the Red River of the North, Col. Robert 
 Dickson, Laidlow, a Scotch farmer, the superin- 
 tendent of Lord Selkirk's experimental farm, and 
 one Mackenzie, on their way to Prairie du Chien. 
 Dickson returned with a drove of cattle, but 
 owing to the hostility of the Sioux his cattle were 
 scattered, and never reached Pembina. 
 
 During the winter of 1823, Agent Taliaferro 
 was in Washington. While returning in March, 
 he was at a hotel in Pittsburg, when he received 
 a note signed G. C. Beltrami, who was an Italian 
 exile, asking permission to accompany him to the 
 Indian territory. He was tall and commanding 
 in appearance, and gentlemanly in bearing, and 
 Taliaferro was so forcibly impressed as to accede 
 to the request. After reaching St. Louis they 
 embarked on the first steamboat for the Upper 
 Mississippi. 
 
 It was named the Virginia, and wa a built in 
 Pittsburg, twenty-two feet in width, and one 
 hundred and eighteen feet in length, in charge of 
 a Captain Crawford. It reached the Fort on the 
 tenth of May. and was saluted by the discharge 
 of cannon. Among the passengers, besides the 
 Agent and the Italian, were Major Biddle, Lieut. 
 Russell, and others. 
 
 The arrival of the Virginia is an era in the 
 history of the Dahkotah nation, and will proba- 
 bly be transmitted to their posterity as long as 
 they exist as a people. They say their sacred 
 men. the night before, dreamed of seeing some 
 monster of the waters, which frightened them 
 very much. 
 
 As the boat neared the shore, men, women, 
 and children beheld with silent astonishment, 
 supposing that it was some enormous Avater-spirit, 
 coughing, puffing out hot breath, and splashing 
 water in every direction. When it touched the 
 landing their fears prevailed, and they retreated 
 some distance ; but when the blowing off of 
 steam commenced they were completely un- 
 nerved : mothers forgetting their children, with 
 streaming hair, sought hiding-places ; chiefs, re- 
 
04 
 
 EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 counting their stoicism, scampered away like 
 affrighted animals. 
 
 The peace agreement heteen the Ojibways and 
 Dahkotahs, made through the influence of Gov- 
 ernor Cass, was of brief duration, the latter be- 
 ing the first to violate the provisions. 
 
 On the fourth of June, Taliaferro, the Indian 
 agent among the Dahkotahs, took advantage of 
 the presence of a large number of Ojibways to 
 renew the agreement for the cessation of hostili- 
 ties. The council hall of the agent was a large 
 room of logs, in which waved conspicuously the 
 flag of the United States, surrounded by British 
 colors and medals that had been delivered up 
 from time to time by Indian chiefs. 
 
 Among the Dahkotah chiefs present were 
 Wapashaw, Little Crow, and Penneshaw ; of the 
 Ojibways there were Kendouswa, Moshomene, 
 and Pasheskonoepe. After mutual accusations 
 and excuses concerning the infraction of the pre- 
 vious treaty, the Dahkotahs lighted the calumet, 
 they having been the first to infringe upon the 
 agreement of 1820. After smoking and passing 
 the pipe of peace to the Ojibways, who passed 
 through the same formalities, they all shook 
 hands as a pledge of renewed amity. 
 
 The morning after the council, Plat Mouth, 
 the distinguished Ojibway chief, arrived, who 
 had left his lodge vowing that he would never be 
 at peace with the Dahkotahs. As he stepped from 
 his canoe, Penneshaw held out his hand, but was 
 repulsed with scorn. The Dahkotah warrior 
 immediately gave the alarm, and in a moment 
 runners were on their way to the neighboring 
 villages to raise a war party. 
 
 On the sixth of June, the Dahkotahs had assem- 
 bled, stripped for a fight, and surrounded the 
 Ojibways. The latter, fearing the worst, con- 
 cealed their women and children behind the old 
 barracks which had been used by the troops while 
 the fort was being erected. At the solicitation of 
 the agent and commander of the fort, the Dahko- 
 tahs desisted from an attack and retired. 
 
 On the seventh, the Ojibways left for their 
 homes; but, in a few hours, while they were 
 making a portage at Palls of St. Anthony, they 
 were again approached by the Dahkotahs, who 
 would have attacked them, if a detachment of 
 troops had not arrived from the fort. 
 
 A rumor reaching Penneshaw's village that he 
 
 had been killed at the falls, his mother seized an 
 Ojibway maiden, who had been a captive from 
 infancy, and, with a tomahawk, cut her in two. 
 Upon the return of the son in safety he was much 
 gratified at what he considered the prowess of 
 his parent. 
 
 On the third of July, 1823, Major Long, of the 
 engineers, arrived at the fort in command of an 
 expedition to explore the Minnesota Eiver, and 
 the region along the northern boundary line of 
 the United States. Beltrami, at the request of 
 Col. Snelling, was permitted to be of the party, 
 and Major Taliaferro kindly gave him a horse 
 and equipments. 
 
 The relations of the Italian to Major Long were 
 not pleasant, and at Pembina Beltrami left the 
 expedition, and with a " bois brule ", and two 
 Ojibways proceeded and discovered the northern 
 sources of the Mississippi, and suggested where 
 the western sources would be found ; which was 
 verified by Schoolcraft nine years later. About 
 the second week in September Beltrami returned 
 to the fort by way of the Mississippi, escorted by 
 forty or fifty Ojibways, and on the 25th departed 
 for New Orleans, where he published his discov- 
 eries in the French language. 
 
 The mill which was constructed in 1821, for 
 sawing lumber, at the Palls of St. Anthony, stood 
 upon the site of the Holmes and Sidle Mill, in 
 Minneapolis, and in 1823 was fitted up for grind- 
 ing flour. The following extracts from corres- 
 pondence addressed to Lieut. Clark, Commissary 
 at Port Snelling, will be read with interest. 
 
 Under the date of August 5th, 1823, General 
 Gibson writes : " Prom a letter addressed by 
 Col. Snelling to the Quartermaster General, 
 dated the 2d of April, I learn that a large quan- 
 tity of wheat would be raised this summer. The 
 assistant Commissary of Subsistence at St. Louis 
 has been instructed to forward sickles and a pair 
 of millstones to St. Peters. If any flour is manu- 
 factured from the wheat raised, be pleased to let 
 me know as early as practicable, that I may deduct 
 the quantity manufactured at the post from the 
 quantity advertised to be contracted for." 
 
 In another letter, General Gibson writes : 
 " Below you will find the amount charged on the 
 books against the garrison at Pt. St. Anthony, 
 for certain articles, and forwarded for the use of 
 the troops at that post, which you will deduct 
 
FIRST FLOUR MILL IN MINNESOTA. 
 
 95 
 
 from the payments to be made for flour raised 
 and turned over to you for issue : 
 
 One pair buhr millstones $250 11 
 
 337 pounds plaster of Paris 20 22 
 
 Two dozen sickles 18 00 
 
 Total ...$288 33 
 
 Upon the 19th of January, 1824, the General 
 writes: " The mode suggested by Col. Snelling, 
 of fixing the price to be paid to the troops for the 
 flour furnished by them is deemed equitable and 
 just. You will accordingly pay for the flour 
 S3.33 per barrel." 
 
 Charlotte Ouisconsin Van Cleve, now the oldest 
 person living who was connected with the can- 
 tonment in 1819, in a paper read before the De- 
 partment of American History of the Minnesota 
 Historical Society in January, 1880, wrote : 
 
 " In 1823, Mrs. Snelling and my mother estab- 
 lished the first Sunday School in the Northwest 
 It was held in the basement of the commanding 
 officer's quarters, and was productive of much 
 good. Many of the soldiers, with their families, 
 attended. Joe. Brown, since so well know in 
 this country, then a drummer boy, was one of 
 the pupils. A Bible class, for the officers and 
 their wives, was formed, and all became so inter- 
 ested in the history of the patriarchs, that it fur- 
 nished topics of conversation for the week. One 
 day after the Sunday School lesson on the death of 
 Moses, a member of the class meeting my mother 
 on the parade, after exchanging the usual greet- 
 ings, said, in saddened tones, ' But don't you feel 
 sorry that Moses is dead ? ' 
 
 Early in the spring of 1824. the Tully boys 
 were rescued from the Sioux and brought to the 
 fort. They were children of one of the settlers 
 of Lord Selkirk's colony, and with their parents 
 and others, were on their way from Red River 
 Valley to settle near Fort Snelling. 
 
 The party was attacked by Indians, and the 
 parents of these children murderedfand the boys 
 captured. Through the influence of Col. Snell- 
 ing the children were ransomed and brought 
 to the fort. Col. Snelling took John and 
 my father Andrew, the younger of the two. 
 Everyone became interested in the orphans, and 
 we loved Andrew as if he had been our own lit- 
 tle brother. John died some two years after his 
 arrival at the fort, and Mrs. Snelling asked me 
 
 when I last saw her if a tomb stone had been 
 placed at his grave, she as requested, during a 
 visit to the old home some years ago. She said 
 she received a promise that it should be done, 
 and seemed quite disappointed when I told her it 
 had not been attended to." 
 
 Andrew Tully, after being educated at an 
 Orphan Asylum in New York City, became a 
 carriage maker, and died a few years ago in that 
 vicinity. 
 
 EVENTS OF THE YEAR A. D. 1824. 
 
 In the year 1824 the Fort was visited by Gen. 
 Scott, on a tour of inspection, and at his sug- 
 gestion, its name was changed from Fort St. 
 Anthony to Fort Snelling. The following is an 
 extract from his report to the War Department : 
 
 " This work, of which the War Department is 
 in possession of a plan, reflects the highest credit 
 on Col. Snelling, his officers and men. The de- 
 fenses, and for the most part, the public store- 
 houses, shops and quarters being constructed of 
 stone, the whole is likely to endure as long as the 
 post shall remain a frontier one. The cost of 
 erection to the government has been the amount 
 paid for tools and iron, and the per diem paid 
 to soldiers employed as mechanics. I wish to 
 suggest to the General in Chief, and through him 
 to the War Department, the propriety of calling 
 this work Fort Snelling, as a just compliment 
 to the meritorious officer under whom it has 
 been erected. The present name, (Fort St. An- 
 thony), is foreign to all our associations, and is, 
 besides, geographically incorrect, as the work 
 stands at the junction of the Mississippi and 
 St. Peter's [Minnesota] Rivers, eight miles be- 
 low the great falls of the Mississippi, called 
 after St. Anthony." 
 
 In 1824, Major Taliaferro proceeded to Wash- 
 ington with a delegation of Chippeways and Dah- 
 kotahs, headed by Little Crow, the grand father 
 of the chief of the same name, who was engaged 
 in the late horrible massacre of defenceless 
 women and children. The object of the visit, was 
 to secure a convocation of all the tribes of the 
 Upper Mississippi, at Prairie du Chein, to define 
 their boundary lines and establish friendly rela- 
 tions. When they reached Prairie du Chein, 
 Wahnatah, a Yankton chief, and also Wapashaw, 
 by the whisperings of mean traders, became dis- 
 
EXPLOREP.S AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 affected, and wished to turn back. Little Crow, 
 perceiving tins, stopped all hesitancy by the fol. 
 
 lOWing speech: -.My friends, you can do as you 
 
 please. I am no coward, nor can my ears be 
 pulled about by evil counsels. "We are here and 
 should go on, and do some good for our nation. 
 I have taken our Father here (Taliaferro) by the 
 coat tail, and will follow him until I take by the 
 hand, our great American Father." 
 
 While on board of a steamer on the Ohio 
 River, Marcpee or the Cloud, in consequence of a 
 bad dream, jumped from the stern of the boat, 
 and was supposed to be drowned, but he swam 
 ashore and made his way to St. Charles, Mo., 
 there to be murdered by some Sacs. The re- 
 mainder safely arrived in AVashington and ac- 
 complished the object of the visit. The Dahko- 
 tahs returned by way of New York, and while 
 there were anxious to pay a visit to certain par- 
 ties with Wm. Dickson, a half-breed son of Col 
 Robert Dickson, the trader, who in the war of 
 1812-1-5 led the Indians of the Northwest against 
 the United States. 
 
 After this visit Little Crow carried a new 
 double-barreled gun, and said that a medicine 
 man by the name of Peters gave it to him for 
 signing a certain paper, and that he also prom- 
 ised he would send a keeFboat full of goods to 
 them. The medicine man referred to was the 
 Hev. Samuel Peters, an Episcopal clergyman, 
 who had made himself obnoxious during the 
 Revolution by his tory sentiments, and was sub- 
 sequently nominated as Bishop of Vermont. 
 
 Peters asserted that in 1806 he had purchased 
 of the heirs of Jonathan Carver the right to a 
 tract of land on the upper Mississippi, embracing 
 St. Paul, alleged to have been given to Carver by 
 the Dahkotahs, in 1767. 
 
 The next year there arrived, in one of the keel- 
 boats from Prairie du Chien, at Port Snelling a 
 box marked Col. Kobert Dickson. On opening, it 
 was found to contain a few presents from Peters 
 to Dickson's Indian wife, a long letter, and a 
 copy of Carver's alleged grant, written on parch- 
 ment. 
 
 EVENTS OF THE YEARS 1825 AND 1826. 
 
 On the 30th of October, 1825, seven Indian 
 women in canoes, were drawn into the rapids 
 above the Palls of St. Anthony. All were saved 
 
 but a Lame girl, who was dashed over the cata- 
 ract, and a month later her body was found at 
 Pike's Island in front of the fort. 
 
 Forty years ago, the means of communication 
 between Fort Snelling and the civilized world 
 were very limited. The mail in winter was usu- 
 ally carried. by soldiers to Prairie du Chien. On 
 the 26th of January, 1826, there was great joy in 
 the fort, caused by the return from furlough of 
 Lieutenants Baxley and Russell, who brought 
 with them the first mail received for five months. 
 About this period there was also another excite- 
 ment, cause by the seizure of liquors in the trad" 
 ing house of Alexis Bailey, at New Hope, now 
 Mendota. 
 
 During the months of February and March, in 
 this year, snow fell to the depth of two or three 
 feet, and there was great suffering among the 
 Indians. On one occasion, thirty lodges of Sisse- 
 ton and other Sioux were overtaken by a snow- 
 storm on a large prairie. The storm continued 
 for three days, and provisions grew scarce, for 
 the party were seventy in number. At last, the 
 stronger men, with the few pairs of snow-shoes 
 in their possession, started for a trading post one 
 hundred miles distant. They reached their des- 
 tination half alive, and the traders sympathizing 
 sent four Canadians with supplies for those left 
 behind. After great toil they reached the scene 
 of distress, and found many dead, and, what was 
 more horrible, the living feeding on the corpses 
 of their relatives. A mother had eaten her dead 
 child and a portion of her own father's arms. 
 The shock to her nervous system was so great 
 that she lost her reason. Her name was Pash- 
 uno-ta, and she was both young and good look- 
 ing. One day in September, while at Fort Snell- 
 ing, she asked Captain Jouett if he knew which 
 was the best portion of a man to eat, at the same 
 time taking him by the collar of his coat. He 
 replied with great astonishment, "No!" and she 
 then said, "The arms." She then asked for a 
 piece of his servant to eat, as she was nice and 
 fat. A few days after this she dashed herself 
 from the bluffs near Fort Snelling, into the river. 
 Her body was found just above the mouth of the 
 Minnesota, and decently interred by the agent. 
 
 The spring of 1826 was very backward. Oh 
 the 20th of March snow fell to the depth of one 
 or one and a half feet on a level, and drifted in 
 
KJEGRO SLAVES AT FORT SNELLING. 
 
 97 
 
 heaps from six to fifteen feet in height. On the 
 5th of April, early in the day, there was a violent 
 storm, and the ice was still thick in the river. 
 During the storm flashes of lightning were seen 
 and thunder heard. On the 10th, the thermome- 
 ter was four degrees above zero. On the 14th 
 there was rain, and on the next day the St. Peter 
 river broke up, but the ice on the Mississippi re- 
 mained firm. On the 21st, at noon, the ice began 
 to move, and carried away Mr. Faribault's houses 
 on the east side of the river. For several days 
 the river was twenty feet above low water mark, 
 and all the houses on low lands were swept off. 
 On the second of May, the steamboat Lawrence, 
 Captain Reeder, arrived. 
 
 Major Taliaferro had inherited several slaves, 
 which he used to hire to officers of the garrison. 
 On the 31st of March, his negro boy, William, 
 was employed by Col. Snelling, the latter agree- 
 ing to clothe him. About this time, "William at- 
 tempted to shoot a hawk, but instead shot a small 
 boy, named Henry Cullum, and nearly killed him. 
 In May, Captain Plympton, of the Fifth Infantry, 
 wished to purchase his negro woman, Eliza, but 
 he refused, as it was his intention, ultimately, to 
 free his slaves. Another of his negro girls, Har- 
 riet, was married at the fort, the Major perform- 
 ing the ceremony, to the now historic Dred Scott, 
 who was then a slave of Surgeon Emerson. The 
 only person that ever purchased a slave, to retain 
 in slavery, was Alexis Bailly, who bought a man 
 of Major Garland. The Sioux, at first, had no 
 prejudices against negroes. They called them 
 " Black Frenchmen," and placing their hands on 
 their woolly heads would laugh heartily. 
 
 Tie following is a list of the steamboats that 
 had arrived at Fort Snelling, up to May 26. 1826 : 
 
 1 Virginia, May 10, 1823 ; 2 Neville ; 3 Put- 
 nam, April 2, 1825 ; 3 Mandan ; 5 Indiana ; 6 Law- 
 rence, May 2, 1826 -; 7 Sciota ; 8 Eclipse; 9 Jo- 
 sephine; 10 Fulton; 11 Eed Rover; 12 Black 
 Rover; 13 "Warrior; 1-1 Enterprise ; 15 Volant. 
 
 Life within the walls of a fort is sometimes the 
 exact contrast of a paradise. In the year 1826 a 
 Pandora box was opened, among the officers, and 
 dissensions began to prevail. One young officer, 
 a graduate of AVest Point, whose father had been 
 a professor in Princeton College, fought a duel 
 with, and slightly wounded, "William Joseph, the 
 talented son of Colonel Snelling, who was then 
 
 twenty-two years of age, and had been three years 
 at "West Point. At a Court Martial convened to 
 try the officer for violating the Articles of "War, 
 the accused objected to the testimony of Lieut. 
 "William Alexander, a Tennesseean, not a gradu- 
 ate of the Military Academy, on the ground that 
 he was an infidel. Alexander, hurt by this allu- 
 sion, challenged the objector, and another duel 
 was fought, resulting only in slight injuries to 
 the clothing of the combatants. Inspector Gen- 
 eral E. P. Gaines, after this, visited the fort, and 
 in his report of the inspection he wrote : "A 
 defect in the discipline of this regiment has ap- 
 peared in the character of certain personal con- 
 troversies, between the Colonel and several of his 
 young officers, the particulars of which I forbear 
 to enter into, assured as I am that they will be 
 developed in the proceedings of a general court 
 martial ordered for the trial of Lieutenant Hun- 
 ter and other officers at Jefferson Barracks. 
 
 " From a conversation with the Colonel I can 
 have no doubt that he has erred in the course 
 pursued by him in reference to some of the con- 
 troversies, inasmuch as he has intimated to his 
 officers his willingness to sanction in certain cases, 
 and even to participate in personal conflicts, con- 
 trary to the twenty-fifth, Article of "War." 
 
 The Colonel's son, "William Joseph, after this 
 passed several years among traders and Indians, 
 and became distinguished as a poet and brilliant 
 author. 
 
 His "Tales of the Northwest," published in 
 Boston in 1820, by Hilliard, Gray, Little & Wil- 
 kins, is a work of great literary ability, and Catlin 
 thought the book was the most faithful picture of 
 Indian life he had read. Some of his poems were 
 also of a high order. One of his pieces, deficient 
 in dignity, was a caustic satire upon modern 
 American poets, and was published under the 
 title of " Truth, a Gift for Scribblers." 
 
 Nathaniel P. AYillis, who had winced under 
 the last, wrote the following lampoon : 
 " Oh, smelling Joseph ! Thou art like a cur. 
 
 I'm told thou once did live by hunting fur : 
 
 Of bigger dogs thou smellest, and, in sooth, 
 
 Of one extreme, perhaps, can tell the truth. 
 
 'Tis a wise shift, and shows thou know'st thy 
 powers. 
 
 To leave the 'North "West tales,' and take to 
 smelling ours." 
 
98 
 
 EXPLOBEBS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 In 1S32 a second edition of " Truth " appeared 
 with additions and emendations. In this ap- 
 peared the following pasquinade upon Willis : 
 "I live by hunting fur, thou say'st, so let it be, 
 But tell me, Natty 1 Had I hunted thee, 
 Had not my time been thrown away, young sir, 
 And eke my powder ? Puppies have no fur. 
 
 Our tails ? Thou ownest thee to a tail, 
 I've scanned thee o'er and o'er 
 But, though I guessed the species .right, 
 I was not sure before. 
 
 Our savages, authentic travelers say, 
 To natural fools, religious homage pay, 
 Hadst thou been born in wigwam's smoke, and 
 
 died in, 
 Nat ! thine apotheosis had been certain." 
 
 Snelling died at Chelsea, Mass., December six- 
 teenth, 1848, a victim to the appetite which en- 
 enslaved Robert Burns. 
 
 In the year 1826, a small party of Ojibways 
 (Chippeways) came to see the Indian Agent, 
 and three of them ventured to visit the Colum- 
 bia Fur Company's trading house, two miles 
 from the Fort. While there, they became 
 aware of their danger, and desired two of the 
 white men attached to the establishment to 
 accompany them back, thinking that their pres- 
 ence might be some protection. They were in 
 error. As they passed a little copse, three Dah- 
 kotahs sprang from behind a log with the speed of 
 light, fired their pieces into the face of the fore- 
 most, and then fled. The guns must have been 
 double loaded, for the man's head was literally 
 blown from his shoulders, and his white com- 
 panions were spattered with brains and blood. 
 The survivors gained the Fort without further 
 molestation. Their comrade was buried on the 
 spot where he fell. A staff was set up on his 
 grave, which became a landmark, and received 
 the name of The Murder Pole. The murderers 
 boasted of their achievement and with impunity. 
 They and their tribe thought that they had struck 
 a fair blow on their ancient enemies, in a becom- 
 ing manner. It was only said, that Toopunkah 
 Zeze of the village of the Batture aux Fievres, 
 and two others, had each acquired a right to 
 wear skunk skins on their heels and war-eagles' 
 feathers on their heads. 
 
 EVENTS OF A. D. 1827. 
 
 On the twenty-eighth of May, 1827, the Ojib- 
 way chief at Sandy Lake, Kee-wee-zais-hish 
 called by the English, Flat Mouth with seven 
 warriors and some women and children, in all 
 amounting to twenty-four, arrived about sunrise 
 at Fort Snelling. Walking to the gates of the 
 Z rison, they asked the protection of Colonel 
 Snelling and Taliaferro, the Indian agent. They 
 were told, that as long as they remained under 
 the United States flag, they were secure, and 
 were ordered to encamp within musket shot of 
 the high stone walls of the fort. 
 
 During the afternoon, a Dahkotah, Toopunkah 
 Zeze, from a village near the first rapids of the 
 Minnesota, visited the Ojibway camp. They 
 were cordially received, and a feast of meat and 
 corn and sugar, was soon made ready. The 
 wooden plates emptied of their contents, they 
 engaged in conversation, and whiffed the peace 
 pipe. 
 
 That night, some officers and their friends were 
 spending a pleasant evening at the head-quarters 
 of Captain Clark, which was in one of the stone 
 houses which used to stand outside of the walls 
 of the fort. As Captain Cruger was walking on 
 the porch, a bullet whizzed by, and rapid firing 
 was heard. 
 
 As the Dahkotahs, or Sioux, left the Ojibway 
 camp, notwithstanding their friendly talk, they 
 turned and discharged their guns with deadly aim 
 upon their entertainers, and ran off with a shout 
 of satisfaction. The report was heard by the 
 sentinel of the fort, and he cried, repeatedly, 
 " Corporal of the guard !" and soon at the gates, 
 were the Ojibways, with their women and the 
 wounded, telling their tale of woe in wild and in- 
 coherent language. Two had been killed and six 
 wounded. Among others, was a little girl about 
 seven years old, who was pierced through both 
 thighs with c bullet. Surgeon McMahon made 
 every effort to save her life, but without avail. 
 
 Flat Mouth, the chief, reminded Colonel Snel- 
 ling that he had been attacked while under the 
 protection of the United States flag, and early the 
 next morning, Captain Clark, with one hundred 
 soldier:;, proceeded towards Land's End, a tra- 
 ding-post of the Columbia Fur Company, on the 
 Minnesota, a mile above the former residence of 
 
TRAGIC SCENE UNDER THE WALLS OF THE FORT. 
 
 Franklin Steele, where the Dahkotahs were sup- 
 posed to be. The soldiers had just left the large 
 gate of the fort, when a party of Dahkotahs, in 
 battle array, appeared on one of the prairie 
 hills. After some parleying they turned their 
 backs, and being pursued, thirty-two were cap- 
 tured near the trading-post. 
 
 Colonel Snelling ordered the prisoners to be 
 brought before the Ojibways, and two being 
 pointed out as participants in the slaughter of the 
 preceding night, they were delivered to the 
 aggrieved party to deal with in accordance with 
 their customs. They were led out to the plain 
 in front of the gate of the fort, and when placed 
 nearly without the range of the Ojibway guns, 
 they were told to run for their lives. With the 
 rapidity of deer they bounded away, but the Ojib- 
 way bullet (lew faster, and after a few steps, they 
 fell gasping on the ground, and were soon lifeless. 
 Then the savage nature displayed itself in all its 
 hideousness. Women and children danced for 
 joy, and placing their fingers in the bullet holes, 
 from which the blood oozed, they licked them 
 with delight. The men tore the scalps from the 
 dead, and seemed to luxuriate in the privilege of 
 plunging their knives through the corpses. After 
 the execution, the Ojibways returned to the fort, 
 and were met by the Colonel. He had prevented 
 all over whom his authority extended from wit- 
 i nessing the scene, and had done his best to con- 
 fine the excitement to the Indians. The same 
 day a deputation of Dahkotah warriors received 
 audience, regretting the violence that had been 
 done by their young men, and agreeing to deliver 
 up the ringleaders. 
 
