IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-S) 1.0 If «- IIM I.I 2.0 1.8 1.25 1.4 J4 •^ 6" — ► <^ /i / 'm '^y I <$> ^#^^ %. =.-v. V;:y:%. .j,r r .J , /( I III i^-.-' rf f§t?ii5^-'D'i) R E s s '^m cj c 'C ---.^-JT' 'S-' . i> - --::^i-)fi:^M^ DELIVERED BEFORE- ■ ■ f ■•'-■' ■ *•' '■>■■-,! . '♦'i, 'Sj ' '■■■>.'• ■•'■'' J ('i'/'j'^'V'^v -^-■".■■'V-V-.:' 4 > .•■ ,1, ' ;t r-..^> * ■.-• ;'■', ■:■■■■' -Vv^:^ :.;, u • ..'i. .-. ■ -VV i ■ }..\, V, ■ -J- ■, Y V. . ■-.■ ■■..■:■. -. ■■ • '^.'" JULY iO, 1^8V^ ■ :■■*'. . fnh:r AS xr VERSA RY of the discovery of the Mississippi fij, MARQUETTE AND JOLIET. ^ /• ; . , ,^<■.■ .i.;.-, -t-7-^^tv^#i>\-/iiY JOHN (lILMAliY siiEA.,':;V^^;?^-fc>;i;v-.- ■ ■ * V;''. 'i','-'.' ■ : •■,■', I i-, " ';■' , ■>'■•: -..;'-■,; ■ ---"',-;«.: ' v ■ - . '.-■■- 'y i-^"' >■" ■; C;' V; .^/.c:-' Vr- /v- :fv ': AA^ ^-^Ew- York : - ;., ^, Uvi- ^-■■■::!^" C^' i^t^%^:: H. J. HEWITT, PRINTER, 27 ROSE STREET. :^^ ; .i; ''^''■■<>>■■ ,;- ■ ".y ^^11 :,,, ■ 'y V^Dv' V? ■*j"Afc»>* 4 ■ VT'*W»»\l*j .ACV>ft\ .:;>i-: »■ ■■(".' i.^'^i.*^";-;..-; ■''•*'r ^..,■■ ^'i- . V ADDEESS «%B^ r*T ' DELIVERED BEFORE t-v, The Missouri Historical Society, ,■:?:■■;■(? ■'''^i JULY 19, 1878, rilE ANNirERHARY OF THE DltiCOVEnY OF THE MISSLSSIPI'I BY ifARQUETTE AND JOLIET. By JOHN GILiMAKY SHEA. ■4 ■ ' New Yoiuv : H. J. HEWITT, PRINTER, 27 ROSE STREET. 1878. va*=^^a o JV/ / -i( ! ADDRESS. I Mkmberb ov. thr Missouri Historical So- ciety, Ladies it ND Gentlemen of St .Lodis: It is with singular diffidence tha^ I rise to ad dress you on an occasion which excises such a noble enlhusiasm, aid displays iu your Stioe such a laudable desire to commemorata the historic past. The Queen City of the Mississippi valley, so rich in all the traditions and legends of by- gone days, with all its romantic- associations, could summon many of her own sons, many from the proud State of Missouri, many an orator from the length and breadth of the Mississippi valley, who would invest thn theme of this day's celebration with all the heaven- given genius of the orator and jioet. Before such an audience as I sba gathered here I feel all the more deeply the great honor you confer upon me, and while I thank the Missouri Hi-storical Sooietj^ and the citizens of St. Louis for the distinction, I congratulate them that an eloquent son of Missouri is to ad dress you, and by his flowing words make this anniversary indelible in your minds. Called by your flattering choice from a scholar's seclusion on the shores of the Atlan- tic, i find myself in the midst of a brilliant as- semblage, welcomed by the merit, the learn- ing, ibe wealth, the culture, and refinement of the real centre of our great republic, the ciiy of St. Louis. You have dedicated this day to an event in our early history, but one so intimately con- nected with the greatness of the country that you evoke for it all that can kindle yjur en- thusiasm and exalt it to a niche of hon or and respect. And yet there are few events in human an- nals thai, in the persons of the chief actors, or the attendant circumstances mid accessories, teem so incommensurate with the wonderful 'I results that ensued, results fraught with inte- rest to millions of those whom Christianity and civilization had fitted for the highest and noblest use of the blessings bestowed by a kind Providence. Two hundred and flvo years a ro this very day two bark canoes were launched at a Quappa town near the Arkansas to stem the mighty tide of the Mississippi. There seemed little in this to give the actors a place in his- tory, measured by the standard of those who see greatness only in the victorious battle-fleld and no laurels that are not crimsoned with hu- min blood. But let us stiidy this group of pea refill conquerors. There are no other white men within six hundred miles of them. The Spaniards in St, Augustine, which bad just celebrated Its first centennial, and the English in their ntw settlement at Charleston were nearer by several hundred miles than any countrymen of the bold explorers. Alone in the wilderness, with nature in all her majesty speaking her lessons from river aud plain, from wooded upland and savannas rich in tropic vegetation, stands a thoughtful man in the worn garb of Ji mis'^ionarj', a face that impresses you with the holiness of his life, a frame apparently ill fitted for the rugged career which haaaged it prematurely — a mm ot iatellect, piety, and action, his nearest con?panion, clear and frank, a man of energy and power, with a bearing of culture, study, and observation. His bronzed features, his garb of French frontiersman could not for a moment induce you to confound him with the coarser element with which his life threw him in contact. Marquette and Joliet stand at the water's edge amid a crowd of Indians from the nearest village, their five boatmen, who had plied their paddles on many a stream and lake, push