Buffalo County, Wisconsin - The whole text, 1888 (part 4 of 13)

If I begin the history of this powerful confederacy, or rather extensive and numerous ethnological family, with the outlines of the territory claimed or possessed by them at the time of the treaty of Prairie du Chien in the year 1825, it is not because they entered history first at that time, hut to establish their claim to our attention, and to a place in this book. We have seen that the boundary between them and the Winnebagoes, as established by the aforesaid treaty, ran along the bluffs on the east side of the Mississippi river as far as Black River. From that point the boundary between them and the Chippewas began, and ran in an indefinite, though probably intended to be direct, line, to a point on the Chippewa River, half a day's march below Chippewa Falls, a point not very far from Eau Claire, thence to the Red Cedar River immediately below the falls; thence to the St. Croix River, which it strikes at a place called the Standing Cedar, about a day's paddle in canoe above the lake; thence passing between two lakes, called by the Chippewas " Green Lakes ", and by the Sioux " the lakes they bury the eagles in "; thence to the standing cedar that " the Sioux split," thence to Rum River, crossing it at the mouth of a small creek called " Choking Creek ", a long day's march from the Mississippi; thence to a point of woods that propels into the prairie, half a day's march from the Mississippi ; thence in a straight line to the mouth of the first river "which enters the Mississippi on its west side above the mouth of Sac River; thence ascending the said river (above the mouth of Sac River) to a small lake at its source; thence in a direct line to a lake at the head of Prairie River, which is supposed to enter the Crow Wing River on its south side; thence to Ottertail Lake Portage; thence to said Ottertail Lake and down through the middle thereof to its outlet; thence in a direct line so as to strike Buffalo River, half way fiom its source to its mouth, and down said river to Red River thence descending Red River to the mouth of Outard or Goose Creek. The southern boundary line, between the Sioux and Sacy and Foxes, was at the same time established as follows: Commencing at the mouth of the Upper Iowa River, on the west bank of the Mississippi, and ascending the_said river to its left fork; thence up that fork to its source; thence crossing the fork of Red Cedar River (in Iowa) in a direct line to the second or upper fork of the Des Moines River; thence in a direct line to the lower forkof the Calumet River, and down that river to the Missouri. Within the first boundary lines were included in Wisconsin the western part of La Crosse county, the southern part of Jackson pounty, and a great part of Eau Claire county, all of the counties of Trempealeau, Buffalo, Pepin and Pierce, and parts of Dunn and St. Croix county, as they are now constituted. In Minnesota it included thfe Mill Lacs country, the ancient seat of the'DakotaSj who claimed to have been created on that lake; and who were still in possession of it, when Hennepin was a prisoner among them in 1680.

or Teton .Reside in Dakota Teritory and will no further be Blackfeet ( mentioned in this history. Mirinecongou Oucpapas Sans- Arc Ogallalas Assiniboins ,

From a note in the Minnesota Atlas it appears that the three original tribes of the Dakotas were the Isanti, on the east side of the Mississippi, the Yanktons on the Minnesota, and the Titonwans west of the Yanktons. From the earliest reports we have of the Assiniboins as to their situation, we must suppose that they belonged to the Isanti, from which name that of Sant'ee was derived, but for some time the Assiniboins had joined the Algonkins against the Dakotas and made war upon their own relations. In fact the Sioux were originally situated much farther east and made during the earlier times of the French explorations several excursions nearly up to Sault St. Mary. The Knisteneaux, or Kristeneaux, between Lake Superior and Hudson's Bay, the ancesters of the Crees on the Saskatchewan, prominent in the Riel Rebellion, had become armed with guns by the English traders on the Bay, and forming an alliance with other Algonkins, notably the Chippewas, and with the Assiniboins, had begun war upon the Santee Sioux, driving them slowly westward, occupying, the Kisteneaux to the north, and the Chippewas south of Lake Superior the land of the Sioux. This was the origin of the hereditary .war betweeii

Sioux andiGhippewaa, existing before the time of the first misgion on Lake Superior, which, however, was still in (Janger from an attack by the Sioux. Nicolet heard of them in 1634 when he was at Green Bay and upon the Fox River, but did probably not see any" of them. Marquette and Joliet do not mention them.; Hennepin however does not seen to have been the first white man among them for he was preceded as early as 1654 by two young Frenchmen, employees of the fur-trade, who adapted themselves to the mode of life among the Indians and were about two years with them. He, was also preceded by Du Lu'th, who had visited several of the Sioux villages about 1678. From the facility with which he procured: the release of Hennepin and his companions we must conclude that he had acquired the language and a certain respect and influence among the Sioux. After the return of Du Luth to Quebec and to France, Gov. De la Barre, who succeeded to the first administration of Frontenac, sent one Nicholas Perrot with a small force, and he took formal possession of the country by proclamation and other ceremonies at the Falls of St. Anthony. He erected Fort St. Nicholas on the westside of Lake Pepin, but soon returned to Quebec. In the year 1695 Le Sueur built a fort on one of the islands near the mouth of the St. Croix, but he also returned to Quebec and afterwards to, France, from which country he returned in 1700 with thirty workmen, coming by way. of the Mississippi river direct, , but he proceeded up the Minnesota River,;and .built a fort at Blue Earth. The Sioux continued on friendly terms with the French, but .tradings and exploration were discouraged by the government for about twenty years a after Le Sueur's second enterprise.

and Great Britain for the sole possession of the northern part of the new world. The French called on all the friendly tribes of Indians for assistance, and most tribes, even the far-off Winnebagoes, responded to the call, with the exception of the Sioux. Whether they had war enough at home, or whether the distance alarmed them, as it well might, they staid about home. During that time there were probably few traders among them, the delivery of goods from France, and even fifom Canada had become risky. At the termination of the struggle the English were slow to take possession of the distant posts, and abandoned Green Bay two years after taking possession, to prevent the garrison" from falling into the hands of the Pontiac conspirators. Prairie du Chien had probably no garrison. The Sioux, though not on British territory to any great extent, did not join the Pontiac conspiracy, but are said to have offered Col. Johnson, general Indian Agent of the British government five thousand warriors against this conspirac}'. We find no notice of any participation of Dakotas in the struggle between England and the Colonies. As they were always at war with the Chippewas and very often with Sacs and Foxes and others of their neighbors, they did unintentionally good service to the cause of the United States by preventing large detachments of their; enemies to be sent to aid the British. They also seem to have remained neutral during the Ohio troubles, which terminated in the defeat of the Indians by General Wayne at the Maumee in 1794. It appears, however, that as early as 17S0, Joseph Aird and Duncan Graham, both Englishmen, traded with the Sioux at Prairie du Chien, spending the winter among; them, and the summer at the village. Some time later, perhaps in the beginning of the present century. Col. Robert Dickson engaged in the same trade in the same locality. He, also, was an Englishman, and a very shrewd and able officer. How he he got into possession of the information, can not be told, but he collected a body of two hundred Sioux, one hundred Winnebagoes, some Chippewas, and most of the Menomonees, and with some Canadians, attacked and took the fort at Mackinaw, being the first person to inform Lieutenant Hanks, the American commander of that post, of the declaration: of war between the United States and Great Britain. The leading spirits at Prairie du Chien, among them Joseph Rolette, who had commanded the Canadians at the surprise of Mackinaw, planned an expedition to Prairie du Chien, for which as early as 1813 cannons and other materials of war had already been forwarded to the portage between Fox and Wisconsin Rivers. In 1815 the United States had sent up a company of regulars, and some gunboats, also some militia recruited in Missouri. Gen. Clarke went up with them, but returned again to St. Louis, leaving Lieut. Perkins in command ot the regulars and of the old Fort Crawford, which had been hastily repaired. The commander of Fort Mackinaw sent the two hundred Sioux, the hundred Winnebagoes, and some Chippewas and Menomonees to Green Bay, together with two companies of fur-trade engages raised by Rolette and Anderson. Here they were joined by about seventy-five of the Canadian settlers, and then ascended by the common route the Fox and descended the Wisconsin. Their first attack was directed against the gun-boats, which moved down the river, carrying with them provisions and ammunition. Lieutenant Perkins defended the defective fort for four days, until Col. McKay, the commander in chief of the British party, began to shoot red-hot cannon balls against the wooden stockade. A surrender was then arranged, and the American troops were after a few days shipped to St. Louis, not without having been in great danger of being massacred during the time of their detainment, and followed by the Indians as far as Rock Island. This was the first open hostility of the Sioux against the United States. After the treaty of Prairie du Chien, the Sioux had no part in any war with the United States, though they were somewhat restless during the Winnebago war. During the Blackhawk War the Sioux, at least some of them, assisted in the fights against the Sacs and Foxes, especially at and after the battle of the Bad Axe. This was partly a quarrel of their own, since they had been at war for a long time with the same tribes, and had in 1830 killed seventeen of them in the neighborhood of Prairie du Chien. The United States had as early as 1806 established a peace with them, IShrough the agency of Lieut. Zebulon M. Pike, who purchased of them in 1805 a tract of land of about six miles wide and ten miles long above the mouth of the Minnesota River, on a part of which Fort Snelling was built in 1820, and maintained as a permanent military station, until the war of the Rebellion broke out.

own location, consisted of seven bands, gentes or clans, each under a chief, the tribe being under a head-chief. We have no authentic records regarding the succession of these chiefs. Among the eastern Indians this succession was not hereditary as we have seen in the abridgement on " Wyandot Government," although a certain class of chiefs was always taken from the same gens, clan, or band. For want of better information, and because it agrees with some experiences and traditions among the earlier settlers, I will here insert what the " Minnesota Atlas " says about the matter.