 At the time appointed, a son of Flat Mouth, 
 with those of the Ojibwa party that were not 
 wounded, escorted by United States troops, 
 marched forth to meet the Dahkotah deputation, 
 on the prairie just beyond the old residence of 
 the Indian agent. With much solemnity two 
 more of the guilty were handed over to the 
 assaulted. One was fearless, and with firmness 
 stripped himself of his clothing and ornaments, 
 and distributed them. The other could not face 
 death with composure. He was noted for a hid- 
 eous hare-lip, and had a bad reputation among 
 his fellows. In the spirit of a coward he prayed 
 for life, to the mortification of his tribe. The 
 same opportunity was presented to them as to the 
 
 first, of running for their lives. At the first fire 
 the coward fell a corpse; but his brave compan- 
 ion, though wounded, ran on, and had nearly 
 reached the goal of safety, when a second bullet 
 killed him. The body of the coward now became 
 a common object of loathing for both Dahkotahs 
 and Ojibways. 
 
 Colonel Snelling told the Ojibways that the 
 bodies must be removed, and then they took the 
 scalped Dahkotahs, and dragging them by the 
 heels, threw them off the bluff into the river, a 
 hundred and fifty feet beneath. The dreadful 
 scene was now over ; and a detachment of troops 
 was sent with the old chief Flat Mouth, to escort 
 him out of the reach of Dahkotah vengeance. 
 
 An eyewitness wrote : " After this catastrophe, 
 all the Dahkotahs quitted the vicinity of Fort Snel- 
 ling, and did not return to it for some months. 
 It was said that they formed a conspiracy to de- 
 mand a council, and kill the Indian Agent and 
 the commanding officer. If this was a fact, they 
 had no opportunity, or wanted the spirit, to exe- 
 cute their purpose. 
 
 " The Flat Mouth's band lingered in the fort 
 till their wounded comrade died. He was sensi- 
 ble of his condition, and bore his pains with great 
 fortitude. When he felt his end approach, he 
 desired that his horse might be gaily caparisoned, 
 and brought to the hospital window, so that he 
 might touch the animal. He then took from his 
 medicine bag a large cake of maple sugar, and held 
 it forth. It may seem strange, but it is true, that 
 the beast ate it from his hand. His features 
 were radiant with delight as he fell back on the 
 pillow exhausted. His horse had eaten the sugar, 
 he said, and he was sure of a favorable reception 
 and comfortable quarters in the other world. 
 Half an hour after, he breathed his last. We 
 tried to discover the details of his superstition, 
 but could not succeed. It is a subject on which 
 Indians unwillingly discourse." 
 
 In the fall of 182(5, all the troops at Prairie du 
 Chien had been removed to Fort Snelling, the 
 commander taking with him two Winnebagoes 
 that had been confined in Fort Crawford. After 
 the soldiers left the Prairie, the Indians in the 
 vicinity were quite insolent. 
 
 In June, 1827, two keel-boats passed Prairie du 
 Chien on the way to Fort Snelling with provis- 
 ions. When they reached Wapashaw village, on 
 
100 
 
 EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 the site of the present town of Winona, the crew 
 were ordered to come ashore by the Dahkotahs. 
 Complying, they found themselves surrounded by 
 Indians with hostile intentions. The boatmen 
 had no lire-arms, but assuming a bold mien and a 
 defiant voice, the captain of the keel-boats ordered 
 the savages to leave the decks ; which was suc- 
 cessful, The boats pushed on, and at Ked Wing 
 and Kaposia the Indians showed that they were 
 not friendly, though they did not molest the 
 boats. Before they started on their return from 
 Fort Snelling, the men on board, amounting to 
 thirty-two, were all provided with muskets and a 
 barrel of ball cartridges. 
 
 When the descending keel-boats passed Wapa- 
 shaw, the Dahkotas were engaged in the war 
 dance, and menaced them, but made no attack. 
 Below this point one of the boats moved in ad- 
 vance of the other, and when near the mouth of 
 the Bad Axe, the half-breeds on board descried 
 hostile Indians on the banks. As the channel 
 neared the shore, the sixteen men on the first 
 boat were greeted with the war whoop and a vol- 
 ley of rifle balls from the excited Winnebagoes, 
 killing two of the crew. Bushing into their ca- 
 noes, the Indians made the attempt to board the 
 boat, and two were successful. One of these 
 stationed himself at the bow of the boat, and 
 fired with killing effect on the men below deck. 
 An old soldier of the last war with Great Britain, 
 called Saucy Jack, at last despatched him, and 
 began to rally the fainting spirits on board. Du- 
 ring the fight the boat had stuck on a sand-bar. 
 With four companions, amid a shower of balls 
 from the savages, he plunged into the water and 
 pushed off the boat, and thus moved out of reach 
 of the galling shots of the Winnebagoes. As 
 they floated down the river during the night, 
 they heard a wail in a canoe behind them, the 
 voice of a father mourning the death of the son 
 who had scaled the deck, and was now a corpse 
 in possession of the white men. The rear boat 
 passed the Bad Axe river late in the night, and 
 escaped an attack. 
 
 The first keel-boat arrived at Prairie du Chein, 
 with two of their crew dead, four wounded, and 
 the Indian that had been killed on the boat. The 
 two dead men had been residents of the Prairie, 
 and now the panic was increased. On the morn- 
 ing of the twenty-eighth of June the second 
 
 keel -boat appeared, and among her passengers 
 was Joseph Snelling, the talented son of the 
 colonel, who wrote a story of deep interest, based 
 on the facts narrated. 
 
 At a meeting of the citizens it was resolved to 
 repair old Port Crawford, and Thomas McNair 
 was appointed captain. Dirt was thrown around 
 the bottem logs of the fortification to prevent its 
 being fired, and young Snelling was put in com- 
 mand of one of the block-houses. On the next 
 day a voyageur named Loyer, and the well-known 
 trader Duncan Graham, started through the in- 
 terior, west of the Mississippi, with intelligence 
 of the murders, to Port Snelling. Intelligence 
 of this attack was received at the fort, on the 
 evening of the ninth of July, and Col. Snelling 
 started in keel boats with four companies to Port 
 Crawford, and on the seventeenth four more 
 companies left under Major Powle. After an 
 absence of six weeks, the soldiers, without firing 
 a gun at the enemy, returned. 
 
 A few weeks after the attack upon the keel 
 boats General Gaines inspected the Port, and, 
 subsequently in a communication to the War 
 Department wrote as follows ; 
 
 " The main points of defence against an enemy 
 appear to have been in some respects sacrificed, 
 in the effort to secure the comfort and conven- 
 ience of troops in peace. These are important 
 considerations, but on an exposed frontier the 
 primary object ought to be security against the 
 attack of an enemy. 
 
 " The buildings are too laige, too numerous, 
 and extending over a space entirely too great, 
 enclosing a large parade, five times greater than 
 is at all desireable in that climate. The build- 
 ings for the most part seem well constructed, of 
 good stone and other materials, and they contain 
 every desirable convenience, comfort and securi- 
 ty as barracks and store houses. 
 
 " The work may be rendered very strong and 
 adapted to a garrison of two hundred men by re- 
 moving one-half the buildings, and with the ma- 
 terials of which they are constructed, building a 
 tower sufficiently high to command the hill be- 
 tween the Mississippi and St. Peter's [Minnesota], 
 and by a block house on the extreme point, or 
 brow of the cliff, near the commandant's quarters, 
 to secure most effectually the banks of the river, 
 and the boats at the landing. 
 
DEATH OF COL. JOSIAH SWELLING. 
 
 101 
 
 "Much credit is due to Colonel Snelling, his 
 officers and men, for their immense labors and 
 excellent workmanship exhibited in the construc- 
 tion of these barracks and store houses, but this 
 has been effected too much at the expense of the 
 discipline of the regiment." 
 
 From reports made from 1823 to 1826, the health 
 of the troops was good. In the year ending Sep- 
 tember thirty, 1823, there were but two deaths ; 
 in 1824 only six, and in 1825 but seven. 
 
 In 182rf there were three desertions, in 1824 
 twenty-two, and in 1825 twenty-nine. Most of 
 the deserters were fresh recruits and natives of 
 America, Ten of the deserters were foreigners, 
 and five of these wereborn in Ireland. In 1826 
 there were eight companies numbering two hun- 
 
 dred and fourteen soldiers quartered in the Fort- 
 During the fall of 1827 the Fifth Kegiment was 
 relieved by a part of the First, and the next year 
 Colonel Snelling proceeded to "Washington on bus- 
 iness, where he died with inflammation of the 
 brain. Major General Macomb announcing his 
 death in an order, wrote : 
 
 " Colonel Snelling joined the army in early 
 youth. In the battle of Tippecanoe, he was 
 distinguished for gallantry and good conduct. 
 Subsequently and during the whole late war with 
 Great Britain, from the battle of Brownstown to 
 the termination of the contest, he was actively 
 employed in the field, with credit to himself, and 
 honor to his country." 
 
102 
 
 EXPLOBEBS AND PIONEEBS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 OCCURRENCES IN THE VICINITY OF FORT SNELLING, CONTINUED. 
 
 Arrival of J. K. Nicollc (-Marriage of James Wells— Nicollet's letter from Falls- 
 of St. Anthony— Perils of Martin McLeod— Chippeway treachery — Sioux Re 
 venge — Rum River and Stillwater battles— Grog shops near the Fort. 
 
 On the second of July 1836, the steamboat 
 Saint Peter landed supplies, and among its 
 passengers was the distinguished French as- 
 tronomer, Jean N. Nicollet (Nicolay). Major 
 Taliaferro on the twelfth of July, wrote; 
 " Mr. Nicollet, on a visit to the post for scientific 
 research, and at present in my family, has shown 
 me the late work of Henry E. Schoolcraft on the 
 discovery of the source of the Mississippi ; which 
 claim is ridiculous in the extreme." On the 
 twenty-seventh, Nicollet ascended the Mississippi 
 on a tour of observation. 
 
 James Wells, a trader, who afterwards was a 
 member of the legislature, at the house of Oliver 
 Cratte, near the fort, was married on the twelfth 
 of September, by Agent Taliaferro, to Jane, a 
 daughter of Duncan Graham. Wells was killed 
 in 1862, by the Sioux, at the time of the massacre 
 in the Minnesota Valley. 
 
 Nicollet in September returned from his trip 
 to Leech Lake, and on the twenty-seventh wrote 
 the following to Major Taliaferro the Indian 
 Agent at the fort, which is supposed to be the 
 earliest letter extant written from the site of the 
 city of Minneapolis. As the principal hotel and 
 one of the finest avenues of that city bears his 
 name it is worthy of preservation. He spelled 
 his name sometimes Nicoley, and the pronuncia- 
 tion in English, would be Nicolay, the same as 
 if written Nicollet in French. The letter shows 
 that he had not mastered the English language : 
 " St. Anthony's Palls, 27th September, 1836, 
 
 Dear Friend :— I arrived last evening about 
 dark; all well, nothing lost, nothing broken, 
 happy and a very successful journey. But I 
 done exhausted, and nothing can relieve me, but 
 the pleasure of meeting you again under your 
 hospitable roof, and to see all the friends of the 
 garrison who have been so kind to me. 
 
 " This letter is more particularly to give you 
 a very extraordinary tide. Flat Mouth, the chief 
 of Leech Lake and suite, ten in number are with 
 me. The day before yesterday I met them again 
 at Swan river where they detained me one day. 
 I had to bear a new harangue and gave answer. 
 All terminated by their own resolution that they 
 ought to give you the hand, as well as to the 
 Guinas of the Fort (Colonel Davenport.) I 
 thought it my duty to acquaint you with it be- 
 forehand. Peace or war are at stake of the visit 
 they pay you. Please give them a good welcome 
 until I have reported to you and Colonel Daven- 
 port all that has -taken place during my stay 
 among the Pillagers. But be assured I have not 
 trespassed and that I have behaved as would 
 have done a good citizen of the U. S. As to 
 Schoolcraft's statement alluding to you, you will 
 have full and complete satisfaction from Flat 
 Mouth himself. In haste, your friend, J. N. 
 Nicoley." 
 
 events of a. d. 1837. 
 
 On the seventeenth of March, 1837, there ar- 
 rived Martin McLeod, who became a prominent 
 citizen of Minnesota, and the legislature has 
 given his name to a county. 
 
 He left the Red River country on snow shoes, 
 with two companions, one a Polander and the 
 other an Irishman named Hays, and Pierre Bot- 
 tineau as interpreter. Being lost in a violent 
 snow storm the Pole and Irishman perished. He 
 and his guide, Bottineau, lived for a time on the 
 flesh of one of their dogs. After being twenty- 
 six days without seeing any one, the survivors 
 reached the trading post of Joseph R. Brown, at 
 Lake Traverse, and from thence they came to 
 the fort. 
 
 EVENTS OF A. D. 1838. 
 
 In the month of April, eleven Sioux were slain 
 in a dastardly manner, by a party of Ojibways, 
 
INDIAN BATTLES AT BUM BIVEB AND STILLWATEB. 
 
 103 
 
 under the noted and elder Hole-in-the-Day. The 
 Chippeways feigned the warmest friendship, and 
 at dark lay down in the tents by the side of the 
 Sioux, and in the night silently arose and killed 
 them. The occurrence took place at the Chippe- 
 way Biver, about thirty miles from Lac qui Parle, 
 and the next day the Bev. G.H. Pond, the Indian 
 missionary, accompanied by a Sioux, vent out 
 and buried the mutilated and scalpless bodies. 
 
 On the second of August old Hole-in-the-Day, 
 and some Ojibways, came to the fort. They 
 stopped first at the cabin of Peter Quinn, whose 
 wife was a half-breed Chippeway, about a mile 
 from the fort. 
 
 The missionary, Samuel "W. Pond, told the 
 agent that the Sioux, of Lake Calhoun were 
 aroused, and on their way to attack the Chippe- 
 ways. The agent quieted them for a time, but 
 two of the relatives of those slain at Lac qui Parle 
 in April, hid themselves near Quinn's house, and 
 as Hole-in-the-Day and his associates were pass- 
 ing, they fired and killed one Chippeway and 
 wounded another. Obequette, a Chippeway from 
 Ked Lake, succeded, however, in shooting a 
 Sioux while he was in the act of scalping his 
 comrade. The Chippeways were brought within 
 the fort as soon as possible, and at nine o'clock 
 a Sioux was confined in the guard-house as a 
 hostage. 
 
 Notwithstanding the murdered Chippeway had 
 been buried in the graveyard of the fort for safety, 
 an attempt was made on the part of some of the 
 Sioux, to dig it up. On the evening of the sixth, 
 Major Plympton sent the Chippeways across the 
 river to the east side, and ordered them to go 
 home as soon as possible. 
 
 EVENTS OF A. D. 1839. 
 
 On the twentieth day of June the elder Hole- 
 in-the-Day arrived from the Upper Mississippi 
 with several hunched Chippeways. Upon their 
 return homeward the Mississippi and Mille Lacs 
 band encamped the first night at the Falls of Saint 
 Anthony, and some of the Sioux visited them and 
 smoked the pipe of peace. 
 
 On the second of July, about sunrise, a son-in- 
 law of the chief of the Sioux band, at Lake Cal- 
 houn, named Meekaw or Badger, was killed and 
 scalped by two Chippeways of the Pillager band, 
 relatives of him who lost his life near Patrick 
 
 Quisn's the year before. The excitement was 
 intense among- the Sioux, and immediately war 
 parties started in pursuit. Hole-in-the-Day's 
 band was not sought, but the Mille Lacs and 
 Saint Croix Chippeways. The Lake Calhoun 
 Sioux, with those from the villages on the 
 Minnesota, assembled at the Palls of Saint 
 Anthony, and on the morning of the fourth 
 of July, came up with the Mille Lacs 
 Chippeways on Kum Biver, before sunrise. Not 
 long after the war whoop was raised and the 
 Sioux attacked, killing and wounding ninety. 
 
 The Kaposia band of Sioux pursued the Saint 
 Croix Chippeways, and on the third of July found 
 them in the Penitentiary ravine at Stillwater, 
 under the influence of whisky. Aitkin, the old 
 trader, was with them. The sight of the 
 Sioux tended to make them sober, but in the fight 
 twenty-one were killed and twenty-nine were 
 wounded. 
 
 Whisky, during the year 1839, was freely in- 
 troduced, in the face of the law prohibiting it. 
 The first boat of the season, the Ariel, came to 
 the fort on the fourteenth of April, and brought 
 twenty barrels of whisky for Joseph K. Brown, 
 and on the twenty-first of May, the Glaucus 
 brought six barrels of liquor for David Faribault. 
 On the thirtieth of June, some soldiers went to 
 Joseph B. Brown's groggery on the opposite side 
 of the Mississippi, and that night forty -seven 
 were in the guard-house for drunkenness. The 
 demoralization then existing, led to a letter by 
 Surgeon Emerson, on duty at the fort, to the Sur- 
 geon General of the United States army, in which 
 he writes : 
 
 " The whisky is brought here by citizens who 
 are pouring in upon us and settling themselves 
 on the opposite shore of the Mississippi river, 
 in defiance of our worthy commanding officer, 
 Major J. Plympton, whose authority they set 
 at naught. At this moment there is a 
 citizen named Brown, once a soldier in 
 the Fifth Infantry, who was discharged at 
 this post, while Colonel Snelling commanded, 
 and who has been since employed by the Ameri- 
 can Fur Company, actually building on the land 
 marked out by the land oflBcers as the reserve, 
 and within gunshot distance of the fort, a very 
 expensive whisky shop." 
 
101 
 
 EXFLOEEES AND PIOXEEES OF 3IINNES0TA. 
 
 CHAPTEE XVIII. 
 
 INDIAN TRIBES IN MINNESOTA AT THE TIME OF ITS ORGANIZATION. 
 
 The three Indian nations who dwelt in this 
 region after the organization of Minnesota, were 
 the Sioux or Dahkotahs ; the O jib ways or Chip- 
 peways ; and the Ho-tchun-graws or Winneba- 
 goes. 
 
 SIOUX OR DAHKOTAHS. 
 
 They are an entirely different group from the 
 Algonquin and Iroquois, who were found by the 
 early settlers of the Atlantic States, on the banks 
 of the Connecticut, Mohawk, and Susquehanna 
 Eivers. 
 
 "When the Dahkotahs were first noticed by the 
 European adventurers, large numbers were occu- 
 pying the Mille Lacs region of country, and appro- 
 priately called by the voyageur, "People of the 
 Lake," "Gens du Lac." And tradition asserts that 
 here was the ancient centre of this tribe. Though 
 we have traces of their warring and hunting on the 
 shores of Lake Superior, there is no satisfactory 
 evidence of their residence, east of the Mille Lacs 
 region, as they have no name for Lake Superior. 
 
 The word Dahkotah, by which they love to be 
 designated, signifies allied or joined together in 
 friendly compact, and is equivalent to " E pluri- 
 bus unum," the motto on the seal of the United 
 States. 
 
 In the history of the mission at La Pointe, 
 Wisconsin, published nearly two centuries ago, a 
 a writer, referring to the Dahkotahs, remarks : 
 
 " For sixty leagues from the extremity of the 
 Upper Lake, toward sunset ; and, as it were in 
 the centre of the western nations, they have all 
 united tlieir force by a general league." 
 
 The Dahkotahs in the earliest documents, and 
 even until the present day, are called Sioux, Scioux, 
 or Soos. The name originated with the early voy- 
 ageurs. For centuries the Ojibways of Lake 
 Superior waged war against the Dahkotahs ; and, 
 
 whenever they spoke of them, called them Kado- 
 waysioux, which signifies enemies. 
 
 The French traders, to avoid exciting the atten- 
 tion of Indians, while conversing in their pres- 
 ence, were accustomed to designate them by 
 names, which would not be recognized. 
 
 The Dahkotahs were nicknamed Sioux, a word 
 composed of the two last syllables of the Ojibway 
 word for foes 
 
 Under the influence of the French traders, the 
 eastern Sioux began to wander from the Mille 
 Lacs region. A trading post at O-ton-we-kpa- 
 dan, or Rice Creek, above the Falls of Saint 
 Anthony, induced some to erect their summer 
 dwellings and plant corn there, which took the 
 place of wild rice. Those who dwelt here were 
 called Wa-kpa-a-ton-we-dan Those who dwell on 
 the creek. Another division was known as the 
 Ma-tan-ton-wan. 
 
 Less than a hundred years ago, it is said that 
 the eastern Sioux, pressed by the Chippeways, 
 and influenced by traders, moved seven miles 
 above Fort Snelling on the Minnesota River. 
 
 MED-DAY-WAH-KAWN-TWAWNS. 
 
 In 1849 there were seven villages of Med-day- 
 wah-kawn-twawn Sioux. (1) Below Lake Pepin, 
 where the city of Winona is, was the village of 
 Wapashaw. This band was called Kee-yu-ksa, 
 because with them blood relations intermarried. 
 Bounding or Whipping Wind was the chief. (2) 
 At the head of Lake Pepin, under a lofty bluff, 
 was the Red Wing village, called Ghay-mni-chan 
 Hill, wood and water. Shooter was the name 
 of the chief. (3) Opposite, and a little below the 
 Pig's Eye Marsh, was the Kaposia band. The 
 word, Kapoja means light, given because these 
 people are quick travelers. His Scarlet People, 
 better known as Little Crow, was the chief, and 
 is notorious as the leader in the massacre of 1862. 
 
 On the Minnesota River, on the south side 
 
NOTICE OF THE HOTCHUNGRAWS, OR WINNEBAGOES. 
 
 105 
 
 a few miles above Fort Snelling, was Black Dog 
 village. The inhabitants were called, Ma-ga-yu- 
 tay-shnee. People who do not a geese, be- 
 cause they found it profitable to sell game at Fort 
 Snelling. Grey Iron was the chief, also known 
 as Pa-ma-ya-yaw, My head aches. Y 
 
 At Oak Grove, on the north side of the river, 
 eight miles above the fort, was (5) Hay-ya-ta-o- 
 ton-wan, or Inland Village, so called because 
 they formerly lived at Lake Calkoun. Contigu- 
 ous was (6) O-ya-tay-shee-ka, or Bad People, 
 Known as Good Koads Band and (7) the largest 
 village was Tin-ta-ton-wan, Prairie Village ; 
 Shokpay, or Six, was the chief, and is now the 
 site of the town of Shakopee. 
 West of this division of the Sioux were— 
 
 WAR-FAY-KU-TAY. ■ 
 
 The AVar-pay-ku-tay, or leaf shooters, who 
 occupied the country south of the Minnesota 
 around the sources of the Cannon and Blue Earth 
 Kivers. ' 
 
 WAR-PAY-TWAWNS. 
 
 North and west of the last were the War-pay- 
 twawns, or People of the Leaf, and their princi- 
 pal village was Lac qui Parle. They numbered 
 about fifteen hundred. 
 
 SE-SEE-TWAWNS. 
 
 To the west and southwest of these bands of 
 Sioux were the Se-see-twawns (Sissetoans), or 
 Swamp Dwellers. This band claimed the land 
 west of the Blue Earth to the James River, and 
 the guardianship of the Sacred Red Pipestone 
 Quarry. Their principal village was at Traverse, 
 and the number of the band was estimated at 
 thirty-eight hundred. 
 
 HO-TCHUN-GRAWS, OR WINNEBAGOES. 
 
 The Ho-tchun-graws, or Winnebagoes, belong 
 to the Dahkotah family of aborigines. Cham- 
 plain, although he never visited them, mentions 
 them. Nicollet, who had been in his employ, 
 visited Green Bay about the year 1635, and an 
 early Relation mentions that he saw the Ouini- 
 pegous, a people called so, because they came 
 from a distant sea, which some French erron- 
 eously called Puants. Another writer speak- 
 
 ,ing of these "people says: "This people are 
 called ' Les Puants 'not because of any bad odor 
 .peculiar to them, but because they claim to have 
 come from the shores of a far distant lake, 
 towards the north, whose waters are salt. They 
 call themselves the people ' de l'eau puants,' of 
 the putrid or bad water." 
 
 By the treaty of 1837 they were removed to 
 Iowa, and by another treaty in October, 1846, 
 they came to Minnesota in the spring of 1848, 
 to the country between the Long Prairie, 
 and Crow Wing Rivers. The agency was located 
 on Long Prairie River, forty miles from the 
 Mississippi, and in 1849 the tribe numbered 
 about twenty-five hundred souls. 
 
 In February 1855, another treaty was made 
 with them, and that spring they removed to lands 
 on the Blue Earth River. Owing to the panic 
 caused by the outbreak of the Sioux in 1862, Con- 
 gress, by a special act, without consulting them, 
 in 1863, removed them from their fields in Min- 
 nesota to the Missouri River, and in the words 
 of a missionary, "they were, like the Sioux, 
 dumped in the desert, one hundred miles above 
 Fort Randall" 
 
 OJIBWAY OR CHIPPEWAY NATION. 
 
 The Ojibways or Leapers, when the French 
 came to Lake Superior, had their chief settlement 
 at Sault St. Marie, and were called by the French 
 Saulteurs, and by the Sioux, Hah-ha-tonwan, 
 Dwellers at the Falls or Leaping Waters. 
 
 When Du Luth erected his trading post at the 
 western extremity of Lake Superior, they had not 
 obtained any foothold in Minnesota, and were 
 constantly at war with their hereditary enemes, 
 the Xadouaysioux. By the middle of the 
 eighteenth century, they had pushed in and occu- 
 pied Sandy, Leech, Mille Lacs and other points 
 between Lake Superior and the Mississippi, which 
 had been dwelling places of the Sioux. In 1820 
 the principal villages of Ojibways in Minnesota 
 were at Fond du Lac, Leech Lake and Sandy 
 Lake. In 1837 they ceded most of their lands. 
 Since then, other treaties have been made, until 
 in the year 1881, they are confined to a few res- 
 ervations, in northern Minnesota and vicinity. 
 
EXPLOh'KL's AND PIONEEBS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 OHAPTEE XIX. 
 
 EARLY MISSIONS AMONG THE OJIBWAYS AND DAHKOTAHS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 .Usui l .Missions not permanent— Pivsl-yl.-rinn Mi -stun it Ma.-kin;uv— Visit of Rev. 
 A. foe and J D. Stevens to Fort Snclling— Notice of Ayrrs, Hal], and Boutwcll 
 — Formation o( the word Iiasea— The Brothers Pond— Arrival of Dr. William- 
 son-Presbyterian Church at Fort Snclling— Mission at Lake Harriet— Mourn- 
 ing lor the Dead— Church at Lac-qui parle— Father Itavoux — Mission at Lake 
 Pokepuua — Attack by the Sioux — Chippcway attack at Pig's Eye — Death of 
 Rev. Sherman Hall — Methodist Missions Rev. S. "W. Pond prepares a Sioux 
 : and Dictionary Swiss Presbyterian Mission. 
 
