BANCROFT 
 LIBRARY 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
k" 
 
 THE JOURNEY 
 
 OF 
 
 MONGACHT-APE, 
 
 BY 
 
 ANDREW McFARLAlSTD DAYIS. 
 
THE JOURNEY 
 
 OF 
 
 MONCACHT-APE, 
 
 AN INDIAN OF THE TAZOO TRIBE, 
 
 ACEOSS THE CONTINENT, ABOUT THE YEAK 1700. 
 
 BY 
 
 ANDREW McFARLAND DAVIS. 
 
 [FBOM PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ANTIQCABIAN SOCIETY, APBIL 25, 1888.] 
 
 WORCESTEE, MASS., U. S. A.: 
 
 PRINTED BY CHARLES HAMILTON, 
 
 No. 311 MAIN STREET. 
 
 1883. 
 
THE JOURNEY OF MONCACHT-APE. 
 
 IN the autumn of 1718 M. LePage du Pratz landed in America. In 
 company with about eight hundred others forwarded by the " Company 
 of the West " he had come to this country to settle. He first located 
 near New Orleans, where Bienville was then just starting a new settle- 
 ment, but the situation of his grant proving unhealthy, he shortly after- 
 wards moved up to Natchez. There he secured a farm, on which he 
 spent eight of the sixteen years he was in this country. He had served 
 in the army in Germany and had received a fair education. He was of 
 a speculative turn of mind, fond of theorizing and always on the alert 
 for information. While at Natchez he collected and transmitted to 
 Paris no less than three hundred plants used by the Indians as remedies. 
 He cultivated the friendship of his Indian neighbors and studied their 
 habits and their language. In 1758 he published at Paris his " Histoire 
 de la Louisiane," in which in addition to the personal experiences and 
 observations there recorded he has treasured up much that he garnered 
 from conversations with the old men of the tribes concerning the tradi- 
 tions of their origin, their religion and their forms of government. 
 
 The importance attached to one of these conversations by M. de 
 Quatrefages, in an article in the Revue d' Anthropologie, l is the occa- 
 sion of this paper. The story of Moncacht-Ape's journey across the 
 continent and of his encounter with the bearded white men on the 
 North Pacific Coast of this country, has, to all intents and purposes, 
 slumbered in the pages of LePage du Pratz until it was revived by de 
 Quatrefages, who takes pride in the thought that he is, as he believes, 
 the first to call attention to its importance. 
 
 To understand the merit of the arguments upon which he bases his 
 faith in the story, it is essential that the whole of the story should be 
 read, otherwise one can neither appreciate the importance attached to 
 the verisimilitude of its style, nor measure the value of the coincidences 
 between the statements of the Indian concerning this unknown region 
 and the facts as revealed by Lewis and Clark and other subsequent 
 explorers. 
 
 We turn therefore to the pages of LePage du Pratz 2 and allow him to 
 introduce the story in his own words : 
 
 " When the Natchez came to the part of America in which I found 
 them there were several tribes living on both sides of the Mississippi 
 
 1 Eevue d'Anthropologie. Tome 4me. 1881. 
 
 * Histoire de la Louisiane, par M. LePage du Pratz, Paris, 1758, v. III., 
 p. 87 et seq. 
 
They called each other Red Men, and their origin is extremely difficult 
 to discover, for they have not, like the Natchez, preserved their tradi- 
 tions nor have they arts and sciences like the Mexicans, from which one 
 can draw inductions. The only thing to be learned from them is, what 
 they invai'iably say, that they came from the North- West, and the spot 
 that they point out with their fingers, no matter where they may be at the 
 time, should be about fifty-five degrees of latitude. This meagre infor- 
 mation not being satisfactory to me, I made inquiry, if among the neigh- 
 boring tribes there was not some wise old man who could enlighten me fur- 
 ther on this point. I was extremely rejoiced to learn that in the nation 
 of the Yazoos, at a distance of forty leagues from Natchez, such an one 
 could be found. His name was Moncacht-Ape. He was a man of cour- 
 age and spirit. I can do no better than compare him to the early 
 Greeks, who travelled among the Eastern people to examine the man- 
 ners and customs of the different countries and then returned to com- 
 municate what they had learned to their countrymen. Not that Mon- 
 cacht-Ape actually carried out such a project as this, but he conceived 
 the idea and did what he could to carry it out. I took advantage of a 
 visit that was paid me by this native of the Yazoo Nation, called by the 
 French ' the interpreter' because he speaks so many Indian languages, 
 but knoAvn among his own people, as I have already said, as Moncacht- 
 Ap6, which means ' one who kills difficulties or fatigue.' In fact, the 
 travels of many years did not affect his physique. I begged him to re- 
 peat to me an account of his travels, omitting nothing. My proposition 
 seemed to please him. I shall make our traveller speak in the first per- 
 son, but I shall abridge his voyage to the Eastern Coast, because he 
 speaks there largely of Canada which is very well known. I shall only 
 report what there was in it of importance. He began as follows : 
 
 " ' I had lost my wife, and the children that I had by her were dead 
 before her, when I undertook my trip to the country where the sun 
 rises. I left my village notwithstanding all my relations. I was ta 
 take counsel with the Chickasaws, our friends and neighbors. I re- 
 mained some days to find out if they knew whence we all came, or at 
 least, if they knew whence they themselves came : they who are our 
 ancestors, since it is from them that the language of the people comes ; 
 but they could teach me nothing new. For this reason I resolved to go 
 to the nations on the coast w'here the sun rises, to learn about them, 
 and to know if their old language was the same. They taught me the 
 route that I must take, in order to avoid the large villages of the whites 
 for fear that they might be angry to see me me a stranger. I reached 
 the country of the Shawnees, the point where I was to take up the 
 river Wabash (Ohio), and I followed it up nearly to its source which is 
 in the country of the Iroquois. but I left them to the side of the cold 
 [north] and I went into a village of the Abenaquais which was in my 
 route. I remained there until the cold weather, which in this country 
 is very severe and very long, was over. During this winter I gained 
 the friendship of a man a little older than myself, who was equally fond 
 of travelling. He promised to come with me and to conduct me, be- 
 cause he knew the way, to the Great Water which I wished to see since 
 I had heard it talked about. As soon as the snows were melted and the 
 weather settled, I started with him and we avoided the Indian settle- 
 ments. We rested frequently on the way, because this country is full 
 of stones which made our feet sore, especially mine, being unaccustomed 
 to anything of the sort. After having travelled several days we saw 
 the Great Water. When I saw it I was so content that I could not 
 speak, and my eyes seemed to me to be too small to look at it at my 
 ease, but night overtook us and we encamped near at hand, upon an 
 elevation. The water was near but below us. The wind was high and 
 
-without doubt vexed the Great Water, for it made so much noise that 
 J could not sleep. I feared that the blows that it gave would break 
 down the height where we were, although it was of stone. 
 