" Wabasha was the leading hereditary chief of the People of the Leaf, (or M'day-wa-kautons,) and in all intertribal affairs of importance his word was law. He was living in 1819, and visited Major Forsyth at Prairie du Chien, on his expedition with Col. Leavenworth, to establish the post at Fort Snelling. Major Forsyth was the first Indian agent who ever visited Minnesota, and has been considered good authority on Indian matters. He also states that he had a visit from Red Wing, another noted chief, during the same expedition. Red Wing was then an old man about sixty years of age, which would show that he was born about 1759.

The " Atlas " mentions another chief, who seems to have been appointed as such by Governor Clark, of St. Louis, but seems to have been a chief only in title. This is Ta-ha-ma, the " Rising Moose." He was one of the. most remarkable men of his nation, a great orator and diplomatist, and a character of great influence among the Dakotas. He was born at Prairie aux Allies (AUiers ?) now Winona, and in his younger days was noted for his intelligence, daring and activity. During a -game in boyhood he lost one of his eyes, which circumstance caused the French afterwaird to call him ^^ Bourgne," or " One-Eyed " a name by; which, he was commonly known, though he . was sometimes calledthe "' (9W Priest." . He figured prominently in the treaty , between Pike,, and the Dakotota Chiefs in 1805. Pike, refers to him in termp - of respect and confidence as "my friend.!' During the war of JLS12 he rendered valuable service to the American cause. Governor Clark of St, Louis employed him as a scout and messenger, in which capacity he braved many dangers and hardships. The, governor urgave birain ISlfiacommissionasChief of the Sioux nation, together with a captaia's uniform and a medal. He was very proud of these and kept them to the day of his death. His services in the American cause, his ability and intelligence, high sense of honor and noble bearing made him highly esteemed by the white people. He died in April 1860, probably about one hundred years of age.

It seems to me, and must appear to a number of, other per^ sons, who happened to have been residents of this county before 1860 that this Indian was the one, who came, as soon as the weather permitted, every spring along the banks of the Mississippi, with a small crowd of women and younger men, setting up their te-pees on certain places more or less frequented by them every year at the same time. The people called him Tomahaw, which they interpreted as meaning One-eyed. I think, also, that, I was told, that the old man was ^ priest, but could never connect these stories. I am inclined to think that he lived yet in 1862, but as he never appeared afterwards, we began, to think he might have been transported with the othe r Sioux in 1863. His participation in the outbreak of 1862 was a physical impossibility, as he was not only old but also very feeble and emaciated.

I find by comparing notes that others agree with me regarding Ta-ha-ma or To-ma-ha having lived beyond 1860. Mr. M. Polin, who lived in Wabasha in 1861 and knew the old chief quite well, says that the captain's uniform presented to Ta-ha-ma by Gen. Clark, as mentioned above, was very useful to its owner by reminding steamboat travelers, at that time a very numerous class, of his presence, his services, and his old age and infirmities. He would meet the boats at some landing or woodyard, go up into the cabin, show his papers, and beg for money among the passengers. These were at that time a numerous and usually well-to-do class, each giving the old chief according to inclination, either for the fun of his appearance, or out of compassion, or perhaps to get rid of his importunities. Sometimes the gift would be a drink of whiskey, and being repeated by others inclined to make sport of the Indian, the old man, then probably nearly one hundred years of age, would succumb to liberality and temptation. Often, however, he collected a sum quite considerable for an Indian to possess, and which furnished him with some necessities of life, and usuffly v/ith a spree for several days, after which he was ready to

Another chief of prominence was To-way-a-ta-doo-tah or Little Crow. There were two of the same name, father and son. The old chief was very anxious that ,his people should be taught to rely for subsistence upon the products of the soil, rather than the precarious fruits of the chase, and set them a good example by working industriously in his own field. It would have been well for the whole tribe if his oldest son, who succeeded him in the chieftainship, although the father was very sorry, that he had no other son left, on whom the dignity could be bestowed. Gen. H. H. Sibley, who relates his last visit to the old chief, in company with Alexander Faribault the interpreter, mentions his admonitions to the young man, but forgets to state when the event happened. Little Crow, sr., died the next day.

Originally the power of the chiefs was very great, but from the date of the first treaties with the government it began to decline, until finally the chief was merely considered as the mouth-piece of the Soldiers Lodge, the members of which constituted the only real power in the bands.

We must now return to events next following the often mentioned treaty of 1825. Sept. 29th 1837 a treaty was concluded by which the Sioux ceded to the United States all their lands East of the Mississippi. This included all the land they had in what is now Wisconsin and a larger tract in Minnesota between the St. Croix and the Mississippi including, among other things the sites of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Two treaties, one in 1830 and the other in 1836 relate almost exclusively to changes in the southern boundary line. In the treaty of 1851 the Sioux, or those bands of them that were parties to the treaty ceded all their lands in Iowa and Minnesota to the United States, receiving instead of it a reservation, from the west boundary line of the tract ceded along the Minnesota River, to Yellow Medicine River on the south side and Tchay-tam Bay River on the northside, being not less than ten miles on each side of the general course of the river. The treaty was changed by the Senate of the United States. This change was a radical one, as it involved the removal of the Indians to the westside of the Une where the reservation was to begin. The Indians being, dissatis- fied, they were allowed to stay on a smaller reseri?&,tidn, the remainder being sold for their benefit. From about that tiijie 'dates the effort made foi* the civilization of the .annuity Indians. This was strenuously opposed by most of thie tribes and their members, because it involved some ceremonies, that cast an indirect riepfoach on their mode of life and their ancient legends and traditions, besides conferring upon individuals some benefits, to which the greedy crowd also considered theniselves entitled. To tell the truth, the annuity system was corrupting the Indians more and more and their idea was that each ofthem had a right to claim all the desires of his savage heart, and sotne one to do his biddings besides. His money he Squandered and gambled away, and when he suffered he charged it to the government, and, as that was way off, he hated the white people, because they were under that government. This, of coui-se, was the state of mind among other Indians besides the Sioux. But the latter being a numerous, and as they thought, powerful nation, \ieie proud and testy, and although under such agents, as understood their ways and notions and at ordinary times, when payments were made punctually, they remained managea,ble and quiet, yet it was only because there was a sufficient military force among them to keep some order and subejction. Hence, when in 1861 the war began, and troops had to be called to the defence of- the nation's capital even from the most distant posts, and when whole regiments of men were enlisted and sent off, the Indians began to become restless. Emissaries from the Tebellious states or from the sympathizing British settlements of the NOrthwest, came among them and told therm of the danger of the government, of its financial embarrassments, and that their annuities would not be paid. The government has always been proverbially stupid in the selection of its Indian agents, and in displacing those, who did well enough in such agencies, for paWisan reasons. Hon. Joseph R. Brown, who had been among Indians for almost forty years; and understood their ways, and how to manage them, was dismissed in 1861, and one Galbraith appointed in his place. The latter was a stranger, and, as his actions show, a sort of an erratic character, in whom the Indians had no confidence. There being no military guard to subdue the Indians, and no confidence, but numerous causes of complaint, Jrue and ihiaginary, it needed but the spark to explode the whole powder-magazine. This was done by the outbreak commencing August 18th ] 862, and lasting until about October of the same year. None of the actions of this struggle having happened on our soil we may refer the curious to other sources of [information about it. But we cannot omit to mention the effect this outbreak had on the people in this neighborhood. In Minnesota every one was scared out of his wits, even sometimes fifty or hundred miles from the point of danger, and well they might be. Of course, some resistance was soon organized, but if one-half of the men who ran away, would have united in small squads, armed as they- probably all were, they would soon have found themselves superior in number and equipment to those Indians, who were actually engaged in the work of destruction either from their own choice or by compulsion. Yet I do not want to cast any doubts upon their courage, considering that in Wisconsin, perhaps two hundred a,nd fifty miles from the outskirts of the depredations so many sensible persons were scared out of all powers of reasoning. :

I was at that time mayor of the City of Buffalo in this county. Knowing the distance between our place and the Indians, and the fact that the most populous part of Minnesota lay between them and the Mississippi, I laughed at the idea that the war would extend to us. But then there were a few hundred Chippewas up somewhere above Eau Claire, who in the imagination of sojne of my valiaiit fellow-citizens could be expected every moment. So one evening two men, both of them friends of mine, but neither of them fit for military service, rushed into our house, where my wife lay in confinement, clamoring about the supposed danger, scaring every one in the house, excepting myself. I did not attempt to allay their fears, but told them to go to - drilling their company, if they wanted to do so. The company was never formed, nor attempted to be formed, the only effect of the rude intrusion was a more or less serious attack of sickness of Mrs. Kessingetj caused by fright.

