Rice County, Minnesota - Footrkints of Civilization Towaud the Extremity of Lake Superior, 1882

Footrkints of Civilization Towaud the Extremity of Lake Superior

Minne6otji*s Cenlriil Position. - D'AvaEour's Prediction. - Nicoiefs Visit to (!rcpn Bay. - First White Men in Minnpsota. - Notices of Groselliers and Radisson. - Uurons Flee to Minnesota. - Visited by Frenchmen. - Father Menard Disappears. - Groselliers Visits Hudson's Bay, - Father Allouez Describes the Sioux Mission at La Pointe. - Father Marquette.- Sioux at Sault St. Marie. - Jesuit Missions Fiiil, - Groselliers Visits England. - Captain Gillani, ot Boston, at Hudson's Bay. - Letter of Mother Superior of Vrsulines., at Quebec.- Death oT Groselliers.

The Dako talis, called by the Ojibways, Nadowaysioux, or Sioux (Soos), as abbreviated by the French, used to claim superiority over other people, 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 lilinnesota, to the Missouri lliver, is one of the most healthful and fertile 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 refei-ring to Lake Huron, wrote, that beyond " is met another, called Lake Superior, the waters of which, it is believed. How into Kew Spain, and this, according to general opinion, ought to he the centre of the country.''^

As early as 1635, one of Champlain's interpreters, Jean Nicolet (Nicolay), who came to Canada in 1618, reached the western shores of Lake Michigan. In the summer of 1634 he ascended the St. Lawrence, witli a party of Ilurons, and probably during the next winter was trading at Green Bay, in Wisconsin. On the ninth of December, 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 1642, when he died. Of him it is .said, in a letter written in 1640, tliat he had penetrated farthest into those distant comitries, 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 (pronoimced Gro-zay-yay) was born near Ferte-sous-Jouarre, eleven miles east of Meaux, 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, and 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 September, 1647, at Quebec, lie was married to Helen, the widow of ('laude Etienne, who was the daughter of a pilot, Abraham Martin, whose baptismal name is still attached to the suburbs of that city, the " Plains of Abraham," made famous by the death there, of General Wolfe, of the English army, in 1759, and of General Montgomery, of the Continental armv, In December, 1775; at the commencement of the " War for Independence." His son, Medard, was bom in 1657, and the next year his mother died. The second wife of Groselliers was ilarguerite nayet(IIayay) Ratlisson, tlie sister of his associate, m the exploration of the region west of Lalie Superior.

Kadisson was born at St. Malo, and, while a boy, went to Paris, and from thence to Canada, and in 1()56, at Three Rivers, married Elizabeth, the daughter of Madeleine Hainault, and, after her death, the daugliter of Sir David Kirk or Kerkt, a zealous Huguenot, became his wife.

The Iroquois of New York, about the year 1650, drove the Hurons from their villages, and forced them to take refuge with their friends the Tinontates, called by the French, Petuns, because they cultivated tobacco. In time the Iliuons 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, tliey found the Iowa Kiver, on the west side, which they followed, and dwelt for a time with the Ayoes (loways) who were very friendly ; but l)eing accustomed to a country of lakes and forests, tliey were not satisfied with the vast prairies. Returning 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 presented to them, allowed the refugees to settle upon an island in the Itlississippi, below the moutli of the St. Croix River, called Bald Island from the absence of trees, about nine miles from the site of the present city of Hastings. Possessed of firearms, the Hurons and Ottawas asserted their superiority, and determined to conquer the country for themselves, and having incurred the hostility of the Sioux, were obliged to flee from the isle in the Mississippi, Descending below Lake Pepin, they reached the Black River, and ascending it, found an unoccupied country around its sources and that of tlie Chippeway. In this region the Hurons established themselves, while their alhes, the Ottawas, moved eastward, till they found the shores of Lake Superior, and settled at Chagouamikon (Sha - gah - wah - mik - ong ) near what is now Bayfield. In the year 1659, GroselUers and Radisson arrived at Chagouamikon, and determined to visit the Hurons and Petuns, 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 AViseonsin Rivers. From this point they journeyed north, and passed the winter of 1659-60 among the "Nadouechiouec," or Sioux villages in the ilille Lacs (Mil Lak) region. From the Hurons they learned of a beautiful river, wide, large, deep, and comparalile with the Saint Lawrence, the great JNIississippi, which flows through the city of Mumeapolis, and whose sources are in nortliern Minnesota.

jS'ortheast 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 (eharbon de terre) and dwelt in tents of skins ; although some of the more industrious built cabins of clay (terre grasse), like the swallows liuild their nests.