 Bancroft the distinguished historian, catching 
 the enthusiasm of the narratives of the early 
 Jesuits, depicts, in language which glows, their 
 missions to the Northwest ; yet it is erroneous 
 to suppose that the Jesuits exercised any perma- 
 nent influence on the Aborigines. 
 
 Shea, a devoted member of the Eoman Catho- 
 lic Church, in his History of American Catholic 
 Missions writes : " In 1680 Father Engalran was 
 apparently alone at Green Bay, and Pierson at 
 Mackinaw. Of the other missions neither Le- 
 Clerq nor Hennepin, the Becollect writers of the 
 West at this time, make any mention, or in any 
 way allude to then- existence." He also says 
 that "Father Menard had projected a Sioux 
 mission ; Marquette, Allouez, Druilletes, all en- 
 tertained hopes of realizing it, and had some 
 intercourse with that nation, but none of them 
 ever succeeded in establishing a mission." 
 
 Father Hennepin wrote: " Can it be possible, 
 that, that pretended prodigious amount of savage 
 converts could escape the sight of a multitude 
 of French Canadians who travel every year? 
 * * * * How comes it to pass that these 
 churches so devout and so numerous, should be 
 invisible, when I passed through so many 
 countries and nations ? " 
 
 After the American Fur Company was formed, 
 the island of Mackinaw became the residence of 
 the principal agent for the Northwest,' Bobert 
 Stuart a Scotchman, and devoted Presbyterian. 
 
 In the month of June, 1820, the Bev. Dr. 
 Morse, father of the distinguished inventor of 
 the telegraph, visited and preached at Mackinaw, 
 and in consequence of statements published by 
 
 him, upon his return, a Presbyterian Missionary 
 Society in the state of New York sent a graduate 
 of Union College, the Bev. W. M. Ferry, father 
 of the present United States Senator from Michi- 
 gan, to explore the field. In 1823 he had estab- 
 lished a large boarding school composed of 
 children of various tribes, and here some were 
 educated who became wives of men of intelli- 
 gence and influence at the capital of Minnesota. 
 After a few years, it was determined by the 
 Mission Board to modify its plans, and in the 
 place of a great central station, to send mission- 
 aries among the several tribes to teach and to 
 preach. 
 
 In pursuance of this policy, the Bev. Alvan 
 Coe, and J. D. Stevens, then a licentiate who 
 had been engaged in the Mackinaw Mission, 
 made a tour of exploration, and arrived on 
 September 1, 1829, at Fort Snelling. In the 
 journal of Major Lawrence Taliaferro, which 
 is in possession of the Minnesota Historical 
 Society, is the following entry: "The Bev. 
 Mr. Coe and Stevens reported to be on their way 
 to this post, members of the Presbyterian church 
 looking out for suitable places to make mission- 
 ary establishment for the Sioux and Chippeways, 
 found schools, and instruct in the arts and agri- 
 culture." 
 
 The agent, although not at that time a commu- 
 nicant of the Church, welcomed these visitors, 
 and afforded them every facility in visiting the 
 Indians. On Sunday, the 6th of September, the 
 Bev. Mr. Coe preached twice in the fort, and the 
 next night held a prayer meeting at the quarters 
 of the commanding officer. On the next Sunday 
 he preached again, and on the 14th, with Mr. 
 Stevens and a hired guide, returned to Mackinaw 
 by way of the St. Croix river. During this visit 
 the agent offered for a Presbyterian mission the 
 mill which then stood on the site of Minneapolis, 
 and had been erected by the government, as well as 
 
FOBMATION OF THE WORD ITASKA. 
 
 107 
 
 the farm at Lake Calhoun, which was begun to 
 teach the Sioux agriculture. 
 
 CHIPPEWAY MISSIONS. 
 
 In 1830, F. Ayer, one of the teachers at Mack- 
 inaw, made an exploration as far as La Pointe, 
 and returned. 
 
 Upon the 30th day of August, 1831, a Macki- 
 naw boat about forty feet long arrived at La 
 Pointe, bringing from Mackinaw the principal 
 trader, Mr. Warren, Kev. Sherman Hall and wife, 
 and Mr. Frederick Ayer, a catechist and teacher. 
 
 Mrs. Hall attracted great attention, as she was 
 the first white woman who had visited that 
 region. Sherman Hall was born on April 30, 
 1801, at Wethersfield, Vermont, and in 1828 
 graduated at Dartmouth College, and completed 
 his theological studies at Andover, Massachu- 
 setts, a few weeks before he journeyed to the 
 Indian country. 
 
 His classmate at Dartmouth and Andover, the 
 Eev W. T. Boutwell still living near Stillwater, 
 became his yoke-fellow, but remained for a time 
 at Mackinaw, which they reached about the mid- 
 dle of July. In June, 1832, Henry R. School- 
 craft, the head of an exploring expedition, invited 
 Mr. Boutwell to accompany him to the sources of 
 the Mississippi. 
 
 When the expedition reached Lac la Biche or 
 Elk Lake, on July 13, 1832, Mr. Schoolcraft, who 
 was not a Latin scholar, asked the Latin word for 
 truth, and was told ''Veritas." He then wanted 
 the word which signified head, and was told 
 "caput." To the astonishment of many, School- 
 craft struck off the first sylable, of the word 
 ver-i-tas and the last sylable of ca-put, and thus 
 coined the word Itasca, which he gave to the 
 lake, and which some modern writers, with all 
 gravity, tell us was the name of a maiden who 
 once dwelt on its banks. Upon Mr. BoutwelFs 
 return from this expedition he was at first asso- 
 ciated with Mr. Hall in the mission at La Pointe. 
 
 In 1833 the mission band which had centered 
 at La Pointe diffused their influence. In Octo- 
 ber Eev. Mr. Boutwell went to Leech Lake, Mr. 
 Ayer opened a school at Yellow Lake, Wiscon- 
 sin, and Mr. E. F. Ely, now in California, became 
 a teacher at Aitkin's trading post at Sandy Lake. 
 
 SIOUX MISSIONARIES. 
 
 Mr. Boutwell, of Leech Lake Station, on the 
 
 sixth of May, 1834, happened to be on a visit to 
 Fort Snelling. While there a steamboat arrived, 
 and among the passengers were two young men, 
 brothers, natives of Washington, Connecticut, 
 Samuel W. and Gideon H. Pond, who had come, 
 constrained by the love of Christ, and without con- 
 ferring with flesh and blood, to try to improve 
 the Sioux. 
 
 Samuel, the older brother, the year before, had 
 talked with a liquor seller in Galena, Illinois, who 
 had come from the Red River country, and the 
 desire was awakened to help the Sioux ; and he 
 wrote to his brother to go with him. 
 
 The Rev. Samuel W. Pond still lives at Shako- 
 pee, in the old mission house, the first building of 
 sawed lumber erected in the valley of the Minne- 
 sota, above Fort Snelling. 
 
 MISSIONS AMONG THE SIOUX A. D. 1835. 
 
 About this period, a native of South Carolina, 
 a graduate of Jefferson College, Pennsylvania, 
 the Rev. T. S. Williamson, M. D., who previous 
 to his ordination had been a respectable physi- 
 cian in Ohio, was appointed by the American 
 Board of Foreign Missions to visit the Dahkotahs 
 with the view of ascertaining what could be done 
 to introduce Christian instruction. Having made 
 inquiries at Prairie du Chien and Fort Snelling, 
 he reported the field was favorable. 
 
 The Presbyterian and Congregational Churches, 
 through their joint Missionary Society, appointed 
 the following persons to labor in Mimiesota: 
 Rev. Thomas S. Williamson, M. D., missionary 
 and physician ; Rev. J. D. Stevens, missionary ; 
 Alexander Huggins, farmer ; and their wives ; 
 Miss Sarah Poage, and Lucy Stevens, teachers; 
 who were prevented during the year 1834, by the 
 state of navigation, from entering upon their 
 work. 
 
 During the winter of 1834-35, a pious officer 
 of the army exercised a good influence on his 
 fellow officers and soldiers under his command. 
 In the absence of a chaplain of ordained minis- 
 ter, he, like General Havelock, of the British 
 army in India, was accustomed not only to drill 
 the soldiers, but to meet them in bis own quar- 
 ters, and reason with them ".of righteousness, 
 temperance, and judgment to come." 
 
 In the month of May, 1835, Dr. Williamson 
 and mission band arrived at Fort Snelling, and 
 
108 
 
 EXrLOBEHS AND PIONEEBS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 were hospitably received by the officers of the 
 garrison, the Indian Agent, and Mr. Sibley, Agent 
 of the Company at Mendota, who had been in 
 the country a few months. 
 
 On the twenty-seventh of this month the Eev. 
 Dr. Williamson united in marriage at the Port 
 Lieutenant Edward A. Ogden to Eliza Edna, the 
 daughter of Captain G. A. Loomis, the first 
 marriage service in which a clergyman officiated 
 hi the present State of Minnesota. 
 
 On the eleventh of June a meeting was held 
 at the Fort to organize a Presbyterian Church, 
 sixteen persons who had been communicants, 
 and six who made a profession of faith, one of 
 whom was Lieutenant Ogden, were enrolled as 
 members. 
 
 Four elders were elected, among whom were 
 Capt. Gustavus Loomis and Samuel W. Pond. 
 The next day a lecture preparatory to administer- 
 ing the communion, was delivered, and on Sun- 
 day, the 14th, the first organized church in the 
 Valley of the Upper Mississippi assembled for 
 the first time in one of the Company rooms of the 
 Fort. The services in the morning were conducted 
 by Dr. Williamson. The afternoon service com- 
 menced at 2 o'clock. The sermon of Mr. Stevens 
 was upon a most appropriate text, 1st Peter, ii:25; 
 " For ye were as sheep going astray, but are now 
 returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your 
 souls." After the discourse, the sacrament of the 
 Lord's supper was administered. 
 
 At a meeting of the Session on the thirty-first 
 of July, Eev. J. D. Stevens, missionary, was in- 
 vited to preach to the church, " so long as the 
 duties of his mission will permit, and also to pre- 
 side at all the meetings of the Session." Captain 
 Gustavus Loomis was elected Stated Clerk of the 
 Session, and theyTesolved to observe the monthly 
 concert of prayer on the first Monday of each 
 month, for the conversion of the world. 
 
 Two points were selected by the missionaries 
 as proper spheres of labor. Mr. Stevens and 
 family proceeded to Lake Harriet, and Dr. Wil- 
 liamson and family, in June, proceeded to Lac 
 qui Parle. 
 
 As there had never been a chaplain at Fort 
 Snelling, the Eev. J. D. Stevens, the missionary 
 at Lake Harriet, preached on Sundays to the 
 Presbyterian church, there, recently organized. 
 
 Writing on January twenty-seventh, 1836, he 
 says, in relation to his field of labor: 
 
 " Yesterday a portion of this band of Indians, 
 who had been some time absent from this village, 
 returned. One of the number (a woman) was 
 informed that a brother of hers had died during 
 her absence. He was not at this village, but 
 with another band, and the information had just 
 reached here. In the evening they set up a most 
 piteous crying, or rather wailing, which con- 
 tinued, with some little cessations, during the 
 night. The sister of the deceased brother would 
 repeat, times without number, words which may 
 be thus translated into English : ' Come, my 
 brother, I shall see you no more for ever.' The 
 night was extremely cold, the thermometer 
 standing from ten to twenty below zero. About 
 sunrise, next morning, preparation was made for 
 performing the ceremony of cutting their flesh, 
 in order to give relief to their grief of mind. 
 The snow was removed from the frozen ground 
 over about as large a space as would be required 
 to place a small Indian lodge or wigwam. In the 
 centre a very small fire was kindled up, not to 
 give warmth, apparently, but to cause a smoke. 
 The sister of the deceased, who was the chief 
 mourner, came out of her lodge followed by 
 three other women, who repaired to the place 
 prepared. They were all barefooted, and nearly 
 naked. Here they set up a most bitter lamenta- 
 tion and crying, mingling their wailings with the 
 words before mentioned. The principal mourner 
 commenced gashing or cutting her ankles and 
 legs up to the knees with a sharp stone, until her 
 legs were covered with gore and flowing blood ; 
 then in like manner her arms, shoulders, and 
 breast. The others cut themselves in the same 
 way, but not so severely. On this poor infatuated 
 woman I presume there were more than a hun- 
 dred long deep gashes in the flesh. I saw the 
 operation, and the blood instantly followed the 
 instrument, and flowed down upon the flesh. She 
 appeared frantic with grief. Through the pain 
 of her wounds, the loss of blood, exhaustion of 
 strength by fasting, loud and long-continued and 
 bitter groans, or the extreme cold upon her al- 
 most naked and lacerated body, she soon sunk 
 upon the frozen ground, shaking as with a violent 
 fit of the ague, and writhing in apparent agony. 
 'Surely,' I exclaimed, as I beheld the bloody 
 
 -^TT 
 
A BOMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONABY 
 
 109 
 
 sceDe, 'the tender mercies of the heathen are 
 cruelty !' 
 
 " The little church at the fort begins to mani- 
 fest something of a missionary spirit Their con- 
 tributions are considerable for so small a number. 
 I hcpe they will not only be willing to contribute 
 liberally of their substance, but will give them- 
 selves, at least some of them, to the missionary 
 work. 
 
 " The surgeon of the military post, Dr. Jan-is, 
 has been very assiduous in his attentions to us in 
 our sickness, and has very generously made a do- 
 nation to our board of twenty-five dollars, being 
 the amount of his medical services in our family. 
 
 " On the nineteenth instant we commenced a 
 school with six full Indian children, at least so in 
 all their habits, dress, etc.; not one could speak a 
 word of any language but Sioux. The school has 
 since increased to the number of twenty-five. I 
 am now collecting and arranging words for a dic- 
 tionary. Mr. Pond is assiduously employed in 
 preparing a small spelling-book, which we may 
 forward next mail for printing. 
 
 On the fifteenth of September, 1836, a Presby- 
 terian church was organized at Lac-cpri-Parle, a 
 branch of that in and near Fort Bnelling, and 
 Joseph Renville, a mixed blood of great influ- 
 ence, became a communicant. He had been 
 trained in Canada by a Roman Catholic priest, 
 but claimed the right of private judgment. .Mr. 
 Renville's wife was the first pure Dahkotah of 
 whom we have any record that ever joined the 
 Church of Christ. This church has never become 
 extinct, although its members have been neces- 
 sarily nomadic. After the treaty of Traverse des 
 Sioux, it was removed to Hazlewood. Driven 
 from thence by the outbreak of 1862, it has lie- 
 came the parent of other churches, in the valley 
 of the upper Missouri, over one of which John 
 Renville, a descendant of the elder at Lac-qui- 
 Parle, is the pastor. 
 
 KOMAN CATTIOLIC MISSION ATTEMPTED. 
 Father Eavoux, recently from France, a sin- 
 cere and earnest priest of the Church of Rome, 
 came to Mendota in the autumn of 1841, and 
 after a brief sojourn with the Rev. L. Galtier. 
 who had erected Saint Paul's chapel, which has 
 given the name of Saint Paul to the capital of 
 Minnesota, he ascended the Minnesota River 
 and visited Lac-qui-Parle. 
 
 Bishop Loras, of Dubuque, wrote the next year 
 of his visit as follows : " Our young missionary, 
 M. Ravoux, passed the winter on the banks of 
 Lac-qui-Parle, without any other support than 
 Providence, without any other means of conver- 
 sion than a burning zeal, he has wrought in the 
 space of six months, a happy revolution among 
 the Sioux. From the time of his arrival he has 
 been occupied night and day in the study of their 
 language. ***** When he instructs 
 the savages, he speaks to them with so much fire 
 whilst showing them a large copper crucifix which 
 he carries on his breast, that he makes the strong- 
 est impression upon them." 
 
 The impression, however was evanescent, and 
 he soon retired from the field, and no more efforts 
 were made in this direction by the Church of 
 Rome. This young Mr. Ravoux is now the highly 
 respected vicar of the Roman Catholic diocese of 
 Minnesota, and justly esteemed for his simplicity 
 and unobtrusiveness. 
 
 CHIPPEWAY MISSIONS AT POKEGTJMA. 
 
 Pokeguma is one of the "Mille Lacs," or thou- 
 sand beautiful lakes for which Minnesota is re- 
 markable. It is about four or five miles in extent, 
 and a mile or more in width. 
 
 This lake is situated on Snake River, about 
 twenty miles above the junction of that stream 
 with the St. Croix. 
 
 In the year 1836, missionaries came to reside 
 among the Ojibways and Pokeguma, to promote 
 their temporal and spiritual welfare. Their mis- 
 sion house was built on the east side of the lake ; 
 but the Indian village was on an island not far 
 from the shore. 
 
 In a letter written in 1837, we find the fol- 
 lowing: "The young women and girls now 
 make, mend, wash, and iron after our man- 
 ner. The men have learned to build log houses, 
 drive team, plough, hoe, and handle an American 
 axe with some skill hi cutting large trees, the 
 size of which, two years ago, would have afforded 
 them a sufficient reason why they should not med- 
 dle with them." 
 
 In May, 1841, Jeremiah Russell, who was In- 
 dian farmer, sent two Chippeways, accompanied 
 by Elam Greeley, of Stillwater, to the Falls of 
 Saint Croix for supplies. On Saturday, the 
 fifteenth of the month they arrived there, and 
 
110 
 
 EXPLOBEBS AND PIONEEBS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 the next day a steamboat came up with the 
 goods. The captain said a war party of Sioux, 
 headed by Little Crow, was advancing, and the 
 two Chippeways prepared to go back and were 
 their friends. 
 
 They had hardly left the Falls, on their re- 
 turn, before they saw a party of Dahkotahs. The 
 sentinel of the enemy had not noticed the ap- 
 proach of the young men. In the twinkling of 
 an eye. these two young Ojibways raised their 
 guns, tired, and killed two of Little Crow's sons. 
 The discharge of the guns revealed to a sentinel, 
 that an enemy was near, and as the Ojibways 
 were retreating, he fired, and mortally wounded 
 one of the two. 
 
 According to custom, the corpses of the chief's 
 sons were dressed, and then set up with their 
 faces towards the country of their ancient ene- 
 mies. The wounded Ojibway was horribly 
 mangled by the infuriated party, and his limbs 
 strewn about in every direction. His scalped 
 head was placed in a kettle, and suspended in 
 front of the two Dahkotah corpses. 
 
 Little Crow, disheartened by the loss of his two 
 boys, returned with his party to Kaposia. But 
 other parties were in the field. 
 
 It was not till Friday, the twenty-first of May, 
 that the death of one of the young Ojibways 
 sent by Mr. Bussed, to the Falls of Saint Croix, 
 was known at Pokeguma. 
 
 Mr. Bussed on the next Sunday, accompanied 
 by Captain William Holcomb and a half-breed, 
 went to the mission station to attend a religious 
 service, and while crossing the lake in returning, 
 the half-breed said that it was rumored that the 
 Sioux were approaching. On Monday, the twen- 
 ty-fourth, three young men left in a canoe to go 
 to the west shore of the lake, and from thence to 
 Mille Lacs, to give intelligence to the Ojibways 
 there, of the skirmish that had already occurred. 
 They took with them two Indian girls, about 
 twelve years of age, who were pupils of the mis- 
 sion school, for the purpose of bringing the canoe 
 back to the island. Just as the three were land- 
 ing, twenty or thirty Dahkotah warriors, with a 
 war whoop emerged from their concealment be- 
 hind the trees, and fired into the canoe. The 
 young men instantly sprang into the water, which 
 
 was shallow, returned the fire, and ran into the 
 woods, escaping without material injury. 
 
 The little girls, in their fright, waded into the 
 lake; but were pursued. Their parents upon 
 the island, heard the death cries of their chddren. 
 Some of the Indians arcund the mission-house 
 jumped into their canoes and gained the island. 
 Others went into some fortified log huts. The 
 attack upon the canoe, it was afterwards learned, 
 was premature. The party upon that side of the 
 lake were ordered not to fire, until the party 
 stationed in the woods near the mission began. 
 
 There were in all one hundred and eleven 
 Dahkotah warriors, and all the fight was in the 
 vicinity of the mission-house, and the Ojibways 
 mostly engaged in it were those who had been 
 under religious instruction. The rest were upon 
 the island. 
 
 The fathers of the murdered girls, burning for 
 revenge, left the island in a canoe, and drawing 
 it up on the shore, hid behind it, and fired upon 
 the Dahkotahs and killed one. The Dahkotahs 
 advancing upon them, they were obliged to 
 escape. The canoe was now launched. One lay 
 on his back in the bottom; the other plunged 
 into the water, and, holding the canoe witli one 
 hand, and swimming with the other, he towed 
 his friend out of danger. The Dahkotahs, in- 
 furiated at their escape, fired volley after volley 
 at the swimmer, but he escaped the balls by 
 putting his head under water whenever he saw 
 them take aim, and waiting till he heard the 
 discharge, he would then look up and breathe. 
 
 After a fight of two hours, the Dahkotahs re- 
 treated, with a loss of two men. At the request 
 of the parents, Mr. E. F. Ely, from whose 
 notes the writer has obtained these facts, be- 
 ing at that time a teacher at the mission, 
 went across the lake, with two of his friends, to 
 gather the remains of his murdered pupils. He 
 found the corpses on the shore. The heads cut 
 off and scalped, with a tomahawk buried in the 
 brains of each, were set up in the sand near the 
 bodies. The bodies were pierced in the breast, 
 and the right arm of one was taken away. Ee- 
 moving the tomahawks, the bodies were brought 
 back to the island, and in the afternoon were 
 buried in accordance with the simple but solemn 
 rites of the Church of Christ, by members of the 
 mission. 
 
SIOUX MISSIONARIES BEFORE TEE TREATIES. 
 
 Ill 
 
 The sequel to this story is soon told. The In- 
 dians of Pokeguma, after the fight, deserted their 
 village, and went to reside with their countrymen 
 near Lake Superior. 
 
 In July of the following year, 1842, a war party 
 was formed at Fond du Lac, about forty in num- 
 ber, and proceeded towards the Dahkotah country. 
 Sneaking, as none but Indians can, they arrived 
 unnoticed at the little settlement below Saint 
 Paul, commonly called "Pig's Eye," which is 
 opposite to what was Kaposia, or Little Crow's 
 village. Finding an Indian woman at work in 
 the garden of her husband, a Canadian, by the 
 name of Gamelle, they killed her ; also another 
 woman, with her infant, whose head was cut off. 
 The Dahkotahs, on the opposite side, were mostly 
 intoxicated ; and, flying across in their canoes but 
 half prepared, they were worsted in the en- 
 counter. They lost thirteen warriors, and one of 
 their number, known as the Dancer, the Ojib- 
 ways are said to have skinned. 
 
 Soon after this the Chippeway missions of the 
 St. Croix Valley were abandoned. 
 
 In a little while Rev. Mr. Boutwell removed to 
 the vicinity of Stillwater, and the missionaries, 
 Ayer and Spencer, went to Red Lake and other 
 points in Minnesota. 
 
 In 1853 the Rev. Sherman Hall left the Indians 
 and became pastor of a Congregational church at 
 Sauk Rapids, where he recently died. 
 
 METHODIST MISSIONS. 
 
 In 1837 the Rev. A. Branson commenced a 
 Methodist mission at Kaposia, about four miles 
 below, and opposite Saint Paul. It was afterwards 
 removed across the river to Red Rock. He was 
 assisted by the Rev. Thomas W. Pope, and the 
 latter was succeeded by the Rev. J. Holton. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Spates and others also labored 
 for a brief period among the Ojibways. 
 
 PRESBYTERIAN MISSIONS CONTINUED. 
 
 At the stations the Dahkotah language was dil- 
 igently studied. Rev. S. W. Pond had prepared 
 a dictionary of three thousand words, and also a 
 small grammar. The Rev. S. R. Riggs, who 
 joined the mission in 1837, in a letter dated 
 February 24, 1841, writes: "Last summer^ 
 after returning from Fort Snelling. I spent five 
 weeks in copying again the Sioux vocabulary 
 which we had collected and arranged at this sta- 
 
 tion. It contained then about 5500 words, not 
 including the various forms of the verbs. Since 
 that time, the words collected by Dr. Williamson 
 and myself, have, I presume, increased the num- 
 ber to six thousand. ***** in this con- 
 nection, I may mention that during the winter of 
 1839-40, Mrs. Riggs, with some assistance, wrote 
 an English and Sioux vocabulary containing 
 about three thousand words. One of Mr. Ren- 
 ville's sons and three of his daughters are en- 
 gaged in copying. In committing the grammati- 
 cal principles of the language to writing, we have 
 done something at this station, but more has been 
 done by Mr. S. W. Pond." 
 
 Steadily the number of Indian missionaries 
 increased, and in 1851, before the lands of the 
 Dahkotahs west of the Mississippi were ceded to 
 the whites, they were disposed as follows by the 
 Dahkotah Presbytery. 
 
 I(i<-qui-parJe, Rev. S. R. Riggs, Rev. M. N. 
 Adams, Missionaries, Jonas Pettijohn, Mrs. 
 Fanny Pettijohn, Mrs. Mary Ann Riggs, Mrs. 
 Mary A. M. Adams, Miss Sarah Rankin, As- 
 sistants. 
 
 Traverse des Sioux, Rev. Robert Hopkins. Mis- 
 sionary; Mrs. Agnes Hopkins, Alexander G. 
 Huggins, Mrs. Lydia P. Huggins, Assistant*. 
 
 Shakpay, or Shokpay, Rev. Samuel W. Pond, 
 Missionary; Mrs. Sarah P. Pond, Assistant. 
 
 Oak Grove, Rev. Gideon H. Pond and wife. 
 
 Kaposia, Rev. Thomas Williamson, M. D., 
 Missionary and Physician ; Mrs. Margaret P. 
 Williamson, Miss Jane S. Williamson, Assistants. 
 
 Riil Wing, Rev. John F. Aiton, Rev. Joseph 
 W. Hancock, Missionaries; Mrs. Nancy H. Aiton, 
 Mrs. Hancock, Assistants. 
 
