the governor of Canada, to discover new countries, and himself on the part of God, to spread the light of the holy evangelists; that the Sovereign Master of their lives would that he should be known unto all nations; and to obey his will, he feared not death itself, to which he was exposed in his perilous journeys; and that they wished two guides to put them on their route. The request was accompanied with a present, and the guides were furnished to them, together with a mat, to serve as a bed during the voyage. The following morning, June 10th, 1673, in the presence of a great number of Indians, assembled to witness so extraordinary and hazardous an expedition, seven Frenchmen and two Miami guides embarked in their two canoes, with the knowledge only that at three leagues from the Mascoutens was a river which discharged itself into the Mississippi; that its course was west of south-west; that the route to it was replete with marshes and small lakes, and the channel often so obstructed with wild oats as to render its discovery difficult. "For this," says Marquette, "we had occasion for our guides, and they conducted us, happily, to a portage of two thousand seven hundred paces, and aided us to transport our canoes to enter this river, after which they returned, leaving us alone, in this unknown country, in the hands of Providence." In 1542, De Soto had crossed the great river of the West, with an army of mail-clad warriors, brilliantly equipped in "pomp and circumstance," in search of conquest and of gold; in 1673 the pious and gentle Marquette, clothed with the coarse habit of his order, with only six companions, embarked in frail bark canoes, on unknown waters, to search their outlet into the same great river of the West, to explore new countries in the spirit of peace, and to spread the knowledge of the gospel in the bonds of love! "And now France and Christianity stood in the valley of the Mississippi!" 'Marquette, Voyage, reprint, &c. p. 8, 9. In leaving the waters which flowed toward Quebec, to enter those which henceforth conducted them into strange lands, Marquette and his companions addressed themselves in prayer to the Holy Virgin, which devotion, he meekly says, they practised daily, placing under her protection their persons and the success of their voyage. After having encouraged each other, they stepped into their canoes, and boldly embarked on the bosom of the Mescousin, since known as the Ouisconsin; but when or in what manner the name was altered, is not accurately ascertained. The first mention of the river by this latter name is by Hennepin, when he ascended it from the Mississippi, in 1680, on his return from the Falls of St. Anthony to Quebec. This river is described as very wide, with sandy bottoms, causing many banks, and rendering the navigation very difficult; full of vine-covered isles, and bordered with fine lands, comprising woods, prairies, and rising grounds. The adventurers found roebucks and buffalo in abundant numbers, and perceived appearances of iron-mines. After a navigation of forty leagues on this river, on the 17th of June, 1673, «with a joy," says Marquette, "which I cannot express, we happily entered the Mississippi, in the latitude of forty-two degrees and a half."1 It is somewhat remarkable that, during the whole course from the portage to the mouth of the Wisconsin, Marquette neither saw an Indian village, nor met with a native Indian; nor did he, in descending the Mississippi, see an inhabitant of the country, until he reached the fortieth degree of latitude, or near that elevation, when on the 25th of June, footsteps and a path were perceived on the western bank. Leaving the men to guard the canoe, Marquette and Joliet fearlessly followed these indications of human beings, and after a walk of six miles, discovered a village on the banks of a river, and two others on the rising grounds, about half a league distant. They boldly penetrated into the village, and were received not only with great astonishment by the inhabitants, as they Marquette, Voyage, reprint, p. 10. were unquestionably the first Europeans who had ever trod the soil of what is now Iowa, but the calumet, or sacred peace pipe, and its accompanying hospitality, was tendered to them. They were informed that the nation was called “Illini,” or "the men," and that their village and the river on which it was situated, was called Mou-in-gou-ina, now called by us the Des Moines. The adventurers stayed six days with their new friends, obtaining information of their customs, and, having been accompanied to their canoes by the chief, and hundreds of warriors, they again embarked on their voyage, while Marquette was ornamented by the Illini with the sacred calumet, the mysterious arbiter of peace and war, the safeguard among the nations.1 1 The voyagers proceeded; they passed the Peketanoni, now known as the Missouri, and the good Marquette determined at some future period to explore it to its source, hoping to find thence another river, which flowing westwardly would discharge itself into the Vermilion Sea, or, flowing southwardly, would