The spring and summer of 1660, Groselliers and Radisson passed in trading aroimd Lake Superior. On the 19th of August they returned to Montreal, with three hundred Indians and sixty canoes loaded with " a wealth of skins."

The citizens were deeply stirred by the travelers' tales of the vastness and richness of the region they had visited, and their many romantic adventures. 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, Rene ilenard. His hair whitened by age, and his mind ripened by long experience, he heemed the man for the mission. Two hours after midnight, of the day before departure, the venerable missionary Ijenned at " Three Rivers," the following letter to a friend :

'Reverend Father: " Tlie peace of Christ be with you : I write to you probably the last, which I hope will be the seal of our friendship luilil eternity. Love whom the Lord Jesus did not disdain to love, though the greatest of sinners; for he loves whom he

Father Menaud Lost In Wisconsin

" In three or foiu' mouths you may remember me at the memento for the dead, on account of my old age, my weak constitution and the hardships I lay under amongst these ti'ibes. Nevertlieless, I am in peace, for I liave not been led to this mission by any temporal motive, but I think it was by the voice of God. I was to resist tlie grace of God by not coming. Eternal remorse would have tormented me, had I not come when 1 had the opportunity.

" We have been a little surprized, not being able to provide ourselves with vestments and other 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. \Vliat I can do is to recommend our journey to your daily sacrifice, and to embrace you with the same sentiments of heart as I hope to do in eternity. " My Eeverend Father,

On the loth of October, the party with which he journeyed reached a bay on Lake Superior, where he foimd some of the Ottawas, who had fled from the Iroquois of New York. For more than eight months, surroimded 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 us from the rigor of the season as to correct my imagination, 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 Wisconsuj. Some Frenchmen, who had been among the Ilurons, in vain attempted to dissuade 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 Ufe of a miserable old man like myself. What! Are we to serve (Jod only when there is nothing to suffer, and no risk of Ufe?"

Upon De ITsle's map of Louisiana, published nearly two centuries ago, there appears the Lake of the Ottawas, and the Lake of the Old or Deserted Settlement, west of (ireen J5ay, and south of Lake Superior. The Lake of the Old Plantation is supposed to ha\e been the spot occupied by the Hurons at the time when Menard attempted to visit them. One way of access to this secluded spot was from Lake Superior to the headwaters 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 Cliippewa Rivers, and some have said that Menard descended the Wisconsm and ascended the Black River.

Perrot, who lived at the same time, writes : " 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 sei-vices and help that he could have hoped. The Father followed the Outaouas f Utawwaws] to the Lake of the Illinoets [Illino-ay, now Michigan] and in theii' flight to the Louisianue, [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. He found himself in a rapid, one day, that was carrying him away in his canoe. The Father, to assist, debarked from his ovra, but did not find a good path to come to him. He entered one that had been made by beasts, and desiring to return, became confused in a labyrmth of trees, and was lost. The Frenchman, after havmg ascended the rapids with great labor, awaited the good Father, and, as he did not come, resolved to search for him. AVith all his might, for several days, he called his name in the woods, hopmg to find him, but it was useless. He met, however, a Sakis [Sauk] who was carrying the camp-kettle of the missionary, and wlio 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 stipposed that the Scioux might have killed or captured him. Indeed, several years afterwards,

Explobebs And Piokeebs Of Minnesota

GroselUers (Gro-zay-yay), whUe Menaid was endeavoring to reach the retreat of the Hnrons which he had made known to tlie authorities of Canada, was pushing through the country of the Assineboines, on the northwest shore of Lake Superior, and at length, probably by Lake Alempigon, or Nepigon, reached Hudson's Bay, and early in May, 1662, returned to Montreal, and surprised its citizens vvdth his tale of new discoveries toward the Sea of the North.