 " ' The sun had not appeared when I rose to see the Great Water. I 
 was much surprised to see that it was far. away. I was a long time 
 without speaking to my comrade, who thought from seeing me all the 
 time looking about and not speaking that I had lost my wits. I could 
 not understand how this could be. Finally, the wind having ceased, the 
 sun arose. The Great Water was not so much disturbed as it Avas on 
 the preceding night, and I saw with surprise that it returned towards 
 us. I sprang up quickly and fled with all my strength. My comrade 
 called out to me not to be afraid. I shouted to him, on my part, that 
 -the Great Water was coming towards us and that we should be drowned. 
 He then reassured me, saying that the red men who had seen the Great 
 Water had observed that it always advanced as much as it receded, but 
 that it never came farther up on the earth at one time than another. 
 When he had thus satisfied me we returned to the shore of the Great 
 Water, and remained there until the middle of the day when I saw it, 
 receding, go afar off. We left to go to sleep far oft" from the noise, 
 which followed me even' where, and even till evening I spoke of nothing 
 else to my comrade. We arrived at the banks of a little river, where we 
 lay down to rest, but I thought of it all the night. We retook the route 
 that we had followed in going and arrived at his home, where they 
 were glad to see us. 
 
 " ' This village is in the country at some distance from the Great 
 Water whence we had come, and they had not seen it except between the 
 lands where the great river of the country loses itself. In this region 
 where they had seen it, it advances and recedes, but much less than in 
 the place where we had seen it. These people believe that the Great 
 Water over which the French come with their floating villages, which 
 the winds move by puffing out the great sails which they bear, they 
 believe, I say, that this Great Water was like several Great Waters that 
 they have in their country which are surrounded with land and of which 
 the water is good to drink, in place of which that where we were is salt 
 and bitter. I know it because I put some of it in my mouth. More- 
 over the French say it takes more than two moons to come to our 
 country, whereas the Great Waters of their country can be crossed in 
 two or three, or at most in four days for the largest, and all that I have 
 seen agrees with what the French have told me, that this water touches 
 all lands and is as large as the earth. 
 
 " ' They listened to me with pleasure for a long time, and an old man 
 who was there told me that he had been in a place where the great river 
 of their country [St. Lawrence] precipitated itself from so high and 
 with so much noise that it could be heard a half day's journey distant ; 
 that as I was curious, I should do well to see this place when the cold 
 weather should be over. I resolved to go there. I told my comrade who 
 had accompanied me to the Great Water, and he promised to go with 
 me. I had in truth a great desire to see this place which seemed worthy to 
 be seen. I passed the winter in this place and was very impatient because 
 it was long. It is impossible to hunt except with rackets on the feet, to 
 get accustomed to which caused me much trouble. This is unfortunate, 
 for the country is good. Finally, the winter being over, the snow 
 melted, the weather good, and our provisions prepared, we packed our 
 bundles, and my comrade took a hatchet, with the use of which he was 
 familiar. It was for the purpose of making me a dug-out, upon which, 
 following the counsel that was given me, I should embark upon the river 
 Ohio, as it is called in this country, the Wabash as we call it, and by 
 this means I could return to my village more easily and in less time than 
 
if I should return on foot. We departed then and travelled for several 
 days before finding the great river of that country. We did not lack 
 for meat on our route. There is an abundance of buffaloes and also of 
 other game, but as these animals have a great deal of trouble to live 
 while snow is on the ground they were not yet fat. When we had arrived 
 upon the banks of this great river, we rested. The next day we 
 travelled with the current of the water, for we were too high up for 
 the place that we came to see. Following what had been told us, we 
 could not be deceived in finding this water-fall, for one hears the noise 
 from afar, as we discovered on our approach. We passed the night 
 where the noise was already strong, but not enough to hinder us from 
 sleeping. As soon as day broke we departed for this place of which all 
 men speak with wonder. Fortunately an old man had induced us to take, 
 before leaving the village, some buffalo's wool to put in our ears ; with- 
 out that we should truly have become deaf through the great noise made 
 by this water in falling from so high. I had never been able to believe 
 what the old man had told me, but when my eyes and my senses beheld, 
 I thought he had not said enough for that which my eyes saw. 
 
 " ' This river does not fall. It is as if it were cast, the same as when 
 an arrow falls to the ground. This sight made my hair stand on end and 
 my flesh creep. Nevertheless, after having looked for a sufficiently long 
 time, my heart which had been agitated became quiet. As soon as I 
 perceived it was quiet I spoke to myself and said, ' What then ! Am I 
 not a man? What I see is natural, and other men have passed under this 
 river. Why should not I pass there? It is true that only Frenchmea 
 have passed there and that red men do not undertake the passage ; but I, 
 Moncacht-Ape, ought I to fear more than another man?' ' No,' said I, 
 in a low tone, ' I ought not to fear.' I descended at once and passed 
 under and came back. I passed extremely quick, for although I had 
 buffalo's wool in my ears, the noise was so strong that I was giddy. I 
 was not so much drenched as I had expected to be before I went in. 
 After having examined the height of this fall, I believe that the Red 
 men speak the truth when they assert that it is of the height of one- 
 hundred Red men who are rather taller than whites. We were detained 
 so long looking at what I have narrated that AVC were compelled to 
 camp for the night on the other side of a wood, which notwithstanding 
 its thickness did not stop the noise of the waters, for we still heard it. 
 It is true that our ears, although stopped up, were full of it, and for 
 more than ten clays after I still thought I heard it. 
 
 ' ' ' The next day we took the shortest path for the Ohio River. When 
 we reached there we followed down this river to a point where there 
 was no more wood to prevent me from following its waters to the great 
 river of our country, which passes very near here. This was the way 
 that I wished to take, as I had been told it would take me to my village. 
 When we were at the place where I ought to take the water, we cut 
 down a tree of soft wood : we made in a short time my little dug-out. 
 In truth it was not well finished, but as it was to descend with the 
 current, it was better than a light one. My dug-out being made, I 
 shaped a paddle. I also made a bark rope. We placed the dug-out in 
 the water and fastened it with my bark rope ; then we went hunting. 
 We killed two buffaloes, the meat of which we smoked. My comrade 
 took his share, and I placed the rest in the dug-out. We parted with 
 hearts bound together like good friends who love one another. If he 
 had been without a wife and children he would have joined me in my 
 trip to the West of which I have spoken. 
 
 " ' I entered my dug-out and descended at my ease the Ohio River to- 
 our great river, which we call Meact-chact-sipi, without meeting any 
 man in the Ohio River. I had not proceeded far in the Great River before 
 
I met two pirogues full of Arkansas, who bore a calumet to the Illinois, 
 who are their brothers. Thence I descended all the time even to our 
 little river, which I entered, but except for one of our neighbors, whom 
 I happily met, I never should have been able to ascend to our village. I 
 saw with joy my relations, who were glad to see me in good health.' 
 
 " Such was the narrative that Moncacht-Ap6 gave me of his jour- 
 ney to the East, where he learned nothing concerning the matters which 
 he was investigating. It is true he had seen the ocean. He had seen it 
 in a state of agitation. He had witnessed the ebb and flow of the tide. 
 He had examined the famous falls at Niagara, and he could talk intelli- 
 gently of them. All this could not fail to be satisfactory to a curious 
 man, who had nothing else to do than travel for information, to do 
 which he had but to make similar expeditions to that which he had 
 made to the East. 
 