 The Rev. Daniel Gavin, the Swiss Presbyte- 
 rian Missionary, spent the winter of 1839 in Lac- 
 qui-Parle and was afterwards married to a niece 
 of the Rev. J. D. Stevens, of the Lake Harriet 
 Mission. Mr. Stevens became the farmer and 
 teacher of the Wapashaw band, and the first 
 white man who lived where the city of Winona 
 has been built. Another missionary from Switz- 
 erland, the Rev. Mr. Denton, married a Miss 
 Skinner, formerly of the Mackinaw mission. 
 During a portion of the year 1839 these Swiss 
 missionaries lived with the American mission- 
 aries at camp Cold Water near Fort Snelling, 
 but their chief field of labor was at Red Wing. 
 
EXPLOBEBS AND PIONEEBS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 TREAD OF PIONEERS IN THE SAINT CROIX VALLEY AND ELSEWHERE. 
 
 Origin of tho name Saint Croix— Du Luth, first Explorer— French Tost on the St. 
 Croix— Pitt, an early pioneer— Early settlers at Saint Croix Falli— First women 
 there — Marine Settlement — Joseph R. Brown's town site — Saint Croix County 
 organized— Proprietors of Stillwater— A dead Negro woman— Pig's Eye, origin 
 of name— Rise of Saint Paul— Dr. Williamson secures first school teacher for 
 Saint Paul— Description of first school room— Saint Croix County re-organized 
 —Rev. W. T. Boutwell, pioneer clergyman. 
 
 The Saint Croix river, according to Le Sueur, 
 named after a Frenchman who was drowned at 
 its mouth, was one of the earliest throughfares 
 from Lake Superior to the Mississippi. The first 
 white man who directed canoes upon its waters 
 was Du Luth, who had in 1679 explored Minne- 
 sota. He thus describes his tour in a letter, first 
 published by Harrisse : "In June, 1680, not be- 
 ing satisfied, with having made my discovery by 
 land, I took two canoes, with an Indian who was 
 my interpreter, and four Frenchmen, to seek 
 means to make it by water. With this view I 
 entered a river which empties eight leagues from 
 the extremity of Lake Superior, on the south 
 side, where, after having cut some trees and 
 broken about a hundred beaver dams, I reached 
 the upper waters of the said river, and then I 
 made a portage of half a league to reach a lake, 
 the outlet of which fell into a very fine river, 
 which took me down into the Mississippi. There 
 I learned from eight cabins of Nadoueeioux that 
 the Rev. Father Louis Hennepin, Recollect, now 
 at the convent of Saint Germain, with two other 
 Frenchmen had been robbed, and carried off as 
 slaves for more than three hundred leagues by 
 the Nadouecioux themselves." 
 
 He then relates how he left two Frenchmen 
 with his goods, and went with his interpreter and 
 two Frenchmen in a canoe down the Mississippi, 
 and after two days and two nights, found Henne- 
 pin, Accault and Augelle. He told Hennepin 
 that he must return with him through the country 
 of the Fox tribe, and writes : " I preferred to re- 
 trace my steps, manifesting to them [the Sioux] 
 the just indignation I felt against them, rather 
 than to remain after the violence they had done 
 
 to the Rev. Father and the other two Frenchmen 
 with him, whom I put in my canoes and brought 
 them to Michilimackinack." 
 
 After this, the Saint Croix river became a chan- 
 nel for commerce, and Bellin writes, that before 
 1755, the French had erected a fort forty leagues 
 from its mouth and twenty from Lake Superior. 
 
 The pine forests between the Saint Croix and 
 Minnesota had been for several years a tempta- 
 tion to energetic men. As early as November, 
 1836, a Mr. Pitt went with a boat and a party of 
 men to the Falls of Saint Croix to cut pine tim- 
 ber, with the consent of the Chippeways but the 
 dissent of the "United States authorities. 
 
 In 1 837 while the treaty was being made by Com- 
 missioners Dodge and Smith at Fort Snelling, on 
 one Sunday Franklin Steele, Dr. Fitch, Jeremiah 
 Russell, and a Mr. Maginnis left Fort Snelling 
 for the Falls of Saint Croix in a birch bark canoe 
 paddled by eight men, and reached that point 
 about noon on Monday aud commenced a log 
 cabin. Steele and Maginnis remained here, 
 while the others, dividing into two parties, one 
 under Fitch, and the other under Russell, search- 
 ed for pine land. The first stopped at Sun Rise, 
 while Russel went on to the Snake River. About 
 the same time Robbinet and Jesse B. Taylor 
 came to the Falls in the interest of B. F. Baker 
 who had a stone trading house near Fort Snelling, 
 since destroyed by fire. On the fifteenth of July, 
 1838, the Palmyra, Capt. Holland, arrived at 
 the Fort, with the official notice of the ratifica- 
 tion of the treaties ceding the lands between the 
 Saint Croix and Mississippi. 
 
 She had on board C. A. Tuttle, L. W. Stratton 
 and others, with the machinery for the projected 
 mills of the Northwest Lumber Company at the 
 Falls of Saint Croix, and reached that point on 
 the seventeenth, the first steamboat to disturb the 
 waters above Lake Saint Croix. The steamer 
 Gypsy came to the fort on the twenty-first of 
 
WOMEN IN THE VALLEY OF THE SAINT CROIX. 
 
 113 
 
 October, with goods for the Chippeways, and was 
 chartered for four hundred and fifty dollars, to 
 carry them up to the Falls of Saint Croix. In 
 passing through the lake, the boat grounded near 
 a projected town called Stambaughville, after S. 
 C. Stambaugh, the sutler at the fort. On the 
 afternoon of the 26th, the goods were landed, as 
 stipulated. 
 
 The agent of the Improvement Company at the 
 falls was Washington Libbey, who left in the fall 
 of 1838, and was succeeded by Jeremiah Russell, 
 Stratton acting as millwright in place of Calvin 
 Tuttle. On the twelfth of December, Eussell and 
 Stratton walked down the river, cut the first tree 
 and built a cabin at Marine, and sold their claim. 
 
 The first women at the Falls of Saint Croix were* 
 a Mrs. Orr, Mrs. Sackett, and the daughter of a 
 Mr. Young. During the winter of 1838-9, Jere- 
 miah Eussell married a daughter of a respectable 
 and gentlemanly trader, Charles II. Oakes. 
 
 Among the first preachers were the Kev. W.T. 
 Boutwell and Mr. Seymour, of the Chippeway 
 Mission at Pokeguma. The Rev. A. Branson, of 
 Prairie du Chien, who visited this region in 1838, 
 wrote that at the mouth of Snake River he found 
 Franklin Steele, with twenty-five or thirty men, 
 cutting timber for a mill, and when he offered to 
 preach Mr. Steele gave a cordial assent. 
 
 On the sixteenth of August. Mr. Steele, Living- 
 ston, and others, left the Falls of Saint Croix in a 
 barge, and went around to Fort Snelling. 
 
 The steamboat Fayette about the middle of 
 May, 1839, landed sutlers' stores at Fort Snell- 
 ing and then proceeded with several persons of 
 intelligence to the Saint Croix river, who settled 
 at Marine. 
 
 The place was called after Marine in Madison 
 county, Illinois, where the company, consisting 
 of Judd, Hone and others, was formed to build 
 a saw mill in the Saint Croix Valley. The mill 
 at Marine commenced to saw lumber, on August 
 24, 1839, the first in Minnesota. 
 
 Joseph R. Brown, who since 1838, had lived at 
 Chan Wakan, on the west side of Grey Cloud 
 Island, this year made a claim near the upper 
 end of the city of Stillwater, which he called 
 Dahkotah, and was the first to raft lumber down 
 the Saint Croix, as well as the first to represent 
 the citizens of the valley in the legislature of 
 Wisconsin. 
 
 Until the year 1841, the jurisdiction of Craw- 
 ford county, Wisconsin, extended over the delta 
 of country between the Saint Croix and Missis- 
 sippi. Joseph R. Brown having been elected as 
 representative of the county, in the territorial 
 legislature of Wisconsin, succeeded in obtaining 
 the passage of an act on November twentieth, 
 1841, organizing the county of Saint Croix, with 
 Dahkotah designated as the county seat. 
 
 At the time prescribed for holding a court in 
 the new county, it is said that the judge of the 
 district arrived, and to his surprise, found a 
 claim cabin occupied by a Frenchman. Speedily 
 retreating, he never came again, and judicial 
 proceedings for Saint Croix county ended for 
 several years. Phineas Lawrence was the first 
 sheriff of this county. 
 
 On the tenth of October, 1843, was commenced 
 a settlement which has become the town of Still- 
 water. The names of the proprietors were John 
 MrKusick from Maine, Calvin Leach from Ver- 
 mont. Elam Greeley from Maine, and Elias 
 McKean from Pennsylvania. They immediately 
 commenced the erection of a sawmill. 
 
 John H. Fonda, elected on the twenty-second 
 of September, as coroner of Crawford county, 
 Wisconsin, asserts that he was once notified that 
 a dead body was lying in the water opposite Pig's 
 Eye slough, and immediately proceeded to the 
 spot, and on taking it out, recognized it as the 
 body of a negro woman belonging to a certain 
 captain of the United States army then at Fort 
 Crawford. The body was cruelly cut and bruised, 
 but no one appearing to recognise it, a verdict of 
 " Found dead," was rendered, and the corpse was 
 buried. Soon after, it came to light that the 
 woman was whipped to death, and thrown into 
 the river during the night. 
 
 The year that the Dahkotahs ceded their lands 
 east of the Mississippi, a Canadian Frenchman 
 by the name of Parrant, the ideal of an Indian 
 whisky seller, erected a shanty in what is now 
 the city of Saint Paul. Ignorant and overbear- 
 ing he loved money more than his own soul. 
 Destitute of one eye, and the other resembling 
 that of a pig, he was a good representative of 
 Caliban. Some one writing from his groggery 
 designated it as " Pig's Eye." The reply to the 
 letter was directed in good faith to " Pig's Eye " 
 
114 
 
 EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 Some years ago the editor of the Saint Paul 
 Press described the occasion in these words: 
 
 ■• Edmund Brisette, a clerkly Frenchman for 
 those days, who lives, or did live a little while 
 ago, on Lake Harriet, was one day seated at a 
 table in Parrant's cabin, with pen and paper 
 about to write a letter for Parrant (for Parrant, 
 like Charlemagre, could not write) to a friend 
 of the latter in Canada. The question of geog- 
 raphy puzzled Brissette at the outset of the 
 epistle ; where should he • date a letter from a 
 place without a name ? He looked up inquir- 
 ingly to Parrant, and met the dead, cold glare of 
 the Pig's Eye fixed upon him, with an irresist- 
 ible suggestiveness that was inspiration to 
 Brisette." 
 
 In 1842, the late Henry Jackson, of Mahkahto, 
 settled at the same spot, and erected the first 
 store on the height just above the lower landing, 
 Boberts and Simpson followed, and opened 
 small Indian trading shops. In 1846, the site of 
 Saint Paul was chiefly occupied by a few shanties 
 owned by "certain lewd fellows of the baser 
 sort," who sold rum to the soldier and Indian. 
 It was despised by all decent white men, and 
 known to the Dahkotahs by an expression in 
 their tongue which means, the place where they 
 sell minne-wakan [supernatural water]. 
 
 The chief of the Kaposiaband in 1846, was shot 
 by his own brother in a drunken revel, but sur- 
 viving the wound, and apparently alarmed at the 
 deterioration under the influence of the modern 
 harpies at Saint Paul, went to Mr. Bruce, Indian 
 Agent, at Fort Snelling, and requested a mis- 
 sionary. The Indian Agent in his report to gov- 
 ernment, says : 
 
 " The chief of the Little Crow's band, who re- 
 sides below this place (Fort Snelling) about nine 
 miles, in the immediate neighbourhood of the 
 whiskey dealers, has requested to have a school 
 established at his village. He says they are de- 
 termined to reform, and for the future, will try 
 to do better. I wrote to Doctor Williamson soon 
 after the request was made, desiring him to take 
 charge of the school. He has had charge of the 
 mission school at Lac qui Parle for some years ; 
 is well qualified, and is an excellent physician." 
 
 In November, 1846, Dr. Williamson came from 
 Lac qui Parle, as requested, and became a resi- 
 dent of Kaposia. While disapproving of their 
 
 practices, he felt a kindly interest in the whites 
 of Pig's Eye, which place was now beginning to 
 be called, after a little log chapel which had been 
 erected at the suggestion of Kev. L. Galtier, ami 
 called Saint Paul's. Though a missionary among 
 the Dahkotahs, he was the first to take steps to 
 promote the education of the whites and half- 
 breeds of Minnesota. In the year 1847, he wrote 
 to ex-Governor Slade, President of the National 
 Popular Education Society, in relation to the 
 condition of what has subsequently become the 
 capital of the state. i 
 
 In accordance with his request, Miss H. E. 
 Bishop came to his mission-house at Kaposia, 
 and, after a short time, was introduced by him 
 to the citizens of Saint Paul. The first school- 
 house in Minnesota besides those connected with 
 the Indian missions, stood near the site of the 
 old Brick Presbyterian church, corner of Saint 
 Peter and Third street, and is thus described by 
 the teacher : 
 
 •'The school was commenced in a little log 
 hovel, covered with bark, and chinked with mud, 
 previously used as a blacksmith shop. On three 
 sides of the interior of this humble log cabin, 
 pegs were driven into the logs, upon which boards 
 were laid for seats. Another seat was made by 
 placing one end of a plank between the cracks 
 of the logs, and the other upon a chair. This 
 was for visitors. A rickety cross-legged table in 
 the centre, and a hen's nest in one corner, com- 
 pleted the furniture." 
 
 Saint Croix county, in the year 1847, was de- 
 tached from Crawford county, Wisconsin, and 
 reorganized for judicial purposes, and Stillwater 
 made the county seat. In the month of June 
 the United States District Court held its session 
 in the store-room of Mr. John McKusick ; Judge 
 Charles Dunn presiding. A large number of 
 lumbermen had been attracted by the pineries 
 in the upper portion of the valley of Saint Croix, 
 and Stillwater was looked upon as the center of 
 the lumbering interest. 
 
 The Kev. Mr. Boutwell, feeling that he could 
 be more useful, left the Ojibways, and took up 
 his residence near Stillwater, preaching to the 
 lumbermen at the Falls of Saint Croix, Marine 
 Mills, Stillwater, and Cottage Grove. In a letter 
 speaking of Stillwater, he says, " Here is a little 
 village sprung up like a gourd, but whether it is 
 to perish as soon, Godonly knows." 
 
NAMES PBOPOSED FOB MINNESOTA TERRITORY. 
 
 115 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 EVENTS PREMMrNARY TO THE ORGANIZATION OF THE MINNESOTA TERRITORY, 
 
 Wisconsin State Boundaries— First Bill for the Organization of Minnesota Terri. 
 tory, A. D. 1846— Change of Wisconsin Boundary— Memorial of Saint Croix 
 Valley citizens — Various names proposed for the New Territory — Co 
 Stillwater— H. H. Sibley elected Delegate to Congress.— Derivati. 
 Minnesota. 
 
 
 Three years elapsed from the time that the 
 territory of Minnesota was proposed in Congress, 
 to the final passage of the organic act. On the 
 sixth of August, 1846, an act was passed by Con- 
 gress authorizing the citizens of Wisconsin Ter- 
 ritory to frame a constitution and form a state 
 government. The act fixed the Saiut Louis river 
 to the rapids, from thence south to the Saint 
 Croix, and thence down that river to its junction 
 with the Mississippi, as the western boundary. 
 
 On the twenty -third of December, 1846, the 
 delegate from Wisconsin, Morgan L. Martin, in- 
 troduced a bill in Congress for the organization 
 of a territory of Minnesota. This bill made its 
 western boundary the Sioux and Red River of 
 the North. On the third of March, 1847, per- 
 mission was granted to Wisconsin to change her 
 boundary, so that the western limit would pro- 
 ceed due south from the first rapids of the Saint 
 Louis river, and fifteen miles east of the most 
 easterly point of Lake Saint Croix, thence to the 
 Mississippi. 
 
 A number in the constitutionax convention of 
 Wisconsin, were anxious that Rum river should 
 be a part of her western boundary, while citizens 
 of the valley of the Saint Croix were desirous 
 that the Chippeway river should be the limit of 
 Wisconsin. The citizens of Wisconsin Territory, 
 hi the valley of the Saint Croix, and about Fort 
 Snelling, wished to be included in the projected 
 new territory, and on the twenty-eighth of March, 
 1848, a memorial signed by II. II. Sibley, Henry 
 M. Rice, Franklin Steele, William R. Marshall, 
 and others, was presented to Congress, remon- 
 strating against the proposition before the con- 
 vention to make Rum river a part of the bound- 
 ary line of the contemplated state of Wisconsin. 
 
 On the twenty-ninth of May, 1848, the act to 
 admit Wisconsin changed the boundary line to 
 the present, and as first defined in the enabling 
 act of 1846. After the bill of Mr. Martin was 
 introduced into the House of Representatives in 
 1846 it was referred to the Committee on Terri- 
 tories, of which Mr. Douglas was chairman. On 
 the twentieth of January, 1847, he reported in 
 favor of the proposed territory with the name 
 of Itasca. On the seventeenth of February, be- 
 fore the bill passed the House, a discussion arose 
 in relation to the proposed name. Mr. Win- 
 throp of Massachusetts proposed Chippewa as a 
 substitute, alleging that this tribe was the prin- 
 cipal in the proposed territory, which was not 
 correct. Mr. J. Thompson of Mississippi disliked 
 all Indian names, and hoped the territory would 
 be called Jackson. Mr. Houston of Delaware 
 thought that there ought to be one territory 
 named after the "Father of his country," and 
 proposed Washington. All of the names pro- 
 posed were rejected, and the name in the original 
 bill inserted. On the last day of the session, 
 March third, the bill was called up in the Senate 
 and laid on the table. 
 
 When Wisconsin became a state the query 
 arose whether the old territorial government did 
 not continue in force west of the Saint Croix 
 river. The first meeting on the subject of claim- 
 ing territorial privileges was held in the building 
 at Saint Paul, known as Jackson's store, near the 
 corner of Bench and Jackson streets, on the 
 bluff. This meeting was held in July, and a 
 convention was proposed to consider their posi- 
 tion. The first public meeting was held at Still- 
 water on August fourth, and Messrs. Steele and 
 Sibley were the only persons present from the 
 west side of the Mississippi. This meeting is- 
 sued a call for a general convention to take steps 
 to secure an early territorial organization, to 
 assemble on the twenty-sixth of the month at 
 
116 
 
 EXPLOBEBS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 the same place. Sixty-two delegates answered 
 the call, and among those present, were W. D. 
 Phillips, J. W. Bass, A. Larpenteur, J. M. Boal, 
 and others from Saint Paul. To the convention 
 a letter was presented from Mr. Catlin, who 
 claimed to be acting governor, giving his opinion 
 that the Wisconsin territorial organization was 
 still in force. The meeting also appointed Mr. 
 Sibley to visit Washington and represent their 
 views ; but the Hon. John H. Tweedy having 
 resigned his office of delegate to Congress on 
 September eighteenth, 1848, Mr. Catlin, who had 
 made Stillwater a temporary residence, on the 
 ninth of October issued a proclamation ordering 
 a special election at Stillwater on the thirtieth, 
 to fill a vacancy occasioned by the resignation. 
 At this election Henry H. Sibley was elected as 
 delegate of the citizens of the remaining portion 
 of Wisconsin Territory. His credentials were 
 presented to the House of Bepresentatives, and 
 the committee to whom the matter was referred 
 presented a majority and minority report; but 
 the resolution introduced by the majority passed 
 and Mr. Sibley took his seat as a delegate from 
 Wisconsin Territory on the fifteenth of January, 
 1849. 
 
 Mr. H. M. Bice, and other gentlemen, visited 
 Washington during the winter, and, uniting with 
 Mr. Sibley, used all their energies to obtain the 
 organization of a new territory. 
 
 Mr. Sibley, in an interesting communication to 
 the Minnesota Historical Society, writes : " When 
 my credentials as Delegate, were presented by 
 Hon. James Wilson, of New Hampshire, to the 
 
 House of Bepresentatives, there was some curi- 
 osity manifested among the members, to see what 
 kind of a person had been elected to represent the 
 distant and wild territory claiming representation 
 in Congress. I was told by a New England mem- 
 ber with whom I became subsequently quite inti- 
 mate, that there was some disappointment when 
 I made my appearance, for it was expected that 
 the delegate from this remote region would make 
 his debut, if not in full Indian costume, at least, 
 with some peculiarities of dress and manners, 
 characteristic of the rude and semi-civilized peo- 
 ple who had sent him to the Capitol." 
 
 The territory of Minnesota was named after 
 the largest tributary of the Mississippi within its 
 limits. The Sioux call the Missouri Minnesho- 
 shay, muddy water, but the stream after which 
 this region is named, Minne-sota. Some say that 
 Sota means clear; others, turbid; Schoolcraft, 
 bluish green. Nicollet wrote. " The adjective 
 Sotah is of difficult translation. The Canadians 
 translated it by a pretty equivalent word, brouille, 
 perhaps more properly rendered into English by 
 blear. I have entered upon this explanation be 
 cause the word really means neither clear nor 
 turbid, as some authors have asserted, its true 
 meaning being found in the Sioux expression 
 Ishtah-sotah, blear-eyed. " From the fact that the 
 word signifies neither blue nor white, but the 
 peculiar appearance of the sky at certain times, 
 by some, Minnesota has been defined to mean the 
 sky tinted water, which is certainly poetic, and the 
 late Eev. Gideon H. Pond thought quite correct. 
 
MINNESOTA IN THE BEGINNING. 
 
 117 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 MINNESOTA FROM ITS ORGANIZATION AS A TERRITORY, A. D. 1849, TO A. D. 1854. 
 
 Appearance of the Country, A. D. 1849 — Arrival of first Editor — Governor 
 Ramsey arrives — Guest of H. H. Sibley — Proclamation issued — Governor 
 Ramsey and H. M. Rice move to Saint Paul— Fourth of July Celebration — 
 First election— Early »ewspapers— First Courts— First Legislature— Pioneer 
 News Carrier's Address— Wedding at Fort Snelling— Territorial Seal— Scalp 
 Dance at Stillwater— First Steamboat at Falls of Saint Anthony— Presbyterian 
 Chapel burned— Indian council at Fort Snelling— First Steamboat above Saint 
 Anthony — First boat at the Blue Earth River — Congressional election— Visit.of 
 Fredrika Bremer — Indian newspaper— Other newspapers — Second Legislature 
 —University of Minnesota— Teamster killed by Indians— Sioux Treaties— Third 
 Legislature— Land slide at Stillwater— Death of first Editor— Fourth Legislature 
 Baldwin School, now Macalester College — Indian fight in Saint Paul. 
 
 On the third of March, 1849, the bill was passed 
 by Congress for organizing the territory of 
 Minnesota, whose boundary on the west, extended 
 to the Missouri River. At this time, the region was 
 little more than a wilderness. The west bank of 
 the Mississippi, from the Iowa line to Lake 
 Itasca, was unceded by the Indians. 
 
 At Wapashaw, was a trading post in charge of 
 Alexis Bailly, and here also resided the ancient 
 voyageur, of fourscore years, A. Rocque. 
 
 At the foot of Lake Pepin was a store house 
 kept by Mr. F. S. Richards. On the west shore of 
 the lake lived the eccentric Wells, whose wife 
 was a bois brule, a daughter of the deceased 
 trader, Duncan Graham. 
 
 The two unfinished buildings of stone, on 
 the beautiful bank opposite the renowned 
 Maiden's Rock, and the surrounding skin lodges 
 of his wife's relatives and friends, presented a 
 rude but picturesque scene. Above the lake was 
 a cluster of bark wigwams, the Dahkotah village 
 of Raymneecha, now Red Wing, at which was a 
 Presbyterian mission house. 
 
 The next settlement was Kaposia, also an In- 
 dian village, and the residence of a Presbyterian 
 missionary, the Rev. T. S- Williamson, M. D. 
 On the east side of the Mississippi, the first set- 
 tlement, at the mouth of the St. Croix, was Point 
 Douglas, then as now, a small hamlet. 
 
 At Red Rock, the site of a former Methodist 
 mission station, there were a few farmers. Saint 
 Paul was just emerging from a collection of In- 
 dian whisky shops and birch roofed cabins of 
 
 half-breed voyageurs. Here and there a frame 
 tenement w r as erected, and, under the auspices of 
 the Hon. H. M. Rice, who had obtained an inter- 
 est in the town, some warehouses were con- 
 structed, and the foundations of the American 
 House, a frame hotel, which stood at Third and 
 Exchange street, were laid. In 1849, the popu- 
 lation had increased to two hundred and fifty 
 or three hundred inhabitants, for rumors had 
 gone abroad that it might be mentioned in the 
 act, creating the territory, as the capital 
 of Minnesota. More than a month after 
 the adjournment of Congress, just at eve, 
 on the ninth of April, amid terrific peals of 
 thunder and torrents of rain, the weekly steam 
 packet, the first to force its way through the icy 
 barrier of Lake Pepin, rounded the rocky point 
 whistling loud and long, as if the bearer of glad 
 tidings. Before she was safely moored to the 
 landing, the shouts of the excited villagers were 
 heard announcing that there was a territory of 
 Minnesota, and that Saint Paul was the seat of 
 government. 
 
 Every successive steamboat arrival poured out 
 on the landing men big with hope, and anxious 
 to do something to mould the future of the new 
 state. 
 
 Xine days after the news of the existence of the 
 territory of Minnesota was received, there arrived 
 James M. Goodhue with press, type, and printing 
 apparatus. A graduate of Amherst college, and 
 a lawyer by profession, he wielded a sharp pen, 
 and wrote editorials, which, more than anything 
 else, perhaps, induced immigration. Though a 
 man of some faults, one of the counties properly 
 bears his name. On the twenty-eighth of April, 
 he issued from his press the first number of the 
 Pioneer. 
 
 On the twenty - seventh of May, Alexander 
 Ramsey, the Governor, and family, arrived at 
 Saint Paul, but owing to the crowded state of pub- 
 
I IS 
 
 EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 lie houses, immediately proceeded in the steamer 
 to the establishment of the For Company, known 
 as Mendota. at the junction of the Minnesota and 
 Mississippi, and became the guest of the Hon. II. 
 II. Sibley. 
 