But it was not only at Bufi^alo City that people were scared, for in the words of T. E. Randall in his history of the Chippewa Valley: *' Many other villages were equally alarmed, and just as prompt to defend their homes; and all that seenas wanting to make a bright page in our valley's history is the enemy. " . This last outbreak of the Sioux was, among other things the cause of the twenty-fiftli regiment of Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry being sent up into Minnesota, In this regiment quite a number of young men from this county had enlisted, as will be seen by reference to the tables on Volunteer Militia.

Before we take final leave of the Dakotas we will take a look into their tepees and see what sort of a life they led in them. The very first report we have of them asserts that they were pdlygamists, at least those among them who could afford to buy and support a plurality of wives. That almost unrestrained sexual intercourse and disregard of all decency chargeable to some tribes of the Iroquois-Huron relationship, has never been charged against the Sioux, but there seems to have been a feeling of jealousy dangerous to any intermeddler, and preservative of family connections. Their government did most probably in ancient times have a similar organization to the one related in the " Wyandot Government," and this organization was destroyed by the corrupting influence of the many treaties. The " Soldiers' Lodge" took its place, without formally superseding it. This process of disintegration was encouraged by the government in the attempts of civilizing the individual members of the bands nearest to the civilized people. Knowing that uncultured minds are greatly influenced by outward appearances, the government demanded the adoption of civilized dress, and the cutting off of the long hair, inclusive of the scalplock, as an outward sign of separation from the tribe and renunciation of its customs. This offended the Indians of the old style, and the blanket was made the honorary distinction of those who professed to be unmitigated savages. The half-breeds, of whom therer« was, and still is, quite a number across the river in our immediate neighborhood, were seldom so savage, but always as careless and improvident as their relations of the full blood. As they were in many ways cared and provide^ for by the government by gifts of land and money, and had the selection of the best land in a fertile district, each of them might be well off, if they had been as willing to work, as they generally were to live very economically. The Sioux after their transportation to the Wild West, are no longer of much interest to us as citizens of this (county or. state. The last time the nation rnade itself somewhat formidable,. was, when " Sitting Bull " the chief of the " Ouc-pa-paws" defeated. Gen. Custer in the Big Horn district.

Indian government, including what might be called " /oreijfn affairs," which in this case means simply the relations to neighboring and related tribes, was largely based on, and probably influenced by ims/iip. On that basis we might expect to hear of an Algonquin confederacy, but when we reflect on the relative situation , of the tribes belonging to the great Algonquin relationship, we need not be surprised at the absence of a conlederacy based on the common stock of language. I am gather unwilling to admit the stories told of the Ojib was and much inclined to think it one of shallow accounts of the French, who never entered into the original meaning of a nation's name, but substituted one of their own, expecting every other nation to submit to this incongruous nomenclature. Their ancient prestige having departed, we take the liberty to reject the name of Sauteurs, Jumpers in English, ior the Ojibwas. They, or at least a tribe of their name, were first noticed as dwelling on the east side of the straits connecting Lake Superior with Lake Huron, said straits being called,, from the falls and rapids in the same, Sault St. Marie. This circumstance induced the superficial French to call them Sauteurs. Their nearest of kin were the the tribe of Missasaguas, though the latter name never became popular. They were also by language related to the Menomonees, or People of the Wild Rice, and to the Kinisteneaux, Kilistinaux, Cristineaux, or Oris, written Crees, who are yet existing in Manitoba and the adjoining British possessions. It appears that the Menomonees, who gave their name to one of the rivers in the northeastern boundary of our state, were' really never a very strong or numerous nation, and their habitat was east of the Menom-onee River toward Little Bay de Noquet, and that at some time the Ojibwas began a movement toward the Gitchi Gummee, the Shining Big Sea Water, as it is called in Hiawatha, and, that they thereafter occupied the southern shores of Lake Superior. They were the neighbors of the Dakotas, probably of the Assiniboin band of them, and found reason to call them " Nadonusdcywx," that is enemies, a name naturally reduced to Sioux (Soo) for convenience. It seems that the Kristineaux and the Assiniboins were also at fighting terms, and that about 1679 Capt. Daniel Greysolon J>u Luth negotiated the first peace between the contending p^rties,^ who lived about the southwest corner of Lake Superior. Some Sioux of the southern bands found Kristineaux among the Assiniboins, and killed them, which exasperated the latter so much that they separated from the Dakota confederacy and made common cause with the Ojibwas and Kristineaux. There was, after the Indian manner, a continued state of war, the issue of which was the extension of the Chippewa power and the gradual forcing of the Sioux towards the Mississippi. At the treaty of Prairie du Chien in 1825 almost every one was astonished at the claims of Hole-in-the-day regarding the boundary line between his people and the Dakotas. Being questioned in regard to it, he raised himself up in his full dignity and said: "We conquered it!" This boundary line is fully described in the history of the Dakota Confederation . The Chippewas, like most other Indian tribes or nations bartered away their lands in Wisconsin to the United States, and but very few of them remain in Wisconsin on reservations, some located on the shores of the lake, others on the headwaters of the river, which bears their name and drains a very considerable part of our state. There is no evidence of their ever having held possession of any part of this county, but it is very probable that they made frequent incursions into the land claimed by the Dakotas. These incursions continued even after the Sioux had sold their lands east of the Mississfppi to the United States which happened in 1837. Both sides acted in perfect disregard of this treaty. In 1841 a party of Sioux came up to Eau Claire by invitation of the Chippewas to hold a friendly meeting and to smGke the pipe of peace.

A still more formal meeting was held in October 1846, when 150 braves, all mounted on ponies, came up to the Falls, and thence to Chippewa City and held a treaty of peace with their hereditary foes. Thomas E. Randall, the historian of the Chippewa Valley , was present on the occasion and describes it as follows:

Among them were the great chiefs, Wabasha, Red Wing and Big- Thunder. Their first meeting took place at the Falls, about sunset, and was rather informal, owing to some misunderstanding, as to the place of meeting. The writer, (Mr.Randall) was present and heard part of the Reception Address, and subsequently learned from Amljrose - one of the - interpreters the subatance of, what was said on both gidies.;. The Sioux rem^ioed njoMted on,th9W ponie?. during the entire interview. The Chippewa chiefs and braves were painted after their mode indicating peace, and the head chief advanced toward their guests with a large red pipe, made of stone from Pipestone mountain, in one hand, and in the" other a hatchet, which was thrown with considerable force, so as to partially bury it in the earth; then raising the pipe to his mouth, and taking a whiflf or two, and, turning the stem toward the Sioux Chief, presented it to his acceptance. All was done in silence; the Sioux Chief received the pipe of peace also in silence, smoked a few whiflfs, bowed respectfully as he handed back the pipe, reined his pony to the right, and awaited the next salution. The substance of it was: " Friends, we are glad you have come; we are anxious to make peace with the Sioux nation. As you have seen us throw down and bury the hatchet, so we hope you are inclined to make peace." The Sioux Chiefs then threw down whatever arms they held, and declared their purpose to maintain permanent peace. They said, their great father, the President, with whom they had never been at war, had requested them to conclude a lasting peace with the Chippewa nation; and although they had sold their lands on the eastside of the Mississippi, they still wanted to hunt there, and were glad that in future they could do so without fear." - This was all done through interpreters, several of whom were present on each side, and closed every sentence they repeated with the expression: "That's what we say."

The delegation met a much larger number of Chippewa Chiefs and braves the next day at Chippewa City, wherie the ceremonies were still more imposing, and a dinner was served, of which both parties partook. These demonstrations were so earnest, and seemed so sincere, that outsiders really supposed these hitherto mortal enemies, had become fast friends. But in the summer of 1849 an event occurred that showed that one party to this treaty reposed very little confidence in the faith of the other.

This event, which Mr. Raadall details fully, was the hanging of an Indian by some lawless ruffians at Chippewa Falls, for having wounded a Frenchman in defense of his home and honor. Hole-in-the-day, the Chippewa Chief, demanded the punishment of the parties, and they were arrested and sent to Prairie du Chien to jail under a guard of eight Chippewa braves, who volunteered for the purpose. But as the party approached that point on the

Chip^pewa "half a day's march from the Falls;" alarm and terror seized the brave escorts, and nothing could induce them to go another rod, in such constant dread were they of the Sioux, who twenty months before had promised eternal friendship.

This treaty is probably a fair sample of treaties made in the latter days between the contracting parties in question. They remind one forcibly of the proverb of the pot calling the kettle black. - It is almost impossible to locate the smaller bands of the Chippewas by the descriptions of the multifarious treaties between them and the United States, and as none of them live ; near our own borders, we are not specially interested in them. The nation has become more and more dependent upon annuities, and in the course of time its character has been corrupted, so that but little good is to be expected of them. The earlier records, however, describe them as brave and tractable, and more reliable than some of their neighbors. There was from very early times a large number of half-breeds among them, the French vpyayeurs, coureurs de bois and traders having intermarried with them, as also many of the early settlers. Thomas E. Randall, who frorh his early settlement i-n the Chippewa Valley knew of numerous cases of such inmarrying, speaks in terms of praise of such of the Chippewa women, as had the good fortune to get decent husbands among the white settlers. He says they were faithful wives, tender mothers and careful housekeepers, remarking that if the males of the tribe would have shown themselves as capable of being civilized as those women, the problem of Indian civilization would have been easy to solve. He also mentions the custom of carrying about bii their travels wooden representations of deceased children by the mothers, as the reader may remember to have found a description of the custom of widows of this nation.