the ligQt barks into the waters of the Mississippi. A gleam of pride and satisfaction, of holier joy and consolation, light up the countenances of the two explorers. It was, indeed, a moment of triumph. They had solved a question of geographical science that had long engaged the thougnts of mission- ary and pioneer, though the learned societies in Europe knew nothing of it. The great Western river, at first dimly heard of, gradu- ally more clearly recognized in Indian talks 3 had been reached, had been navigated with its current for a whole month ; its course was known, its value and importance were Icaown, and now these two, crowned with success, were to bear back to civilization the knowledge acquired, and to tell astonished Europe that the canvas-winged ship could penetraie into the very heart of the American continent by one of the migh;iest rivers of earth. As they stood there on the 17th of July, 1673, thev felt that their work was accomplished. Its importance they saw more clparly than most of their generation, but with all their gaze into futurity they would h ive been pro- phets, indeed, could they have droamed of the Alissis«ippi as we behold it, could they realize what I behold. What a change from that solitary group of white men on the river's brink, with a hand- ful of savages and a wretched Indian hamlet, to the millions in splendid cities and towns, in cultured farms and teeming plantations ; the home of science, literature, art, invention; bearing the richest fruits of material, aesthe- tic, intellectual development. We meet to shaA the joy of Marquette and Joliet on that memorable day, an I to pay our tribute of honor to the two men whose studies led to the expedition, who so bravely under- took and so satisfactorily effected the explora- tion. Joliet and Marquette are well worthy of a nation's reverence. The discovery of the Mis- sissippi was uot a mpre chance encounter in an aimless roving. It was well considered, planned on information long and patiently ac- quired, and carried out with prudence, cau- tion, and exact observation. Spain knew of a great river traversing this land, but she took no steps to explore it or study its future bearing on the interests of mankind. The remnant of the expedition un- der Famphilo de Narvaez may be pardoned for giving no great thought to the mighty river which formed such an obstacle in their fatal courie from Pioiida of disaster to some outpost of their countrymen in Mexico. Soto, "tlie fourth and greatest tyrant," asLasCasas calls him, reached the river and ascended it, unconscious that it was to be his tomb. It is not impossible that he stood with his gaunt and half -naked band, red with Indian blood, and a pursued by the imprecations ef desolated vil- lages, stood on this very spot where we gather to-day. But their knowledge of the river was acquired in vain. The Spaniards in New Mexi- co had sent oat expeditions penetrating through the plains to many of tne western branches of the great river, and in all proba- bility to its banks. But the object of all search on their part was gold, and gold on the surface. Witu no evidence 'at once of the existence of that metal, Spain neglected to take any higher view or to make the knowledge obtained by her explorerH of any advantage to herself or mankind. Stories of fabled empires that out- rivallei in gold and silver the pomp of Mex'co or Peru light up some of these New Mexican accounts, ant^ were borrowed by La Uontan and Sagean. but they failed to tt>mpt the suc- cessors of rhilip and Charles to occupy the valley of the great river. The handful of Jesuit missionaries in Cana- da looked at it in a different light. It is to their great credit that, while pursuing their noble attempt to convert the red men, they were far-sighted, impressed \Ah the resources and advantages of this great country, and confl'lent of its future. Few in number, for in a period of two hundred years they num- bered in all their colleges and missions only two hundred and twenty, and rarely more than thirty at any one time, scattered from the Oulf of St. Lawrence to the banks of the Mis- sissippi, these cultivated men studied the topo- graphy, resources, and products ot the coun- try, in the sole view of the future extension of European and Christian influence, that a new Christendom might grow up here and the wild tribes be won to its bosom. Doing their duty manfully in the living pre- sent to the little native flock that each could gather, chastening as they could the rough pioneer, and holding him to the civilization he left far behind, the missionaries studied the new land of America. Year by year they repoited the information they acquired of the unlmown interior of America, the relation of tribes and languat^es, the natural features and pathways. Pushing far ahead of the mog1and coast, men nar- rower in their views, thinking less of humani- ty