 On the first of June, Governor Kamsey, by pro- 
 clamation, declared the territory duly organized, 
 with the following officers : Alexander Ramsey, 
 of Pennsylvania, Governor ; C. K. Smith, of Ohio, 
 Secretary ; A. Goodrich, of Tennessee, Chief 
 Justice ; D. Cooper, of Pennsylvania, and B. B. 
 Meeker, of Kentucky, Associate Judges ; Joshua 
 L. Taylor, Marshal ; H. L. Moss, attorney of the 
 United States. 
 
 On the eleventh of June, a second proclama- 
 tion was issued, dividing the territory into three 
 temporary j udicial districts. The first comprised 
 the county of St. Croix ; the county of La Pointe 
 and the region north and west of the Mississippi, 
 and north of the Minnesota and of a line running 
 due west from the headwaters of the Minnesota 
 to the Missouri river, constituted the second ; 
 and the country west of the Mississippi and south 
 of the Minnesota, formed the third district. 
 Judge Goodrich was assigned to the first, Meeker 
 to the second, and Cooper to the third. A court 
 was ordered to be held at Stillwater on the second 
 Monday, at the Palls of St. Anthony on the third, 
 and at Mendota on the fourth Monday of August. 
 
 Until the twenty -sixth of June, Governor 
 Ramsey and family had been guests of Hon. H. 
 II. Sibley, at Mendota. On the afternoon of 
 that day they arrived at St. Paul, in a birch-bark 
 canoe, and became permanent residents at the 
 capital. The house first occupied as a guber- 
 natorial mansion, was a small frame building that 
 stood on Third, between Robert and Jackson 
 streets, formerly known as the New England 
 House. 
 
 A few days after, the Hon. H. M. Rice and 
 family moved from Mendota to St. Paul, and oc- 
 cupied the house he had erected on St. Anthony 
 street, near the corner of Market. 
 
 On the first of July, a land office was estab- 
 lished at Stillwater, and A. Van Vorhes, after a 
 few weeks, became the register. 
 
 The anniversary of our National Independence 
 was celebrated in a becoming manner at the cap- 
 ital. The place selected for the address, was a 
 grove that stood on the sites of the City Hall and 
 
 the Baldwin School building, and the late Frank- 
 lin Steele was the marshal of the day. 
 
 On the seventh of July, a proclamation was is- 
 sued, dividing the territory into seven council 
 districts, and ordering an election to be held on 
 the first day of August, for one delegate to rep- 
 resent the people in the House of Representatives 
 of the United States, for nine councillors and 
 eighteen representatives, to constitute the Legis- 
 lative Assembly of Minnesota. 
 
 In this month, the Hon. H. M. Rice despatch- 
 ed a boat laded with Indian goods from the 
 the Falls of St. Anthony to Crow Wing, which 
 was towed by horses after the manner of a canal 
 boat. 
 
 The election on the first of August, passed off 
 with little excitement, Hon. H, H. Sibley being 
 elected delegate to Congress without opposition. 
 David Lambert, on what might, perhaps, be 
 termed the old settlers' ticket, was defeated in 
 St. Paul, by James M. Boal. The latter, on the 
 night of the election, was honored with a ride 
 through town on the axle and fore-wheels of an 
 old wagon, which was drawn by his admiring 
 but somewhat undisciplined friends. 
 
 J. L. Taylor having declined the office of 
 United States Marshal; A. M. Mitchell, of Ohio, 
 a graduate of West Point, and colonel of a regi- 
 ment of Ohio volunteers in the Mexican war, was 
 appointed and arrived at the capital early in 
 August. 
 
 There were three papers published in the ter- 
 ritory soon after its organization. The first was 
 the Pioneer, issued on April twenty-eighth, 1849, 
 under most discouraging circumstances. It was 
 at first the intention of the witty and reckless 
 editor to have called his paper " The Epistle of 
 St. Paul." About the same time there was issued 
 in Cincinnati, under the auspices of the late Dr. 
 A. Randall, of California, the first number of 
 the Register. The second number of the paper 
 was printed at St. Paul, in July, and the office 
 was on St. Anthony, between Washington and 
 Market Streets, About the first of June, James 
 Hughes, afterward of Hudson, Wisconsin, arrived 
 with a press and materials, and established the 
 Minnesota Chronicle. After an existence of a 
 few weeks two papers were discontinued ; and, 
 in their place, was issued the " Chronicle and 
 
DESCRIPTION OF THE TEMPORARY CAPITOL. 
 
 119 
 
 Kegister," edited by Natkaiel McLean and John 
 P. Owens. 
 
 The first courts, pursuant to proclamation of 
 the governor, were held in the month of August. 
 At Stillwater, the court was organized on the 
 thirteenth of the month, Judge Goodrich pre- 
 siding, and Judge Cooper by courtesy, sitting on 
 the bench. On the twentieth, the second judi- 
 cial district held a court. The room used was 
 the old government mill at Minneapolis. The 
 presiding judge was B. B. Meeker ; the foreman 
 of the grand jury, Franklin Steele. On the last 
 Monday of the month, the court for the third 
 judicial district was organized in the large stone 
 warehouse of the fur company at Mendota. The 
 presiding judge was David Cooper. Governor 
 Eamsey sat on the right, and Judge Goodrich on 
 the left. Hon. H. II. Sibley was the foreman of 
 the grand jury. As some of the jurors could not 
 speak the English language, W. II. Forbes acted 
 as interpreter. The charge of Judge Cooper was 
 lucid, scho'arly, and dignified. At the request 
 of the grand jury it was afterwards published. 
 
 On Monday, the third of September, the first 
 Legislative Assembly convened in the " Central 
 Hon -.""in Saint Paul, a building at the corner 
 of Minnesota and Bench streets, facing the 
 Mississippi river which answered the double 
 purpose of capitol and hoteL On the first 
 floor of the main building was the Secreta- 
 ry's office and Representative chamber, and in 
 the second story was the library and Council 
 chamber. As the Hag was run up the staff in 
 front of the house, a number of Indians sat on a 
 rocky bluff in the vicinity, and gazed at what to 
 them was a novel and perhaps saddening scene ; 
 for if the tide of immigration sweeps in from the 
 Pacific as it has from the Atlantic coast, they 
 must soon dwindle. 
 
 The legislature having organized, elected the 
 following permanent officers: David Olmsted, 
 President of Council; Joseph P.Brown, Secre- 
 ary; II. A. Lambert, Assistant. In the House 
 of Representatives, Joseph W. Furber was elect- 
 ed Speaker: W. D. Phillips. Clerk: L. B. Wait, 
 Assistant. 
 
 On Tuesday afternoon, both houses assembled 
 in the dining hall of the hotel, and after prayer 
 was offered by Rev. E. D. Xeill, Governor Ram- 
 sey delivered his message. The message was ably 
 
 written, and its perusal afforded satisfaction at 
 home and abroad. 
 
 The first session of the legislature adjourned on 
 the first of November. Among other proceed- 
 ings of interest, was the creation of the following 
 counties: Itasca, Wapashaw, Dahkotah, Wah- 
 nahtah, Mahkahto, Pembina Washington, Ram- 
 sey and Benton. The three latter counties com- 
 prised the country that up to that time had been 
 ceded by the Indians on the east side of the Mis- 
 sissippi, Stillwater was declared the county seat 
 of Washington, Saint Paul, of Ramsey, and '• the 
 seat of justice of the county of Benton was to be 
 within one-quarter of a mile of a point on the east 
 side of the Mississippi, directly opposite the mouth 
 of Sauk river." 
 
 EVENTS OF A. D 1850. 
 
 By the active exertions of the secretary of the 
 territory, C. K. Smith, Esq., the Historical 
 Society of Minnesota was incorporated at the 
 first session of the legislature. The opening an- 
 nual address was delivered in the then Methodist 
 (now Swedenborgian) church at Saint Paul, on 
 the first of January, 1850. 
 
 The following account of the proceedings is 
 from the Chronicle and Register. "The first 
 public exercises of the Minnesota Historical 
 Society, took place at the Methodist church, Saint 
 Paul, on the first inst., and passed off highly 
 creditable to all concerned. The day was pleasant 
 and the attendance large. At the appointed 
 hour, the President and both Vice-Presidents of 
 the society being absent ; on motion of Hon. C. 
 K. Smith, Hon. Chief Justice Goodrich was 
 called to the chair. The same gentleman then 
 moved that a committee, consisting of Messrs. 
 Parsons K. Johnson, John A. Wakefield, and B. 
 W. Branson, be appointed to wait upon the 
 Orator of the day, Rev. Mr. JSTeill, and inform 
 him that the audience was waiting to hear his 
 address. 
 
 •• Mr. Xeill was shortly conducted to the pulpit; 
 and after an eloquent and approriate prayer by 
 the Rev. Mr. Parsons, and music by the band, be 
 proceeded to deliver his discourse upon the early 
 French missionaries and Voyageurs into Minne- 
 sota. We hope the society will provide for its 
 publication at an early day. 
 
 "After some brief remarks by Rev. Mr. 
 
li'O 
 
 MXtLOitJSMH AND FlONJiUilRS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 Hobart, upon the objects and ends of history, the 
 ceremonies were concluded with a prayer by 
 that gentleman. The audience dispersed highly 
 delighted with all that occurred." 
 
 At this early period the Minnesota Pioneer 
 issued a Carrier's New Year's Address, which 
 was amusing doggerel. The reference to the 
 future greatness and ignoble origin of the capital 
 of Minnesota was as follows :— 
 
 The cities on this river must be three, 
 Two that are built and one that is to be. 
 One, is the mart of all the tropics yield, 
 The cane, the orange, and the cotton-field, 
 And sends her ships abroad and boasts 
 Her trade extended to a thousand coasts ; 
 The other, central for the temperate zone, 
 Garners the stores that on the plains are grown, 
 A place where steamboats from all quarters, 
 
 range, 
 To meet and speculate, as 'twere on 'change. 
 The third will be, where rivers confluent flow 
 From the wide spreading north through plains 
 
 of snow ; 
 The mart of all that boundless forests give 
 To make mankind more comfortably live, 
 The land of manufacturing industry, 
 The workshop of the nation it shall be. 
 Propelled by this wide stream, you'll see 
 A thousand factories at Saint Anthony : 
 And the Saint Croix a hundred mills shall drive, 
 And all its smiling villages shall thrive ; 
 But then my town— remember that high bench 
 "With cabins scattered over it, of French ? 
 A man named Henry Jackson's living there, 
 Also a man — why every one knows L. Kobair, 
 Below Port Snelling, seven miles or so, 
 And three above the village of Old Crow ? 
 Pig's Eye ? Yes ; Pig's Eye ! That's the spot I 
 A very funny name ; is't not ? 
 Pig's Eye's the spot, to plant my city on, 
 To be remembered by, when I am gone. 
 Pig's Eye converted thou shalt be, like Saul : 
 Thy name henceforth shall be Saint Paul. 
 
 On the evening of New Year's day, at Port 
 Snelling, there was an assemblage which is only 
 seen on the outposts of civilization. In one of 
 the stone edifices, outside of the wall, belonging 
 to the United States, there resided a gentleman 
 who had dwelt in Minnesota since the year 1819, 
 
 and for many years had been in the employ of 
 the government, as Indian interpreter. . In youth 
 he had been a member of the Columbia Pur Com- 
 pany, and conforming to the habits of traders, 
 had purchased a Dahkotah wife who was wholly 
 ignorant of the English language. As a family 
 of children gathered around him he recognised 
 the relation of husband and father, and consci- 
 entiously discharged Ms duties as a parent. 1 1 is 
 daughter at a proper age was sent to a boarding 
 school of some celebrity, and on the night re- 
 ferred to was married to an intelligent young 
 American farmer. Among the guests present 
 were the officers of the garrison in full uniform, 
 with their wives, the United States Agent for 
 the Dahkotahs, and family, the bois brules of 
 the neighborhood, and the Indian relatives of the 
 mother. The mother did not make her appear- 
 ance, but, as the minister proceeded with the 
 ceremony, the Dahkotah relatives, wrapped in 
 their blankets, gathered in the hall and looked 
 in through the door. 
 
 The marriage feast was worthy of the occa- 
 sion. In consequence, of the numbers, the 
 officers and those of European extraction partook 
 first ; then the bois brules of O jib way and Dah- 
 kotah descent; and, finally, the native Ameri- 
 cans, who did ample justice to the plentiful sup- 
 ply spread before them. 
 
 Governor Bamsey, Hon." H. H. Sibley, and the 
 delegate to Congress devised at Washington, this 
 winter, the territorial seal. The design was Falls 
 of St. Anthony in the distance. An immigrant 
 ploughing the land on the borders of the Indian 
 country, full of hope, and looking forward to the 
 possession of the hunting grounds beyond. An 
 Indian, amazed at the sight of the plough, and 
 fleeing on horseback towards the setting sun. 
 
 The motto of the Earl of Dunraven, "Quae 
 sursmn volo videre". (I wish to see what is above) 
 was most appropriately selected by Mr. Sibley, 
 but by the blunder of an engraver it appeared on 
 the territorial seal, "Quo sursum velo videre," 
 which no scholar could translate. At length was 
 substituted, "L' Etoile du Nord," "Star of the 
 North,"- while the device of the setting sun 
 remained, and this is objectionable, as the State 
 of Maine had already placed the North Star on 
 her escutcheon, with the motto "Dirigo," "I 
 guide." Perhaps some future legislature may 
 
SCALP DANCE IN STILLWATEB. 
 
 121 
 
 direct the first motto to be restored, and correctly 
 engraved. 
 
 In the montn of April, there was a renewal of 
 hostilities between the Dahkotahs and Ojibways, 
 on lands that ha'd been ceded to the United States. 
 A war prophet at Red Wing, dreamed that he 
 ought to raise a war party. . Announcing the fact, 
 a number expressed their willingness to go on such 
 an expedition. Several from the Kaposia village 
 also joined the party, under the leadership of a 
 worthless Indian, who had been confined in the 
 guard-house at Fort Snelling, the year previous, 
 for scalping his wife. 
 
 Passing up the valley of the St. Croix, a rew 
 miles above Stillwater the party discovered on the 
 snow the marks of a keg and footprints. These 
 told them that a man and woman of the Ojibways 
 had been to some whisky dealer's, and were re- 
 turning. Following their trail, they found on 
 Apple river, about twenty miles from Stillwater, 
 a band of Ojibways encamped in one lodge. Wait- 
 ing till daybreak of Wednesday, April second, the 
 Dahkotahs commenced firing on the unsuspecting 
 inmates, some of whom were drinking from the 
 contents of the whisky keg. The camp was com- 
 posed of fifteen, and all were murdered and scalp- 
 ed, with the exception of a lad, who was made a 
 captive. 
 
 On Thursday, the victors came to Stillwater, 
 and danced the scalp dance around the captive 
 boy, in the heat of excitement, striking him in the 
 face with the scarcely cold and bloody scalps of 
 his relatives. The child was then taken to Ka- 
 posia, and adopted by the chief. Governor Ram- 
 sey immediately took measures to send the boy to 
 his friends. At a conference held at the Gov- 
 ernor's mansion, the boy was delivered up, and, 
 on being led out to the kitchen by a little son of 
 the Governor, since deceased, to receive refresh- 
 ments, he cried bitterly, seemingly more alarmed 
 at being left with the whites than he had been 
 while a captive at Kaposia. 
 
 From the first of April the waters of the Mis- 
 sissippi began to rise, and on the thirteenth, the 
 lower floor of the warehouse, then occupied by 
 William Constans, at the foot of Jackson street, 
 St. Paul, was submerged. Taking advantage of 
 the freshet, the steamboat Anthony Wayne, for a 
 purse of two hundred dollars, ventured through 
 the swift current above Fort Snelling, and reached 
 
 the Falls of St. Anthony. The boat loft the fort 
 after dinner, with Governor Eamsey and other 
 guests, also the band of the Sixth Regiment on 
 board, and reached the falls between three and 
 four o'clock in the afternoon. The whole town, 
 men, women and children, lined the shore as the 
 boat approached, and welcomed this first arrival, 
 with shouts and waving handkerchiefs. 
 
 On the afternoon of May fifteenth, there might 
 have been seen, hurrying through the streets of 
 Saint Paul, a number of naked and painted braves 
 of the Kaposia band of Dahkotahs, ornamented 
 with all the attire of war, and panting for the 
 scalps of their enemies. A few hours before, the 
 warlike head chief of the Ojibways, young Hole- 
 in-the-Day , having secreted his canoe in the retired 
 gorge which leads to the cave in the upper sub- 
 urbs, with two or three associates had crossed the 
 river, and, almost in sight of the citizens of the 
 town, had attacked a small party of Dahkotahs, 
 and murdered and scalped one man. On receipt 
 of the news, Governor Ramsey granted a parole 
 to the thirteen Dahkotahs confined in Fort Snell- 
 ing, for participating in the Apple river massacre. 
 
 On the morning of the sixteenth of May, the 
 first Protestant church edifice completed in the 
 white settlements, a small frame bnilding, built 
 for the Presbyterian church, at Saint Paul, was 
 destroyed by fire, it being the first conflagration 
 that had occurred since the organization of the 
 territory. 
 
 One of the most interesting events of the year 
 1850, was the Indian council, at Fort Snelling. 
 Governor Ramsey had sent runners to the differ- 
 ent bands of the Ojibways and Dahkotahs, to 
 meet him at the fort, for the purpose of en- 
 deavouring to adjust their difficulties. 
 
 On Wednesday, the twelfth of June, after 
 much talking, as is customary at Indian councils, 
 the two tribes agreed as they had frequently done 
 before, to be friendly, and Governor Ramsey 
 presenting to each party an ox. the council was 
 dissolved. 
 
 On Thursday, the Ojibways visited St. Paul 
 for the first time, young Hole-in-the-Day being 
 dressed in a coat of a captain of United States 
 infantry, which had been presented to him at the 
 fort. On Friday, they left in the steamer Gov- 
 ernor Ramsey, which had been built at St. An- 
 thony, and just commenced running between 
 
EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 that point, and Sauk Uapids, for their homes in 
 the wilderness of the Upper Mississippi. 
 
 The summer of 1850 was the commencement 
 of the navigation of the Minnesota River by 
 steamboats. With the exception of a steamer 
 that maile a pleasure excursion as far as Shokpay, 
 in 1841, no large vessels had ever disturbed the 
 waters of this stream. In June, the "Anthony 
 Wayne," which a few weeks before had ascended 
 to the Falls of St. Anthony, made a trip. On 
 the eighteenth of July she made a second trip, 
 going almost to Mahkahto. The " Nominee " 
 also navigated the stream for some distance. 
 
 On the twenty-second of July the officers of 
 the "Yankee," taking advantage of the high 
 water, determined to navigate the stream as far 
 as possible. The boat ascended to near the Cot- 
 tonwood river. 
 
 As the time for the general election in Septem- 
 ber approached, considerable excitement was 
 manifested. As there were no political issues 
 before the people, parties were formed based on 
 personal preferences. Among those nominated 
 for delegate to Congress, by various meetings, 
 were H. H. Sibley, the former delegate to Con- 
 gress, David Olmsted, at that time engaged in 
 the Indian trade, and A. M. Mitchell, the United 
 States marshal. Mr. Olmsted withdrew his 
 name before election day, and the contest was 
 between those interested in Sibley and Mitchell. 
 The friends of each betrayed the greatest zeal, 
 and neither pains nor money were spared to in- 
 sure success. Mr. Sibley was elected by a small 
 majority. For the first time in the territory, 
 soldiers at the garrisons voted at this election, 
 and there was considerable discussion as to the 
 propriety of such a course. 
 
 Miss Fredrika Bremer, the well known Swedish 
 novelist, visited Minnesota in the month of 
 October, and was the guest of Governor Ramsey. 
 During November, the Dahkotah Tawaxitku 
 Kin, or the Dahkotah Friend, a monthly paper, 
 was commenced, one-half in the Dahkotah and 
 one-half in the English language. Its editor was 
 the Rev. Gideon II. Pond, a Presbyterian mis- 
 sionary, and its place of publication at Saint Paul. 
 It was published for nearly two years, and, though 
 it failed to attract the attention of the Indian 
 mind, it conveyed to the English reader much 
 
 correct information in relation to the habits, the 
 belief, and superstitions, of the Dahkotahs. 
 
 On the tenth of December, a new paper, owned 
 and edited by Daniel A. Robertson, late United 
 States marshal, of Ohio, and called the Minne- 
 sota Democrat, made its appearance. 
 
 During the summer there had been changes in 
 the editorial supervision of the " Chronicle and 
 Register." For a brief period it was edited by 
 L. A. Babcock, Esq., who was succeeded by W. 
 G. Le Due. 
 
 About the time of the issuing of the Demo- 
 crat, C. J. Henniss, formerly reporter for the 
 United States Gazette, Philadelphia, became the 
 editor of the Chronicle. 
 
 The first proclamation for a thanksgiving day 
 was issued in 1850 by the governor, and the 
 twenty-sixth of December was the time appointed 
 and it was generally observed. 
 
 EVENTS OF A. D. 1851. 
 
 On Wednesday, January first, 1851, the second 
 Legislative Assembly assembled in a three-story 
 brick building, since destroyed by fire, that stood 
 on St. Anthony street, between Washington and 
 Franklin. D. B. Loomis was chosen Speaker of 
 the Council, and M. E. Ames Speaker of the 
 House. This assembly was characterized by 
 more bitterness of feeling than any that has 
 since convened. The preceding delegate election 
 had been based on personal preferences, and 
 cliques and factions manifested themselves at an 
 early period of the session. 
 
 The locating of the penitentiary at Stillwater, 
 and the capitol building at St. Paul gave some 
 dissatisfaction. By the efforts of J. W. North, 
 Esq., a bill creating the University of Minnesota 
 at or near the Falls of St. Anthony, was passed, 
 and signed by the Governor. This institution, 
 by the State Constitution, is now the State Uni- 
 versity. 
 
 During the session of this Legislature, the pub- 
 lication of the " Chronicle and Register" ceased. 
 
 About the middle of May, a war party of Dah- 
 kotahs discovered near Swan River, an Ojibway 
 with a keg of whisky. The latter escaped, with 
 the loss of his keg. The war party, drinking the 
 contents, became intoxicated, and, firing upon 
 some teamrters they met driving their wagons 
 with goods to the Indian Agency, killed one of 
 
LANDS WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI CEDED. 
 
 123 
 
 them, Andrew Swartz, a resident of St. Paul. 
 The news was conveyed to Tort Eipley, and a 
 party of soldiers, with Hole-in-the-Day as a guide, 
 started in pursuit of the murderers, but did not 
 succeed in capturing them. Through the influ- 
 ence of Little Six the Dahkotah chief, whose vil- 
 lage was at (and named after him) Shok- 
 pay, five of the offienders were arrested and 
 placed in the guard-house at Fort Snelling. On 
 Monday, June ninth, they left the fort in a wagon, 
 guarded by twenty-five dragoons, destined for 
 Sauk Eapids for trial. As they departed they all 
 sang their death song, and the coarse soldiers 
 amused themselves by making signs that they 
 were going to be hung. On the first evening of 
 the journey the five culprits encamped with the 
 twenty-five dragoons. Handcuffed, they were 
 placed in the tent, and yet at midnight they all 
 escaped, only one being wounded by the guard. 
 What was more remarkable, the wounded man 
 was the first to bring the news to St. Paul. Pro- 
 ceeding to Kaposia, his wound was examined by 
 the missionary and physician, Dr. Williamson ; 
 and then, fearing an arrest, he took a canoe and 
 paddled up the Minnesota. The excuse offered 
 by the dragoons was, that all the guard but one 
 fell asleep. 
 
 The first paper published in Minnesota, beyond 
 the capital, was the St. Anthony Express, which 
 made its appearance dining the last week of 
 April or May. 
 
 The most important event of the year 1851 
 was the treaty with the Dahkotahs, by winch the 
 west side of the Mississippi and the valley of the 
 Minnesota Kiver were opened to the hardy immi- 
 grant. The commissioners on the part of the 
 United States were Luke Lea. Commissioner of 
 Indian Affairs, and Governor Eamsey. The 
 place of meeting for the upper bands was Trav- 
 erse des Sioux. The commission arrived there 
 on the last of June, but were obliged to wait 
 many days for the assembling of the various bands 
 of Dahkotahs. 
 
 On the eighteenth of July, all those expected 
 having arrived, the Sissetoans and Wahpaytoan 
 Dahkotahs assembled in grand council with the 
 United States commissioners. After the usual 
 f eastings and speeches, a treaty was concluded 
 on Wednesday, July twenty-third. The pipe 
 having been smoked by the commissioners, Lea 
 
 and Eamsey, it was passed to the chiefs. The 
 paper containing the treaty was then read in 
 English and translated into the Dahkotah by the 
 Eev. S. E. Eiggs, Presbyterian Missionary among 
 this people. This finished, the chiefs came up 
 to the secretary's table and touched the pen; the 
 white men present then witnessed the document, 
 and nothing remained but the ratification of the 
 United States Senate to open that vast country 
 for the residence of the hardy immigrant. 
 
 During* the first week in August, a treaty was 
 also concluded beneath an oak bower, on Pilot 
 Knob, Mendota, with the M'dewakantonwan and 
 Wahpaykootay bands of Dahkotahs. About sixty 
 of the chiefs and principal men touched the pen, 
 and Little Crow, who had been hi the mission- 
 school at Lac qui Parle, signed his own name. 
 Before they separated, Colonel Lea and Governor 
 Eamsey gave them a few words of advice on 
 various subjects connected with their future well- 
 being, but particularly on the subject of educa- 
 tion and temperance. The treaty was interpret- 
 ed to them by the Eev. G. H. Pond, a gentleman 
 who was conceded to be a most correct speaker 
 of the Dahkotah tongue. 
 
 The day after the treaty these lower bands 
 received thirty thousand dollars, which, by the 
 treaty of 1837, was set apart for education ; but, 
 by the misrepresentations of interested half- 
 breeds, the Indians were made to believe that 
 it ought to be given to them to be employed as 
 they pleased. 
 
 The next week, with their sacks filled with 
 money, they thronged the streets of St. Paul, 
 purchasing whatever pleased their fancy. 
 
 On the seventeenth of September, a new paper 
 was commenced in St. Paul, under the auspices 
 of the "Whigs," and John P. Owens became 
 editor, which relation he sustained until the fall 
 of 1857. 
 