Their burial customs were much like those of the western tribes in general. Scaffolds were usually the first receptacles for the corpses, after which inhumation may have followed if convenient. A friend of mine tells me that he has seen in the pineries of the Upper Chippewa and its tributaries many burial lodges, small log huts, in which dead bodies were deposited.

It seems that at the report of the Sioux outbreak of 1862> Pug-o-na-ke-shik, or Hole-in-the-day, (Jr.,) at that time located at Sandy Lake, Minnesota, some distance above St. Paul, also began to plunder and to kill cattle among the white settlers near Fort Ripley. The agent wanted to arrest the chief, but the lattfer was inclined to fight.

Commissioner Dole from Washington,> then at St. Paul, obtained two companies of volunteers and advanced to Fort Ripley, where he held several councils with the chief, without any further result than dividing the Indians, and thus diminishing the strength of Hole-in-the-day.

The chief, seeing that his support had melted away, restored his plunder and delivered up his war-club; as a token of peace. He even bflfered Gen. Pope the whole force of his tribe against the Sioux, -but the offer was not accepted. It has always been a policy of insufficient measures, what the government did in such cases, more calculated for the profit of interested parties, than the benefit of the people at large. This refusal to employ Indiians against Indians, when every man detained in Minnesota was needed at the front against the rebellion, is a striking instance of conscientious scruples not much in harmony with common sense. The government not always did, nor could it do, what its agents found politic to promise to the Indians in concluding a treaty; but who was to blame for that? Certainly not those who suffered from Indian outbreaks, and that the one of the Sioux was the fault of the government can hardly be denied, inasmuch as it had withdrawn all the safeguards against its occurrence. But why should not the merciless Sioux be punished to the full extent? And the gratification of the ancient grudge of the Chippewas against them could have been the only adequate means for punishing the treacherous nation, and to teach them the lesson they needed so much. But an annihilated tribe would no longer need an agency, and the party, expecting to be in it soon again, would lose ah opportunity to place a number of adherents into comparatively lucrative positions, and to retain them in their ranks for partisan services in the expectation of that remuneration. '

Early Explorations

The earliest discoveries in the Mississippi Valley had no relation to the northern parts of it. As far as they formed a basis for claims made by European powers to the ownership or possession of the great river, they must be considered in the chapter oa " Political History."

Later discoveries directly in and about our own part of the valley must be related in this and every similar history. To do this I consider the best plan to be the biographical one, since these discoveries were the direct result of individual explorations, notwithstanding the fact, that they were carried on by order, or under the protection, of the French Government, at that time represented by the governor of Canada. The biographies of Nicolet, Marquette and Joliet, Hennepin, Du Luth, Perrot and Le Sueur and Capt. Carver, will give the history of the explorations, and at the same time satisfy a laudable curiosity in regard to the further life of tbege mm,

Jean Nicolet

This man, to whom unquestionably belongs the honor of having been the first white man who set foot upon the soil of Wisconsin, and penetrated to the very center of it, was born in Cherbomg, in the province of Normandy of the kingdom of France, and came to Quebec in the year 1618. Samuel Champlain, the founder and governor of New France, with his profound insight into affairs, and likewise into human nature, had as early as 1615 sent some young ^Frenchmen of his colony among the surrounding Indian tribes or nations, to stay with' them, fo learn their language, acquire and :adopt their mode of life, or, as we now would say, to study them thoroughly, at the same time to lea:rn also all that could be found out about the country, the land and water, and the ways and means of traveling, and of trading in the places they visited, and for the time inhabited. Nicolet was added to the number of these young men and the station assigned to him was with the Algon- ^uins on Allumette Island in the Ottawa Riye?, These islands, for there seem to have been two, were situated about halfways between the St. Lawrence River, and Lake Nipissing, which, however, has no connection with Ottawa River, but was then reached by going up a tributary and making a portage between it and the lake. The Algonquins of the Isles were an important nation, for they commanded the passage between the upper lakes and the St. Lawrence, which on account of being much, shorter, and not exposed to the incursions of the Iroquois, must be kept open at all hazards, and it was of vital interest to the young French colony to keep cm good terms with them. Nicolet remained with them for two years. He acquired great influence among them, as ma;y be judged from the fact that he went with four hundred of these savages upon a mission of peace to the Iroquois and the mission was successful, he returning in safety. Afterward he took up his residence among the Nipissings, who adopted him into their nation, and among whom he remained eight or nin^ years. The notes or memoirs written by him were afterwards presented to one of the missionaries, (Jesuits) who undoubtedly made good use of it for the- order. It is immaterial for our purpose, whether he visited Quebec during his long residence among the Nipissings, but he was -not at that place, when in 1629 the English took possession of it, and occupied it until 1632. It appears, however, that in the summer of 1632, when the French resumed possession, Nicolet came down to Trois Rivieres, then the camping place of the nations from the upper country at their annual trading voyage. There was not any town or even fort at the place then. He remained on the St. Lawrence as a clerk and interpreter in the service of the Hundred Associates or of Governor Champlain. The governor having in the course of time, and partly during his military excursion against the Iroquois, learned many things of countries, lakes and nations, beyond the limits of the country so far explored by missionaries and others, and among other things he had heard of the nation of the Winnebagoes. He determined to extend the influence of his power to this distant nation, of whose whereabouts he had no definite ideaSj but who sometimes carried on war against nations of his acquaintance. For this purpose he selected, and as the event proved very judiciously, his protege Jean Nicolet, Nicolet accordingly went up the Ottawa River to the Algonquins, thence to his nation of Nipissings and from these to the Hurons whose station was then at the south end of the Georgian Bay of Lake Huron. He was specially accredited to this nation by the governor, and was to take some of them as companions of his intended voyage beyond 'the confines of the lake which bears their name. He set out from their nation accompanied by seven of its warriors in canoes and after a voyage of about four hundred miles reached the St. Mary's River, the outlet of Lake Superior. There the voyagers rested for some time, and ascended the river to the vicinity of the Falls. Descendiog by the Western Detour channel they coasted along the northern shores of Lake Michigan and after entering Green Bay came to the Menomenees dh the river still bearing that name. From' these they proceeded further up the bay and Nicolet dispatched one of his Hurons in advance to announce his approach and the purpose of his visit. The Winnebagdes received his messenger well and sent some of their young men to meet and to assist him. They escorted him and carried his baggage. He was clothed in a large garment of Chinese damask, sprinkled with flowers and birds of different colors, which he had brought with him all the way from'Quebec. Whether it was because he anticipated to nieet Chinamen or Tartars, as some writers seem to suppose, or whethigr he had learned among the Indians that anything extraordinary in appearance was sure to produce a profound and faTOrable impression, I will not decide. It might be wrong to ascribe this surprising attire to the inborn vanity of the young Frenchman, but not entirely improbable. As he neared the land he discharged with each hand a pistol and it is no wonder that women and children fled affrighted.

But he had accomplished his jourhey, and he and his Hurons rested among the Winnebagoes, who were located around the head of Green Bay, Contiguous to the point where it receives the waters of Fox River.. He found the Winnebagoes a numerous and bcdentary people, whose language was radically different from the language of any of the Algonquin nations, as well as from that of the Hurons. He considered them to be of Dakota stock, substituting what he had heard for wha't he knew. There were the feastings, ceremonies and speeches unavoidable among Indians on such occasions, and Nicolet, being perfectly "au fait" on sneh Aattets, saw, an* diligently and successfully iinproved,' the: ebances offered for th'6 accomplishment of hie purpose. The Win- nebagoes agreed to keep the peace with the Hurons, the Nez Perces of the Lakes and probably some other tribes. They were, of course, instructed in the advantages to be derived from commercial intercourse with the young colony, of which they deceived the firit instalment in the shape of presents distributed by the ambassador. But this was not sufficient for Nicolet's ambition. He ascended Fox River to Lake Winnebago, and thence entered the river again above the lake and proceeded to the Mascoutins, a nation which had become known to the French by having 1615 been in war with the nations of the Neutrals and Ottawas in Canada. Among the Mascoutins he heard of the Wisconsin River, but the accounts given him of this tributary of the Mississippi seem -to have been very confused. His report on bis return to Canada, is claimed to have been that he was within three days journey to the Great Sea, of which even then, one hundred a,nd forty years after the discovery of America, no nation seems to have had any precise knowledge. That he did not believe any such thing may be inferred from the fact that he did not proceed any further in that direction, which he certainly would have done, had he believed what he is said to have reported, since a journey of three days only, seems a trifle compared with what he had already accomplished. .But prudence forbade the embassador of the governor, what the ambition and the audacity of the explorer might have attempted. He had done his work and had done it well, but to secure its results he had to return, to acquaint the nations on his way of the peace concluded, and to report to the governor. This he did. In the spring of 1635 he departed with his seven dusky companions from the Winnebagoes, reversing the course he had steered before, came up to Mackinaw and along the south shores of Manitoulin Island to the Ottawas who had made their home thereon, from which place he proceeded to the Hurons, to which tribe or nation his companions belonged. He returned to Quebec by way of French River, Lake Nipissing and the Ottawa River, journeying in the lower end of his return voyage with the savages upon their annual trading voyage to the 'French settlements.