at large than of themselves, knowing two hundred years ago less of the country a hun- dred miles from the coast than the French did of tens of thousands of square miles of the in- terior. Studying out rude maps, traced by In- dians on the sand or on bark, the Jesuit mis- sionary became satisfied that while no large stream entered ^\w lakes, the country to the FOuth was drained by a mighty river, its name aMionsr the tribes they knew was just this, Great River — Mississippi. Where did it rise ? Whither did it flow ? Marquette, Dablon, Alloue:! recognized the Wisconsin as evidently a branch of this great river, and urged the Canadian Government to authorize or attempt its exploration. A knowledge of its course and mouth might be of incalculable advantage to France, and open a wide realm for Chris- tian missionary effort. The representations seem to have found little favor, but when Father Dablon, returning from years of mis- sion labor in Wisconsin, becamx superior of his order at Quebec he was brought into direct contact with the governor and intendant. His vivid descri'jfiions of the West and of its won- derful advantages, the ease with which an ex- ploration could be made of the great river, told at last on Talon, whose able administra- t 6 tion of Canadian affairs as intendant won him the name of the Colbert of New France. Just as he was departing to France he re- commended the project which the Jesuits had so much at heart to that remarkable character in French-American history, Louis Count d© Froutenac. That haughty noble had just in all bis pomp taken possession of the castle of Quebec as Uovernor-Gt neral of New France. Louis Joliet, a young man of education, skilled as a h>drographer and surveyor, well ac- quainted witn theWest, who had already nearly reached the bankj of tne Mississippi, was com- mended by Talon to the governor as a fit per- son. The Jesuit missionaries were not alluded to at all, as the count was strongly prejudiced against them, and would have done nothing to contribute to any result redounding to their credit. The oHcial record states that " Joliet was sent to the country of the Maskouteing to discover the South sea and the great river they call the Mississippi, which is supposed to discharge itself into the sea of California." This brief notice in Frontenac's despatch shows how little importance he really attached to the expedition, and what feeble results he could have anticipated. Louis Joliet set out with no well-equipped scientific corps such as governments now send forth ; he seems to have gone alone with no aid but such as he himself c^uld command. No appropriation from the treasury was made lor an expedition that was to lift the veil from unknown America. Indeed, had the expedition been one of pa- lade and apparent honor, some one of the petty courtiers of the petty court of Quebec, some man boasting of rank or favor in France, would have been chosen. The mad plunge into the unknown might be left without jeal- ousy to a man who could never be a rived— to Loiiis Joliet, American born, American bred, well educated, indeed ; a keen observer of men and nature, unwearied and undaunted in peril, with the mathematical knowledge to map out the discoveries he might make. At Point St. Ignace, where the waters of three lakes mingle in the straits of Mackinaw, where Marquette's chapel and remains have been so recs tly discovered, Joliet stepped ashore one bleak December day. It was the f ''\ ^ Feast of the Immaculate Conception, a day especially dear to the missionary whom ho was to meet, and with whom the project was one of constant thought. As Marquette himself tells us in the devotional oiif jjouiing that cha- racterizes his narrative, ho had for years sought of heaven, in [irayer through Marj, grace to bear the cross to the tribes on the Mississippi River. His prayers seemed an- swered, when issuing from fals chapel he met Joliet, who came on this day of all others, with orders from the governor and Intendant to make the discovery with him. No two men, perhaps, were better fitted ; yet they spent the whole winter collecting all possible information and drawing up a preli- minary map, which would be a treasure be- yond all price had it survived for us to gaze upon today. On it they laid down their route to the Mississippi, the course of the river as they conjectured it, the affluents to be met on the way, the tribes they should probably encounter. The names obtained were doubt- less mainly in the Ottawa and other Algonquin languagps, and, transferred to their later map, have in many cases continued to our times. Incidental illusions in Marquette's brief and unpretentious narrative give us some idea of this map and of the wonderful extent to which the niissionaries had acquired accurate knowl- edge of the country. He refers to the lakes from which the Mississippi originated in a matter-of-fact