 "The failure of the steps taken by Moncacht-Ape 1 during several 
 years, far from extinguishing the desire that he had to learn, only 
 excited him the more. Determined to attempt anything to dispel the 
 ignorance in which he perceived that he was immersed, he persisted 
 in the design of discovering the origin of his people ; a design which 
 demanded as much spirit as courage, and which would never have 
 entered the brain of an ordinary man. He determined then to go from 
 nation to nation until he should flnd himself in the country from which 
 his ancestors emigrated, being persuaded that he could there learn many 
 things which they had forgotten in their travels. He undertook the 
 journey to the West, from which he did not return for five years. He 
 gave me the following details the next day after he had repeated to 
 me that of the East : 
 
 " ' My preparations were made, and when the grain was ripe 1 1 prepared 
 some provisions for the journey, and I departed, following the high 
 land in which we live [to the east of the river to the Wabash (Ohio)]. 
 I followed the stream up for a quarter of a day above the place where it 
 loses itself in the Great River [Mississippi] , in order to be able to cross 
 it without being* carried into the other. When I saw that it was high 
 enough, I made a raft of canes and a little bunch of canes which served 
 me for a paddle. I thus crossed the Wabash [Ohio], and began my 
 journey on the prairies, where the grass was but just beginning to 
 spring up. The next day, towards the middle of the day, I found a 
 small troop of buffaloes, which permitted me to approach so near to them 
 that I killed a cow sufficiently fat. I took the tenderloin, the hump and 
 the tongue, and left the rest for the wolves. I was heavily loaded, but 
 I did not have far to go to reach the Tamaroas, one of the villages of 
 the Illinois nation. When I was in this nation I rested a few days, 
 preparing to continue my journey. After this little rest I pursued my 
 way, mounting to the North, even to the Missouri. As soon as I was 
 opposite this river, I prepared to cross the Great Kiver [Mississippi] so 
 as to arrive on the north of the Missouri. To effect this, I ascended 
 sufficiently high and made a raft as I had done to cross the Wabash 
 [Ohio]. I crossed the Great River [Mississippi] from East to West. 
 When I was near the bank I permitted myself to drift with the current 
 until I was at the sand point where the two rivers meet. In descending 
 upon this point I found there some bustards, which had no fear of man. 
 I killed one. As I went to pick it up I" saw my raft, which I had 
 abandoned because I had no further use for it. It had been drawn 
 quietly down by the current along the shore, but when it reached the 
 point where the two waters meet, they tossed it about and seemed to 
 quarrel as to which should have it. I watched it as long as I could, for 
 
 'Probably when the corn was " in the roasting ear." 
 
I had never seen waters fight like that, as if each of them wished to 
 have a part of it. Finally I lost sight of it. What seemed extraordinary 
 to me and gave me great pleasure was to see the two waters mingle 
 themselves together. Their difference is great, for the Great Eiver 
 [Mississippi] which I had just crossed, is very clear above the Missouri, 
 although below it is muddy even to the Great Water [ocean]. This 
 comes from the Missouri, whose waters are always muddy in all its 
 course, which is very long. I saw also that these two waters flowed 
 for a long distance, side by side, that on the West being muddy, and on 
 the East the water is clear. I ascended the Missouri on the North bank, 
 and I travelled several days before arriving at the Missouri nation, 
 whom I had some difficulty to find. I remained there long enough not 
 only to rest myself, but also to learn the language spoken a little further 
 on. I was surfeited on my trip with the humps and tenderloins of 
 buffaloes which I had killed. I never saw so many of these animals as 
 in this country, where you can see prairies of the length of a day's 
 journey and more covered with them. The Missouris live almost 
 exclusively on meat, and they only use maize as a relief from buffalo and 
 other game, of which they have great quantity. I passed the winter 
 with them, during which so much snow fell that it covered the earth as 
 deep as a man's waist. 
 
 " ' When the winter was over I resumed my journey and ascended the 
 Missouri till I arrived at the nation of the West. [They are also called 
 the Canzes]. There I gathered information of what I wanted to know 
 so as to arrange for the future. They told me that to go to. the country 
 from whence we as well as they came would be very difficult, because 
 the nations were far away from the Missouri. That also when I should 
 have travelled about a month, it would be necessary for me to bear to 
 my right, taking directly North, where I should find at several day's 
 journeys another river which runs from the East to the West, conse- 
 quently directly opposite to the Missouri. That I should follow this river 
 until I should find the nation of the Otters, where I could rest myself 
 and could learn more fully what was necessary, and perhaps find some 
 persons who would accompany me. For the rest I could descend this 
 river in a dug-out and travel a great distance without fatigue. 
 
 " ' With these instructions I continued my route, following constantly 
 for one moon the Missouri, and although I had travelled sufficiently fast, 
 I did not yet dare to take to the right as they had told me, because for 
 many days I had seen mountains which I hesitated to pass for fear of 
 wounding my feet. Nevertheless, it was necessary for me to come to a 
 conclusion. Having taken this resolve for the next day, I determined to 
 sleep where I was and made a fire. Shortly after, while watching the 
 sun which had already gone considerably down, I saw some smoke at 
 some distance off. I did not doubt that this was a party of hunters who 
 proposed to pass the night in this place, and it entered my mind that 
 they might belong to the Otters. I immediately left in order that I 
 might be guided to them by the smoke while it was yet daylight. I 
 joined them and they saw me with surprise. They were a party of thirty 
 men and some women. Their language was unknown to me and we 
 were only able to communicate by signs. Nevertheless, with the 
 exception of their surprise, they received me well enough, and I 
 remained three days with them. At the end of this time one of the 
 wives told her husband that she believed herself ready for lying in. 
 Upon that the others sent this man and his wife to the village, and told 
 them to take me with them in order that I might travel by an easier 
 road than that which I was on the point of taking. 
 
 " ' We ascended the Missouri still for nine short days, then we turned 
 directly North and travelled for five days, at the end of which time 
 
9 
 
 we found a river with clear and beautiful water. They called it 
 " The Beautiful River." This man and his wife asked me by signs 
 if I did not wish to bathe, as they did, because it was long since 
 they had bathed. I told them in the same way that I also had great 
 need of a bath, but that I was afraid of crocodiles. They made me 
 understand that there were none here. Upon their assurance I bathed 
 and did it with great pleasure in this beautiful water. 
 
