having obtained the victory, and release the prisoners they have taken in battle.

"Our Outouacs of the Point of the Holy Ghost [La Pointe, now Bayfield] had to the present time kept up a kind of peace with them, but affairs having become embroiled during last winter, and some murders having been committed on both sides, our savages had reason to apprehend that the storm would soon burst upon them, and judged that it was safer for them to leave the place, which in fact they did in the spring."

Marquette, on the 13th of September, 1669, writes: "The Nadouessi are the Iroquois of this country. *** they lie northwest of the Mission of the Holy Ghost [La Pointe, the modern Bayfield] and we have not yet visited them, having confined ourselves to the conversion of the Ottawas."

Soon after this, hostilities began between the Sioux and the Hurons and Ottawas of La Pointe, and the former compelled their foes to seek another resting place, toward the eastern extremity of Lake Superior, and at length they pitched their tents at Mackinaw.

The

In 1674, some Sioux warriors came down to Sault Saint Marie, to make a treaty of peace with adjacent tribes. A friend of the Abbe de Gallinee wrote that a council was had at the fort to which "the Nadouessioux sent twelve deputies, and the others forty. During the conference, one of the latter, knife in hand, drew near the breast of one of the Nadouessioux, who showed surprise at the movement; when the Indian with the knife reproached him for cowardice. Nadouessioux said he was not afraid, when the other planted the knife in his heart, and killed him. All the savages then engaged in conflict, and the Nadouessioux bravely defended themselves, but, overwhelmed by numbers, nine of them were killed. The two who survived rushed into the chapel, and closed the door. Here they found munitions of war, and fired guns at their enemies, who became anxious to burn down the chapel, but the Jesuits would not permit it, because they had their skins stored between its roof and ceiling. In this extremity, a Jesuit, Louis Le Boeme, advised that a cannon should be pointed at the door, which was discharged, and the two brave Sioux were killed."

at the occurrence, and in a letter to Colbert, one of the Ministers of Louis the Fourteenth, speaks in condemnation of this discharge of a cannon by a Brother attached to the Jesuit Mission.

From this period, the missions of the Church of Rome, near Lake Superior, began to wane. Shea, a devout historian of that church, writes: "In 1680, Father Enjalran was apparently alone at Green Bay, and Pierson at Mackinaw; the latter mission still comprising the two villages, Huron and Kiskakon. Of the other missions, neither Le Clerq nor Hennepin, the Recollect, writers of the West at this time, makes any mention, or in any way alludes to their existence, and La Hontan mentions the Jesuit missions only to ridicule them."

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

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

The ship Nonsuch was fitted out, in charge of Captain Zachary Gillam, a son of one of the early settlers of Boston; and in this vessel Groselliers and Radisson left the Thames, in June, 1668, and in September reached a tributary of Hudson's Bay. The next year, by way of Boston, they re

pany was chartered, still known among venerable English corporations as "The Hudson's Bay Company."

The Reverend Mother of the Incarnation, Superior of the Ursulines of Quebec, in a letter of the 27th of August, 1670, writes thus :

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

He has taken possession of this great region for the King of England, and for his personal benefit A publication for the benefit of this French adventurer, has been made in England. He was a youth when he arrived here, and his wife and children are yet here."

Talon, Intendent of Justice in Canada, in a dispatch to Colbert, Minister of the Colonial Department of France, wrote on the 10th of November, 1670, that he has received intelligence that two English vessels are approaching Hudson's Bay, and adds: "After reflecting on all the nations that might have penetrated as far north as that, I can alight on only the English, who, under the guidance of a man named Des Grozellers, formerly an inhabitant of Canada, might possibly have attempted that navigation."

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

or one hundred leagues from the IIurons, there is a mine of copper, from which Truchemont Brusle showed me an ingot, on his return from a voyage which he made to the neighboring nation."

Pierre Boucher, grandfather of Sieur de la Verendrye, the explorer of the lakes of the northern boundary of Minnesota, in a volume published A. D. 1640, also at Paris, writes: "In Lake Superior there is a great island, fifty or one hundred leagues in circumference, in which there is a very beautiful mine of copper. There are other places in those quarters, where there are similar mines; so I learned from four or five Frenchmen, who lately returned. They were gone three years, without finding an opportunity to return; they told me that they had seen an ingot of copper all refined which was on the coast, and weighed more than eight hundred pounds, according to their estimate. They said that the savages, on passing it, made a fire on it, after which they cut off pieces with their axes."