 The election for members of the legislature 
 and county officers occurred on the fourteenth of 
 October ; and, for the first time, a regular Demo- 
 cratic ticket was placed before the people. The 
 parties called themselves Democratic and Anti- 
 organization, or Coalition. 
 
 In the month of ^November Jerome Fuller ar- 
 rived, and took the place of Judge Goodrich as 
 Chief Justice of Minnesota, who was removed ; 
 and, about the same time, Alexander Wilkin was 
 
124 
 
 EXPLOBEItS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 appointed secretary of the territory in place of 
 C. K. Smith. 
 
 The eighteenth of December, pursuant to 
 proclamation, -was observed as a day of Thanks- 
 giving. 
 
 EVENTS OF A. D. 1852. 
 
 The third Legislative Assembly commenced its 
 sessions in one of the edifices on Third below 
 Jackson street, which became a portion of the 
 Merchants' Hotel, on the seventh of January, 
 1852. 
 
 This session, compared with the previous, 
 formed a contrast as great as that between a 
 boisterous day in March and a calm June morn- 
 ing. The minds of the population were more 
 deeply interested in the ratification of the treaties 
 made with the Dahkotahs, than in political dis- 
 cussions. Among other legislation of interest 
 was the creation of Hennepin county. 
 
 On Saturday, the fourteenth of February, a 
 dog-train arrived at St. Paul from the north, 
 with the distinguished Arctic explorer, Dr. Eae. 
 He had been in search of the long-missing Sir 
 John Franklin, by way of the Mackenzie river, 
 and was now on his way to Europe. 
 
 On the fourteenth of May, an interesting lusus 
 naturae occurred at Stillwater. On the prairies, 
 beyond the elevated bluffs which encircle the 
 business portion of the town, there is a lake which 
 discharges its waters through a ravine, and sup- 
 plied McKusick's mill. Owing to heavy rains, 
 the hills became saturated with water, and the 
 lake very full. Before daylight the citizens heard 
 the " voice of many waters," and looking out, saw 
 rushing down through the. ravine, trees, gravel 
 and diluvium. Nothing impeded its course, and 
 as it issued from the ravine it spread over the 
 town site, covering up barns and small tenements, 
 and, continuing to the lake shore, it materially 
 improved the landing, by a deposit of many tons 
 of earth. One of the editors of the day, alluding 
 to the fact, quaintly remarked, that " it was a 
 very extraordinary movement of real estate." 
 
 During the summer, Elijah Terry, a young 
 man who had left St. Paul the previous March, 
 and went to Pembina, to act as teacher to the 
 mixed bloods in that vicinity, was murdered un- 
 der distressing circumstances. "With a bois bride 
 he had started to the woods on the morning of 
 
 his death, to hew timber. While there he was 
 fired upon by a small party of Dahkotahs ; a ball 
 broke his arm, and he was pierced with arrows. 
 II is scalp was wrenched from his head, and was 
 afterwards seen among Sisseton Dahkotahs, near 
 Big Stone Lake. 
 
 About the last of August, the pioneer editor 
 of Minnesota, James M. Goodhue, died. 
 
 At the November Term of the United States 
 District Court, of Ramsey county, a Dahkotah, 
 named Yu-ha-zee, was tried for the murder of a 
 German woman. With others, she was travel- 
 ing above Shokpay, when a party of Indians, of 
 whom the prisoner was one, met them; and, 
 gathering about the wagon, were much excited. 
 The prisoner punched the woman first with his 
 gun, and, being threatened by one of the party, 
 loaded and fired, killing the woman and wound- 
 ing one of the men. 
 
 On the day of his trial he was escorted from 
 Fort Snelling by a company of mounted dragoons 
 in full dress. It was an impressive scene to 
 witness the poor Indian half hid in his blanket, 
 in" a buggy with the civil officer, surrounded with 
 all the pomp and circumstance of war. The jury 
 found him guilty. On being asked if he had 
 anything to say why sentence of death should 
 not be passed, he replied, through the interpreter, 
 that the band to which he belonged would remit 
 their annuities if he could be released. To this 
 Judge Hayner, the successor of Judge Fuller, 
 replied, that he had no authority to release 
 him; and, ordering him to rise, after some 
 appropriate and impressive remarks, he pro- 
 nounced the first sentence of death ever pro- 
 nounced by a judicial officer in Minnesota. The 
 prisoner trembled while the judge spoke, and 
 was a piteous spectacle. By the statute of Min- 
 nesota, then, one convicted of murder could not 
 be executed until twelve months had elapsed, and 
 he was confined until the governor of the ter- 
 orrity should by warrant order his execution. 
 
 EVENTS OF A. D. 1853. 
 
 The fourth Legislative Assembly convened on 
 the fifth of January, 1853, in the two story brick 
 edifice at the corner of Third and Minnesota 
 streets. The Council chose Martin McLeod as 
 presiding officer, and the House Dr. David Day, 
 
INDIAN FIGHT IN STREETS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 125 
 
 Speaker. Governor Ramsey's message was an 
 interesting document. 
 
 The Baldwin school, now known as Macalester 
 College, was incorporated at this session of the 
 legislature, and was opened the following June. 
 
 On the ninth of April, a party of Ojibways 
 killed a Dahkotah. at the village of Shokpay. A 
 war party, from Kaposia, then proceeded up the 
 valley of the St. Croix, and Killed an Ojibway. 
 On the morning of the twenty-seventh, a band 
 of Ojibway warriors, naked, decked, and fiercely 
 gesticulating, might have been seen in the busiest 
 street of the capital, in search of their enemies. 
 Just at that time a small party of women, and 
 one man, who had lost a leg in the battle of Still- 
 water, arrived in a canoe from Kaposia. at the 
 Jackson street landing. Perceiving the Ojib- 
 ways, they retreated to the building then known 
 as the " Pioneer " office, and the Ojibways dis- 
 charging a volley through the windows, wounded 
 a Dahkotah woman who soon died. For a short 
 time, the infant capital presented a sight 
 similar to that witnessed in ancient days "in 
 Hadley or Deerfield. the then frontier towns of 
 Massachusetts. Messengers were despatched to 
 Fort Snelling for the dragoons, and a party of 
 citizens mounted on horseback, were quickly in 
 pursuit of those who with so much boldness had 
 sought the streets of St. Paul, as a place to 
 avenge their wrongs. The dragoons soon fol- 
 lowed, with Indian guides scenting the track of 
 the Ojibways, like bloodhounds. The next day 
 they discovered the transgressors, near the Falls 
 of St. Croix. The Ojibways manifesting what 
 was supposed to be an insolent spirit, the order 
 was given by the lieutenant in command, to lire, 
 and he whose scalp was afterwards daguerreo 
 
 typed, and which was engraved for Graham's 
 Magazine, wallowed in gore. 
 
 During the summer, the passenger, as he stood 
 on the hurricane deck of any of the steamboats, 
 might have seen, on a scaffold on the bluffs in 
 the rear of Kaposia, a square box covered with a 
 coarsely fringed red cloth. Above it was sus- 
 pended a piece of the Ojibway "s scalp, whose 
 death had caused the affray in the streets of St. 
 Paul. Within, was the body of the woman who 
 had been shot in the '-Pioneer" biulding, while 
 seeking refuge. A scalp suspended over the 
 corpse is supposed to be a consolation to the soul, 
 and a great protection in the journey to the spirit 
 land. 
 
 On the accession of Pierce to the presidency of 
 the United States, the officers appointed under 
 the Taylor and Fillmore administrations were 
 removed, and the following gentlemen substitu- 
 ted : Governor. W. A. Gorman, of Indiana; Sec- 
 retary. J. T. Rosser, of Virginia ; Chief Justice. 
 W. II. Welch, of Minnesota; Associates. Moses 
 Sherburne, of Maine, and A. G. Chatiield, of 
 Wisconsin. One of the first official acts of the 
 second Governor, was the making of a treaty 
 with the Winnebago Indians at Watab. Benton 
 county, for an exchange of country. 
 
 On the twenty-ninth of June, D. A. Robertson, 
 who by his enthusiasm and earnest advocacy of 
 its principles had done much to organize the 
 Democratic party of Minnesota, retired from the 
 editorial chair and was succeeded by David Olm- 
 sted. 
 
 At the election held in October, Henry M. 
 Rice and Alexander Wilkin were candidates 
 for deligate to Congress. The former was elect- 
 ed by a decisive majority. 
 
EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 CHAPTEE XXIII. 
 
 EVENTS FROM A. D. 1854 TO THE ADMISSION OF MINNESOTA TO THE UNION. 
 
 Fifth Legislature— Execution of Yuhazee— Sixth Legislature— First bridge over the 
 Mississippi— Arctic Explorer — Seventh Legislature— Indian girl killed near 
 Bloomington Ferry — Eighth Legislature — Attempt to Remove the Capital — 
 Special Session of the Legislature — Convention to frame a State Constitution — 
 Admission of Minnesota to the Union. 
 
 The fifth session of the legislature was com- 
 menced in the building just completed as the 
 Capitol, on January fourth, 1854. The President 
 of the Council was S. B. Olmstead, and the Speak- 
 er of the House of Representatives was N. C. D. 
 Taylor. 
 
 Governor Gorman delivered his first annual 
 message on the tenth, and as his predecessor, 
 urged the importance of railway communications, 
 and dwelt upon the necessity of fostering the in- 
 terests of education, and of the lumbermen. 
 
 The exciting bill of the session was the act in- 
 corporating the Minnesota and Northwestern 
 Eailroad Company, introduced by Joseph R. 
 Brown. It was passed after the hour of midnight 
 on the last day of the session. Contrary to the 
 expectation of his friends, the Governor signed 
 the bill. 
 
 On the afternoon of December twenty-seventh, 
 the first public execution in Minnesota, in accord- 
 ance with the forms of law, took place. Yu-ha- 
 zee, the Dahkotah who had been convicted in 
 November, 1852, for the murder of a German 
 woman, above Shokpay, was the individual. 
 The scaffold was erected on the open space be- 
 tween an inn called the Franklin House and the 
 rear of the late Mr. J. "W. Selby's enclosure 
 in St. Paul. About two o'clock, the prisoner, 
 dressed in a white shroud, left the old log pris- 
 on, near the court house, and entered a carriage 
 with the officers of the law. Being assisted up 
 the steps that led to the scaffold, he made a few 
 remarks in his own language, and was then exe- 
 cuted. Numerous ladies sent in a petition to 
 the governor, asking the pardon of the Indian, 
 to which that officer in declining made an appro- 
 priate reply. 
 
 EVENTS OF A. D. 1855. 
 
 The sixth session of the legislature convened 
 on the third of January, 1855. "W. P. Murray 
 was elected President of the Council,. and James 
 S. N orris Speaker of the House. 
 
 About the last of January, the two houses ad- 
 journed one day, to attend the exercises occa- 
 sioned by the opening of the first bridge of 
 any kind, over the mighty Mississippi, from 
 Lake Itasca to the Gulf of Mexico. It was at 
 Falls of Saint Anthony, and made of wire, and 
 at the time of its opening, the patent for the 
 land on which the west piers were built, had not 
 been issued from the Land Office, a striking evi- 
 dence of the rapidity with which the city of 
 Minneapolis, which now surrounds the Falls, has 
 developed. 
 
 On the twenty-ninth of March, a convention 
 was held at Saint Anthony, which led to the 
 formation of the Republican party of Minnesota. 
 This body took measures for the holding of a 
 territorial convention at St. Paul, which con- 
 vened on the twenty-fifth of July, and William 
 R. Marshall was nominated as delegate to Con- 
 gress. Shortly after the friends of Mr. Sibley 
 nominated David Olmsted and Henry M. Rice, 
 the former delegate was also a candidate. The 
 contest was animated, and resulted in the elec- 
 tion of Mr. Rice. 
 
 About noon of December twelfth, 1855, a four- 
 horse vehicle was seen driving rapidly through 
 St. Paul, and deep was the interest when it was 
 announced that one of the Arctic exploring party, 
 Mr. James Stewart, was on his way to Canada 
 With relics of the world -renowned and world- 
 mourned Sir John Franklin. Gathering together 
 the precious fragments found on Montreal Island 
 and vicinity, the party had left the region of ice- 
 bergs on the ninth of August, and after a con- 
 tinued land journey from that time, had reached 
 
PBOPOSED REMOVAL OF THE SEAT OF GOVEBXJIEWT. 
 
 127 
 
 Saint Paul on that day, en route to the Hudson 
 Bay Company's quarters in Canada. 
 
 EVENTS OF A. D. 1856. 
 
 The seventh session of the Legislative Assem- 
 bly was begun on the second of January, 1856, 
 and again the exciting question was the Minne- 
 sota and Northwestern Railroad Company. 
 
 John B. Brisbin was elected President of the 
 Council, and Charles Gardner, Speaker of the 
 House. 
 
 This year was comparatively devoid of interest. 
 The citizens of the territory were busily engaged 
 in making claims in newly organized counties, 
 and in enlarging the area of civilization. 
 
 On the twelfth of June, several O jib ways 
 entered the farm house of Mr. Whallon, who re- 
 sided in Hennepin county, on the banks of the 
 Minnesota, a mile below the Bloomington ferry. 
 The wife of the farmer^ a friend, and three child- 
 ren, besides a little Dahkotah girl, who had been 
 brought up in the mission-house at Kaposia. and 
 so changed in manners that her origin was 
 scarcely perceptible, were sitting in the room 
 when the Indians came in. Instantly seizing 
 the little Indian maiden, they threw her out of 
 the door, killed and scalped her, and fled before 
 the men who were near by, in the field, could 
 reach the house. 
 
 EVENTS OF A. D. 1857. 
 
 The procurement of a state organization, and 
 a grant of lands for railroad purposes, were the 
 topics of political interest during the year 1857. 
 
 The eighth Legislative Assembly convened at 
 the capital on the seventh of January, and J. B. 
 Brisbin was elected President of the Council, and 
 J. W. Purber, Speaker of the House. 
 
 A bill changing the seat of government to 
 Saint Peter, on the Minnesota River, caused 
 much discussion. 
 
 On Saturday, February twenty -eighth, Mr. 
 Balcombe offered a resolution to report the bill 
 for the removal of the seat of government, and 
 should Mr. Rolette, chairman of the committee, 
 fail, that "W. W. Wales, of said committee, report 
 a copy of said bill. 
 
 Mr. Setz.er, after the reading of the resolution, 
 moved a call of the Council, and Mr. Rolette was 
 found to be absent. The chair ordered the ser- 
 geant at arma to report Mr Rolette in his seat. 
 
 Mr. Balcombe moved that further proceedings 
 under the call be dispensed with ; which did not 
 prevail. From that time until the next Thursday 
 afternoon, March the fifth, a period of one hun- 
 dred and twenty-three hours, the Council re- 
 mained in their chamber without recess. At that 
 time a motion to adjourn prevailed. On Friday 
 another motion was made to dispense with the 
 call of the Council, which did not prevail. On 
 Saturday, the Council met, the president declared 
 the call still pending. At seven and a half p. m., 
 a committee of the House was announced. The 
 chair ruled, that no communication from the 
 House could be received while a call of the Coun- 
 cil was pending, and the .committee withdrew. 
 A motion was again made during the last night 
 of the session, to dispense with all further pro- 
 ceedings under the call, which prevailed, with 
 one vote only in the negative. 
 
 Mr. Ludden then moved that a committee be 
 appointed to wait on the Governor, and inquire if 
 he had any further communication to make to 
 the Council. 
 
 Mr. Lowry moved a call of the Council, which 
 was ordered, and the roll being called, Messrs. 
 Rolette, Thompson and Tillotson were absent. 
 
 At twelve o "clock at night the president re- 
 sumed the chair, and announced that the time 
 limited by law for the continuation of the session 
 of the territorial legislature had expired, and he 
 therefore declared the Council adjourned and the 
 seat of government remained at Saint Paul. 
 
 The excitement on the capital question was in- 
 tense, and it was a strange scene to see members 
 of the Council, eating and sleeping in the hall of 
 legislation for days, waiting for the sergeant-at- 
 arins to report an absent member in his seat. 
 
 On the twenty-third of February, 1857, an act 
 passed the United States Senate, to authorize 
 the people of Minnesota to form a constitution, 
 preparatory to their admission into the Union 
 on an equal footing with the original states. 
 
 Governor Gorman called a special session 
 of the legislature, to take into consideration 
 measures that would give efficiency to the act. 
 The extra session convened on April twenty- 
 seventh, and a message was transmitted by Sam- 
 uel Medary, who had been appointed governor 
 in place of W. A. Gorman, whose term of office 
 
128 
 
 EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 had expired. The extra session adjourned on 
 the twenty-third of May ; and in accordance 
 with the provisions of the enabling act of Con- 
 gress, an election was held on the first Monday 
 in June, for delegates to a convention which was 
 to assemble at the capitol on the second Monday 
 in July. The election resulted, as was thought, 
 in giving a majority of delegates to the Republi- 
 can party. 
 
 At midnight previous to the day fixed for the 
 meeting of the convention, the Republicans pro- 
 ceeded to the capitol, because the enabling act 
 had not fixed at what hour on the second Mon- 
 day the convention should assemble, and fear- 
 ing that the Democratic delegates might antici- 
 pate them, and elect the officers of the body. 
 A little before twelve, A. M., on Monday, the 
 secretary of the territory entered the speaker's 
 rostrum, and began to call the body to order; 
 and at the same time a delegate, J. W. North, 
 who had in his possession a written request from 
 the majority of the delegates present, proceeded 
 to do the same thing. The secretary of the ter- 
 ritory put a motion to adjourn, and the Demo- 
 cratic members present voting in the affirmative, 
 they left the hall. The Republicans, feeling that 
 they were in the majority, remained, and in due 
 time organized, and proceeded with the business 
 specified in the enabling act, to form a constitu- 
 tion, and. take all necessary steps for the estab- 
 lishment of a state government, in conformity 
 with the Federal Constitution, subject to the 
 approval and ratification of the people of the 
 proposed state. 
 
 After several days the Democratic wing also 
 organized in the Senate chamber at the capitol, 
 and, claiming to be the true body, also proceeded 
 to form a constitution. Both parties were re- 
 markably orderly and intelligent, and everything 
 was marked by perfect decorum. After they had 
 been in session some weeks, moderate counsels 
 
 prevailed, and a committee of conference was 
 appointed from each body, which resulted in 
 both adopting the constitution framed by the 
 Democratic wing, on the twenty-ninth of Aug- 
 gust. According to the provision of the consti- 
 tution, an election was held for state officers 
 and the adoption of the constitution, on the 
 second Tuesday, the thirteenth of October. The 
 constitution was adopted by almost a unanimous 
 vote. It provided that the territorial officers 
 should retain their offices until the state was ad- 
 mitted into the Union, not anticipating the 
 long delay which was experienced. 
 
 The first session of the state legislature com- 
 menced on the first Wednesday of December, at 
 the capitol, in the city of Saint Paul ; and during 
 the month elected Henry M. Rice and James 
 Shields as their Representatives in the United 
 States Senate. 
 
 EVENTS OF A. D. 1858. 
 
 On the twenty-ninth of January, 1858, Mr. 
 Douglas submitted a bill to the United States 
 Senate, for the admission of Minnesota into the 
 Union. On the first of February, a discussion 
 arose on the bill, in which Senators Douglas, 
 Wilson, Gwin, Hale, Mason, Green, Brown, and 
 Crittenden participated. Brown, of Mississippi, 
 was opposed to the admission of Minnesota, un- 
 til the Kansas question was settled. Mr. Crit- 
 tenden, as a Southern man, could not endorse ill . 
 that was said by the Senator from Mississippi ; 
 and his words of wisdom and moderation during 
 this day's discussion, were worthy of remem- 
 brance. On April the seventh, the bill passed 
 the Senate with only three dissenting votes ; and 
 in a short time the House of Representatives 
 concurred, and on May the eleventh, the Presi- 
 dent approved, and Minnesota was fully rec- 
 ognized as one of the United States of America. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 INDEX 
 
 EXPLORERS AND PIONEEKS OF MINNESOTA. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Abraham, Plains of 1 
 
 Accault (Ako) Michael, compan- 
 ion of Hennepin . 10. 1- . 20, 2 <, 24, 26 
 
 Described by La Salle 18 
 
 Leader of Mississippi Explo- 
 rations 19 
 
 Achiganaga arrested by Perrot. . 12 
 Tried for murder before Du 
 
 Luth is 
 
 Death of 14 
 
 Aiouez, see Ioways. 
 
 Ako, see Accault. 
 
 Albane', Jesuit missionary at 
 
 Sault St. Marie 11 
 
 Allouez, Jesuit missionary visits 
 
 La Pointe 4 
 
 At Lake Nepigon 4 
 
 Meets the Sioux at the ex- 
 tremity of Lake Superior: 4 
 
 Describes the Sioux 4 
 
 Ames, M. K.. early lawyer 122 
 
 Anderson, Captain in British ser- 
 vice 81 
 
 Anderson, trader under Dickson, 
 
 at Leech Lake 77 
 
 Andrews, Joseph, killed b\ Bis- 
 
 seton Sioux 92 
 
 Aqoipaguetin. Sioux chief men- 
 tioned by Hennepin 21, 27 
 
 Asslneboines 2,9,23.43,46, 65 
 
 Assineboiue Kiver, called by the 
 
 French St. Charles 59 
 
 Angel le, Anthony, alias Picard 
 du Gay, associate of Hennepin 
 
 10, 18,23,24, 26 
 Ayer, Frederick, missionary to 
 
 Ojibways Ki7 
 
 Ayoes, see Iowavs. 
 
 Baker, B. F., Indian trader 112 
 
 Bailly, Alexis, drives cattle to 
 
 Pembina > 93 
 
 Member of Legislature 93 
 
 Balcombe, St. A. D 127 
 
 Baldwin School. now Macalester 
 
 College, incorporated I2S 
 
 Opened in June, 1853 125 
 
 Balfour, Captain 82 
 
 Bass, J. W., earlv settler at St. 
 
 Paul ' 116 
 
 Bear dance of the Sioux de- 
 scribed 83 
 
 Beauharnois, Governor, favors 
 
 Verendrye G8 
 
 Beaujeu, urged bv Langlade of 
 
 Wisconsin, defeats Braddock.. 01 
 Bellin,Geographer,notices Oclia- 
 
 gachs* map 87 
 
 Alludes to Fort Eouge on Ited 
 
 river 87 
 
 Fort on St. Croix Kiver 112 
 
 Bellinzany, of "Paris" receives 
 specimens of Lake Superior 
 
 copper 
 
 Beltrami, G. C. notice of 93 
 
 Arrives at Fort Snelling 93 
 
 Accompanies Major Long. ... 94 
 Discovers northern sources 
 
 of the Mississippi 94 
 
 Berthot, Colin, murdered at 
 
 Keweenaw 
 
 Bishop, Harriet E., establishes 
 
 school in St. Paul 114 
 
 Black Kiver, called Chabadeba.. 18 
 Blue Earth Kiver explored ...46, 47 
 
 Supposed mines at 47 
 
 Fort on 47 
 
 D'Fva<|ue visits 48 
 
 PAGE 1 TO 128. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Boal, J. M., early settler at St. 
 
 Paul 116, 118 
 
 Bobe, exposes La Hontan's mis- 
 statements 36 
 
 Bottineau, J. B., exposed in a 
 
 snowstorm 102 
 
 Boisguillot. early trader on Wis- 
 consin and Mississippi 32 
 
 Boucher, Marie, moiher of Ver- 
 endrye 58 
 
 Boucher. Pierre, described Lake 
 
 Superior copper mines 7 
 
 Father ot Sieur de Le Per- 
 
 riere 51 
 
 Boucherville. officer at Lake 
 
 Pepin 53 
 
 Goods furnished to Indians.. 54 
 
 Captured by Indians 54 
 
 Boudor, trades with the Sioux ... 48 
 Attacked by the Foxes... ... 49 
 
 Bougainville, mentions Indian 
 
 tribes seen by Verendrye 00 
 
 Bout well, Kev. W. T„ Ojibwav 
 
 missionary 100. 113 
 
 Removes to Stillwater Ill 
 
 Notice of Stillwater 114 
 
 Braddock's defeat Gl 
 
 Bradlev, oneof Pike's corporals 7G 
 Bremer. Fi edricka. Swedish nov- 
 elist in Minnesota 122 
 
 Brisbin, J. B 127 
 
 Brisbois, Lieut, in British service 81 
 
 Brlssette, Edward, notice of 114 
 
 Brown, Joseph K., drummer boy 
 
 at Fort Snelling 95 
 
 Trading post at Lake Trav- 
 erse 102 
 
 Member of Wisconsin 1 
 
 lature 113 
 
 Makes a town site near Still- 
 water 113 
 
 Secretary of Council. 1849. ... 119 
 
 Bruce, trader at Green Bay 63 
 
 Bruiison, Kev. A., Methodist 
 
 Missionary 111, 113 
 
 Branson. 1?. W 119 
 
 Brusky, Charles, Indian trader.. 77 
 Bulger, Capt., surrenders Fort 
 
 McKay 81 
 
 Bulwer. Sir K. L.. translation of 
 
 Sioux Death Song 67 
 
 Cadillac, La Motte.on route to the 
 
 Pacific ."G 
 
 In Command at Detroit .... 4* 
 
 Alludes to Le Sueur 48 
 
 Alludes to Boudor's expedi- 
 tion 48 
 
 On the* selling of brandy to 
 
 Indians 16 
 
 Cameron, Murdock, sells liquor 
 
 to Indians 74 
 
 Campbell, Colin, interpreter 92 
 
 Carver's Cave mentioned .. .66, 78, 84 
 Carver, Capt. Jonathan, early life 
 
 of 6t 
 
 In battle of Lake George 64 
 
 Arrival at Mackinaw 6t 
 
 Describes the fort at Green 
 
 Bay 64 
 
 Visits Winnebago Village.... 64 
 
 Visits Fox Village 64 
 
 Describes Prairie duOhien... 64 
 Describes earth works at Lake 
 
 Pepin 65 
 
 Describes cave at St. Paul .... 66 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Describes Falls of St.Anthony 66 
 
 Describes Minnesota river. . . 66 
 
 Describes funeral rites 67 
 
 Reports speech of Sioux chief 67 
 
 Speech versified by Schiller.. G7 
 Translation by Bulwer and 
 
 Herschell 67, 68 
 
 His alleged deed for Sioux 
 
 land 70 
 
 II. S. Senate rejects his claims 70 
 
 Grandsons of, visit Minnesota 82 
 
 Caumont. Sieur de 32 
 
 Chagouaniikon visited by Grosel- 
 
 liers and Kadisson 2 
 
 Charlevoix on La Hontan's fabri- 
 cations 3C 
 
 On Le Sueur's mining opera- 
 tions 45 
 
 Chatfield, A.G., Territorial Judge 125 
 Chippewav.lndians.see Ojibways 
 Chouart, Medard, see Groselliers 
 
 Christinaux mentioned 43, 44 
 
 Clark, Lt. Nathan, at Fort Snell- 
 ing .. po 
 
 Letters from Gen. Gibson.... !4 
 
 Arrests Sioux 98 
 
 Coe, Be v. Al van, visits Fort Snell- 
 ing in 1829 106 
 
 Constans, William 121 
 
 Convention to form a State Con- 
 stitution 128 
 
 Cooper, David, Territorial Judge. 118 
 Copper mines of Lake Superior, 
 
 Early Notice of 7 
 
 A. I) lii:Gdescribed by Sagard 7 
 
 A.D. 1640 described by Boucher 7 
 
 01 isic Royal 7 
 
 Of Ontanagon T 
 
 Copper sent to Bellinzany, in 
 
 Paris 7 
 
 Copper mines spoken of by Talon, 
 
 A.D. 1669 7 
 
 Coo us» rd, Father, accompanies 
 
 \ erendrye 60 
 
 Mentions Rocky Mountain 
 
 Indians 60 
 
 Eulogy of St. Pierre 61 
 
 Cratte, Oliver 102 
 
 Dakotahs or Dalikotahs, see 
 
 Sioux 
 
 D'Avagour, Governor of Canada, 
 
 opinion of the region 
 
 West of Lake Superior -.. 1 
 
 Day. Dr. David 124 
 
 De Corbiere, Lieut, at Lake 
 
 Champlain 62 
 
 De Gonor, Jesuit, visits Lake 
 
 Pepin 51, 58 
 
 Returns to Canada 54 
 
 Converses with Verendrye... 58 
 De la Barre, Governor, notices 
 
 DuLuth 11 
 
 Sends Perrot to the Sioux.... 29 
 De la Jemeraye, see Jemeraye.. 
 De la Tour, Jesuits missionary.. 13 
 De la Tourette, Greysolon, broth- 
 er of DuLuth 16 
 
 De Liguery, see Lignery 
 
 De Lusignan, visits the Sioux — 75 
 Denis, Canadian voyageur, joins 
 
 Le Sueur 42 
 
 Denonville, Governor, attacks 
 
 Seuecas 15 
 
 Orders Duluth to build a Fort 16 
 
 Sends for western allies 30 
 
 Commissions Du Luth 32 
 
INDEX. 
 