The Hurons did not remain long toward the sources of the Black Kiver, after Menard's disappearance, and deserting their plantations, joined their allies, the Ottawas, at La Pointe, now Bayfield, on Lake Superior. While here, they determined to send a war party of one hundred against the Sioux of MUle 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 miglit attempt to escape in the night, cut up beaver skins into strips, and hung thereon little bells, which they had obtained from the French traders. The Hurons, emerging from their watery hiding place, 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 Montreal. Upon their return, on the eighth of August, the Jesuit Father, Allouez, accompanied the traders, and, by the first of October, reached Chegoimegon 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 Alemplgon, now Nepigon, this missionary saw, near the mouth of Saint Louis River, 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 wliich 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 collect 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 with great dexterity. Their cabins are not covered with bark, but with deerskins well dried, and stitched together so that the cold does not enter. These people are above aU other savage and warUke. 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.

" 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 iieads in flight, and discharge tlieir arrows 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 niunber 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.

" Tliey speak a peculiar language, entirely distinct from tliat of the Algonijuins and Hurons, whom they generally surpass in generosity, .since they often content themselves with the glory of

Groselliers And Radisson In The English Ser Vice

" Our Outoiiacs of the Point of the Holy ( iliost [La PoLnte, now Bayfield] had to the present time kept up a kind of peace with them, but affairs havhig become embroiled durinij; last winter, and some murders having been committed on both sides, our savages had reason to apprehend that the storm would soon biu'st 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 Pouite, the modern Bayfield] and we have not yet visited them, having confined ourselves to the conversion of the Ottawas.''

Soon after this, hostilities began between the Sioux and the Hurons and Ottawas of La Pointe, and the former compelled their foes to seek another resting place, toward 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 Gallinee wrote that a council was had at flie 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 sliowed siu-jirise at the movement ; when the Indian with the knife reproached him for cowardice. The Nadouessioux said he was not afraid, when the other planted the knife in his heart, and killed him. All the savages then engaged in conflict, and the Xadouessioux bravely defended themselves, hut, overwhelmed by numbers, nine of them were killed. The two who survived rushed into the chapel, and closed the door. Here they found munitions of war, and fired guns at their enemies, who became anxious to bum do^vii the chapel, but the .lesuits would not permit it, because they had their skins stored between its roof and ceiling. In this extremity, a Jesuit, Louis Le Boeme, advised that a cannon should be pointed at the door, which was discharged, and tiie two brave Sioux were killed."

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 liistorian of tluil 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 tlie other missions, neither Le Clerq nor Ilemiepin, the Recollect, writers of the West at this time, makes any mention, or in any way alludes to their existence, and La liontan mentions the Jesuit missions only to ridicule them."

The Pigeon River, a part of the northern boundary of Minnesota, was called on the French maps Grosellier's River, after the first explorer of Minnesota, whose career, with his associate Radisson, became quite prominent in connection with the Hudson Bay region.

A disagreement occurring between Groselliers a)id his partners in Quebec, he proceeded to Paris, and from thence to London, where he was introduced 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 witli pleasure to the narrative of travel, and endorsed the plans for prosecuting the fur trade and seeking a northwest passage to Asia. The scientific men of England were also full of the enterprise, in the hope that it would increase a knowledge of uatm'e. The Secretary of the Royal Society wrote to Robert Boyle, the distinguished philosopher, a too sanguine letter. His words were : " Surely I need not tell you from hence what is said here, with great joy. of the discovery of a nortliwest passage; and by two Englislimen and one Frenchman represented to his Majesty at Oxford, and answered by the grant of a vessel to sail into Hudson's Bay and channel into the South Sea."

The ship Nonsuch was fitted out, in charge of Captain 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 returned to England, and in 1670, a trading com-

" It was about this time that a Frenchman of our Tourame, named des Groselliers, married in this coimtiy, and as he had not been successful in making a fortune, was seized with a fancy to go to New England to better his condition. He 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 England, where there was given to him, a vessel, with crew and every thmg necessary for the voyage. With these advantages, he put to sea, and in place of the usual route, which others had taken in vain, he sailed in another direction, and searched so wide, that he found the grand Bay of the North. He foimd large population, and filled his ship or ships with peltries of great value. * * *

He 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 adventurer, 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 dispatch to Colbert, Minister of the Colonial Department of France, WTote 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 aUght on only the EngUsh, who, under the guidance of a man named Des Grozellers, formerly an inhabitant of Canada, might possibly have attempted tliat navigation."