In the Jesuit Relations of 1666-67, there is this description of Isle Royale: "Advancing to a place called the Grand Anse, we meet with an island, three leagues from land, which is celebrated for the metal which is found there, and for the thunder which takes place there; for they say it always thunders there.

"But farther towards the west on the same north shore, is the island most famous for copper, Minong (Isle Royale). This island is twenty-five leagues in length; it is seven from the mainland, and sixty from the head of the lake. Nearly all around the island, on the water's edge, pieces of copper are found mixed with pebbles, but especially on the side which is opposite the south, and principally in a certain bay, which is near the northeast exposure to the great lake. *

*

*

Advancing to the head of the lake (Fon du Lac) and returning one day's journey by the south coast, there is seen on the edge of the water, a rock of copper weighing seven or eight hundred pounds, and is so hard that steel can hardly cut it, but when it is heated it cuts as easily as lead. Near Point Chagouamigong [Sha-gah-wah-mikong, near Bayfield] where a mission was established rocks of copper and plates of the same metal were found. *** Returning still toward the mouth of the lake, following the coast on the south as twenty leagues from the place last mentioned, we enter the river called Nantaouagan [Ontonagon] on which is a hill where stones and copper fall into the water or upon the earth. readily found.

They are

"Three years since we received a piece which was brought from this place, which weighed a hundred pounds, and we sent it to Quebec to Mr. Talon. It is not certain exactly where this was broken from. We think it was from the forks of the river; others, that it was from near the lake, and dug up.”

Talon, Intendent of Justice in Canada, visited France, taking a half-breed voyageur with him, and while in Paris, wrote on the 26th of February, 1669, to Colbert, the Minister of the Marine Department, "that this voyageur had penetrated among the western nations farther than any other Frenchman, and had seen the copper mine on Lake Huron. [Superior?] The man offers to go

to that mine, and explore, either by sea, or by lake and river, the communication supposed to exist between Canada and the South Sea, or to the regions of Hudson's Bay."

As soon as Talon returned to Canada he commissioned Jolliet and Pere [Perrot] to search for the mines of copper on the upper Lakes. Jolliet received an outfit of four hundred livres, and four canoes, and Perrot one thousand livres. Minisister Colbert wrote from Paris to Talon, in February, 1671, approving of the search for copper, in these words: “The resolution you have taken to send Sieur de La Salle toward the south, and Sieur de St. Lusson to the north, to discover the South Sea passage, is very good, but the principal thing you ought to apply yourself in discoveries of this nature, is to look for the copper mine.

"Were this mine discovered, and its utility evident, it would be an assured means to attract several Frenchmen from old, to New France."

On the 14th of June, 1671, Saint Lusson at Sault St. Marie, planted the arms of France, in the presence of Nicholas Perrot, who acted as interpreter on the occasion; the Sieur Jolliet; Pierre Moreau or Sieur de la Taupine; a soldier of the garrison of Quebec, and several other Frenchmen.

Talon, in announcing Saint Lusson's explorations to Colbert, on the 2d of November, 1671, wrote from Quebec: "The copper which I send from Lake Superior and the river Nantaouagan [Ontonagon] proves that there is a mine on the border of some stream, which produces this material as pure as one could wish. More than twenty Frenchmen have seen one lump at the lake, which they estimate weighs more than eight hundred pounds. The Jesuit Fathers among the Outaouas [Ou-taw-waws] use an anvil of this material, which weighs about one hundred pounds. There will be no rest until the source from whence these detached lumps come is discovered.

"The river Nantaouagan [Ontonagon] appears

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

"The gravel at the bottom of this, hardens itself, and assumes different shapes, such as those pebbles which I send to Mr. Bellinzany. My opinion is that these pebbles, rounded and carried off by the rapid waters, then have a tendency to become copper, by the influence of the sun's rays which they absorb, and to form other nuggets of metal similar to those which I send to Sieur de Bellinzany, found by the Sieur de Saint Lus: on, about four hundred leagues, at some distance from the mouth of the river.

"He hoped by the frequent journeys of the savages, and French who are beginning to travel by these routes, to discern the source of production."