lead to California: of such streams he had been informed by the natives. In a distance of forty leagues, they passed the Ouabache, as the Ohio was then and long afterward called, and finally descended the Mississippi, until they had reached a point below the Arkansas, about five days' journey from the sea. Having ascertained the fact of the discharge of the Mississippi into the Gulf of Mexico, in Florida, and not in Virginia, on the east, Marquette and Joliet determined on their return, being fearful of falling into the hands of the Spaniards, whereby the rich fruits of their discoveries would be lost to France. Retracing their river path, on the 17th of July they left the village of Akamsca, and ascended the Mississippi until they came into the thirty-eighth parallel of latitude, when they entered a river now called the Illinois, by means of which they reached the Lake of the Illinois, now Lake Michigan, by a shorter route, says Marquette, than by the Mescousin. They were guided by an Illinois chief and his 1 Marquette, Voyage, reprint, p. 11. young men to the lake, whence the adventurous travellers proceeded to the Bay des Puants, about the end of the month of September, from which they had departed near the beginning of the month of June. M. Joliet separated from Marquette at Green Bay, and returned to Montreal. In passing the rapids, just before he reached that city, his canoe was overset, and his journal and all his other papers were lost. He dictated a few particulars relative to his voyage down the Mississippi, amounting to no more than three or four pages, which were published,' and which agree, as far as they extend, with the narrative of Father Marquette. (NOTE A.) 2 In addition to this narrative, nothing is known of Marquette, except what is said of him by Charlevoix. After returning from his last expedition, he took up his residence, and remained to preach the gospel to the Miamis who dwelled in the north of Illinois, round Chicago. Two years afterward, while sailing from Chicago along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, toward Michillimackinac, he entered a small river in Michigan, on the 18th of May, 1675. Having landed, he erected an altar, and celebrated mass according to the rites of the Catholic church; then requesting the two men who conducted his canoe to leave him alone for half an hour, he retired a short distance in the silent woods. When the time had elapsed, the men went to seek for him, and found him dead. They were greatly surprised, as they had not discovered any symptoms of illness; but they remembered that when he was entering the river, he expressed a presentiment that his voyage would end there. The good missionary discoverer of a world, had fallen asleep on the margin. of a stream that to this day retains the name of " Marquette." Near its mouth the canoe-men dug his grave in the sand, and ever after, the forest rangers, if in danger on Lake Michigan, would invoke his name. The place of his grave is still pointed out to the traveller, but his remains 'They are found in Hennepin, ed. 1698. were removed the year after his death to Michillimackinac.1 (NOTE B.) Inseparable from the history of the valley of the Mississippi, and well deserving of honour and fame, is the name of Robert Cavelier de la Salle. In his youth he had entered the seminary of the Jesuits, and thus had relinquished his patrimony; having left the society with honour, but in poverty, we find him in the spirit of enterprise, about the year 1667, seeking fame and fortune in New France. As a fur-trader established near the present site of Montreal, he explored Lakes Ontario and Erie; and having repaired to France full of enthusiasm for the discovery and colonization of the West, he obtained the rank of nobility, valuable grants of land at fort Frontenac, and the protection of Colbert, the French minister, together with the friendship of Seignelay, Colbert's son. In 1678, he returned to fort Frontenac, (now Kingston,) and in a wooden canoe of ten tons, the first that ever sailed into Niagara River, he carried a company to the vicinity of the falls. In 1679, La Salle had built a vessel of sixty tons burthen, and on the 7th of August, on the upper Niagara River, amid the astonishment of the Indians, the discharge of artillery, and the chant of a solemn Te Deum, the Griffin" was launched, and her sails spread to the breezes of Lake Erie. La Salle passed over the Lake, through the "Detroit," built a trading house at Mackinaw, and cast anchor at Green Bay. Having sent back his "Griffin" to Niagara River, well laden with furs, he repaired with a part of his company (among whom we find Hennepin) along the western shore of Lake Michigan, to its head near St. Joseph's. Determined to penetrate through the country to the great river of the West, he ascended the St. Joseph's, and having discovered a portage over swamps and bogs, entered the Kankakee, and thence descending the Illinois River, he first met with the natives on the banks of Lake Peoria. An alliance offensive and defen 'Bancroft, vol. iii. 161. Sparks' Life of Marquette. |