 PACK 
 
 Denton. Rev. IX, missionary to 
 
 Sioux Ill 
 
 D'ttsprlt, Pierre, see Radisson. .. 
 
 D'Evaque, in charge of Fort 
 
 1,'Hullller 48 
 
 Abandons the Fort 48 
 
 Devotion, M., sutler at Fort 
 
 Snelling 91 
 
 D'lberville. Gov., criticises Hen- 
 nepin 28 
 
 Relative of Le Sueur 39 
 
 Memorial on tribes of the 
 
 .Mississippi 45, 40 
 
 Dioskau. Baron 61 
 
 Dickson, Col. Hubert, visits Lt. 
 
 Pike 77 
 
 Trading post at Grand Rapids 78 
 
 At Mendota 7S 
 
 During war of 1818 so, si 
 
 At Lake Traverse 89 
 
 At Fort Snelling 93, 96 
 
 William, son of Robert.... 96 
 l)ii Cbesneau, intendant of Can- 
 ada, complains of Dululb 11 
 
 Du Lutb, Daniel Grevsolon, early 
 
 life of 9 
 
 Various spellings of his name 9 
 Plants Kings Arms at Mille 
 
 Lacs 9 
 
 Establishes a Fort at Kaman- 
 
 lstigova 9 
 
 Decend'stheSt.Croi- river 11, 112 
 Sends beaver skins to New 
 
 England 11 
 
 Attends a conference at Que- 
 bec 11 
 
 Visits Fiance 11 
 
 Returns to Mackinaw 11 
 
 Arrests and executes Indians 
 
 at Sanlt St. Marie 11 
 
 Censured by Louis XIV 14 
 
 Brings allies to Niagara, for 
 
 De la Bane 15 
 
 Establishes a Fort on Lake 
 
 Erie 15 
 
 In battle with the Senecas. .. 15 
 Returns to Lake Erie with 
 
 his cousin Tontv 16 
 
 Brother of, from Lake Nepi- 
 
 gon : 16 
 
 Disapproves of selling bran- 
 dy to Indians 16 
 
 In command at Fort Fron- 
 
 tenac 16 
 
 Afflicted with the gout 17 
 
 Death of 17 
 
 At Falls of St. Anthony... is, 26 
 
 Meets Hennepin 25 
 
 Tribute to 27 
 
 His tour from Lake Superior 
 
 to Mississippi 112 
 
 Meets Accault and Hennepin 112 
 Protects Frenchmen from 
 
 Illinois 112 
 
 Du Pay, a voyageur 10 
 
 Durantaye, commander at Mac- 
 kinaw 33 
 
 At Ticonderoga 62 
 
 At Niagara 15 
 
 Ely, E. F., missionary teacher. ... 110 
 Emerson, surgeon at Fort Snell- 
 ing, complains of groggeries... 103 
 Enjalran. Jesuit missionary at 
 
 Sault St. Marie 11, 13 
 
 Wounded in fight with Sene- 
 cas 15 
 
 English at Hudson Bav 16 
 
 Etienne, Claude, widow of 1 
 
 Faffart. interpreter for DuLuth. 10 
 
 Visits the Sioux 11 
 
 Descends the St. Croix River. 11 
 
 At Falls of Saint Anthony. . . 18 
 
 Meets Hennepin 25 
 
 Falls of Saint Anthony, First 
 
 white man at 25 
 
 First mill at 93, 94 
 
 Described by La Salle 19 
 
 Described by Hennepin. 24,25, 26 
 
 Described by Lt.Z.M.Pike,75, 76 
 
 Described by Major Long ... 85 
 
 Women drawn over 99 
 
 First newspaper at 123 
 
 Bridge, First across Missis- 
 sippi 129 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Fireworks at Fort Beauharnois. 52 
 
 Fisher, trader at Given Bay 63 
 
 Fitch, pioneer in St. Croix Vallev, 112 
 Flat Mouth. OJibway Chief, visits 
 
 Fort Snelling .\. 1>. 1827 97 
 
 His party attacked by Sioux. 98 
 
 Gratifies his vengeance 99 
 
 Referred to bv Nicollet 102 
 
 Forsvtli, Major Thomas, accom- 
 panies first troops to Fort 
 
 Snelling 91 
 
 I'avs Indians lor reservation. 91 
 Fort Boauharnois established. A. 
 
 D. 1727, at Lake Pepin 51 52 
 
 Fireworks displayed at 53 
 
 High water at 53, 55 
 
 Commanded bv St. Pierre, 56, 57 
 
 Fort Crawford 100 
 
 La Reine, on river Assine- 
 
 boine 33, 87 
 
 Le Sueur, below Hastings. . 37 
 
 L'Huillier.on BlueEarth river 43 
 
 Built by Le Sueur 43 
 
 Left in charge of D'Evaque 47 
 
 Maurepas 58 
 
 McRay 81 
 
 Perrot, at Lake Pepin 29 
 
 Rouge, of Red River 87 
 
 Shelby ,at Prairie duChien.80, 81 
 Fort Snelling, site securd by Lt. 
 
 Pike 75 
 
 Order to establish the post. .. 90 
 
 Troops for.at Prairie du Chien 90 
 Birth of Charlotte Ouisconsin 
 
 Clark 90 
 
 Events of A. D 1819 91 
 
 Major Forsyth pays Sioux for 
 
 reservation 91 
 
 Col. Leavenworth arrives at 
 
 Mendota 91 
 
 First officers at cantonment.. 91 
 
 Red River men arrive at 91 
 
 Eventsof A. D. 1820... 91 
 
 Major Taliaferro, Indian 
 
 agent at 91 
 
 Troops at Camp Cold Water . 91 
 Cass and Schoolcraft visits.. 92 
 Col. Snelling succeeds Leav- 
 enworth 92 
 
 Officers at, October, 1820 92 
 
 Impressive scene at 93 
 
 Events of A. D. 1821 93 
 
 Advance in building 93 
 
 Events of A. D. 1822, A. D.1823 9 1 
 
 First steamboat at 93 
 
 Beltrami, the Italian, at. . .93, 94 
 
 Major S. H. Long arrives at.. 94 
 
 Government mill near 94 
 
 Sunday School at 94 
 
 Eventsof A. D. 1824 95 
 
 General Scott, suggests name 
 
 for fort 95 
 
 Events of A. D. 1825, and 1826, 96 
 
 Mail, arrival at 96 
 
 Sioux woman kills herself 96 
 
 Great snow storm, March.1826 96 
 
 High water at, April 21, 1826. 97 
 
 Slaves belonging to officers,at 97 
 Steamboat arrivals to close of 
 
 07 
 
 Duels at 
 
 General Gaines censures Col- 
 onel of 97 
 
 Events of A. D. 1827 98 
 
 Flat Mouth, Ojibway chief, 
 
 visits in 1827 .«. 98 
 
 Attacked by Sioux 98 
 
 Soldiers arrest Sioux 99 
 
 Colonel Snelling delivers u.ur- 
 
 derers for execution 99 
 
 Construction of, criticised by 
 
 General Gaines 100 
 
 Rev. Alva Coe in 1829 preach- 
 es at 106 
 
 Health of troops at 101 
 
 Desertion at 101 
 
 J. N. Nicollet arrives at 102 
 
 Marriages at 102, 108, 120 
 
 SioUx and O.iibways fight near 103 
 Annoyed bv whisk v sellers.. 103 
 Presbyterian church at 108 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Steamer Palinvra at, in July. 
 IS38, with notice of ratifica- 
 tion of Indian Ireaties 112 
 
 Indian council held at by 
 
 Governor Kamscv 121 
 
 Fort St. Anthonv. now Snelling.. !>:> 
 St. Charles. 'on Lake of the 
 
 Woods 58 
 
 St. Joseph on Lake Erie, es- 
 tablished bv Du Luth 16 
 
 St. l'ierre, on'ltainy Lake . 5x 
 Foxes attempt to Pillage Fort 
 
 Perrot 30 
 
 Interview with Perrot 31 
 
 Mentioned. 33, 37, 38, 48, 46, 54, 55 
 Attack French at Blue Earth 
 
 River 48 
 
 Surrender to Louvigny 60 
 
 Visited by Guignas 52 
 
 Franklin, Sir' John, relics of, pass 
 
 I hrough St. Paul 126 
 
 Frontenac, Governor of Canada. 10 
 
 Friend of Duluth 11 
 
 Letter to by Cadillac 16 
 
 Expedition against the Onei- 
 
 das 16 
 
 Encourages Le Sueur 39 
 
 Forbids trading with the 
 
 Sioux 49 
 
 Frazer, trader 78 
 
 Enters the British service ... 80 
 Fuller, Jerome, Territorial Chief 
 
 Justice 123 
 
 Furber, J. W 127 
 
 Galissoniere, Governor of Cana- 
 da, notice of 59 
 
 Gallier. Rev. L, builds first 
 
 chapel in St. Paul 114 
 
 Gavin, Rev. Daniel, missionary.. Ill 
 Gibson, General, letters relative 
 
 to St. Anthony mill 94 
 
 Gillam, Capt.Zachary of Boston 
 accompanied by Groselliers 
 and Radisson sails for Hudson's 
 
 Bay in ship Nonesuch 5 
 
 Goodhue, James M., first Minne- 
 sota editor — 117 
 
 Death of 124 
 
 Goodrich, Aaron, Territorial 
 
 Judge us 
 
 Removal of 123 
 
 Gorman, Willis A. Governor.... 125 
 
 Gorrell, Lieut, at Green Bay 02 
 
 Graham, Duncan, in British ser- 
 vice 81 
 
 Arrives. at Fort Snelling 100 
 
 Jane, daughter of Duncan 
 
 married 102 
 
 Grant, trader at Sandy Lake vis- 
 ited by Pike 77 
 
 Gravier, Father James, criticises 
 
 Hennepin 28 
 
 Greelev. Elam 109 
 
 Griffin, La Salle's ship 10 
 
 Vovage to Green Bay 19 
 
 Crew pillage and desert to 
 
 tie Sioux 10 
 
 Grignon, Captain in British ser- 
 vice 78, 81 
 
 Groselliers, Sieur. early life,.. .1, 6 
 
 Marriage l 
 
 Son of 2, 6 
 
 Second marriage 2 
 
 Visits Mille Lacs region 2 
 
 Is told of the Mississippi... . 2 
 
 Meets the Assineboines 2 
 
 Returns to Montreal in 1660. . 2 
 Second visit to Lake Superior 2 
 
 Visits Hudsons Bay 4 
 
 Name given to what is now 
 
 Pigeon River 5 
 
 Visits New England 6 
 
 Paris 5 
 
 London 5 
 
 Encouraged by Prince Rupert 5 
 Sails for Hudson's Bay with 
 
 a Boston sea captain 5 
 
 Referred to bv Talon 6 
 
 Death of 6 
 
 Guignas, Father, missionary at 
 
 Fort Beauharnois 51 
 
 Describes journey to Lake 
 
 Pepin 52 
 
 Fort Beauharnois 53 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Guignas, Father, page 
 
 Captured bv Indians 54 
 
 Nearly burned alive 55 
 
 Returns to Lake Pepin 56 
 
 Gun, grandson of Carver 82 
 
 Hainanlt. Elizabeth 2 
 
 Madeline 2 
 
 Hall, Rev. Sherman Ojibway 
 
 missionary 107 
 
 Moves to Sauk Rapids in 
 
 Hayner, H. Z., Chief Justice of 
 
 Territory 124 
 
 Hempstead accompanies Major 
 
 Long, A. D. 1817 82 
 
 Hennppin Louis. Franciscan mis- 
 sionary, earlv life of 19 
 
 Date of his first book is, 19 
 
 Criticism of first book 19 
 
 Depreciates! Jesuits 18 
 
 .Meets a Sioux war party 19 
 
 At the marsh below Saint 
 
 Paul 19,20 22 
 
 At Falls or St. Anthonv 
 
 16.22,24, 25 
 
 Denounced by I. a Salle 19 
 
 Chaplain of La Salle 20 
 
 His false map 20 
 
 At Lake Pepin 22 
 
 Makes a dictionary 23 
 
 Baptizes an infant 23 
 
 Met by Du Lutli 25 
 
 Career on return to Europe.. 25 
 His first and second book 
 
 compared 20 
 
 Replies to objectors 27 
 
 Criticised by D'lberville 2s 
 
 Criticised by Father Gravier 28 
 
 His later davs 28 
 
 Opinion of Jesuit Missions... 106 
 
 Ilenniss C. J. editor 122 
 
 Herschell, Sir John, translates 
 
 Schiller's song of Si mx Chief. . 68 
 Historical Society, first public 
 
 meeting 110 
 
 Hobart.Rev.C 119 
 
 Holcomb. Capt. William no 
 
 Hole-in-the-Dav, the father, at- 
 tack" the Sioux 103 
 
 Visits Fort Snellingin 1828 103 
 
 Attacked by Sioux no 
 
 Visits Fort Siic-l'iiijsr in ls':>.. . no 
 
 Pursued bv the Sioux 103 
 
 Hole-in-the-Dav. Junior, attacks 
 
 Sioux near St Paul 121 
 
 On first steamboat above 
 
 Falls of St. Anlhonv 121 
 
 Howe, earlv settler at Marine... 113 
 Hudson's Bay visited by Grosell- 
 
 iers 4, 5 
 
 By Kadisson 5 
 
 By Capt. Zachary Gillam 5 
 
 Huggins, Alexander, mission far- 
 mer 107 
 
 Hurons driven to Minnesota 2 
 
 Dwell with Iowavs 2 
 
 Live on Isle of the Mississippi 2 
 Remove to sources of Black 
 
 River 2 
 
 Unite with Oitawas at La 
 
 Pointe 4 
 
 At War with the Sioux 4 
 
 Disastrous defeat 4 
 
 Retreat to Mackinaw 4 
 
 Indiana Territory, organized 73 
 
 Indians of Mississippi Vallev, 
 
 earliest communication about. 40 
 Upper Missouri, seen by Yer- 
 
 endrye 60 
 
 Minnesota 104 
 
 Iowavs. visited by Hurons 2 
 
 Visit Perrot at Lake Pepin. . 29 
 
 Mentioned 39, 42. 4.;. 44, 45 
 
 Iroquois, Virgin, her interces- 
 sion sought bv Dn I.iith 17 
 
 Isle. Pelee, of the Mississippi be- 
 low St. Croix River 37 
 
 Isle Royal, copper in 1667, noticed 7 
 
 Itasca, oriein of word 107 
 
 Jackson. Henry, early settler in 
 
 St. Paul 114. 115 
 
 Jemeraje, Sieur-de la, wiih the 
 
 Sioux 56 
 
 Nephew of Verendrye 58 
 
 Explores to Rainy Lake... 58, 59 
 
 Prepares a map 58 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Death of 59 
 
 Jesuit, Father Allouez 4 
 
 Chardon 52 
 
 De Conor 51 
 
 De la Chasse 51 
 
 Guignas 51,f4,55, 56 
 
 Guymnneau 51 
 
 Marquette 5 
 
 Menard 2, 3 
 
 Messayer 58 
 
 Jesuit missions unsuccessful ... HC 
 Jesuit missionaries promised the 
 
 Sioux 51 
 
 Johnson. Parsons K 119 
 
 Jonouiere, Governor of Canada. 60 
 
 Fort established 60 
 
 Jnchereau at the mouth of the 
 
 Wisconsin 48 
 
 Conciliates the Foxes 49 
 
 Judd, earlv seltler at Marine . . 113 
 Kalm, Professor, notices Veren- 
 
 drve 59 
 
 Eaposia Chief requests a mis- 
 sionary 114 
 
 Keel boats from Fort Snelling 
 
 attacked 99, ho 
 
 Kennerman. Pike's sergeant 76 
 
 Kertk. see Kirk 
 
 Kickapoos, at Fort Perrot so 
 
 Mention of 40,46,64, 55 
 
 Capture French from Lake 
 
 Pepin 54 
 
 King, grandson of Carver 82 
 
 Kirk. Sir David Kirk, brother-in- 
 law of Radisson 1 
 
 Lac Vieux Dpsert 3 
 
 La Hontan. his early life 35 
 
 Book of travels 35 
 
 Arrives at Fort St. Joseph, on 
 
 Lake Erie 35 
 
 Ascent of the Fox River a5 
 
 Descends the Wisconsin River 33 
 Alleged voyage of the Long 
 
 River 36 
 
 Pronounced a fabrication, in 
 
 1716. bvBobe 36 
 
 Criticised b Charlevoix 36 
 
 Noticed by Nicollet 36 
 
 I.aidlow travels from Selkirk set- 
 tlement to Prairie duCbien.... 91 
 Brings wheat by boat to Pem- 
 bina 91 
 
 At Fort Snelling 33 
 
 Lac qui Parle mission 109 
 
 Lake Calhoun. Indian farm es- 
 tablished 106 
 
 Lake Harriet, mission described 109 
 Lake Pepin, called Lake of Tears 
 
 Described In A. D. i7oo 41 
 
 Fort Perrot at 29 
 
 Fort Beauharnois at 53 
 
 Lake of the Oitawas 3 
 
 Lake Pokeguma Mission 109 
 
 liable at 109 
 
 La Monde, a vovageur 10 
 
 Landsing, trader, killed 63 
 
 Lambert. David, earlv settler in 
 
 st. Paul lis 
 
 Lambert. Henry A., early settler 
 
 in SI. Paul 119 
 
 Langlade, of Green Bay, urges 
 
 attack of Brad dock 61 
 
 Near Lake George 62 
 
 La Perriere. Sieurde, proceeds to 
 
 Sioux country..' 31 
 
 Son of Pierre Boucher 51 
 
 Arrives at Lake Pepin 52 
 
 Builds Fori Beauharnois.. .. 52 
 His brother. Montbrun. cap- 
 tured by Indians 53 
 
 La Place. a French deserter killed 
 
 bv the Sioux 42 
 
 La Porte, see Louvigny. 
 
 La Poiherie describes Fort Per- 
 rot, at Lake Pepin 29 
 
 Larpenteur, A., early settler at 
 
 St. Paul no 
 
 La Salle licensed to trade in buf- 
 falo robes 10 
 
 His crew desert 10 
 
 Criticises Du Luth 10, 18 
 
 His Pilot attempts to join Du- 
 
 Luth 10 
 
 PAGE 
 
 First to describe Upper Mis- 
 sissippi 18 
 
 Describes Falls of Saint An- 
 thony 19 
 
 Poor opinion of Hennepin. .. 19 
 La Taupine. see Moreau. 
 Laurence. Phineas, pioneer in St. 
 
 Croix Vallev 113 
 
 Leach, Calvin, a founder of Still- 
 water 113 
 
 Lead mines on Mississippi 33 
 
 Described by Penieaut 34 
 
 Leavenworth. Colonel, establish- 
 es FortSnelling no 
 
 Arrival at Mendota ill 
 
 Changes his cantonment.... 91 
 
 Relieved by Snelling 92 
 
 Le Due. Philip, robbed near nor- 
 thern boundary of Minnesota.. 61 
 Legardeur, Augustine, associate 
 
 of Perrot 32 
 
 See St. Pierre. 
 Legislature, First Territorial, 
 
 meets Jan., 1849. officers of 119 
 
 Second Territorial, meets 
 
 Jan.. 1850. officers of 122 
 
 Third Territorial, meets Jan., 
 
 1852. Officers of 124 
 
 Foiuth Territorial, meets Jan. 
 
 1853. officers of 124 
 
 Fifth Territorial, meets Jan., 
 
 1854 officers of 126 
 
 Sixth Territorial, meets Jan., 
 
 1855. officers of 120 
 
 Seven' h Territorial, meets 
 
 Jan., 1856, officers of 127 
 
 Eighth Territorial, meets 
 
 Jan.. 1857. officers of 127 
 
 Special Territorial, 1857 127 
 
 First State 128 
 
 Leslie. Lt., command at Macki- 
 naw .. G2 
 
 L'Hnillier, Fort, why named .... 43 
 Le Maire, Jacques, killed by In- 
 dians 11 
 
 Le Sueur, associated with Perrot 32 
 
 builds a Fort below Hastings 32 
 
 A relative of D'lberville ..37, 39 
 At Lake Pepin in 1683 and 
 
 1689 37, 40 
 
 At La Pointe of Lake Super- 
 ior. 1692... 37 
 
 Builds a Post below Hastings 37 
 Brings first Sioux chief to 
 
 Montreal 37, 83 
 
 Visits Fiance 38 
 
 Encouraged bv Frontenac. .. 39 
 
 Arrives in Gulf of Mexico... :-9 
 
 Ascends the Mississippi 30 
 
 Passes Perrnt's lead mines... 40 
 
 Meets destitute Canadians... 40 
 
 At the River St. Croix 42 
 
 Builds Fort L'Hnillier 43 
 
 Holds a council with the 
 
 Sioux 44 
 
 Returns to Gulf of Mexico 45, 74 
 Sails wiih D'lberville to 
 
 France 45, 74 
 
 Libber, Washington, pioneer at 
 
 St. Croix Falls 113 
 
 Lignerv. commands at Mackinaw 50 
 
 At Fort Duquesue 61 
 
 Linctot, commander at Macki- 
 naw 51 
 
 Pursues the Foxes 53 
 
 Little Crow, Sioux chief goes in 
 
 1824 to Washington 95 
 
 Long. Major Stephen H, tour to 
 
 Falls of St. Anthony. A. D 1817 82 
 
 At Wapasbaw village 82 
 
 Describes Sioux bear dance. . 83 
 
 Burial place 83 
 
 Kaposia village '6 
 
 Carver's cave 84 
 
 Fountain cave 84 
 
 St. Anthony Falls 85 
 
 Opinion of the site of Fort 
 
 Snelling 86 
 
 Arrives at Fort Snelling, A. 
 
 D. 1823 94 
 
 Loom is, Capt. Gustavus A., TJ. 
 
 S. A 108 
 
 Eliza marries Lieut. Ogden.. 103 
 
INDEX. 
 
 I'M; io 
 Loomis. D. B. .early settler of 
 st Croix Valley 122 
 
 l.oras. Bishop Of Dubuque 109 
 
 Louisiana, transfer of 73 
 
 Louvlgny, Sieur de, escorted to 
 
 Mackinaw by Perrot 33. r.o 
 
 His reoeptlon as commander S3 
 
 Recalled BO 
 
 Expedition against, tlie Foxes SO 
 l.owrv. Svlvanus, earlv settlor.. 127 
 
 Ifacalester College 125 
 
 Mackinaw re-occupied 50 
 
 Surrendered by Americans., so 
 
 rrcslivlerian mission at 106 
 
 Rev. Dr. Morse visits 10G 
 
 Robert Stuart resides at... . IOC 
 Rev. W. M. Ferry, missionary 
 
 at 106 
 
 Mahas mentioned 44,45,46, 55 
 
 Mandans mentioned 46 
 
 Maginnis mates a claim at St. 
 