 " ' We descended the Beautiful River during the rest of the day, till we 
 arrived upon the banks of a stream which we recognized where this 
 troop of hunters had concealed their dug-outs. My guide having drawn 
 out his own, we three entered and descended to their village, where we 
 did not arrive till night. I was as well received by this nation as if I 
 had been one of them. During the journey I had picked up a few words 
 of their language and I very soon learned it, because I was always with 
 the old men who love to instruct the young, as the young love to be 
 instructed and converse freely with each other. I have noted this 
 generally in all the natives that I have seen. This nation was really the 
 Otters whom I sought. As I was very well treated there I would 
 willingly have made a longer stay, and it seemed to me that they also 
 wished it. But my design occupied me always. I determined to leave 
 with some of this people who were going to carry a calumet to a nation 
 through which I must pass, who, being brothers of those whom I was 
 about to quit, spoke the same language with some slight differences. I 
 parted then with the Otters, and we descended the " Beautiful River " in 
 a pirogue for eighteen days, putting on shore from time to time 
 to hunt, and we did not want for game. I should have liked to 
 push on further, following always the "Beautiful River," for I did not 
 become fatigued in the pirogue, but it was necessary for me to yield to 
 the reasons opposed to it. They told me that the heat was already 
 great, that the grass was high and the serpents dangerous in this season, 
 and that I might be bitten in going to the chase, and that moreover it 
 was necessary that I should learn the language of the nation where I 
 wished to go, which would be much easier when I should know that of 
 the country where I was. I followed the advice that the old men of 
 this nation gave me with the less hesitation that I saw that their hearts 
 and their mouths spoke together. They loved me and I did not go 
 to the chase except for amusement. During the winter that I passed 
 with them, I set myself to work to learn the language of the people 
 where I intended to go, because with it they assured me that I could 
 make myself understood by all the people that I should find from that 
 point to the " Great Water," which is at the West, the difference 
 between their languages not being great. 
 
 ' ' ' The warm Aveather was not yet entirely over when I got in a 
 pirogue with plenty of breadstuffs 1 [ viandes en farine ] because these 
 nations do not cultivate maize, although the soil seems very good. 
 They cultivate only a little as a curiosity. I had in my pirogue only my 
 provisions, a pot, a bowl and what I needed for my bed, and if I had 
 had some Indian corn nothing would have been wanting. Thus, not 
 being embarrassed with anything, I floated at my ease, and in a short time 
 I arrived at a very small nation, who were surprised to see me arrive 
 alone. This tribe wear long hair and look upon those who wear short 
 as slaves, whose hair has been cut in order that they may be recog- 
 nized. The chief of this tribe, who was on the bank of the river, said 
 
 a U. S. G. and G. Survey, Contributions to North American Ethnology, 
 vol. I., 193. Tribes of Western Washington and Northeastern Oregon, 
 by George Gibbs, M.D. The roots used [for food] are numerous; but 
 the wappatu, or saggittaria, and the kamas are the principal. 
 2 
 
10 
 
 brusquely to me : ' Who are you? Where do you come from? What do 
 you want here with your short hair?' I said to Mm, ' I am Moncacht- 
 Ap ; I come from the nation of the Otters. I am in search of informa- 
 tion, and I come to you for you to give it ; my hair is short so that it 
 may not bother me, but my courage is good. I do not come to ask food 
 from you. I have enough to last me for some time, and when I shall 
 have no more, my bow and my arrows will furnish me more than I need. 
 During winter, like the bear, I seek a covert, and in summer I imitate 
 the eagle, who moves about to satisfy his curiosity. Is it possible that 
 a single man, who travels by daylight, makes you afraid?' 
 
 " ' He replied that although I might come from the nation of the 
 Otters, he easily saw that I was not of them ; but that I could remain 
 since I was so courageous, adding that he could not understand how I 
 spoke his language, which none of the people east of there understood. 
 I told him that I had learned it of an old man called Salt Tear, and at 
 the same time I re-embarked in order to go, because I disliked his 
 conversation, but at the name of Salt Tear, who was one of his friends, 
 he retained me, assuring me that I should confer a pleasure on him by 
 remaining in his village as long as I was willing. I came ashore rather 
 to learn what I could than to rest myself, for I was not satisfied with 
 his talk. ' What,' said I to myself, ' when two bears meet they stop, 
 rub nose against nose, mutter some sounds that they understand without 
 doubt, and seem to caress each other, and here men speak rudely to each 
 other.' Being then disembarked I told him that Salt Tear had charged 
 me to see on his part an old man called " Big Roebuck." It was the 
 father of him with whom I was talking. He had him called. The old 
 man came, being led by the hand, for he could not see very well, and 
 learning from what parts I had come, he received me as if I were his 
 son, took me into his cabin and had all that was in my pirogue brought 
 there. The next day he taught me those things that I wished to know, 
 and assured me that all the nations on the shores of the Great Water 
 would receive me well on telling them that I was the friend of Big 
 Roebuck. I remained there only two days, during which he caused to 
 be made some gruel from certain small grains, smaller than French peas , 
 which are very good, which pleased me all the more that it was so long 
 that I had eaten only meat. Having re-embarked in my pirogue, I 
 descended the Beautiful River without stopping more than one day with 
 each nation that I met on my way. 
 
 " ' The last of these nations is at a day's journey from the Great 
 Water, and withdrawn from the river the journey of a man [about 
 a league]. They remain in the woods to conceal themselves, they say, 
 from the bearded men. I was received in this nation as if I had arrived 
 in my family, and I had there good cheer of all sorts, for they have in 
 this country an abundance of that grain of which Big Roebuck had 
 made me a gruel, and although it springs up without being sowed, it is 
 better than any grain that I have ever eaten. Some large blue birds 
 come to eat this grain, but they kill them because they are very good. 
 The water also furnishes this people with meat. There is an animal 
 which comes ashore to eat grass, which has a head shaped like a young 
 bufialo, but not of the same color. They eat also many fish from the 
 Great Water, which are larger than our large brills and much better, as 
 well as a great variety of shell-fish, amongst which some are very 
 beautiful. But if they live well in this country it is necessary always 
 to be on the watch against the bearded men n who do all that they can to 
 carry away the young persons, for they never have taken any men, 
 although they could have done so. They told me that these men were 
 white, that they had long, black beards which fell upon their breasts, 
 that they app'eared to be short and thick, with large heads, which they 
 
11 
 
 covered with cloth; that they always wore their clothes, even in the 
 hottest weather; that their coats fell to the middle of the legs, which 
 as well as the feet were covered with red or yelloAV cloth. For the rest 
 they did not know of what their clothing was made, because they had 
 never been able to kill one, their arms making a great noise and a great 
 flame ; that they nevertheless retire when they see more red men than 
 their own numbers ; that then they go aboard their pirogue [without 
 doubt a barque] where there were sometimes thirty and even more. 
 They added that these strangers came from where the sun sets to seek 
 upon this coast a yellow and bad-smelling wood which dyes a beautiful 
 yellow. That as they had observed that the bearded men came to carry 
 off this wood each year when the cold weather had ceased, they had 
 destroyed all these trees, following the advice of an old man, so that they 
 came no more, because they found no more of this wood. In truth, the 
 banks of the river, which were formerly covered, were then naked, and 
 there remained of this wood in this country but a small quantity, only 
 sufficient for the dyeing of the people themselves. Two nations, neigh- 
 bors of each other and not far distant from the one where I was, could 
 not imitate them in this step, because they had no other than this yellow 
 wood, and the bearded men, having discovered this, went there every 
 year, which inconvenienced these nations very much, as they did not dare 
 go on the coast for fear of losing their young people. In order to drive 
 them off thoroughly, they had invited all the neighboring tribes to 
 rendezvous with them in arms towards the commencement of the 
 following summer, at a given moon, and this time was near at hand. As 
 I told them that I had seen fire-arms and was not afraid of them, these 
 people invited me to go with them, saying that these two nations were 
 on the route that I must take to go to the country from which we came, 
 and for the rest there would be so many red men that they would easily 
 destroy the bearded men, which would hinder others from coining. I 
 replied that my heart found that it was good that I should go with 
 them, and in acting thus I had a desire that I wished to satisfy. I was 
 anxious to see these bearded men, who did not resemble French, English 
 nor Spaniards, such as I had seen, all of whom trim their beards and are 
 differently clothed. My cheerful assent created much pleasure among 
 these tribes, who thought with reason that a man who had seen whites 
 and many natives, ought to have more intelligence than those who had 
 never left their homes and had only seen red men.' 
 