way, as a point already known, although the Government in our day sent out an expedition to verify the fact, when School- craft gave an absurd name to the lake source. They bad heard of a great river emptying into the Mississippi from the west, rising in a water-thed that sent streams and livers to the Fiicitlc. All this was laid down on that map, though no white man had ever entered the country. Thtre are many maps of Joliet's in existence, some of which need solution, and one of them may bo really this conjectural map, so accurate as to be supposed the work of a later day. When genial spring had loosed the icy bonds that locked the northern lakes and rivers they selected five experienced men to paddle the two stanch bark canoes, which 'had doubtless been carefully built during the long winter. Then, with no outfit but a stock of V' ^ 8 dried meat and parched corn, the party left the strand of St. Ignace. May 17, 1673. Pla-- ine his voyage under the protection of Mary, as Marquette tells us, he promisad to give the name of the Immaculate Conception to the river, should they succeed in exploring it, and to the first mission he might be able to estab- lish. 'I'he old Algonquin name under which he first heard the river spoken of has never yielded to that which his piety sugeested, but the church in the little ancient town of Kns- kaskla, whose annals your society has so credi- tably gathered, still shews that Father Mar- quette kept his vow. Across the familiar waters of Lake Michigar, through Green Bay and up the Fox River they sped their course to a Miami and Kickapoo town, the limit of previous exploration. JJu- deterred by wild Lidian stories of frightful monsters, of demons that swallowed all new- comers—tales whosa meaning they were .'oon to see — accounts of heat so intense as to k 11 them, and ot what was really to be faared, war parties eager for scalps, the explorers, com- mending tnemtel >s to God, launcher) their canoes on the Wihi^onsin and glided down its current amid its vine-clad isles, its wooded and Draii'ie shores, till fear was lost for a time in admiration of the beauties of nature. Their entrance Into the unexplored became mys- terious by the utter absence of man ; no sound of human industry, no smoke of distant camr- fire reached thoir senses, strained to catch every impression. Without having encountered a human beinK during their voyage down the Wisconsin, they beheld their canoes on the 17th of June glid*^ safely into the mighty river of so many pray- ers and hopes. Tliey gazed up its clear waters as if to scan the course it took from its north em lakes, then turned their bows southward aui with swelhng beaits entered the r.ew realm. They were on a river broad and deep, like no other they had seen sinre they left the St. Lawrence. They were on the Ikfsaissippi. The prairies, that seemed to stretch away end- lessly, teeming with game, with herds of buffa'O and deer, with scarcely a tree tr mountain visible, told them that the region was diflfc-rtnt from all they had yet known. Strange animals on the shore, straiicor fish in the waters, excited their wonder. On and oq Y •K 9 h they went, erer on the alerfc,keepine well off the shore, landing only at night to light a fire and cook a frugal meal. Thus the explorers in their two canoes descended the river mile after mile till thr 7 began to imagine themselves in a land where the face of man was never seen. Thu solitude was overpowering. The fair land they expected to And studded with Indian vil- lages gave no souud, no sight, no symptom of human life. It seemed like some vast ocean, grand, smiling, wonderful after a storm in which it had swallowed up all on its treacher- ous bosom. A week after entering the nver they at last saw a trail in a beautiful prairie. Joliet and Marquette, leaving their men in the cnnoes, landed, and, too full of emotion to speak, fo]. lowed the trail in silence. A village wa^ soon in t-iglit with clustering cabins ; but even here an was still. There was no one to notice their approach. They haltat last. The Indian hail bursts from their lips. As the shrill sound rolls over the prairie the whole tribe dash out in amazement. Already the black gown of the Jesuit was known by name tu distant tribes that never saw a white man. Marquette's cliaracter was at once recognized, and chiefs advancing tell him in reply to his questions that they are Illi- nois. They then invite the Pr€nch to their village. A naked sachem met them at a cabin door, his hands with open Angers held up between him and the sun. His attitude and welcome gave Longfellow one of the most beautiful pasrsages in "Hiawatha." "How beautiful is the sun, O Frenchman I when thou comest to visit us 1 All our town awaits thee, and thou sbalt enter all our cabins in neace." This was the noble welcome of the western shore of the Mississippi to civilization and