 Croix Falls 112 
 
 Mapbv Franquelln indicates Du 
 
 Lutb's explorations 9 
 
 The Indian Oehagach 87 
 
 De la.Iemeraye ,..' 87 
 
 Verendrye 87 
 
 Marest, James Joseph, Jesuit 
 missionary, signs the papers 
 taking possession of the Upper 
 
 Mississippi 32 
 
 Letter to Le Sueur 3.0 
 
 Commends Louvigny fio 
 
 Opinion of the Sioux 51 
 
 Marin, Lamarque de, French 
 
 officer 60 
 
 In command at Green Bay. . . CI 
 Lt. Marin attacks English. . . 62 
 
 Marine, early settlers at 1!2 
 
 Marriages at Fort Snelling 
 
 102, 108, 110 
 Marshall, Hon. W. R., mentioned, 
 
 115, 126 
 Marquette, Jesuit missionary at 
 
 LaFointe 4 
 
 Martin. Abraham, pilot 1 
 
 Maskoutens mentioned 37 
 
 At Fort Perrot 30 
 
 Massacre Island, Lake of the 
 
 Woods, origin of the name 59 
 
 McOillis. Hugh, N. W. Co. Agent, 
 
 Leech Lake 78 
 
 McGregor, English trader, ar- 
 rested 15 
 
 McKay, trader from Albany 63 
 
 Lt.' Col. William, attacks 
 
 Prairie du Chien 81 
 
 McKean, Elias, a founder of Still- 
 water 113 
 
 McKenzie, old trader 87 
 
 McKusick, J. a founder of Still- 
 water 113 
 
 McLean, Nathaniel, editor 119 
 
 McLeod,Martin,exposed to snow 
 
 storm 102 
 
 Speaker of council in 1853 — 124 
 Menard Rene, Jesuit missionary 
 
 letter of 2 
 
 Among the Ottawas of Lake 
 
 Superior 3 
 
 Attempted visit to Hurons, in 
 
 "Wisconsin 3 
 
 Lost in the marshes or killed 3 
 Said to have been on the Mis- 
 sissippi before Joliet and 
 
 Marquette 3 
 
 Medary, Governor, Samuel 127 
 
 Meeker, B. B., Territorial Judge, 
 
 118, 119 
 Messaver, Father, accompanies 
 
 the Verendrye expedition 58 
 
 Miami Indians visited by Perrot. 30 
 Ask for a trading post on Mis- 
 sissippi 33 
 
 Mention of 38,46, 44 
 
 Mill, first in Minnesota 93, 98 
 
 Mille Lacs Sioux visited by Du 
 
 Luth 9 
 
 Hennepin 22 
 
 Minnesota, meaning of the word 116 
 
 River, first steamboat in 122 
 
 Historical Society, 119 
 
 Territory, proposed bounda- 
 ries 115 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Remonstrance against 115 
 
 Vat ions names proposed 116 
 
 Convention at Stillwater 115 
 
 When organized 117 
 
 First election 118 
 
 First Legislature 118 
 
 First counties organized 119 
 
 Seal of 120 
 
 Recognized as a State 128 
 
 Mitchell, Alexander M., U. S. 
 
 Marshal 118 
 
 Candidate for Congress 125 
 
 Missions. Jesuit 5, 16. lot! 
 
 Mission Stations, Mackinaw 106 
 
 La Pointe 107 
 
 Leech Lake 107 
 
 Yellow Lake 107 
 
 Lake Harriet 108 
 
 Lac-qui parle 109, 111 
 
 Pokeguma 109 
 
 Kaposia Ill 
 
 Traverse de Sioux 111 
 
 Shakpay 111 
 
 Oak Grove Ill 
 
 Red Wing ill 
 
 Missionaries, Rev. Alvan Coe, 
 
 visits Fort Snelling 107 
 
 Frederick Ayer 107 
 
 W. T. Boutwell 107 
 
 E. F. Elv, (teacher) 109 
 
 Mr. Denton Ill 
 
 Sherman Hall 107 
 
 Daniel Gavin Ill 
 
 John F. Aiton 111 
 
 Robert Hopkins 111 
 
 Gideon 11. Pon ' 107 
 
 Samite W. Pond 107 
 
 J.W.Hancock 111 
 
 J. I). Stevens 107 
 
 S. R. Riggs 111 
 
 T. S. Williamson M. D 107 
 
 M. N. Adams ill 
 
 Montbrun, in returning from 
 
 Lake Pepin, captured 53 
 
 Montcalm. Marquis, dispatch to 
 
 Vaudreuil 62 
 
 Montgomery, General, death of. 1 
 Moreau. Pierre, with Du Luth at 
 
 Lake Superior 9 
 
 Arrested 10 
 
 Morrison, William, old trader 7. J . 87 
 Moss. Henry L., V. S. District 
 
 Attorney 118 
 
 Nadowaysioux. see Sioux 
 
 Negro woman found dead near 
 
 Kaposia 113 
 
 Nepigon, Lake. Verendrye at.... 87 
 Neill, Rev. Edward D., offers 
 praver at opening of first legis- 
 lature 119 
 
 Delivers opening address of 
 
 Historical Society 119 
 
 Newspaper first in St. Paul, the 
 
 Pioneer 117, 118 
 
 Minnesota Register 118 
 
 Minnesota Chronicle 118 
 
 Chronicle and Register 118 
 
 Carriers Address 119 
 
 Dahkotah Friend 122 
 
 Minnesota Democrat 122 
 
 St. Anthonv Express 123 
 
 Nicolet. Jean, first white trader 
 
 in Wisconsin 1 
 
 Nicollet, J. N., astronomer and 
 
 geologist 102 
 
 Letterfrom St.Anthonv Falls 102 
 Niverville, Boucher de, at Lake 
 
 Winnipeg 60 
 
 Norris, J. S 12c 
 
 North, J. W 122, 128 
 
 Northwes company trading 
 
 posts " 73 
 
 Description of buildings 73 
 
 Territory divided 73 
 
 None, Robertal de la. re-occu- 
 pies Du Luth's Post at the head 
 
 of Lake Superior 50 
 
 Ochagachs, draws a nap for Ve- 
 rendrye 58 
 
 Mentioned by the geographer 
 
 Bellin 
 
 Ojihwavs or Cliippeways. ..30, 31, 37 
 
 Captive girls 31, 32 | 
 
 PACK 
 
 Chief of, with Le Sueur at 
 
 Montreal 37 
 
 In council with Sioux 94 
 
 Killed near Fort Snelling, A. 
 
 D.. 1826 97 
 
 Visit Fort, A. D., 1827 
 
 Treachery of 10.1 
 
 Conflict, with Sioux near Fort 
 
 Snelling Kfl 
 
 Early residence of 105 
 
 Sioux name, for 105 
 
 Principal villages of 105 
 
 Of Lake Pokeguma attacked 110 
 
 Attack at Kaposia Sioux Ill 
 
 Treaty of 1837 112 
 
 Attack Sioux near St. Paul... 121 
 Passengers on first steam- 
 boat above Falls of Saint 
 
 Anthony 121 
 
 Attack Sioux in St. Paul streets 125 
 Kill a Sioux gin in a farm 
 
 house 127 
 
 Oliver, Lieut. U. S. A., detained 
 
 by ice at Hastings 91 
 
 Olmstead.S. B 126 
 
 Olmsted, David, President of 
 
 first council 119 
 
 Candidate for Congress 122 
 
 Editor of Democrat 125 
 
 One Eyed Sioux, alias Bourgne 
 Orignal Leve, Rising Moose. 8, r > 
 Loyal to America during war 
 
 or 1812 81 
 
 Arrested by Dickson 81 
 
 Ottawas. their migrations 2 
 
 At Mackinaw 32 
 
 Ottoes, mentioned 42,43, 44 
 
 Ouasicoude. (Wah-zee-ko-ta\) 
 Sioux chief mentioned by Hen- 
 nepin 23, 27 
 
 By Long 82 
 
 Owens, John P., editor 123 
 
 Pacific Ocean, route, to 
 
 36,50,58,60, 69 
 
 Parrant nicknamed Pig's Eye 113 
 
 Parsons, Rev. J. P 119 
 
 Patron, uncle of Du Luth... 11 
 
 Penicaut describes Fort Perrot.. 29 
 
 Fort Le Sueur on Isle Pelee.. 37 
 
 Mississippi River 42 
 
 Residence at Blue Earth Riv- 
 er 47 
 
 Describes Fort L'Huillier 47 
 
 Pennensha, French trader among 
 
 the Sionx 53 
 
 Pere. see Perrot. 
 
 Perkins. Lt., U. S. A., in change 
 
 of Fort Shelby 80 
 
 Perriere. see La Perriere. 
 Perrot, Nicholas, arrests Achiga- 
 
 naga at Lake Superior 12 
 
 Visits Keweenaw 14 
 
 Early days of 20 
 
 Interpreter. A. D. 1671, at 
 
 Sault St. Marie 29 
 
 Account of Father Menard's 
 ascent of Hie Mississippi 
 
 and Black River 2 
 
 Suspected of poisoning La 
 
 Salle 29 
 
 Associated with Du Luth — 29 
 
 First visit to Lake Pepin. ... 29 
 
 Visited bv Ioways 29 
 
 Trades with the Sioux 29 
 
 Brings allies to Niagara 30 
 
 ■ Strategy at Lake Pepin 30 
 
 Presents a silver ostensorinm 30 
 Terrifies the Sioux by burning 
 
 a cup of brandy and water. 30 
 
 In the Seneca expedition ai 
 
 His return to Lake Pepin 31 
 
 Journeys to the Sioux 31 
 
 Takes possession of the-couu- 
 
 try 32 
 
 Rescues Ojibway girls 32 
 
 Boldness at Mackinaw 32 
 
 Conducts a convov from Mon- 
 treal 34, 38 
 
 Establishes a post on Kala- 
 mazoo river 34 
 
 Recalled 34 
 
 Threatened with death by 
 
 Indians 38 
 
 Interpreter at Montreal 38 
 
INDEX 
 
 TAG E 
 
 Name of wife 34 
 
 Time of death 34 
 
 Peters. Rev.Saniuel, interested in 
 
 the Carver claim 70, 61, 96 
 
 Petims, see Hindis. 
 
 Phillips, W. D., early lawyer at 
 
 St. Paul 11C. 119 
 
 Picard, see Augelle. 
 
 Pig's Eye, marsh below St. Pan', 113 
 
 Origin of name 114 
 
 Pike, Lt. Z. M., U. S. army at 
 
 Praii is dn Chien T4 
 
 Council with Sioux at mouth 
 
 of Minnesota 74 
 
 Address to Indians 74 
 
 Treaty for sites for military 
 
 posts 75 
 
 DescriplionofFallsof St. An- 
 
 thnnv 75, 76 
 
 l.o t flag brought back 76 
 
 Mock house at Swan River... 77 
 
 Visited by Dickson 77 
 
 At Cass or Red Cedar Lake . . 77 
 
 At Sandv Lake 77 
 
 At Leecli Lake 78 
 
 Orders the British flag to be 
 
 hauled down 78 
 
 At Dicksons trading post 78 
 
 Confers with Sioux at Minne- 
 sota river 78 
 
 Passes Kaposi a village 78 
 
 Confers with Little Crow 78 
 
 Pinchon, sec Pcnensha. 
 Pinchon. Fils de, Sioux chief, 
 
 confers w ifeh Pike 78 
 
 Pond, Rev. G. H.. assists in bury- 
 ing slaughtered Sioux 10.'! 
 
 i ditor of Dahkotah Friend . 122 
 
 Interpreter at treaty of 1851. 124 
 
 Pond, Rev. s miuei \\\. notifies 
 
 the agent of a Si.uix war party 103 
 
 Erects the first house of >aw- 
 
 ed lumber in the Minnesota 
 
 Valley 107 
 
 Prepares a Sioux spelling 
 
 book ins 
 
 Grammar 111 
 
 Porlier, trader near Sauk Rapids 
 
 76, 78 
 
 Poupon, Isadore, killed by Sisse- 
 
 ton Sioux 92 
 
 Prairie du Chien described by 
 
 ivi-r 64 
 
 During war of Isi2-lsi5 so 
 
 Fort Shelby at 80 
 
 McKay at si 
 
 British officers at 81 
 
 Prescott, Philander, early life 91 
 Provencalle. loyal to America in 
 
 war of 1812 81 
 
 Quiiin. Peter 103 
 
 Raclos, Madeline, wife of Nicho- 
 las Perrot 34 
 
 Radisson, Marguerite 2 
 
 Kadisson, Sieur, early life and 
 
 marriage 2 
 
 Second marriage 2 
 
 Brother-in-law of Groselliers 2 
 
 Visits the sioux 2 
 
 Sails with ('apt. Gill am to 
 
 Hudson's Hay 5 
 
 Rae, Dr., Arctic explorer at St. 
 
 Paul 124 
 
 Ramsey, Hon. Alexander. Bret 
 
 Governor 117 
 
 Guest of if H. Sibley at Men- 
 
 dola " 118 
 
 Becomes a resident of st. 
 
 Paul U-S 
 
 Holds Indian council at Port 
 
 Snelling 121 
 
 First message. .'. 
 
 Randin, visits eUreinity of Lake 
 
 Superior nil 
 
 Ravoux, Rev. A., Sioux mission- 
 ary 109 
 
 Reauine, Sieur, interpreter 52 
 
 Red River of the North, men- 
 tioned 87 
 
 Why called 87 
 
 Fort Rouge on 87 
 
 Scotch settlers at 87 
 
 Rival trading companies 87 
 
 Swiss immigrants to 89 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Renville, Joseph, mention of 76. 109 
 
 Renville. John 109 
 
 Republican convention at St. 
 
 Anthony 126 
 
 Rice. Hon. Henry M.. st<-ps to or- 
 ganize Minnesota Territory 115, 110 
 
 .Moves to St. Paul 118 
 
 Fleeted to Congress 125, 126 
 
 (". S Senator 12s 
 
 Richards, F. S., trader at Lake 
 
 Pepin 117 
 
 Rigss, Rev. S. R., Sioux mission- 
 ary, letierof Ill 
 
 Interpreter at treaty of 1851 . . 123 
 R>bbinette, pioneer in St. Croix 
 
 Valley 112 
 
 Robertson, Daniel A., editor 124. 125 
 Rocky Mountains discovered by 
 
 Verendrye CO 
 
 Rocque or Roque, A., at Wapa- 
 
 shaw 117 
 
 Rogers, Captain, at Ticonderaga. 62 
 In charge at Mackinaw. . .62. 66 
 Skirmish with Durantave... 62 
 Alluded to bv Sir W. Johnson 69 
 Rolette, Joseph Sr., in the Brit- 
 ish service 81 
 
 51 
 
 Rolette, Joseph Jr. 
 
 Roseboom. English trader, ar- 
 rested near Mackinaw 
 
 Roseboom. trader at Gieen Bav. 
 
 Rosser, J. T., Secretary of Terri- 
 tory 
 
 Rouville. Hertel de, French olli- 
 
 Russell, Jeremiah, pioneer in st. 
 
 Croix Valley 10:', 112 
 
 Marriage of 113 
 
 Sagard. in 1636 notices Lake Su- 
 perior copper 7 
 
 Saint Anthony Express, first pa- 
 per beyond St. Paul 123 
 
 Saint Anthony Falls, Suspension 
 
 bridge over 126 
 
 Described by early explorers 
 in. 21.25. 75, Til, S5 
 
 Government mill al t>3, 94 
 
 Saint Croix county organized — 111 
 
 Court in ill 
 
 Saint Croix River, origin of 
 
 name 42 112 
 
 Du Luth first explorer of 112 
 
 Fort on, spoken of bv Hellin. 112 
 Pitt and party cut lumber ... 112 
 
 Pioneers in valley of 112 
 
 Early preachers in valley of. 113 
 
 First woman 113 
 
 Saint Paul, origin of name lit 
 
 Early settlers of 114 
 
 First School house in 114 
 
 Appearance in 1849 117 
 
 High water in 1850 121 
 
 Newspapers 117. 118,119, 122 
 
 First execution for murder.. 124 
 
 Indian light in streets of 125 
 
 ltelics ariive from Franklin's 
 
 expedition 126 
 
 Effort to remove seat of Gov- 
 ernment therefrom 127 
 
 Saint Pierre, Captain, at Lake 
 
 Superior 60 
 
 At Lake Pepin 53, 65 
 
 Commander at Mackinaw. ... 61 
 
 Noticed bv Carver 57 
 
 At Fort La Keine 60 
 
 Arrests murderers 61 
 
 In N. \V. Pennsylvania ...60, 61 
 Visited by Washington 60 
 
 Killed in battle 60 
 
 Tribute to 61 
 
 Saskatchewan, first visited by 
 French 
 
 Fort at 
 
 Schiller, versifies a Sioux chiefs 
 
 speech 
 
 Scott, Died, slave at Fort Snell- 
 
 ing 
 
 Scott, General Wiulield. suggests 
 
 the name of Fort Snelling 
 
 Selkirk, Earl. Thomas Douglas.. 
 
 Secures Ossiniboia 
 
 Forms an agricultural colony 
 Arrives in New York city 
 
 60 
 
 Reaches Saul t St. Marie. 
 
 Discovers Johu Tanrer 88 
 
 Concludes a treaty with In- 
 dians '. Rfl 
 
 Passes through Minnesota. . . s:i 
 Semple. Governor of Selkirk set- 
 tlement, killed ss 
 
 Murderer of ss 
 
 Senecas defeated by the French 15 
 Shea, J. G., on failure to estab- 
 lish Sioux mission lii'i 
 
 Sherburne, Moses. Judge 1.5 
 
 Shields. Gen. James, elected F. 
 
 S. Senator 12s 
 
 Shingowahbav. Ojibwav chief 
 
 with Le Sueur at .Montreal 37 
 
 Sihlev, Hon. H. H„ at Stillwater 
 
 convention 115 
 
 Delegate to Congress from 
 
 Wisconsin Territory 116 
 
 Impression made at Wash- 
 ington 11( 
 
 Elected delegate to Congress 122 
 Silver ostensoiiuni, presented by 
 
 Perrot. still preseived '. 30 
 
 Sioux, origin of the word 1 
 
 Defeat the Hurons 4 
 
 Described by Father Allouez 4 
 
 Attack Indians at La Poiute 4 
 
 Peculiar language of 4 
 
 Described in A. D. 1671 4 
 
 Attacked at Sanlt St. Marie.. 5 
 
 Villages visited by Du Filth.. 9 
 
 Described bv Cadillac 16 
 
 Meet Accault and Henne- 
 pin 1!), 20 
 
 Words mentioned bv Henne- 
 pin 21,22, 27 
 
 Of MilleLacs ■>> 
 
 Offering at Falls of St. An- 
 thony 20 
 
 Visited by Giosellier and 
 
 Radisson 
 
 Nicholas Perrot 2:) 
 
 Described by Perrot :;i 
 
 Mantantans ::•_' 
 
 Meaning of the word 1 1 
 
 Different bands of 10 1 
 
 Med-day-wah- kawn-twawn 
 
 villages 104, 1 5 
 
 Warpavkutav division of 1ir> 
 
 Warpaytwawns 100 
 
 Seeseetwawns nn 
 
 Dictionary commenced Ill 
 
 Frightened bv burning bran- 
 dy .",!) 
 
 Mantantaws 32, II 
 
 Sissetons 32 
 
 Medavwalikaunt\vauns....32, 43 
 
 Onjalespnitons 43, 44 
 
 Assinebuines, cause of sepa- 
 ration 43 
 
 War party arrested bv Perrot 33 
 
 Tbe first to visit Montreal . . . . 37 
 
 chiefs speech to Frontenac. 38 
 
 Chief's death at Montreal.... 38 
 War party against the Illi 
 
 nois 39, 40 
 
 Eastern and Western des- 
 cribed 48 
 
 Chief visits Fort L'Huillier .. 43 
 
 In council with Le Sueur 44 
 
 Bands of. A. D. 1700 45 
 
 Attack Miamis 45 
 
 Visited bv Jesuits 51 
 
 A foil to the Foxes 55 
 
 Attack convoy of Verendi ye, 
 
 Deputation visit Quebec ..'... 57 
 Deputation visit English at 
 
 Green Bay 63 
 
 Hands described by Carver. . 1,5 
 Chiefs speech described by 
 
 Carver 67 
 
 Chiefs speech versified by 
 
 Schiller 07 
 
 Language. Carver's views on, i;:i 
 Chief, Ungual Leve, Pike's 
 
 friend 75, 81 
 
 Formerly dwelt at Leech 
 
 Lake 78 
 
 Bear Dance described by 
 
 Long '. 83 
 
 Sisseton murderer brought to 
 
 Fort Snelling 92 
 
 Iu council with Ojihways 94 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Sioux Delegation in A. D. 1824, 
 
 nolo Washington .'... 95 
 
 Kill Ojibways, a. d., 1826, 
 
 near Fort Snelling 98 
 
 Kill in 1827 98 
 
 Delivered bv Col. Snelling . . 99 
 
 Executed bv Ojibways 99 
 
 Killed bv Ojibways, April 
 
 1838 103 
 
 War with Ojlbwavs in l s.«9 . 103 
 Attack Lake Pokeguma band 
 
 in 1811 no 
 
 Arc attacked in 1842 ill 
 
 War parts of si. ux at Apple 
 
 River, 1850 121 
 
 Kill a teamster 123 
 
 Treaties of 1851 123 
 
 Attacked in St. Paul by Ojib- 
 ways 125 
 
 Simpson, early settler in St. Paul 114 
 Slaves, African, in Minnesota.... 97 
 Smith. C. K., first Secretary of 
 
 Territory "lis, 119 
 
 Snelliug, Col. Josiab, arrives at 
 
 Fort Snelling 92 
 
 Censured by General Gaines. 97 
 Delivers Sioux assassins to 
 
 Ojibways 99 
 
 Hastens with Keel boats to 
 
 Fort Crawford 100 
 
 Death of 101 
 
 Tribute to 101 
 
 W. Joseph, son of Colonel 
 
 career of 97 
 
 Author and poet 97 
 
 Pasquinade on N. P. Willis.. 98 
 
 Death of 98 
 
 Steamboat arrivals at Fort Snell- 
 
 ine to close of 1826 97 
 
 Virginia first at Fort Snelling 93 
 First to Falls of St. Anthony 121 
 
 Above 121 
 
 In Minnesota River 122 
 
 Steele, Franklin, pi><neer in St. 
 
 Croix "Valley 112, 113 
 
 At Stillwater convention 1848 115 
 Foreman of Grand Jury ... 119 
 
 Stevens, Rev. J. D 106, 108 
 
 Stillwater, battle between Sioux 
 
 and Ojibwavs 103 
 
 Founders of 113 
 
 Notice of by Boutwell 114 
 
 Convention'at in 1848 115 
 
 Scalpdancein 121 
 
 Land slide in 1852 124 
 
 Stratton, pioneer in St. Croix 
 Valley 112, 113 
 
 PAUK 
 
 Stoddard, Capt.U. S. A 
 
 Stuart. Robeit, at. Mackinaw, in- 
 
 lliienee of 106 
 
 Swiss emigrants, at Red River. . . 89 
 Swart/, Andrew, teamster, killed 
 
 by Sioux 123 
 
 Taliaferro. Maj. Lawrence, agent 
 
 for the Sioux, notice of 91 
 
 Letter to Ol. Leaven worth . . 92 
 Takes Indians to "Washing- 
 ton. A. D., 1824 95 
 
 Talon, intendant of Canada, re- 
 fers to (iroselliers 6 
 
 Refers to Lake Superior cop- 
 per 7 
 
 Tanner, John, stolen from his 
 
 parents 88 
 
 Became an Indian chief . . 88 
 Discovered by Earl of Sel- 
 
 Suspeeted of Murder 88 
 
 James, son of John 88 
 
 Troublesome and deceitful .. 88 
 Tannery for Buffalo skins ... .46, 48 
 Tavlor, Jesse B.. pioneer in St. 
 
 Croix Valley 112 
 
 Joshua L ! 118 
 
 N. C. D.. Speaker Hou-e of 
 
 Representatives 1854 126 
 
 Teeoskahtay, Sioux chief first in 
 
 Montreal 37 
 
 Speech to Governor Fron- 
 
 tenac 38 
 
 His death in Montreal 39, 44 
 
 Tegahkouita, Catherine, the 
 
 Iroquois virgin 17 
 
 Terrv, Elijah, murdered by Sioux 
 
 at Pembina 124 
 
 Thompson, David, geographer. 
 
 N. W. Co , . . . 78 
 
 Tonty, Henry, with Du Luth at 
 
 Niagara 15 
 
 Cousin of Du Luth 16 
 
 Traders forbidden to enter the 
 
 Sioux country 48 
 
 Treaties of 1837 with Sioux and 
 
 Ojibways 112 
 
 Turtle, O. A., at Falls of St. Croix 112 
 University of Minnesota creaed 122 
 
 Van Cteve, Gen. H. P 90 
 
 Charlotte Ouisconsin, wife of 
 
 Gen 90 
 
 Paper by 95 
 
 Varennes, Pierre Gualtier, see 
 
 Verendrye 
 
 Vercheres.in command at Green 
 Bay ... 61 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Verendrye. Sieur, early life of. . . 58 
 
 At. Lake Nepigon 5s 
 
 Obtains an Indian Map 58 
 
 Expedition west of Lake Su- 
 perior 58 
 
 A son killed bv Sioux 59 
 
 A nephew dies 59 
 
 Sons of. reach Rocky Moun- 
 tains 59 
 
 Return to Lake of the Woods 95 
 
 Superseded 59 
 
 Restored 59 
 
 Death 59 
 
 Chevalier, notice of 59 
 
 sieur Jr., accompanies St. 
 
 Pierre 59, 61 
 
 Wahkautape, Sionx chief visits 
 
 Le Sueur 43, 44 
 
 Wahmatah, Sicux chief 95 
 
 Wait. LB 119 
 
 Wakefield, John A 116 
 
 Wales. W. W 127 
 
 Washington visits St. Pierre 60 
 
 Welch, W. H., Chief Justice of 
 
 Territory 125 
 
 Wells. James, trader married... 102 
 
 At Lake Pepin 117 
 
 Killed by Sioux 102 
 
 Wilkin Alexander, Secretary of 
 
 Territory 124 
 
 Candidate for Congress 125 
 
 Williamson, Rev. T. S., M. D., 
 
 early life 107 
 
 Arrival among the. Sioux. 107 
 Organizes church at Fort 
 
 Snelling 108 
 
 Missionary at Lac qui Parle. 
 
 Kaposia 114 
 
 Procures school teacher for 
 
 St. Paul 114 
 
 Willis. N. P., lampoons Joseph 
 
 Snelling 97 
 
 Winnebagoes, mentioned 40. 52 
 
 Attack Keel boats ...99, 100 
 
 First notice of 1o5 
 
 Successive removals 105 
 
 Wisconsin River, ca'led Mes- 
 
 chetz Odeha bv La Salle 18 
 
 Described by Le Sueur 40 
 
 Guignas 52 
 
 Wolfe, General, death of 1 
 
 Wood, trader among Soux 78 
 
 Yeiser, Capr, at Fort Shelby 80 
 
 Yuhazee, executed at St. Paul... 124 
 
LRB4|?7 
 
 
 
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