 "I told Moncacht-Ape to take a rest until the next day. I gave 
 him a glass of brandy and set to work as usual transcribing what 
 he had told me. During the second night that Moncacht-Ape staid 
 with me I recalled what the native had told me of the Great Water into 
 which the Beautiful River discharges ; I thought this sea of which he 
 spoke might be the " Sea of the West," for which they have sought so 
 long. Therefore I proposed to submit certain questions to him before 
 he began his recital of his journey to the West. The next day, as he 
 prepared to continue, I asked him what route he had followed with 
 respect to the sun. When one travels in Europe one does not notice 
 whether one goes North, South, East or West, because one follows roads 
 which lead where you are going, without disturbing oneself with the 
 bearing of the stars; but in the regions which are only sparsely 
 inhabited it is necessary that the sun should serve as a guide, there 
 being no other way; and the natives, through habit and necessity, 
 observe closely the bearing of the sun in their travels. Thus I was 
 assured of a reply on Moncacht-ApS's part. 
 
 "He answered, then, that in ascending the Missouri as far as the 
 nation of that name he had travelled according to his idea between 
 North and West ; that from this nation to the Canzes he had travelled 
 
12 
 
 to the North, and that after leaving the Canzes, in following th 
 Missouri, he had always travelled between North and West, and that the 
 Missouri went thus. That when he quitted the Missouri to go to the 
 Beautiful River he had travelled direct to the North ; that in descending 
 the Beautiful River he had always travelled between North and West, 
 even to the Great Water : that the Big Roebuck had told him that the 
 Missouri and the Beautiful River had their courses always equally 
 distant the one from the other. Afer having answered my questions, 
 he continued the narrative of his travels in these tenns : 
 
 " ' When the time was come, I left with the warriors, and we travel- 
 led five great days' journeys. Being arrived we waited a long time for 
 the bearded men, who came this year a little later than usual. While 
 waiting I was shown the place where they put their large pirogue. It 
 was between two cliffs which are sufficiently high and long, and are 
 connected with the main land. Between them flows a little river bor- 
 dered with the trees which furnish the yellow wood, but this river being 
 too shallow to permit the entry of their large pirogues, they had a smaller 
 one with which they went up. They told me that the bearded men would 
 not mistrust anything, because the people all withdreAV two days' journey 
 from the spot as soon as they perceived them coming on the Great Water, 
 and did not appear again until they had left. That nevertheless they 
 were always watched without the watchers being seen. After having 
 instructed me in all these things, they held a council and were of opinion 
 that they ought to conceal themselves behind these two cliffs, and 
 when the bearded men should arrive, everybody should cry out and 
 draw upon them to prevent them from landing. I had not spoken at 
 first, but finally seeing how things were going, I told them that although 
 I had not made war against the whites, I knew that they were brave and 
 skillful, that although I did not know if these white men resembled the 
 others, I nevertheless thought that they (the Indians) would not do 
 much harm in the way they proposed to act ; that by their plan, if they 
 should secure three or four scalps, they would have accomplished a 
 great deal ; which would not be much honor for so many warriors, and 
 they would be badly received on their return to their people, for it would 
 be believed that they were afraid. I counselled them to place two men 
 upon the two cliffs to watch the bearded men without their knowledge, 
 and to warn us of their arrival; that time should then be given for them 
 to come ashore to cut wood, and that when they were thus occupied a party 
 of warriors should mount upon the cliffs, another should conceal itself in 
 last year's underbrush, and the rest openly attack. It cannot be doubted, 
 I added, that there will not be many bearded men who will save them- 
 selves, but when they wish to regain their small pirogue, those concealed 
 in the underbrush will kill many, and when they approach the large 
 pirogue, those on the cliffs will do the same. All the warriors were 
 of my opinion, and were very glad that I had been willing to come 
 with them. 
 
 " 'We waited for the bearded men during seventeen days, at the end 
 of which time they were seen to approach in two large pirogues. They 
 placed themselves between the two cliffs, where they busied themselves 
 in filling with fresh water, vessels of wood similar to those in which the 
 French place the fire water. It was not until the fourth day that they 
 went ashore to cut wood. The attack was carried out as I had advised, 
 nevertheless they only killed eleven. I do not know why it is that red 
 men who shoot so surely at game, aim so badly at their enemies. The 
 rest of them gained their pirogues and fled upon the Great Water, where 
 we followed them long with our eyes and finally lost sight of them. 
 They were as much afraid of our numbers as we were of their fire-arms. 
 We then went to examine the dead which remained with us. They were 
 
13 
 
 much smaller than we were, and very white. They had large heads and 
 bodies sufficiently large for their height. Their hair was only long in 
 the middle of the head. They did not wear hats like you, but their 
 heads were twisted around with cloth; their clothes Avere neither 
 woollen nor bark [he would say silk] but something similar to your old 
 shirts [without doubt cotton] Very soft and of different colors. That 
 which covered their limbs and their feet was of a single piece. I 
 wished to try on one of these coverings, but my feet would not enter 
 it. [The leggings were bottines which have the seam behind. Natives 
 can not wear shoes and stockings, because their toes are spread so far 
 apart.] All the tribes assembled in this place divided up their garments, 
 their beads and their scalps. Of the eleven killed, two only had fire 
 arms with powder and balls. Although I did not know as much about 
 fire-arms as I do now, still, as I had seen some in Canada, I wished to 
 try them, and found that they did not kill as far as yours. They were 
 much heavier. The powder was mixed, coarse, medium and fine, but 
 the coarse was in greater quantity. 
 
 " ' See what I have observed concerning the bearded men, and in what 
 way the natives relieved themselves of them. After this I thought only 
 of continuing my journey. To accomplish this, leaving the red men to 
 return to their homes, I joined those who lived further to the West on 
 the coast, and we travelled always following at a short distance the 
 coast line of the Great Water, which goes directly between North and 
 West. When I reached the homes of this people I rested several days, 
 during which I studied the way that remained for me to travel. I ob- 
 served that the days were much longer than with us, and the nights 
 very short. I wanted to know from them the reason, but they could 
 not tell me. The old men advised me that it would be useless to under- 
 take to go further. They said the coast still extended for a great 
 distance to the North and West ; that finally it turned short to the West, 
 and finally it was cut through by the Great Water directly from North 
 to South. One of them added that when young he had known a very 
 -old man who had seen this laud [before the ocean had eaten its way 
 through] which went a long distance, and that when the Great Waters 
 were lowered [at low tide] there are rocks which show where this land 
 was. Everyone turned me aside from undertaking this journey, because 
 they assured me that the country was sterile and cold and consequently 
 without inhabitants, and they counselled me to return to my own 
 country.' 
 