After years of service on the shores of Hudson's Bay, either with English or French trading companies, the old explorer died in Canada, and it has been said that his son went to England, where he was livmg in 1696, in receipt of a pension.

Sftgard, A. D. 1636, on Copper Mine?. - Boucher, A. D. 1R40, Describes Lake Siipo rior Copper. - Jesuit Relations, A. D. lefirj-^i?.- Copper on Islo Roynls. - Hiilf- Breed Voyageur Goes to France with T.ilon. - Jolliet and Perrot Scnrch for Copper. - St. Lusson Plants the French Arms at Sault St. Marie. - Copper at Outanogon and Head of Lake Superior.

Before white men had explored tlie shores of Lake Superior, Indians had brouglit to the trading posts of the St. Lawrence Elver, specimens of copper from that region. Sagard, in his History of Canada, published in 1636, at Paris, writes : "There are mines of copper whicli miglit be made profitable, if there were inhabitants and worlvmen 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 Truchemont Brusle showed me an ingot, on his return from a voyage which he made to the neighboring nation."

Pierre Boucher, grandfather of Sieur de la Yerendrye, the explorer of the lakes of the northern boundary of Minnesota, in a volume published A. D. 1640, also at Paris, writes : "In Lake Superior there is a great island, fifty oronehimdred leagues in circumference, in which there is a very beautiful mme 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 ingnt nf copper all refined which was on the coast, and \\'eighed more than eight himdred poimds, according to their estimate. They said that the savages, on passing it, made a fire on it, after which they cut off pieces with their axes."

In tlie Jesuit Relations of 1666-67, 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 celebrated for the metal which is found there, and for the thunder which takes place there; for they say it always thmiders there.

" But farther towards the west on the same mirth 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 aromid the island, on the waters edge, pieces of copper are fomid mixed with pebbles, but especially 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, and is so hard that steel can hardly cut it, but when it is heated it cuts as easily as lead. Near Point Chagouamigong [Sha - gah - wah - mikong, near Bayfield] where a mission was established 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 [Ontonagon] on which is a hill where stones and copper fall into the water or upon the earth. They are readily found.

"Tliree years snice we received a piece which was brought from this place, which weighed a hundred poiuids, and we sent it to (Quebec to Mr. Talon. It is not certaui exactly wliere this was broken from. We thuik it was from the forks of the river ; others, that it was from near the lake, and dug up."

Talon, Intendent of Justice in Canada, visited France, taking a half-breed voyageur with him, and while in Paris, wrote on the 26th of February, 1669, to Colbert, the Minister of the Marine Department, "that this voyageur had penetrated among the western nations fartlier than any other Frenchman, and had .seen the copper mine on Lake Huron. [Superior?] The man oflers to go to that mine, and explore, either by sea, or by lake and river, the communication supposed to exist between Canada and the South Sea, or to the regions of Hudson's Bay."

As soon as Talon returned to Canada he commissioned JoUiet and Pere [Perrot] to search for the mines of copper on the upper Lakes. Jolliet received an outfit of four himdred livTcs, and four canoes, and Perrot one thousand Uvres. Muiisister Colbert wrote from Paris to Talon, in February, 1671, ajjprovmg 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, but the principal thing you ought to apply yourself in discoveries of this nature, is to look for the copper mine.

On the 14th of June, 1671, SaintLusson at Sault St. Marie, planted the ^rms of France, in the presence 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 explorations 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 lliat there is a mine on tlie border of some stream, wliich produces this material as pure as one could wish. More than twenty Frenchmen have seen one lump at the lake, which they estimate weiglis more than eight himdred pounds. The Jesuit Fathers among the Outaouas [Ou-taw-waws] use an anvil of this material, which weighs about one hundred pounds. There will be no rest until the source from whence these detached lumps come is discovered.

between two high hills, the plain above which feeds the lakes, and receives a great deal of snow, which, in melting, forms torrents which wash the borders of this river, composed of solid gravel, which is rolled down by it.

" The gravel at the bottom of this, hardens itself, 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 Lusfon, about fourhundred 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 nroduction."

Governor Denonville, of Canada, sixteen years after the above circumstances, wrote : " The copper, 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 promised to search for it on his way back."

In the year 1730, there was some correspondence with the authorities in France relative to the discovery of copper at La Pointe, but, practically, little was done by the French, in developing the mineral wealth of Lake Superior.