There were some disputes in regard to the time of Nicolet's mission, and most books, (schoolbooks especially), e^ that it happened in 1639, but there are abundant proofs th9,t lie went out, in 1634 and returned in 1635, having been absent about ten months or perhaps one year. These proofs have too remote a bearing upon the subject of this present work, but they can be found most distinctly exposed and stated in the VFork of Prof. C. W. Butterfield, of Madison, Wis., entitled "History of the Discovery of the Northwest by .John Nicolet in 1634, with a Sketch of his Life." I acknowledge my indebtedness to this work for the above sketch of Kicolet's performances upon Wisconsin soil, and. his journey to it and return. A few passages I have copied in the course of the narrative. The reader may reasonably be curious about the further fortunes of the bold adventurer. He returned to his old position of clerk and interpreter and was married in October 1637 at Quebec to Marguerite Couillard, a god-child of Champlain. He resided at Trois Rivieres (Three Rivers) where his only child, a daughter, was born. In 1642 he was called to Quebec to take the place of his brother-in-law Mons. Olivier le Tardiff, who was General Commissary (Chief Clerk), of the Hundred Partners, and who sailed for France on the seventh day of October of that year. Nicolet was drowned on the 27th of the same month below Sillery in the St. Lawrence River. He accompanied Mons. de Savigny from Quebec to Trois Rivieres for the purpose of rescuing a prisoner taken by a band of Algonquins, who were slowly torturing him. Near Sillery a squall upset the boat and Nicolet and three others, unable to swim, sank after, having clung to the boat for some time. They were near shore, but the pitchy darkness prevented their knowing it. Mons. de Savigny being an expert swimmer saved his life. Nicolet's. death under the circumstances may be considered a heroic end of a heroic life, but his loss was deeply felt and lamented not alone by his countrymen, but as much, and perhaps more, by the Indians of the neighborhood.

We know of two of his brothers, Pierre, a navigator, and Gilles, a priest of the secular ordination, that is, belonging to no regular order of ecclesiastics. Pierre returned to France some time after Nicolet's death; Gilles Nicolet, the priest, returned to the same country in 1647.

His daring expedition to Green Bay had opened the road for the fur-trader, the voyageur and the missionary to the Far West, and even before his death, in 1641, the Jesuit fathers received an iijyitation to occupy the country ''.around a rapid, in the njidst of the channel by which Lake Superior empties into Lake Huron,"

I conclude with the words of Prof. Butterfield: History can" not refrain from saluting Nicolet as a disinterested traveler, who,' by his explorations in the interior of America, has given clear proofs of his energetic character, and whose merits have not been disputed, although they were temporarily forgotten."

Marquette And Joliet

We have seen in the history of Nicolet that even under the first governor of New France, the renowned Champlain, there was a strong desire to explore the" country west of the Great Lakes and more especially the great river of the Far West, of which at the time the name- even was unknown. The discoverers of those latter times seem to have labored under the same delusions which had possessed the mind of Columbus, and to have expected at every considerable step westward to meet the people described by Marco Polo, Rubriqui and other travelers of past centuries, the Tartars and the Chinese. Every river of which they received any information was sure to flow into the South Sea, the mysterious ocean of which they knew that it was on the eastside of Asia, but of whose situation and extent they had but vague notions. As earlj as 1670 La Salle had traveled in that direction and had discovered the Ohio and the Illinois. The intendant of the colony under Governor Courcelles, whose name was Talon, had in 1669 sent out two parties, one furnished by the Jesuit Seminary of Quebec, the other by La Salle. They did not proceed by the usual route already described, that is by the Ottawa River, but ascended the St. Lawrence to Lake Ontario, from which they went to the Seneca village. Owing to diiEferent adverse circumstances they could get no guide to the Ohio, and were in danger of being killed. They left for an Iroquois colony at the head of Lake Ontario, which they reached on the twenty-fourth of September and -there La Salle received the present of a Shawano prisoner; who told them, that the Ohio could be reached in six weeksi They were aibout setting out when they met with Louis Joliet, who by the orders of Talon had been up at Lake Superior to dis^ cover and explore the copper-mines. He had failed in the attempt and was now returning. He showed the priests a map of such parts of the Upper Lakes as he had visited and gave them a copy of. it. By this and by other repi-esehtatiorls he induced the Seminary party to change their plan, and La Salle protested in vaiii against the prosed change., He^wauted to go to the Ohio, but not to the northern lakes. He pleaded an attack of fever and staid, when they left. Instead of returning to Montreal, he went to the Ohio, but for two years afterward there is nothing definite known of him. The priests, who were of the order of Sulpitians, returned to Montreal the following year, having effected nothing. In the mean time Talon was superseded, not however before a new governor had taken the place of Courcelle. This new governor was Frontenac. He approved of Talon's plan, and appointed Louis Joliet as the leader of the expedition at Talon's recommendation. Joliet had studied with the Jesuits of Quebec for the priesthood, and, though he had renounced it, he still was partial to the order, and one of its members, Jacques Marquette, was to accompany him. He was then stationed at Point St. Ignacs on the north side of the strait of Mackinaw, wherE Joliet found him in the month of May 1672. The outfit of the travelers was according to the mode of travel then exclusively used in the western wilderness. They- procured two birch canoes and a supply of smoked meat and Indian corn, embarked with five men, and began their voyage on the seventeenth ^of May. They had made a species of map of their intended route by means of the information obtained from the Indians about it. They passed the straits of Mackinaw and coasted along the northern shores of Lake Michigan, landing at evening and building their camp-fire at the edge of the forest, drawing up their canoes on the strand. They visited the Menomonees some distance up the river still bearing that name. These Indians tried to dissuade the travelers by telling them of the ferocious tribes inhabiting the region to which they meant to go, and of other dangers awaiting them there. But Marquette ridiculed their fears. The travelers next reached the mission of Green Bay, ascended Fox River, crossed Lak« Winnebago, entered the upper part of the river and on the seventh of June reached the Mascoutins and Miamis, who since the visit of Dablon and Allouez had been joined by the Kickapoos. Marquette was delighted with the country, but much more with the sight of a cross planted in the midst of the town. A council was called and Joliet informed the assembly of his commission of discovery by the governor of Canada and Marquette's from God to teach them the true faith. He prayed for guided to show them the way to the waters of the Wisconsin. The guides were readily furnished and on the tenth the Frenchmen embarked again with two Indians to conduct them. .All the town assembled to witness their departure and to marvel at their daring to undertake an enterprise so hazardous. The river twisted among lakes and marshes choked with wild rice, and they had great need of their guides. Finally they reached the portage. After carrying their canoes a mile and a half over prairie and inarsh they launched them on the Wisconsin, and, bidding farewell to the waters that flowed to the St. Lawrence, committed thomselves to those that were to bear them they knew not whither, perhaps to the Gulf of Mexico, perhaps to the South sea, or the Gulf of California.