 " Moncacht- Ape returned home by the same route that he had taken 
 in going, which he recounted to me in few words. After which I asked 
 him if he could say how many days' journeys there were of actual 
 travel ; he told me that the Beautiful River being very swift and rapid 
 he had descended very fast, and that in reducing this march to days' 
 journeys by land, he counted to have journeyed in all thirty-six moons, 
 that is to say during three years. It is true, as he adfmitted, that 
 travelling through countries which to him were absolutely unknown, he 
 had followed the sinuosities of the Missouri, and if he had to return to 
 the same places he could shorten his path and would not travel more 
 than thirty-two or thirty-three moons. It is true as he said that he 
 travelled faster than red men ordinarily do, who generally make but six 
 leagues a day when loaded with at least two hundred pounds burthen, 
 but as Moncacht-Ape carried only one hundred pounds, or sometimes not 
 more than sixty, he ought to have made often even nine or ten leagues. I 
 know myself from experience in returning from my expedition to the 
 interior, that not losing time in making investigations, my people, 
 .although loaded, made nearly ten leagues a day. Thus, in estimating 
 his day's journeys at seven leagues' travel, he ought to have made, with 
 
14 
 
 some certainty, at least eighteen hundred leagues. Thus I reason : He 
 travelled about thirty-six moons, as many going as coming. It is. 
 necessary to deduct half this time for his return. At seven leagues a 
 day there will remain three thousand, seven hundred and forty-eight 
 leagues. I deduct again half for the detours that he was obliged to 
 make, which were in great number, and I find still eighteen hundred and 
 ninety leagues that there was from the Yazoo to the coast, which was 
 at the mouth of the Beautiful Kiver. He was five years making this 
 journey to the West." 
 
 M. de Quatrefages was mistaken in supposing that he was the first to 
 call attention to the ethnological value of this tale, for we find that the 
 first volume of the transactions of the Literary and Historical Society 
 of Quebec 1 contains a paper by Andrew Stuart, Esq., which is entitled 
 "Journey Across the Continent of North America, by an Indian Chief," 
 etc., etc. Mr. Stuart evidently places confidence in the story, for after 
 giving a translation of it and reciting many things which subsequent 
 explorations have proved to be true, he says: "None of these could 
 have been known to the Indian chief, and the general tone and character 
 of M. du Pratz's work excludes the idea of his having fabricated the 
 story." 2 
 
 Greenhow, in his History of Oregon, 3 quotes a version of the story with 
 the following endorsement : "there is indeed, nothing about it which, 
 should induce us to reject it as false, except the part respecting the ships- 
 and white men." In the Revue d'Anthropologie, tome 4me, 1881, M. A. 
 de Quatrefages, 4 in the article to which we have already alluded, 
 reprints LePage's story in full, explains and elucidates the obscure por- 
 tions with voluminous notes, cites a vast amount of testimony to show 
 that the white men must have come from Lieou Tchou or some of the 
 Eastern isles of Japan, and arrives at the conclusion that the journey of 
 Moncacht-Apfi was really accomplished, and that, prior to the time when 
 the Europeans knew anything about that part of the shores of North 
 America, the mouth of the Columbia River and the adjoining shores 
 were known aud frequented by this people. 
 
 Let us examine the story to see what are its elements of strength and 
 
 1 Transactions of the Literary aud Historical Society of Quebec, Que- 
 bec, 1829, Art. XL, vol. I., p. 198 et seq. 
 
 2 As early as 1765 the discussion of this subject began, in a 4to. 
 entitled " Memoires et Observations Geographiques," etc. Par Mr. 
 * * * (Samuel Engel). Lausanne, 1765. This was accompanied 
 by a chart illustrating the theory of the author and showing Moncacht- 
 Ape's journey. 
 
 3 Greenhow's Oregon, Boston, 1844, p. 145. 
 
 4 The reputation of M. de Quatrefages probably requires no endorse- 
 ment in this country, but if any doubts exist as to the value of his 
 opinions, such language as this, " M. de Quatrefages is acknowledged 
 to be the most distinguished Anthropologist in France," used by Major 
 Powell, in Science, vol. I., No. 10, p. 290, [633], will dispel them. See 
 also [634] where Major Powell briefly alludes to the Moucacht-Ape. 
 story. 
 
15 
 
 what its elements of weakness. We can at the same time, perhaps, 
 determine whether there were any motives sufficient to induce a writer 
 of that period to fabricate or embellish a production of this 
 kind. We must bear in mind that LePage du Pratz was manifestly a 
 theorist and an enthusiast. To him the romantic notion that this vener- 
 able red skin was hunting up a genealogical record, would be conspicu- 
 ously apparent as the all-important factor of the journey, where the 
 mention of such a motive might have been entirely overlooked by one 
 not afflicted with the ethnological craze. But whatever the motive, was 
 the journey a possibility? Could this solitary traveller have penetrated 
 a region the secrets of which were only yielded to the bold assaults of 
 Lewis and Clark in 1804? Cabea de Vaca 1 with his three companions, 
 tossed about from tribe to tribe, half-starved and terribly maltreated, 
 was nine years in working his way across the arid deserts of New Mex- 
 ico and Arizona, but he survived his terrible experiences and. finally 
 reached a place of safety under the Spanish flag on the Pacific slope. 
 Col. Dodge, in "Our Wild Indians," 2 tells of a native who travelled 
 "on foot, generally alone, from the banks of the Mississippi to the 
 mouth of the Columbia River, and who afterwards in repeated journeys 
 crossed and re-crossed, North, South, East and West, the vast expanse 
 of wilderness, until he seemed to know every stream and mountain of 
 the whole great continent west of the Mississippi river." Capt. Marcy, 
 in the "Prairie Traveller," 3 tells of another "who had set his traps 
 and spread his blanket upon the head-waters of the Missouri and Co- 
 lumbia, and his wanderings had led him South to the Colorado and 
 the Gila, and thence to the shores of the Pacific." The physical 
 possibility of the trip may therefore be accepted. 
 
 The geography of the lower Missouri, the character of the river, the 
 tribes of Indians, the animals and the plants to be found there were 
 known to LePage du Pratz. We find in his history an account of an 
 expedition by Bourgmont through this country. Little or nothing could 
 have been known, however, by him, concerning the habits or the modes 
 of life of the Indians living near the source of the Missouri, 4 and the 
 
 1 Relation of Alvar Nunez Cabea de Vaca, Translated by Buckingham 
 Smith, N. Y., 1871. 
 
 2 "Our Wild Indians," Col. Richard C. Dodge, Hartford, 1882, p. 554. 
 I wish here to acknowledge the assistance rendered me by Mr. Lucien 
 Carr, of the Peabody Museum, who kindly pointed out to me these 
 instances of travel and endurance, and has otherwise materially helped 
 me in this investigation. 
 
 3 The PraMe Traveller, Capt. R. B. Marcy, N. Y., 1859, p. 188. 
 
 4 Hennepin, while a captive among the Sioux, " saw Indians who came 
 from about five hundred leagues to the West ; they informed us that 
 the Assenipovalacs were then only seven or eight days distant to the 
 Northeast of us ; all the other known tribes on the West and Northwest 
 inhabit immense plains and prairies abounding in buffalo and peltries, 
 where they are sometimes obliged to make fires with buffalo dung for 
 want of wood." Heunepin's Louisiana, Shea, New York, 1880, p. 236. 
 
