They afterwards passed the country of the Quinipissa, and on the night of the twenty-fourth landed near a village of the Tangibac nation. It contained no living creature, having been recently surprised by a hostile tribe. In the cabins they found ten dead bodies. They reembarked, and passed the night on the other side of the river. Next day they came to a point where the river branched into three channels. They selected the middle of these, which was broad and deep; and after rowing eight leagues more, came in sight of the sea, and went ashore on the east side of the river.

The two companions of Hennepin were now seized with a sudden dread of meeting with some of the Spaniards from New Mexico, and contenting themselves with a distant view of the ocean, they went no further. Having erected a cross, and left a letter containing an account of their discovery, they set out on their upward voyage. Hennepin here expresses his gratitude for their preservation from the crocodiles, [alligators, ] which were particularly numerous near the mouth of the river. At night they lighted a great match to frighten them off, there being, according to our author, nothing they fear so much as fire.

On the second of April, being near an Indian village, the discharge of one of their guns frightened away all the inhabitants, men and women; but upon Hennepin's advancing with the calumet, they returned, expressing by signs that they compared their guns to thunder and lightning. This was the Quinipissa nation. They left there on the fourth, and rowed on that day as far as Koroa, where they were received with joy, twelve men dancing before them with fine feathers in their hands. They were led to a

cabin "made of fine mats of painted rushes, and adorned with coverings made of bark of trees, spun as finely as our linen cloth." Next morning Hennepin was surprised to see the Indian corn, which was green at their first visit, now nearly ripe. Sixty days he states to be the period between the sowing and maturity of that crop.

The anxiety of the two men to proceed, and barter their goods for furs, prevented our author's visiting several other nations on the banks of the river. On the seventh they reached the Taensas, who, hearing of their return, had sent for their allies residing in the interior, to the westward of the river, to meet them; but the impatience of Hennepin's companions would not allow of the delay of a single day to enable him to see them. The Taensas accompanied them some distance up the river. After two days, they reached the place where they had buried their goods, but to their great alarm the trees they had marked were burnt. The two men were near swounding away," but they had the good fortune to find their property undisturbed. Some Akansas approaching, Hennepin went towards them with his never-failing calumet, to withdraw

64

their attention from his men, who got the goods safely into the canoe, in which they proceeded to the village of the Akansas. The Indians proceeded thither on foot, and one of them being a good runner outstripped the canoe. They were here received with even greater kindness than at their first visit, the men suspecting, with a view to get possession of their goods; but Hennepin avers that "they are certainly a good people, and instead of deserving the name of a barbarous nation, as the Europeans call all the natives of America, I think they have more humanity than many nations of Europe, who pretend to be very civil and affable to strangers." They were entertained with feasts and dances, and their departure grieved these kind-hearted natives greatly. For sixty leagues further they met with no Indians, whence they concluded that the Chickachas and Messorites were absent hunting. This enabled them to land with less fear in pursuit of game, of which there was now no scarcity.

At a cape near the country of the Messorites, Hennepin observed upon a rock some paintings with red colours, not of "tritons and other sea-monsters," as the Illinois had taught him to expect, but of a horse and some other beasts. This cape he calls St. Anthony. The Indian tradition was, that a great number of the Miamis, pursued by the Matsigamea nation, were drowned here, and the Indians were accustomed, when passing this rock, to smoke and offer tobacco to those beasts, to appease the Manitou or Evil Spirit.

In the chapter which follows, Father Hennepin gives a particular account of two animals, then unknown to Europeans-the opossum and the panther. During their voyage they saw no horses, but they learned that they existed to the westward. They observed all the kinds of timber known in Europe, and many other trees. He mentions one, dropping a most fragrant gum, exceeding in his opinion the best perfumes. Oak, excellent for ship building, was noticed, and they found hemp growing wild. Tar and pitch, he says, were made near the sea-coast. He did "not question but that there are some iron mines," and that "the building of men-ofwar would be very cheap in the river Meschasipi." They had not time to look for mines, but in several places they discovered pitcoal, and the savages pointed out to them some mines of copper and lead.

The Indians on the Mississippi he declares to be good-natured, affable, civil and obliging, without sentiments of religion, if a kind of veneration for the sun, which they consider as the creator and preserver of all things, be excepted. The Nadonessians and Issati, upon lighting their pipes, extend them towards the sun, and say Tchendiouba, Louis-that is, Smoke, Sun! Hennepin was pleased at learning that they called the sun Louis, it being his own name. The moon they styled Louis Basatche-the Sun of the Night.

They offered the best piece of every beast they kill to the sun, also the first smoke of their calumets, and then they blow the smoke to the four corners of the world.

It surprised Father Hennepin to learn that every nation of Indians in North America had its own language; and he states that tribes only ten leagues apart required an interpreter to conduct their intercourse. He remarks, that the Indians of the Mississippi differ from those of Canada in manners, customs and temper, and in the shape of their heads, which were very flat. They were more cheerful than those of Canada, and had nothing of the moroseness of the Iroquois. The authority of their chiefs was more absolute, and those residing near the mouth of the river paid such respect to a chief, that they dared not to pass between him and a lighted flambeau, carried before him in all their ceremonies.

As to their conversion to Christianity, he remarks, that his ignorance of their languages threw great obstructions in his way. He was well acquainted with only that of the Issati or Nadonessians, and knew the Illinois imperfectly; but he expresses his fears that neither his words nor signs conveyed a clear idea of the truths of Christianity to these tribes. The only fruit of his mission to which he felt emboldened to lay claim, was the baptism of several dying infants. He had merely opened the way for others, and adds, that he holds himself ready at all times to return thither, and spend the rest of his days in laboring for their spiritual welfare.