The season of high water for the Wisconsin River was past, and this voyage was quiet and regular. Finally they came to the point where the meadow stretched away indefinably between bluffs, near the place where now stands, and where perhaps even then Stood the first rudimentary beginnings of the city of Prairie du Chien. They knew nothing of it, and could not perceive it, and with the singular directness which characterizes this remarkable expedition, they passed on -until their canoes shot out upon the whirling eddies of the confluence of the Wisconsin and the Mississippi. They do not appear to have entertained any desire to ascend the large river, perhaps they had no instructions to that effect, at any rate they began to descend. Game and fish abounded and Joliet's experience as a woods-man manifested itself in the precautions observed with regard to the night-camps. They landed in the evening built a fire, cooked and ate their supper and then descended some leagues further, anchoring in the stream and having one man keeping guard during the night. Nobody was met, until one day they discovered foot-prints and landed. Marquette and Joliet went along a track which finally brought them to a vilkge of the Illinois Indians, in what is now either Missouri or Iowa, on the west bank of the river, some distance from it. This community dwelt in surprising security, and the travellers had to shout to make their presence known. They were well received, and as the Illinois were of the Algonquin stock, Marquette, and most probably Joliet also, was able to converse with them, and they were most honorably entertained according to the fashion of the peopled It would be tedious to describe the proceedings, but after some days the- travelers bade farewell to these^friendly Indians, of whom alftiost the entire tribe had followed them to the rivfer. After a while they passed the mouth of the Illinois River and soob aftei? the rocks worn by the changes of tempeiattfre and' weather into what seemed to be Ruined Castles, by Which name they were designated by Marquette on his map and on matty maps after him. The place is between Graftto and Alton 'in ' Illinois. Before they reached the site of the latter city, and before the rocks to depart from the river in a southeastern' direction they met, what seemed to them pictures of his Satanic ']\ia]6sty, though in themselves these pictures were inoffensive eiioUgh, as pictures usually happen to be. It was not very long afterward that' the pictures were almost bffaced, arid as the copies made by Marquette were lost, and he was accused of exaggeration 'by subsequent travelers of his own cloth, it is not material what the pictures Were.' A few miles further south the travelers met somethirig more substantially alarming, the muddy and turbulent ' Waters of the- Missouri, carrying trees and stumps along, and mixing with the clear and placid waters of the river on Whichthey had come down so far. 'Soon after they passed the 'shelving bights on' which the city of St. Louia is now located, probably then covered'With a dense forest. As ithey proceeded, the heat'became more intensive, and after they had passed the mouth of the Ohio the temperature became almost unendurable. Innumerable swarms of mosquitoes torinented them by day' and night, and there wa:s little rest for any of the travelers. They had been led to believe from wh'at they had learned of the Illinois Indians, that' they were niuch nearer to the mouth of the river than they really were and expected to 'see the gdlf very soon. Near the rriouth of the Arkansas "River they met the next Indians and Were at first threatened, but soon safe. These people belonged to the Akanseas, Which some have considered, as a bl-anch of the Illinois 'Algonquins. The fact that Marquette had to make use of ,a stranger who happened to be present, and who understood some Illinois, puts this assutriptioh into a doubtful position. In the town of the same' nation the conversation d-epended on the :same conditions, and asjthe interpreter was more competent it was more animated, but the necessity of the interpreter is expressly mentioned. From theSe Indians the travelers learned that it was riJafigerotis to proceed any further. Though similar 'w?.X9Jngs had once or twice been given before without intimidating them or stopping their progress, they now concluded to return. They had learned that some of the Indians in the lower country were trading with the Spaniards, or with tribes who had received guns and horses from that nation, and they were naturally afraid of losing the fruits of their arduous labors by being either killed by the or made prisoners by the Spaniards. Accordingly they commenced to ascend f,hei river on their return voyage on the seventeenth of July, just about one month after having begun to descend it. They had established one fact to their own satisfaction, that is, that the Mississippi did not discharge its waters into the Atlantic or Virginia Sea, nor into the Gulf of California or the Vermillion Sea, but into the Gulf of Mexico. Their np ward -voyage was slow and tedious, and Marquette expecially was almost exhausted by the climate and an attack of dysentery. At length they reached the Illinois, where the current was less rapid and the country in every respect more pleasant, especially as the hottest part of the summer was almost past. , They stopped at a town of the Illinois Indians which Marquette calls Kaskaskia, a name afterwards transfered to another locality. Here they were offered guidance and probably further assistance, enabling them to reach Lake Illinois, now Lake Michigan. They went to the lake, and, coasting along reached Green Bay at the end of September,. having paddled their canoes more than two thousand five hundred miles in about four months. Marquette was obliged to remain on account of his feeble health,- but Joliet went to Quebec, to report the result of his" expedition to Count Frontenac. After having been favored with more than common good luck during all his voyage he was nearly drowned in the St. Lawrence River at the rapids, of La Chine whereby two of his men and a boy were lost, and also all of his papers. It seems, however, that Marquette made also maps and reports probably incorporating both in the "iZeZaiions," which according to the rule of his orders he had to make at stated times to his superiors. After some consideration I have come to think it a little suspicious, that Joliet met with his accident and lost his papers, never attempting any restoration of them, though as a surveyor probably quite competent to do so, while Marquette, who had the reputation of a linguist and .a preacher, on this occasion turns up as a cartographer, and repprter of what in part he could hardly have very closely observed on account of his malady. There were secret causes, which made it desirable that Count Frontenac should not learn too much of the . western country, and Joliet was almost. as much under the control of those who might have acted according, to the circumstances indicated, as Marquette or any other member of the order. This finishes the story of the exploration of the Mississippi between :the mouth of the Wisconsin and that of the Arkansias. It will however be desirable for moat readers, to learn a little more of the lives of the two persons who had carried this hazardous undertaking to such a successful end.

Louis- Joliet was the son of a wagon-maker in the service of the Company of the Hundred. Associates then owners of Canada. He was born at Quebec in 1645 and educated by the Jesuits. When still very young, he resolved to be a priest, and received the minor ordinations at the age of seventeen. Four years later he distinguished himself at what seems to have been a public examination. Soon after he renounced his clerical vocation and turned fur-trader, He remained a protege of the Jesuits, and paid for their preference in , kind.

There was nothing extraordinary about the man, but he filled his place as a fur-trader, a merchant in general, well, and it must be admitted that the expedition undertaken and carried out with Marquette was very prudently managed, andj with the exeeptioo of the capsizing of his canoe, remarkably successful. , In October 1675 Joliet married Claire Bisset. His fatherrin-law traded with the northern Indians and Joliet made a journey to Hudson's Bay in 1677, where he found three.English forts,, also an armed vessel of twelve guns, and several smaller trading crafts. On his return to : Quebec he sounded the alarm on account of his observations, and a company was formed to compete in the northern trade with the English. During the year of this journey Joliet received the grant of the islands of Mignon and in 1680 that of the large island of Anticosti in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. In 1681 he was established here with his wife and six servants. He was engaged in fisheries and made a chart of the St. Lawrence. In lYDQ his wife ; and ; mother-in-law were taken prisoner and his establishment burnt by an English, fleet under Sir Wm. Phipps. In 1694 Joliet explored

, : III. coast of Labrador in the employ of a company formed; for whale arid seal fishery. He was made royal pilot of the. St. Lawrence and hydrographer of Quebec. It is supposed that he died poor in 1699 or 1700 and was buried on one of the Mignon islands, which lie north of Anticosti near the mainland. -

Like those of Nicolet, so were Joliet's services forgotten, and his fame partially eclipsed by that of his companion, and somewhat tainted by his subserviency to the Jesuit factions, which involved _ ungratefulness to Count Frontenac. The labors of Shea in this country and Margry in France have rescued his fame from oblivion.

Marquette was born in 1637 of an old and honorable family at Laon in the north of France. He joined the Jesuits at the age of seventeen, his motives being purely religious. In 1666 he was sent to the mission of Canada, where his first station was at Tadousac on the Lower St. Lawrence, where he studied the Montagnais language, a-branch of the Algonquin. In 1668 he was sent to the Upper Lakes, where he remained until his voyage with Joliet. He was for some time at Esprit the station of Allouez at the Apostle Islands, afterwards at Green Bay, then again at Point St. Ignaoe, ' from which he started, but to which he never returned. We have seen that at the termination- of the. voyage of discovery he stayed, or had to stay, at Green Bay, where his malady still continued to trouble him. Until about a year after his return, he felt himself well enough, and was permitted by his superiors, to return .to the Illi-. nois river and nation. During his stay at Green Bay he must have written his report of the expedition and made those maps, which, were afterwards published as his. He himself never published anything, and if in the report published as his there was anything- ' calculated to throw hib companion into theshade, we may exculpate himself entirely. On the twentyfifth I of October Marquette set out with two Frenchmen, named Pierre and Jaques, one of whom had been with him on his great journey of discovecy, and a. smaU band of Pottawatamies and one similar one of Illinois. In^, diansi They followed the east shore of Green Bay, made the portage at Sturgeoh Gove, now Sturgeon Bay, to the lake and thence proceeded southwards. The ]a<ke was stormy and they consucted more than a month in coasting along the western shore. Thej.

