is, forty leagues in all from the place where we embarked, we came into the Mississippi on the 17th of June. The mouth of the Mesconsin is about forty-two degrees and a half of latitude. The satisfaction I had to see this famous river, is almost incredible; for though the savages had often spoken of it to our men, none of them had been so bold as to venture so far in this unknown country.

"The Mississippi is formed by several Lakes in the Northcountry, from whence it runs to the South. Its channel is pretty narrow at the mouth of the Mesconsin, being straitened by a row of high mountains on the other side; but however, its stream is very gentle, because of its depth, for we found there nineteen 'fathom water. But a little below that place, it enlarges itself, and is about three quarters of a league broad. Its banks are very fine; but three days after, we discovered a much. better country. The trees are higher, and the Islands so beautiful, that I verily believe there is nothing like it in the world. The meadows are covered with an infinite number of WildGoats and Bulls, and the river with Bustards and Swans without Wings, because their feathers fall in this country about that time. We saw extraordinary fishes, and one of them was so big, that our canoo was like to be broke into pieces, because it run against it. We saw also a very hideous Sea-monster; his head was like that of a Tyger; but his nose was somewhat sharper, and like a Wild-Cat; his beard was long; his ears stood upright, the colour of his head being grey, and the neck black. He looked upon us for some time; but as we came near him, our oars frighted him away: This is the only one we saw. caught abundance of Sturgeons, and another sort of fish somewhat like our Trouts, except that their eyes and nose are much lesser, and that they have near the nose a bone like a Woman's Busk, three inches broad, and a foot and an half long, the end whereof is flat and very broad, insomuch that when they leap out of the water, the weight of that bone makes them fall backwards. We saw also abundance of Turkey-Cocks on the banks of the river."

We

From this spot, they floated down the stream, and soon discovered the mouth of the Missouri, called by Marquette Pekitanoni. Proceeding downward, they fell in with several tribes of the Illonwaghs, (or Illinois, to use the French orthography,) who received them with open arms. Pursuing their route, they finally arrived at the mouth of the Arkansa, in latitude thirty-three, where their provisions beginning to fail, they conceived it prudent to return. Accordingly, having ascertained to their satisfaction that the river could only terminate in the Gulf, they went up the Missis

sippi to the mouth of the Illinois, which they ascended, and so passed over to Chicago, then an Indian settlement at the southern extremity of Lake Michigan.

The next account we have of the Mississippi is to be found in Daniel Coxe's Carolana,* already mentioned. He tells us (p. 117) that "in the year 1678, a considerable Number of Persons went from New-England upon discovery, and proceeded so far as New-Mexico, 150 leagues beyond the River Meschacebe, and at their return rendered an Account to the Government of Boston, as will be attested, among many others by Colonel Dudley, then one of the Magistrates, and at present Deputy Governor of the Isle of Wight, under the Honourable the Lord Cutts. The war soon after breaking out between the English and Indians, many of the Indians, who were in that expedition, retreated to Canada, from whom Monsieur De Salle received most of his information, concerning that country, by him afterwards more fully discovered. And they served him for Guides and Interpreters; as is attested by Monsieur le Tonti, who accompanied Monsieur de Salle: As also by Monsieur Le Clerk, in a book published by order of the French King." What follows is curious, if true. "For which reason and divers other passages favouring inadvertently the English Pretensions, his Journal printed at Paris was called in, and that book of One Livre Price, is not now to be purchased for Thirty Livres." We entreat our antiquarian brethren to the east of us, to examine the archives of the ancient town of Boston, and to ascertain whether there remains any record there of the truth of this account. There certainly appears great reason to doubt it. We have diligently perused the English translations of Tonti's account of De Salle's first voyage, and of Joutel's narrative of his second, and in the preface to neither does the translator allude in the most distant manner to any such previous discovery. The fact is, that Coxe's father was the nominal proprietor of this Carolana, and the object of the son was to enlist the jealousy and ambition of Britain into an attempt to secure to himself the possession of a part of his questionable patrimony. The principal argument on which Coxe rests his claim under

"A Description of the English Province of Carolana, by the Spaniards calle Florida. and by the French La Louisiane. As also, of the Great and Famous R ver Meschacebe or Mississippi, the five vast navigable Lakes of Fresh water, and the Parts adjacent. Together with an Account of the commodities of the Growth and Production of the said Province. And a Preface, containing some Considerations on the Consequences of the French making Settlements there. By Daniel Coxe, Esq. London, 1727." A very curious and rare little book, presented by Mr. Gulian C. Verplanck to the New-York Society Library.

the English title, upon this province, was the transfer, as he calls it, to the province of New-York, of all the territory south of the great Lakes, by the Iroquois, who had conquered it. His father too, he asserts, had made extensive discoveries in various parts of this great territory, and shortly after had made "another discovery more to the North West, beyond the river Meschacebe, of a very great sea or lake of fresh water, several thousand miles in circumference; and of a great river at the S. W. end, issuing out into the South-Sea, about the latitude of 44 degrees; which was then communicated to the Privy-Council, and a draft thereof left in the Plantation office."