16 
 
 existence even of the Columbia river had not been established. What- 
 ever coincidences are found between the story and the facts which 
 relate to the region West of the head-waters of the Missouri are there- 
 fore valuable as indications of the probable truth of the story. The 
 astonishment of the savage at the absence of Indian corn, his yearning 
 for it after his meat-diet, and the inadequacy of the bread-stuffs l fur- 
 nished him as a substitute, are the natural experiences of a traveller 
 over this waste. Of the grain used by Big Roebuck in his toothsome 
 gruel we have no knowledge. It is not included in any list of the arti- 
 cles of food of these Indians in such a way as will enable us to identify 
 it. There are, however, several varieties of wild peas in Oregon, which 
 might make a good relish as a dinner vegetable, and it is not impossible 
 that they may have been used in this manner in a limited way. We have 
 no record of any Indians along the banks of the Columbia or its tribu- 
 taries, who cut the hair of their slaves as a mark of indignity, but in 
 his " Native Eaces of the Pacific," 2 H. H. Bancroft tells us that " to cut 
 the hair short is to the Nootka a disgrace," and in a note he quotes from 
 Sproat's " Scenes and Studies of Savage Life," London, 1868, pp. 25-27, 
 as follows : " The hair of the natives is never shaven from the head. It 
 is black or dark brown, without gloss, coarse and lank, but not scanty, 
 worn long. * * * Slaves wear their hair short." 3 The 
 abundant opportunity for personal observation which Sproat had dur- 
 ing his residence on the Pacific Coast, makes this a valuable addition to 
 the list of coincidences. The seal does not come on shore and browse 
 on the grass, but the movements of the animal would suggest to one 
 ignorant of its habits, that this was probably what it was doing ; hence 
 we have no difficulty in identifying the animal that furnished the "meat 
 from the water " to the natives. While it required no great imagina- 
 tion to suggest as probable the abundance of fish and shell-fish which 
 the savage mentions, the habitual use of seal's meat as food could not 
 have been known to the Indian. Such knowledge was not, how- 
 ever, absolutely beyond LePage's power of acquisition at the time 
 of the publication of his book. 
 
 To appreciate the ignorance, at this time, of the geographers concern- 
 ing the region about the Columbia River, it is necessary to establish 
 approximately the date of the interview between LePage dn Pratz and 
 Moncacht-Ape. Following the date of LePage's movements, this must 
 have taken place about 1725. Moncacht-Ap6 was then an old man, and 
 the journey was a story drawn from his memory. If we allow that 
 
 J For account of food used by Indians in Oregon, see Contributions to 
 North American Ethnology, Art. by George Gibbs, M.D., vol. I., p. 193. 
 
 2 Bancroft's Native Races, vol. I., p. 179. and note. 
 
 3 Lafltau, in vol. 2, p. 51, of his Moeurs des Sauvages, Paris, 1724, 4to, 
 says that Mausolus, king of Caria, compelled the Lycians to cut their 
 hair, which was then a mark of servitude, also that the hair is cut as a 
 mark of servitude among the Caribs and the Indians of the South. 
 
17 
 
 the trip took place about 1700, we shall not place it too early. We have 
 no account of the landing of any white "man on the Pacific coast North 
 of 43 N. prior to that time. The only explorer said to have penetrated 
 that region whose claims have in any way been recognized by posterity, 
 is Fuca. His discovery, in 1592, of the straits which bear his name, is 
 accepted by many as probable. If to this we should add the alleged 
 discovery by Aguilar of a river in 45 N., as being possibly the mouth 
 of the Columbia, the error in the location of which was due to the 
 inadequate instruments and the inefficient methods of the times, we 
 shall then have extended the area of actual knowledge of the day to 
 include all that could possibly be claimed. All else was pure conjec- 
 ture, and mere speculation. There were, however, among the Indians, 
 rumors concerning a great sea to the West and a great river flowing 
 into it, .and stories about them were passed from mouth to mouth, 
 treading closely upon facts and suggesting a foundation in knowledge. 
 We cannot to-day strip the embellishments from the fundamental facts 
 with certainty, but we can come nearer to it than ever before. Among 
 these stories one finds place in the "Relation of 1666, " l where we are 
 told that the " Sioux say that beyond the Karizi the earth is cut off and 
 there is nothing but a salt lake." 
 
 Father Marquette, at the Mission of the " Outaouacs " in 1669, states 
 in his Relation 2 that he was told of a "river at some distance to the 
 West of his station, which flowed into the Sea of the West, at the 
 mouth of which his informer had seen four canoes under sail." 
 
 Father Dablon, Superior of the same Mission, in his Relation 3 for 
 the same year, gives other details of the river and sea, on which he was 
 told " there was an ebb and flow of the tide." 
 
 Sagard-Theodat 4 gives some curious details of a tribe " to whom 
 each year a certain people having no hair on head or chin, were wont to 
 come by way of the sea in large ships. Their only purpose seemed to 
 be that of traffic. They had tomahawks shaped like the tail of a 
 partridge, stockings with shoes attached, which were supple as a glove, 
 and many other things which they exchanged for peltries." 
 
 Purchas 5 tells of a " friend in Virginia to whom came rumors even 
 there, from Indians to the Northwest, of the arrival on their coast of 
 ships ' which he concluded to have come from Japan.' " 
 
 In his history of Carolaua, published in 1722, Coxo 6 tells us of a yellow 
 river called the Massorite, the most northerly branches of which "are 
 
 1 Relation 1666-67, ch. XII., p. 114. 
 
 'Relation 1669-70, Part III., ch. XI., p. 60. 
 
 Id., ch. X.,p. 12. 
 
 4 Le grand voyage du pays des Hurons, F. Sagard Theodat, p. 74, 
 Paris, 1632. New ed., Paris, 1865 ; and also, Histoire du Canada, Sagard 
 Th6odat, 1636; New ed., Paris, 1866, p. 227. 
 
 8 Purchas his Pilgrimes, The Third part, London, 1625, p. 849. 
 
 Description of Carolana, Daniel Coxe, London, 1722, p. 15. 
 
18 
 
 interwoven with other branches which have a contrary course, pro- 
 ceeding to the West, and empty 'themselves into the South Sea. 1 The 
 Indians affirm they see great ships sailing in that lake, twenty times 
 bigger than their canoes." 
 
 An edition of the "Relations de la Louisiane " 2 [attributed to Chev. 
 Tonti and by him repudiated], was published at Amsterdam in 1720. 
 There is an introductory chapter in this edition from the pen of an 
 officer, containing a description of the Missouri, in which the following 
 statement occurs : "The savages with whom the banks of this river 
 are thickly peopled, assert that it rises in a mountain, from the other side 
 of which a torrent forms another great river which flows to the West 
 and empties into a great lake which can only be, accepting the truth of 
 the statement, the Sea of Japan." 
 