reached Chicago River and ascended it, about tw;o leagues. His maladi' had returned, and it wa,s impossible to proceed a,ny further. The two m^n built a log hut by the river, and there, the; winter was spent. There was no, scarcity of provisions, such as the country and the season afforded, nor were the, three companions without neighhors. Although, these were not very close, one, being an encampment of IlUnoie, distant two days travel, the other one of" coureurs des bois,'' those freeboqtej-S: of the fUjr-trade, who in spite, of proscription and persecution flourished to the great annoyance of the intenda,nt, or financial, agent of the crown in the colony. One can not help being pleased with the behavior of the Indians and of the Coureurs des, Boi'5 towards Marquette apd his meq. Both parties not only visited them, bji,t assisted them e@.ch in its own manner, to the best of their powgr. The rest and shelter afforded by winter quarters had produced an, abatement of, Marquette's disease, and on the thirtieth day of March they left their hut, carried their canoe ^nd their baggage tq the head of Dee Plaines River, a tributary to the Illinois, upon which they then descended to the Indian town, which Marquette calls Kaskaskia. «Here they were well received, and Marquette worked diligently in the line of strictly missionary labors. After he thought the minds of the Indian i prepared, he called them to a council, "which was attended by five hundred chiefs and old men,, fifteen hundred youths and warriors, and all the women and children of thetribe. He preached to them and found willing hearers, who begged him to stay ampng thern. This he could or would not do, for he felt that his life was fast ebbing away and he wanted to die under the consolations of his religion. A fews days after Easter a crowd of Indians escorted hiih to Lake Michigan. Here he embarked with his two companions for Mackinaw, and followed the eastern shore being the shortest route and involving ho long crossing. As his men were urging along their canoe, Marquette' was lying with dimmed sight and prostrated strength communing with the Virgin and; the angels. 'On the nineteenth of May, he felt that his hour wasnear, and,- as .they passed the raotith of a small river, he requested his companions to land. They coimplmd, built a shed of bayjg; on a, rising ground, and carried thither the dying Jesuit. Perfectly resignfid to, and glorying in his fate of having heea allowed to die a minister of the Faith, audi a member of the brotherhood of Jesuits, he gave directions about his burial and sent his companions to sleep, until he would call them. Two or three hours after they heard his feeble cry, and, hastening to his side, they found him at the point of death. He expired calmlymurmuring the names of Jesias and Marj'; with his eyes fixed on the crucifix which' one of his followers held before him. They buried him according to his directions; and then set off for Mackinaw to bear the tidings to his brethren at the mission of St. Ignace. In the winter of 1666 a party of Kiskakon Ottawas were hunting on Lake Michigan and in the spring on their return, under the observance of the customs of their people in such cases, took up Marquette's bones and bore them, in a procession of thirty canoes, to St. Ignace of Micbillimackinac (Mackinaw.) As they approached, priests, Indians and traders, all thronged to the shore. The relics of Marquette were received with solemn ceremony, and buried berieath the floor of the little chapel of the mission. The river where he died is a small strearii in the west of Michigan, some distance south of the promontory called the "Sleeping Bear." It must ' be confessed without hesitation, that his actions in all that is known of him, were singularly disintsrested, and if, as he must have known from the beginning, he was simply an instrument in the hands of his superiors, for the glory and the benefit of his order, his' personal character was eminently free from personal ambition and the almost fanatical zeal of some of his contemporary confreres. Being a superior scholar and especially an accomplished linguist he might reasonably hope for the highest, distinctions his order could confer on any of its members, but this ambition seems never to have influenced his actions. Tradition has long since enveloped the events of his last voyage into a veil of obscurity, but it is remarkable that his fame attained a marked, preponderance over that of his companion, and that for a long time he was considered, if not declared, the commanding spirit of the enterprise, while in fact Joliet held both the commission for and the command of it. To. me it is as clear as noon-day, that its success was owing to the decision and perseverance of Joliet, who had no inclination to be detained by any excuses af the necessity of converting the nations visited, and who knew that delays are the most dangerous- foes to any such enterprise.

Louis Hennepin

The sul?ject of this sketch, probably the first man who wrote a book, which related, at least in part, to those regions on the Mississippi that were left unexplored by Marquette and Joliet, was by his vocation a missionary. He was not. a Jesuit, nor did he ever like or praise that order; he was a Recollect, a bare-footed Franciscan of the gray habit. He was not a Frenchman by nationality, and among Frenchmen was called a Flamand, or in English, Fleming, which means a native of Flanders. - I can find no authentic statement which gives his birthplace, and it is impossible to decide, whether he was not actually born under the scepter of Louis XIV, since during the reign of this monarch some parts of Flanders may have been, either permanently or. temporarily, annexed to France. Nor is this point incontroyertibly decided by his admission into Canada, where only Frenchmen and Roman Catholics were to be admitted, since the fact of having been in a French monastery may have been considered equivalent to naturalization. It is certain that he spoke Dutch, for he says that himself, and that he died in Holland, and it may be remarked that his mother-tongue may have been the Flemish, which is not a dialect but a near relation of the Dutch. ' Hennepin, had been in a convent in the province of Artois, between Flanders and Picardy in the north-eastern part of the kingdom, and being sent by his superior to Calais to solicit alms, as was the custom of his order, he fell into the company of sailors, who, being on shore were to be found in taverns, and indulged largely in their habit of telling yarns, to the great edification of the, friar, who, according to his own n'arrative, sometimes even hid for hours behind tavern doors, in order to listen unobserved. His credulity seems to have been equal to his curi^sity, and the adventures he heard related at Calais, and at Dunkirk stirred up his disposition, which seems to have been naturally of a restless complexion. He set out on a roving mission through Holland, probably only the Catholic parts of the Netherlands and he recounts various mishaps whiqh befell him " in consequence of my zeal in laboring for the salvation of souls." Having returned to his convent he got leave from his -superiors to go to their missions in Canada. He sailed in the same ship with La Salle and by his meddlesomeness incurred the censure of the latter, against whom he took a spite, which, though sometimes dissembled, often came to the surface, and which was gratified, after La Salle's death, in the second edition of Hennepin's book, 1697! On arriving in Canada he was seht up to Frontenac, La Salle's fort on Lake Ontario. This afforded a most convenient opportunity for the study of Indian languages, especially Algonquin and Iroquois, a colony of the latter being situated under the protection of the fort. His restless disposition manifested itself in his many excursions both by canoe in' the summer, atid on snow-shbes in the winter. Of these excursions one is remarkable for its extent, as during the same he' visited the Onondagas, the Oneidas and the MohaWks, three of the Iroquois nations, and met three Dutchmen from New' York colony, who invited him to visit the settlement of Orange, now Albany, which, however, he declined. They were pleased with him, he says, because he spoke Dutch. On the eighteenth of November, 1678, he went with La Motte, an officer of La Salle's, and twenty -three men to the mouth of the Niagara River, where La Salle intended to -build a fortifiied p^ost and storehouse. This was the expedition which resulted during the same winter in the building of' the schooner Griffin, the first vessel that ever sailed 6n the Upper Lakes, and in the following summer or autumn brought La Salle and his party to Green Bay . The description and enumersttion of the disappointments, dangers, labors and adventures of La Salle and his followers, or companions, among them three Recollect fathers or friars, of which Hennepin was one, is not a part of this friar's history, as far as it belongs to the discovery of the Upper Mississippi, although related by him at length. After great hardships the party reached the mouth of the St. Joseph's River in what is now'Michigan where they were joined by Tonty and such of his men as had not deserted. A fort "had been built there called Hiamis, probably after the Indians of the neighborhood. From this fort the party set out during the winter, made the portage to the Kankakee River, which may be considered as one of the headwaters of the Illinois, which they reached a few days before New Years Day 1680. Pour days after the celebration of that day they reached Peoria Lake, then called Pimitoui. The next day they reached the town of the Illinois. Their adventures there,' and their construction of the fort called Crevecoeur, are interesting to. a degree, but space is wanting for the relation of them in this place. So far Hennepin had acted no very prominent part, except perhaps by frequently attending to what was none of his business. He had abundant time for the purpose, since beside his occasional preaching, which could and would sometimes be done by the two other friars, there certainly was nothing that he could do, or could be expected of him. La Salle had tarried so long on the shores of the lake to receive tidings of the Griffin, which had been sent to the fort at the entrance to Niagara River with furs and hides and was to bring material, rigging and anchors for a vessel to be built on the Illinois River, to be used in the descent of the Mississippi and final departure from the mouth of the river to the French possession in the West Indies. The Griffin was never heard of again. Her loss finally compelled La Salle to return to Canada by way of marching through the wilderness as chances might offer, to Lake Erie, thence by canoe to Niagara and finally to Frontenac.

This voyage had however nothing to do with the subject of this sketch, except that La Salle before his departure for Canada sent Micheal Accau, and Antdirie Anguel nicknamed Du Gay or Picard, because he was from Picardy to explore the Illinois River to its mouth and also to explore the Mississippi. It may be supposed that La SaUe and Tonty knew of the voyage made nearly seven years before by Marquette and Joliet, but exactly how much is not stated. The purpose of the expedition despatched by La Salle seems to have been an exploration of the Upper Mississippi though instructions can not have been very definite. This expedition Hennepin was requested to join. After its return he wrote its history and arrogated to himself all the credit it deserved, and in subsequent editions of his narrative much more than was due to its actual achievements. But when requested to join it, he was very willing. He wanted the younger one of his two confreres, 2enobe Membre to go in his place, but the latter refused; to send Hibourde, then sixty-four years old, was out of the question. So Hennepin made a virtue of necessity and on the last day of February the expedition started, well provided with arms and ammunition and with such goods as might be suitable for trading, and -making presents to Indians on their route. Hennepin, with his usual modesty, says: "Anybody but me would have been very .much frightened at the dangers of such a journey; and in fact. If

I had not placed all my trust in God, I should not have been the dupe of theSieur de la Salle, who exposed my life rashly." It is most probable that La Salle, who had determined to leave Tonty in command at Crevecoeur, while he himself had to go to Canada, took the precaution ' to send the officious monk out of Tonty 's way. The canoe of the three travelers, heavily laden as it was, descended to the mouth Of the Illinois, about two hundred and fifty miles. As they had to hunt, and to cook onshore, it is n6t probable that they exceeded twenty-five miles per day on an average. Being unacquainted with the river they could not have traveled at night. They would naturally rest and investigate at the junction of the two rivers, and then, when they began the ascent of the Mississippi, they could not expect to make much progress against its current. Hennepin seems to insinuate that Accau and Du Gay intended to use the merchandise of La Salle for trading to their own advantage, but th«ce seems to have been but little or no chance for such a scheme. One thing scared the self-eofttident friar, and his prayer was constantly that he might escape from it, or that it might happen in daylight and not in the night-time. This was a meeting with the Sioux.