Christianifcv. Then the great calumet of pence was smoked, and a friendship began that lime never dimmed. When the missionary unfolded the o'lj ct of his sacred calling, the sacbem repliid : '* I thank thee, Blackgown, and thee, Frenchman, for takins; so much pains to come and vioit us; never has the earth been so beautiful, nor the sun so bright as to-day ; never has our river been 80 calm, nor so free from rockH, which 10 your canoes have remoyed as they passed ; never has our tobacco had so fine a flavor, nor our com appeared so beautiful as we behold it to-day. I pray thee, take pity on me and ail my nation. Thou knowe^^t the Great Spirit who has made us all, thou speakest to him and hearest his word ; ask him to give me life and fa.?altb, and come dwell with us that we may know him." The spell of mysterious solitude was broken. They had met a tribe of Indians to find friends and a welcome. New and valuable informa- tion was gained, and the Illinois, after enter* taining the missionary and bis party, presented him a great calumet of peace. They could now advance with lighter b3art8, bearing a symbol new to them, but henceforth to bear an important part in history, the calu- met or pipe of peace. Indian legend represents the great peace pipe as a gift of the Qreat Spirit to men. Tired of their wan, he bade them, as Longfellow teUs it : " Bary your war-clubs and yonr weapons, Break t;ie red atone from tbis qaarry, MoDld and make it Into peace-pipes, Take the reeds that grow beside yon, Deck tbem with your brightest feathers, Smoke tbe calumet toeemer, And as brothers live henceforward." Cheered aud encouraged by their reception, the explorers sped on their way, gazing in as- tonishment at the almost inaccessible rocks, where some Indian artist had depicted in vivid colors monstrous forms which for ages defied the hand of time. But while thev sailed down the clear, pure waters of the Mississippi, they were startled by a fearful noise that broke upon their ears. They had reached tbe mouth of your mighty river ; and the Missouri, swollen by a rainy season, came bearing as trophies hundreds of trees torn from the alluvial banks. A these shot out into the Mississippi, forming little islands as they matted togetner, the explorers were startled. It was a more fearful sight than they had yet encountered, a real danger in which they beheld the devouring monster described in tbe imagination of the Indian. The great Missouri— Pekitanoui, as Mar- inette calls it— took its place in geography. As we have seen, Marquette was already in- 11 formed as to its course, and the fact that near its sources were streams flowing into the Paci- fic. He notes this true theory simply with no parade or pretence, but merely with a pious wiso that he might be able in person to test the practicability of the route which he in- dicated, and which in our century Lewis and Clarke explored. Past the mouth of the turbid Missouri, past a dreaded whirlpool, past the Ohio chat came from the land of the 8hawnees, as he knew and notes, on to the land where canebrakes lined the shores and mosquitoes swarmed in myriads. Days again without seeing any sign of' man, till a hostile demonstration is made from the shore by a roving band with guns, axes, and other European articles, bought from white settlements on the east, Florida or Caro- lina. It was not till they had nearly reached the mouth of the St. Francis that they found the second village, the castle of the Metchl- gamea tribe. The Iliiuois had been friendly. These Indians evim.'ed every sign of hostility. The war-cry was raised, braves lined tne banks, while others, launching their great dug- out canoes, pushed out into the stream to arrest their progress and prevent their flight. In vain tue missionary held out tbe calumet of peace, a war-club was hurled at him, and ex- pecting to be riddled by volleys of arrows, the belplebS white men commended themselves to their patroness and guide, the Blessed Virgin Immaculate. At once the sachems stilled the storm, chiefs advanced, and, throwing their bows and arrows into the canoes, drew them to tlie shore. Through one who spoke Illinois, the explorers told their mission, and asked how far they were from the sea. liut there was little thete men could tell the French. Taey referred them to the Quappas or Ar- kansas, some twenty -flve miles below, then, regaling the explorers with.corn and flsh, sent them on tlieir way. An Aikansas canoe came out to welcome them, a chief flourishing the great calumet of peace. This was a prelude to a hearty wel- come at tbeir village on the eastern shore. Here, too, the explorers found proofs of Euro- pean intercourse, though it proved to be only through other tribes, as hostile nations cut off the Arkansas from all approach to white n settlements. They were now in Indian calcu- lation only ten days' sail from the mouth of the