Near the mouth of the Illinois, a fish, which they called "sturgeons with long bills," supplied them with food. They were so plenty that they killed them with axes and swords, and eat nothing but the most delicate parts, their bellies. Hennepin's companions now began to dread meeting with any of the men they had left at Fort Crevecœur, as they had, by descending the Mississippi, departed from the object of their voyage; and Hennepin himself (for reasons which he promises to give in another place) was anxious that their voyage towards the sea should be kept secret. They therefore rowed by night, and rested by day, until they had passed the mouth of the Illinois a considerable distance. He did not consider the country above that river so fertile as that below it.

In the prayers which they offered thrice a day during their voyage, it was their constant request, that if they were to meet with savages it might be by day, it being their custom to kill all they meet by night, even their own allies, for the sake of plunder; and Hennepin states that he looks upon their being surprised by daylight, on the twelfth of April, by fifty canoes full of Indians, as an

* Mr. Jared Sparks asserts, in his Life of Marquette, ( Am. Biog. x. 293,) that "Hennepin was never below the confluence of the Illinois with the Mississippi;," and that "after La Salle's death le fabricated the tale of his voyage down the Mississippi." These charges we will examine hereafter,

answer to this prayer. These Indians, in number about one hundred and twenty, were a war party coming down the river to surprise their enemies-the Illinois, Miamis, and Marohans. They did not understand the Iroquois or Algonquin languages, in which Hennepin and his men cried out to them that they "were men of wooden canoes, (for so they call those that sail in great vessels,)" and were beginning to discharge their arrows at them, when Hennepin held up his calumet and was preserved.

With horrible outcries they surrounded our voyagers, who, after presenting them with some tobacco, made them understand that the Miamis, of whom they were in search, had passed the river and gone to join the Illinois. Upon thus learning that they had no hope of surprising their enemies, three or four of the eldest laid their hands upon Hennepin's head, and began to weep bitterly. Hennepin with his handkerchief wiped away their tears, but they refused to smoke the calumet with them, thereby giving them to understand that it was their design to murder them all. Renewing their outcries, they forced them across the river, where the canoe was unladen of part of the contents, of which the savages had already robbed them. After a consultation, two of the chiefs approached and intimated to them that they had resolved upon their death. Hennepin presented some hatchets, knives, and tobacco to the chiefs; and bending his neck, and pointing at the same time to a hatchet, he thus expressed that he threw himself upon their mercy. The presents softened some of the chiefs, and they gave them some beaver's meat to eat. In great uneasiness our party spent the night, their calumet having been returned to them. The two men resolved to defend themselves to the last, but our author declared that he would make no resistance, but imitate the Saviour. They watched all night by turns.

Very early the next morning, one of the chiefs came to them and demanded their calumet, and all the band smoked it. He then let them know that they would be carried to the Indians' own country: a piece of news which did not much distress Hennepin, as he thereby expected to make new discoveries. Hennepin now experienced great difficulty in saying the prayers of his church, the savages, as he afterwards learned, looking upon his breviary as an evil spirit. At night our voyagers erected their cabin near that of the young chief who had first smoked with them, signifying to him thereby that they put themselves under his protection. Great difference of opinion prevailed amongst the party as to the disposal of their prisoners. Aquipaguetin, one of the chiefs, whose son had been slain by the Miamis, wished them put to death; others wished to preserve their lives, that other Europeans might come amongst them to trade.

The spot where they had been captured was about one hundred

and fifty leagues above the mouth of the Illinois. For nineteen days they rowed up the Mississippi, according to Hennepin's cal culation, over two hundred and fifty leagues. In fair weather they slept in the open air; when it rained they set up their cabins.

On one of these nineteen days a singular ceremony was performed. Aquipaguetin halted at noon in a large meadow. He had killed a large bear, and invited the principal warriors to eat it. After their meal they had a dance, being painted, and with their hair greased with bear's oil and covered with feathers. During the dance a son of this chief made them all smoke the war pipe, all the while shedding tears, his father also weeping and lamenting, and occasionally laying his hand upon the head of Hennepin or one of his companions. Sometimes looking up to Heaven, he would appear to be calling upon the sun to avenge his son's death. This gave them no little uneasiness, and they afterwards learned that he had been desiring their death, but had been overruled by the others.

This crafty chief hit upon a singular plan to obtain possession of their goods. He had with him the bones of a deceased friend, wrapped in the skin of some animal. He would now and then produce them, and sending for Hennepin or one of his companions, make them dry his tears by covering the bones with their merchandize. They were thus gradually deprived of their property, the chief assuring them that what they gave was not for himself, but for the dead and the warriors who accompanied him. They named that part of the river where they now lay the Lake of Tears, on account of the weeping of Aquipaguetin.

For many nights the elders of this tribe came and wept over their prisoners-whether bewailing that the warriors had resolved to kill them, or pitying the evil treatment they met with, the captives could not tell. Aquipaguetin, on one occasion, contrived that they should not encamp near the young chief Nashetoba, their protector, and then came upon them with his followers; but whilst these were hesitating what to do, their protector and his brothers came and delivered them from their enemies. Next day another chief informed them that in sixteen days they would reach the homes of the Indians.

The whole party landed five or six leagues below the Fall on which they afterwards bestowed the name of Saint Anthony, the patron of their expedition; they all landed, and after a consultation the Indians gave them to three chiefs, each of whom had lost a son. They destroyed Hennepin's canoe, and hid their own canoes in the alders.

They now travelled by land, commencing at daybreak and marching until ten at night, swimming the rivers, still full of ice. Worn out, Hennepin would often lie down to rest, but the savages would