The word Nadewessioilx, of whibh Sioux is an abreviation, was of Ojibway or Chippewa origin and meant enemies. That it was only applied to the Dakotas is not probable, nor certain, but that with the French of that time it was, or shortly became synonymous with Dakota is equally sure. To the extent of meeting them in daylight Hennepin was gratified. For on the twelfth day of April, while they stopped in the afternoon to repair their canoe, they were surprised and surrounded by a war-party of one-hundred and twenty Sioux. Hennepin held out the peace-pipe, but some one snatched it from him. He then ofTered some Martinique tobacco, which was better received. They told that they were on their way to attack the Miamis, but Hennepin mftde them understand by signs, and marks which he drew with a stick, that the Miamis had gone acrosse the Mississippi, beyond their reach. This can only mean, that a party of the Miamis had crossed to the eastside within the knowledge of the three Frenchmen, and ascended the Wisconsin River to join their tribe, whom we found oh the Fox River seven years previous. (Marq. and JoL) If so, the capture of the three men took place above the mouth of the

Wisconsin, The Sioux, who were great hypocrites, and otherwise cruel like most Indians, extorted from Hennepin's fears all they wanted. It seemp that a proposition had been made to kill the prisoners, but it was rejected, because the Sioux, having' already seen some of the French and being desirous of having them come and trade among them, deemed it unv^ise to kill the prisoners of this trade. At length a young chief asked for the pipe, which Hennepin gladly gave him. He filled it, smoked it, made the warriors dp the same and having thus given the customary assurance of safety, told the Frenchmen,, that, since the Miamis were out of reach, the war-party would return home and that they would have to accompany it. Whether Hennepin agreed to the proposition or not there was no chance to escape the opportunity for the proposed exploration of the upper river, although the circumstances were not very fortunate.. This the friar soon became aware of, for when he opened his breviary and began to mutter his morningdevotion, his new companions in great terror gave him to understand, that he would not be allowed to have any intercourse with the bad spirit, as they called the book. The Indians thought he was invoking their destruction. Accau and Du Gay also remonstrated, that he was endangering the lii^es of all three of them, but Hennepin boasts that he meant to repeat his prayers at all hazards, though he asked the pardon of his two friends for imperiling their lives. It seems that he stopped his mutterings and began to sing his prayers with a loud voice, whereupon the Indians, being more amused than terrified, did np longer object.

These Sioux, it may be observed, were the ancestors pf those who committed the naassacres of 1862. Hennepin complains bitterly of their treatment of him, but considering general Indian customs, one o^^gbt be surprised, that it, was no worse. To enable him, to keep up with them, as his canoe was heavy and slow, some of the warriors had to assist him and his companions in paddling. They kept on their way from morning till night, building huts for their bivouac when it rained, but sleeping on the open ground in fair weatl^er. The three. Frenchmen slept near the young chief, who had bpen the, first to sincke the peace pipe, and whp seemed to be their protector. But there was another chief, Aquipaguetin, a crafty old 6,9.vage, who had lost a son by a fight with the Miamis, coflsidered }umsel£;<?be£^t|ed out of, his revenge and made Hennepin believe that his life was wanted to atone for the lost revenge. Aquipaguetin and some other old savages kept up an unearthly howl over Hennepin, who was thereby induced to believe that his life was in danger. One night the three captives had to build^their fire at the end of the camp, where they were beset by a crowd of the Indians, who told them that Aquipaguetin had finally resolved to tomahavk them. Hennepin hastened to appease them with presents, and the old rogue Aquipaguetin, having found the way to extort what he was prevented by others from stealing, practiced on the credulitv and cowardice of the friar. On one occasion Aquipaguetin killed a bear, and invited the crowd to feast upon it. After that feast they danced the " medicine dance " and the pipe of war was handed round and smoked, while the old chief harangued them in obder to induce the killing and robbing of the captives. He did not, however, succeed. Every morning they started at daybreak, sometimes without breaking their fast. Sometimes they stopped for a buffalo hunt on the prairies, and provisions were plenty. They passed Lake Pepin, which Hennepin called Lake of Tears, for it seems that Aquipaguetin and bis confederates had done something extra by way of howling in that neighborhood.

Nineteen days after their capture they landed near the present site of St. Paul. It seems that the moment of parting was too much for the generosity of the band of Sioux, arid that the prisoners and their goods were divided, without any particular quarrel, however. Even the priestly vestments of Hennepin were divided. Whether the savages admired their splendor, as Hennepin says, or not, matters but little, since his chasuble was used in the conveyance of some bones of a dead Indian, as soon as they had appropriated it. Prom the place of landing they began their ' march towards their villages, to the northeast, to the neighborhood of Lake Buade, now and probably soon after, called Mille Lacs or a thousand lakes. The Sioux, being tall and active, marched very rapidly, and Hennepin could not have followed, or kept up with them, if they had not sometimes assisted bim. The ice of the marshes and ponds, which formed every night, although the month of May had begun, cut his bare feet, and after swimming the cold streams, he nearly perished from cold. His French companions being unable to swimj were carried across streams on the shoulders of the Indiane. Being both rather small men, they neverthe- less showed considerable endurance. Hennepin complains that he was very faint from hunger, as they gave him but a small piece of smoked meat every day, probably, however, as niuch as they had themselves. On the fifth day they reached their homes, which were to be those of the captives also. Though they were not tortured, it seems they were made fun of, as Du Gays had to sing and dance for the amusement of the crowd, which Hennepin took for an intention of killing his comrade. They were presently seated in the lodge of a chief and there fed with a mess Of wild rice and whortleberries, the best thing Hennepin says, he received since their captivity. The distribution of the three captives resulted in a vehement dispute among the Indians, but ended with giving the friar to his old enemy Aquipaguetin, who adopted him on the spot a^ a son. Du Gay, afraid of being sacrificed confessed himself to Hennepin, but Accau did not have any great fear, or but little confidence in the friar. The latter had to accompany his self-styled father to his village, not very far off. Five of Aquipaguetin's wives conveyed them to an island in Lake Buade. At the entrance of the chief's lodge Hennepin was met by a decrepit old Indian, who offered him the peace-pipe and placed him on a bear-skin spread before the fire. A small boy anointed his limbs with the fat of a wild-cat, to relieve his fatigue. The chief fed him with fish, covered him with a buffalo robe, and showed him to his six or seven wives, who were told to legard him as a son. Little as the new relationship pleased the friar, it was his only safety, and, much' against his temper,he submitted with some grace. The Indians noticing his feebleness, prepared sweating baths for him, by which he was very much benefited. The fare of the whole band was scanty, and the squaws attended to their natural children, in preference to an adopted son, who was old enough to take care of himself. Hennepin was something of a medicinal practitioner, administering orvietan, which was at that time considered as a famous panacea, bled asthmatics, and shaved the heads of the children, according to the fashion of the tribe. He was regarded as a man of occult powers, for which he seems to have been indebted to a pocket compass and a small metal pot the feet of which resembled the heads of lions. His missionary labors did not oppress his con. science much, and the only thing indicative of any exertions in that direction was the beginning of a vocabulary of the Sioux

The lovp bpt-ween him and his Indian father was not very great, but Ouasicoudi (Wag^icpody) the principal chief of the Sioux of this region was the friend of the three Frenchmen, and told Aquipaguetin and the rest, in full council, that they were like a dog who steals a piece of meat from a dish and runs away with it. When Hennepin complained of hunger, the Indians promised him that early in the summer he should go on a buffalo hunt with them, and have food in abundance. But when the time came he objected, partly for fear of Aquipaguetin's revenge for what the great chief had said, partly for other reasons. He ^ave out that he expected " spirits," that is Frenchmen, to meet him at the mouth of the Wisconsin, bringing a supplyof goods fur trading with the Indians. He insists, and letters of La Salle* seem to confirm, that the latter promised to send traders to that place. The Indians believed him and by good luck the assertion answered its purpose and was verified, at least as far as the appearance of Frenchmen was concerned. The Indians went down Rum River, the outlet of Mille Lac, and encamped across the Mississippi near the junction of the two rivers. Hennepin, afraid of being left alone, begged the Indians, as they passed him, canoe after canoe, to take him along, but they would not do it. Neither would Aqcau and Du Gay do so, and the former .told the missionary, that he had paddled him long enough already. Finally two Indians took compassion on him and brought him to the encampment, where Du Gay tried to excuse himself but Accau did not. In spits of its being a hunting camp starvation reigned in it, and the three white men had nothing to live on but unripe berries, which made them sick.

By the favor of the chief Ouasicoude already mentioned, Hennepin and Du Gay were permitted to look after the expected Frenchmen; Accau preferred to stay with the Indians. The two men were furnished with a gun, a canoe and a knife, also a robe or cover of beaver-skin.

The two travelers soon reached the falls, which Hennepin named after the patron saint he had selected, St. Anthony of Padua. Hennepin's, description of the falls is brief but sufficiently accurate, In the first edition, of his book, he egtiroates t,heix heigjbt as , from forty to ftfty feet, but in that of 1697 he adds ten feet to that estimate. As the situation changes rapidly, on account of the softness of the uriderlyiilg stone, we rhay concede Hennepin's first estimate, since 1821, aiccording to Schoolcraft, the perpendicular fall was still forty feet.