Mississippi, which each tells us he be- lieved they could accomplish in half that time. They rested for a day in this town of naked men and ill-clad women, who lived by the butfalo hunt, raising only com and melons ; their long bark cabins showing no signs of cjiy art but pottery. Meanwhile Marquette ^nd Joliet dehberated on tbeir further course. They were nearing the range of the Spaniards, ever jealous of any encroachment within the limits they claimed. They had acquired much information in regard to more than eighty lidian villages, although they saw so few, they had traced the river and knew its general direction, its branches, the condition of the countiy, the paucity of the Indian tribes on the upper waters, and had establish- ed to a certainty that the river entered the Gulf of Mexico. Only a few hundred miles more lay between them and the gulf.R Should thev go on and reach the mouth at the risk of falling into the hands of the Spani- ards, which meant perpetual imprisonment ; or should they, satisfied with having bolved the gieat question so long debated among the explorer? of the West, return and report what had been accomplished ? As we now know, their fear of the Spaniards was groundless, but the tribes near t'ue mouth might never have allowed them to escape with life, and they evidently had not counted fully the labor of that midsummer ascent of the Mississippi. They decided to return, and after that brief rest in the Arkansas village on Indian Point, Mississippi, they gathered once more on the shore by their northern-built canoes. It wnA the 17th day of July, 1678, jui*- two hundred and five years ago, the mome'' . ^bat we have met to-day to commemorate, xt was the crowning point of the work of Joliet and Marquette. They had borne the cross of Christendom and the arms of France down the Mississippi almost to its mouth ; they bad won the friendship of unknown tribes ; they had learned the topography of the great valley and mapped out the river, its tributaries, lie towns and tribes ; they knew itB resources. To-day they began their triumphal voyage home, rich in good done, and in valuable in- 18 formation acquired, grand aud peace ui con- querors of the Mississippi, noble Marquette and nobl« .loli^t. S'uce the discovery of Marquette's remains at Fointe Saint Ignace steps have been taken to rear a monument there to show the spot whence the expedition started, the spot to which the missionary explorer, dying like a brave soldier, doing duty to his latest breath, was borne from his temporary tomb. This society may well rear a modest monu- ment at Indian Point— Point Joliet, let us call it — to ma k the termination of this adventur- ous voyage, and record that there, July 17, 1673, Marquette aad Joliet considered their task accomplished in solving the great ques- tion. One tace of the monument may also record that not far from that spot long lay, in an unknown grave, the remains of Pierre Ligueste Laclede, tne founder of St. Louis. To-day Hissouri recognizes fully the title of Joliet and Marquette as the first explorei s, as Wisconsin has already done. Clear as the evi- dence was, the followers of La Salle in the seventeenth centur.) disputed their claim. In our day the Normans, Margry and Gravier, renew the controversy, raismg a host of sha- dowy claims which vanish wnen you try to grasp tliem, each more unsubstantial than the last. They have only led to searches which brought to ligtit maps and documents substan- tiating by a chain of testimony the claim of the two whom we honor. Launching their canoes amid the farewells of their Arkansas friends, they began to stem the current of the river. They had de. tended the Mississippi for more than a thousand miles, borne onward by its current ; now, in the midst of the heats of July, they were to toil painfully up. We have few details of this te- dious passage, this long struggle of mcH weak- ened by the heats and conflinemeut in a canoe ; days passed in the same monotonous way. The shore offered no refuge in its swampy margin ; no haven appeared where they could refresh and recruit till reaching the mouth of the Illi- nois River. Here they entered a gentler stri^am with inviting banks, a perfect paradise in their eyes. At old Kaskaskia, on the upper waters of the Illinois, Marquette rested to inaugurate a mis- sion ; and, guided thence to Lake Michigan, 14 the two explorers reached Green Bay in Sep- tember, worn out with exposure— Marquette, indeed, with the seeds of a fatal malady in his system. While that mipsionary resumed his labors at his Mackinac chapel, Jolieti in the spj ing de- scended to Montreal, but at the Lachine rapids his canoe turued, three of his party perished, and his box of papers and maps relating to the West was engulf el for ever. He himself, after four hours' struggle in the wate", was rescued in an insensible condition by some fishermen. He had