Governor Denonville, of Canada, sixteen years after the above circumstances, wrote: "The copper, a sample of which I sent M. Arnou, is found at the head of Lake Superior. The body of the mine has not yet been discovered. I have seen one of our voyageurs who assures me that, some fifteen months ago he saw a lump of two hundred weight, as yellow as gold, in a river which falls into Lake Superior. When heated, it could be cut with an axe; but the superstitious Indians, regarding this boulder as a good spirit, would never permit him to take any of it away. His opinion is that the frost undermined this piece, and that the mine is in that river. He has promised to search for it on his way back."

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

Du Luth's Relatives.- Randin Visits Extremity of Lake Superior. - Du Luth Plants King's Arms.--Post at Kaministigoya.-Pierre MoreaF, alias La Taupine. -La Salle's Visit.-A Pilot Deserts to the Sioux Country.-uaffart, Du Luth's Interpreter.-Descent of the River St. Croix.-Meets Father Hennepin.-Criticised by La Salle.-Trades with New England. -Visits France.--In Command at Mackinaw.-Frenchmen Murdered at Keweenaw.-Du Luth Arrests and Shoots Murderers.-Builds Fort above Detroit. With Indian Allies in the Seneca War.-Du Luth's Brother.-Cadillac Defends the Brandy Trade.- Du Luth Disapproves of Selling Brandy to the Indians.-In Command at Fort Frontenac.-Death.

In the year 1678, several prominent merchants of Quebec and Montreal, with the support of Governor Frontenac of Canada, formed a company to open trade with the Sioux of Minnesota, and a nephew of Patron, one of these merchants, a brother-in-law of Sieur de Lusigny, an officer of the Governor's Guards, named Daniel Greysolon Du Luth [Doo-loo], a native of St. Germain en Laye, a few miles from Paris, although Lahontan speaks of him as from Lyons, was made the leader of the expedition. At the battle of Seneffe against the Prince of Orange, he was a gendarme, and one of the King's guards.

Du Luth was also a cousin of Henry Tonty, who had been in the revolution at Naples, to throw off the Spanish dependence. Du Luth's name is variously spelled in the documents of his day. Hennepin writes, "Du Luth;" others, "Dulhut,” "Du Lhu," ," "Du Lut," "De Luth," "Du Lud.” The temptation to procure valuable furs from the Lake Superior region, contrary to the letter of the Canadian law, was very great; and more than one Governor winked at the contraband trade. Randin, who visited the extremity of Lake Superior, distributed presents to the Sioux and Ottawas in the name of Governor Frontenac, to secure the trade, and after his death, Du Luth was sent to complete what he had begun. With a party of twenty, seventeen Frenchmen and three Indians, he left Quebec on the first of September, 1678, and on the fifth of April, 1679, Du Luth writes to Governor Frontenac, that he is in the woods, about nine miles from Sault St. Marie, at the entrance of Lake Superior, and

adds that he "will not stir from the Nadoussioux, until further orders, and, peace being concluded, he will set up the King's Arms; lest the English and other Europeans settled towards California, take possession of the country."

On the second of July, 1679, he caused his Majesty's Arms to be planted in the great village of the Nadoussioux, called Kathio, where no Frenchman had ever been, and at Songaskicons and Houetbatons, one hundred and twenty leagues distant from the former, where he also set up the King's Arms. In a letter to Seignalay, published for the first time by Harrisse, he writes that it was in the village of Izatys [Issati]. Upon Franquelin's map, the Mississippi branches into the Tintonha [Teeton Sioux] country, and not far from here, he alleges, was seen a tree upon which was this legend: "Arms of the King cut on this tree in the year 1679."

He established a post at Kamanistigoya, which was distant fifteen leagues from the Grand Portage at the western extremity of Lake Superior; and here, on the fifteenth of September, he held a council with the Assenipoulaks [Assineboines] and other tribes, and urged them to be at peace with the Sioux. During this summer, he dispatched Pierre Moreau, a celebrated voyageur, nicknamed La Taupine, with letters to Governor Frontenac, and valuable furs to the merchants. His arrival at Quebec, created some excitement. It was charged that the Governor corresponded with Du Luth, and that he passed the beaver, sent by him, in the name of merchants in his interest. The Intendant of Justice, Du Chesneau, wrote to the Minister of the Colonial Department of France, that "the man named La Taupine, a famous coureur des bois, who set out in the month of September of last year, 1678, to go to the Outawacs, with goods, and who has always been interested with the Governor, having returned this year, and I, being advised that he had traded in