In addition to this, Coxe declares, that his father had in his possession, in the year 1704, a Journal in English which "seemed to have been written many years before," and which describes the Mississippi from its mouth to the great Yellow river (the Missouri.) This Journal, he insinuates, was in existence before any of the French Narratives were published. As it is impossible at present to ascertain the truth of these assertions, we pass on to an important era in the history of this discovery. For some time previous to Marquette's expedition, Cavalier de la Salle, a gentleman of Rouen, in Normandy, had entertained the hope of acquiring wealth and honourable distinction in some new expedition into the undiscovered parts of North America. His first project was to search for a North West passage from the Atlantic to China or Japan. For this purpose, he went to Canada, and had an interview with Joliet, who had just returned to Montreal with the news of his discoveries. La Salle put little faith in Joliet's declaration, that the Mississippi could only terminate in the Gulf of Mexico, and flattered himself that, by ascending the river, instead of going to the south, he should certainly succeed in the object of his enterprise. Full of these anticipations, he returned to France, laid his plans before the Cabinet, obtained the assistance of the ministry and the approbation of the king, associated with himself the Chevalier de Tonti, an intelligent Italian, and set sail from Rochelle on the 14th of July, 1678, with a party of 30 men. Arrived at Quebec, they took into the expedition Father Louis Hennepin, a Flemish priest of the order of the Recollets, by whom they were accompanied in the greater part of their subsequent adventures. After visiting Niagara, the Lakes, Makina and St. Mary's Falls, he passes from Lake Michigan to the river Illinois, on the banks of which he builds Fort Crevecœur, where he remains for the winter, despatching M. Dacan and Father Hennepin down the river, with instructions to ascend the Mississippi, if it be possible, to its very source, and Vol. I.

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intending himself to return to Fort Frontenac, in order to obtain a supply of men and ammunition. Why La Salle should thus give to Hennepin an opportunity to defraud him of the honours of his long meditated expedition, it is difficult to conceive. It is probable, however, that he had by this time become convinced of the impracticability of a North West passage through the upper branches of the Mississippi, and not anticipating either profit or renown from any discovery in that quarter, had reserved to himself the voyage down the Mississippi to the sea. Be this as it may, Hennepin, in his "New Discovery,"* declares that the honour of tracing this great river to its embouchure belongs to himself alone. He disobeyed, as he acknowledges, the express instructions of La Salle, to ascend the river, and went down, as he alleges, to its mouth, and then returned. This story was generally discredited in Europe, and it is certain that in Hennepin's first account of his travels, entitled, a Description of Louisiana, published in 1682, he does not appear to have been south of the mouth of the Illinois, nor did he describe the lower Mississippi until some years. after the publication of Tonti's book. We shall give our readers a brief sketch of what Hennepin, in his New Discovery, professes to have done, leaving it for them to judge, whether there is reason to believe, with Charlevoix and others, that Hennepin's narrative is false. According to his own story, he left Crevecoeur on the 29th of February, 1680, and on the 7th of March following, entered the Meschasipi, according to his calculations, in lat. 35° 30'; (three degrees and a half out of the way;) leaving the junction of the two rivers on the eighth, (he forgets that two pages before he had said that the ice had detained him there until the twelfth,) he arrives in six hours opposite the mouth of the river of the Messorites (the Missouris.) On the ninth, the party fell in with an Indian village, Tamaroa, (probably near St. Louis ;) on the tenth they made 40 leagues, and reached the river of the Ouadbaches, (the Ohio, or river of the Wabashes); on the 21st, they passed the Akansa, and on the 25th came in sight of the Sea. Hennepin states the length of the Mississippi below the Illinois, to be 340

* A New Discovery of a vast country in America, extending above Four thousand Miles between New France and New Mexico, with a Description of the Great Lakes, Cataracts, Rivers, Plants and Animals. Also, the Manners, Customs and Languages of the several Native Indians, and the Advantage of Commerce with those different Nations. With a Continuation, giving an Account of the Attempts of the Sieur de la Salle upon the mines of St. Barbe, &c. &c. with the advantages of a short cut to China and Japan, &c. &c. by L. Hennepin, now resident in Holland. London, 1699.

leagues, which is a shrewd conjecture; and the whole length from its source, he calculates to be at least 800 leagues. The river, he informs us, divides at its mouth into three principal passes, and empties into the sea, in about lat. 28°. All this is sufficiently near the truth, to have proved, if the account had preceded the narrative of Tonti, that Hennepin actually descended to the Gulf. But the particulars of his ascent are too improbable to be true. By his own dates, he was but ten days in going from the mouth of the Mississippi to the mouth of the Illinois, a distance of upwards of 1350 miles against a powerful current, a voyage which our trading row-boats can scarcely accomplish in seven times the same interval of time. His dates, too, are inconsistent. He leaves the mouth of the Mississippi on the first of April, reaches the Akansa villages on the ninth, (p. 128) stays there a day, and leaves there on the twentyfourth, (pp. 129, 137,) and then suddenly re-appears above the falls of Owamena or St. Anthony on the twelfth of the same month. Thus, Father Hennepin would make us believe that he descended from the Illinois to the sea, and returned to the falls of St. Anthony, in 43 days, time barely sufficient to enable him to proceed directly from the first to the last of these places, which, there is not the smallest doubt, is precisely what he did.

From the falls of St. Anthony, Hennepin ascended to the mouth of the St. Francis, where, on the 12th of April, 1680, he was taken prisoner, with the rest of his party, by the Issati or Nadowessi Indians, carried by them some distance to the north and east of the Mississippi, there detained until the beginning of July, and finally brought back, by the way of the St. Francis, to the falls of St. Anthony. Thence he was conducted by the savages to the mouth of the Wisconsin, where he finds the Sieur du Luth, and his party, who had been sent out some time before from Canada. The Indians carry them again to the Nadowessi country, and then permit them to return to Michilimakina, which they do by the way of the Wisconsin, and the Fox rivers. Hennepin's story of his adventures, during his captivity, is neither probable nor entertaining, giving no distinct idea of the topography of the country, and consisting of little else than a tedious alternation of fanciful descriptions, and evangelical apostrophes. Although it is palpable at every page that he well deserved the ungentle epithet of 'Father Hennepin the great liar,' by which he was generally known as well in Europe as in Canada, yet it cannot be denied that the discovery of the Falls of Owamena or St. Anthony, and the credit of having first explored the Mississippi, from the Wisconsin to the St.