passe<' through a thousand dangers, descended nearly fifty rapids on his way to meet this terrible disaster in sight of Montreal. Marquette's map and his narrative, imbued with aft his tender piety and unselfish devo- tion, alone survived. It is a cbarming picture of a pure, good man, who can never be sus- pected of making a false claim. Joliet drew up a brief account of his discov- eries, and solicited frora thekinga grant in the vast territory which he had added to the realm of France. He was curtiy refused, and no re- ward was bestowed upon him until later ser- vices in various fields compelled a tardy ac- knowledgment. Laclede fulfllJed his wish. Born in Quebec, and baptized in the shadow of the cathedral dedicated to St. Louis and the Immaculate Conception, Joliet received the name of the saintea king of France, and had his monarcn permitted him to colonize this land he would certainlj' have founded a city of Ht. Louis. Marquette sought no guerdon. Though broken in health, he kept his promise to the Illinois. He set out for Kaskaskia, but was forced to winter at Chicago, where his hut was the first white habitation and chapel. Ac Kaskaskia he telt tbat his death was at hand, and endeavored to reach his chapel at Mackinac. As his faithful men conveyed him along the shore of Lake Michigan he pointed out a place for his burial, and bade them put him ashore. Beneath a rude bark shelter lie breathed his lust. He had given instructions for his burial, consoled his companions, and the last act o! his ministry was to hear their confessions. He prepared for death cheer- fully, thanking God that he died bereft of all human comfort and died in the society of Jesus. With his eyes raised abqv-ted on an American state, was folly. It is strange, and yet it is true, that the only En- glishman who seems to have formed any idea of the future greatness of America, who at- tempted to increase it, bind all the colonies ici- to one great state, and wrest from France the sway which impeded English expansion, was the s 'Vereign who of ill others is pointed at as a man of incapacity, James II., the last of the Stuarts. The explorers of the Mississippi, in laying that valley at the feet of Louis XIV., might have said : "Another Jacquerie is at hand. Your people, wasted by long wars, ere doublv waated by the prevailing extra vaeanca and licentiousness of the upper classes. Prance cannot support her children. Create a new France in this glorious part of America. See what has prospered there and what has failed. Onlv communities hound by some vital tie thrive and succeed, while chance emigration, where whole families do not go together with 17 all the elements of a commanity, fail or pine. New England with her settlers forming a com- munity of families, bound by a deep religious bond, with every trade, with church and school, prospers on the almost sterile coast. Canada owns her presisrvation and progress both at Quebeo and Montreal to the same reli- gious and cornmunity elements. From some exhausted province in France, from that Aca- dian shore in America where England threa- tens a noble community of colonists, trans- plant whole villages to the Mississippi valley — farmers with their families and implen^ents of agriculture, carpenters with their tools, the hlaclcsmith with nis smithy, the teacher to con- tinue his school, the clergyman to resume his wonted duties. Under their industry the land will yield beyond all calculation. France can then support her chilaren, and those wno have gone will form a new France, strong in itself and strengthening the old." But France did nothing. Her only course was to cripple colonization by leaving the land of Marquette and Joliet to great soulless com- panies. She neglected the Acadians, England could afford to send ships to carry off seven thou- sand and scatter them in destitution through her colonies. France had not forecast or gene- rosity enough to transport them with their household goods to this valley, where they would have become great and powerful, hav- ing in themselves every element of success. If the few stragglers who revived Acadia in Louisiana throve and prospered, who can esti- mate the progress to be made by the whole Acadian population transferred under favora- ble circumstances ? The English colonies that prospered from the outset were those where families settled bound by some potent tie — New England, Maryland, Pennsylvania — elsewhere only when moulded by disaster into a community. The English Government did nothing. When Townsliend described the American colonies an " children planted by our care, nourisLed up by our indulgence, and protected by our ^rmH," Burke, in a strain of indignant ora- tory, showed the fallacy of it all, yet even he did not see the true element, '.!*'. ^- ■ •"<'i ., , '^■<^-.' ,^;r^;.".:.' ; "'^'J: ' , ■ ,j > ■; ■;•' y,,- :y. ,' ■ (•-,;■; .v>-" . ^ 'i»3'*r>