 We have in the foregoing, evidence of the character of information 
 on this subject open to Moncacht-Ape 1 as well as to LePage, at the date 
 of the Indian's journey. There was no knowledge whatever of the 
 Pacific coast or the character of its inhabitants, but there were rumors 
 amongst the natives of the River, of the Ocean and even of visits from 
 foreigners, whom the French Fathers identified with the Chinese or 
 Japanese. 
 
 In proceeding to examine the question of motive, we must first call 
 attention to a curious fact which seems to have been overlooked by 
 those who have referred to this story in print. 3 During the time 
 that LePage was at Natchez a French officer named Dumont was sta- 
 tioned in that vicinity. He met LePage and interchanged notes and 
 observations with him. In 1753 he published a book on Louisiana 
 which contained a digest of the Moncacht-Ap6 story, duly credited to 
 LePage du Pratz as authority. This story, however, has an entirely 
 different ending from the one already quoted, and its peculiarities 
 justify its quotation. 4 It is as follows : 
 
 "I will finish what I have to say on Louisiana by some remarks sent 
 me by a friend, 8 whom I have cited many times in these memoires, 
 concerning the situation of the Sea of the West and the means of 
 arriving there by the river Missouri. I shall permit him to speak in this 
 chapter. 
 
 " ' An Indian,' said he, ' from the Yazoos, called Moncachtabe, whom 
 the French call the interpreter because he speaks nearly all the Indian 
 languages of North America, was brought to me as I requested. He 
 had been described to me as a man remarkable for his long journeys. 
 In fact he had made one of three years into Canada, and another in the 
 
 1 The Pacific. 
 
 2 Relations de la Louisiaue, etc., par Chev. Tonti, Amsterdam, 1720. 
 
 3 Except in the contemporaneous publication of Mr. Samuel Engel, 
 " Memoires et observations Geographiques," etc. Lausanne, 1765. 
 
 4 Memoires sur La Lonisiane, composfis sur les Memoires de M. 
 Dumont, par M. L. L. M., vol. II., p. 246, et seq., Paris, 1753. 
 
 5 LePage du Pratz. 
 
19 
 
 opposite direction, and to the West-Northwest of America. I received 
 him favorably at my house, where he lived some time, and I had the 
 leisure to engage him in conversation concerning his travels. In one of 
 these conversations that we had together, see what I learned of the 
 journey that he made to the West-Northwest. He ascended the river St. 
 Louis [Mississippi] to the Illinois. Thence, having crossed this river 
 by swimming or on a raft, he began to travel on the North bank of the 
 Missouri river, which Sieur de Bourmont, who ascended it to its source, 
 calls eight hundred leagues in length from that point to where it empties 
 into the St. Louis [Mississippi]. Following, then, the North bank of 
 this river, MoucachtabS arrived at a nation which had been pointed out 
 to him as the nearest to those whom he had left, and he made a sojourn 
 there, as well to perfect himself in their language, which he knew 
 already, as to learn that of the next nation in the direction which he 
 wished to take, for in all these nations there is always some one who 
 knows how to speak the language of the neighboring natives. He did 
 this always in moving from one nation to another, which detained him a 
 long time on his journey, which occupied five years. Finally, having 
 arrived quite at the source of the Missouri river, pursuing constantly 
 the West-Northwest direction, he visited many nations situated upon 
 another river quite near to this last, but which had a course directly 
 opposite, for he supposes that it flows from East to West into a sea 
 whose name as well as that of the river the savage did not know. 
 Moncachtabe nevertheless followed it for a long time, taking always the 
 same route, but he was not able to reach its mouth, for the last native 
 tribe where he was forced to terminate his journey was at war with 
 another living between them and the sea. He wished very much to see 
 it, but the open war between these nations prevented him. It was 
 impossible for him to learn anything about it, because the few slaves 
 that this tribe had captured from their enemies were too young to give 
 him any information on the subject. Nevertheless, the hope of gaining 
 perchance some knowledge in the end, determined him to live for a long 
 period with this tribe. He was even desirous of going with his hosts to 
 war, and when the winter was come, the season that the Indians choose 
 ordinarily for their hunting and military expeditions, he joined the first 
 party of this tribe which marched against the enemy. But the expedition 
 was not fortunate ; not only did they not capture a single slave, they 
 even lost some of their own number. Thus it is that these first 
 expeditions rarely succeed because the enemy are then upon their guard. 
 Moncachtabe did not back out. He joined the second party of these 
 savages, which returned to the war against this nation, and had more 
 good fortune this time than the first. They defeated a party of the 
 enemy and took four prisoners, three men and a woman of about thirty- 
 two years of age, who, having been taken by our traveller, became in 
 consequence his slave. These four prisoners were conducted in triumph 
 by these savages to their village, to be there burned Avith ceremony, 
 which was carried out with the three men. As for the woman 
 Moncachtabe took her to his house, married her and treated her kindly, 
 in the hope of drawing from her some light concerning what he wanted 
 to know. In fact, after having staunched her tears, this woman had the 
 less trouble to reply to the numerous questions put to her by her 
 husband and to satisfy his curiosity, because he showed so much friend- 
 ship to her, and she knew that he was not a member of the tribe which 
 was an enemy of her own. See what she taught him. 
 
 " 'The country where we live,' said she, 'is only about two days' 
 journey from the Great Water [that is to say the Sea]. I went there 
 about four years ago with many men and women from our village, to 
 fish for those large shell fish which serve to make our ear-rings and 
 
20 
 
 those large plaques which men wear at their breasts. While we were 
 engaged in gathering them, there appeared upon the great water a large 
 pirogue in which two or three trunks of trees were on end, from which 
 hung something attached high up which was inflated. [One under- 
 stands that this bad description can only mean a vessel with her sails]. 
 Behiad this great vessel,' continued she, ' we saw a smaller one. [It 
 was a barge]. This vessel entered a large and beautiful river where 
 they took in water, which they carried as well as wood to the large 
 vessel. Those who were in the smaller vessel saw us. and it appeared 
 that we mutually feared each other. For ourselves we retired under 
 cover of a wood upon a height where it was easy for us to see them 
 without being perceived ourselves. They were five days taking in wood 
 and water, after which they all returned into the large vessel, without 
 our being able to understand how they could raise the smaller vessel 
 into the large one. because we were so far off. After that, having made 
 to inflate that which was suspended high up in the great vessel, they 
 were borne far off and disappeared from our sight as if they had entered 
 into the water. As we had time during these five days that they were 
 near us to examine them,' added this woman, ' we remarked that these 
 men were smaller than ours ; having a white skin ; hair upon the chin, 
 black and white ; no hair but something round upon the head ; they bore 
 upon their shoulders garments which covered their bodies, upon the 
 arms being passed through them, and these descended just to the calf of 
 the leg. They had also leggings and shoes different from ours. What- 
 ever we could do we were never able to count over seven in the small 
 boat with a small boy, without any woman.' ' Such is in substance,' 
 added my friend, ' the reply that the wife of Moncachtape made to the 
 questions of her husband,' and upon this recital I was very much 
 tempted to believe that this Great Water, of which she speaks, might 
 very well be the Sea of the West which we have sought for so long a 
 time." 
 
 We have here an account which is relieved from much that is calcu- 
 lated to tax the credulity of the reader of to-day. We are not called 
 upon to explain an annual visitation. We have no firearms and no 
 powder with its large and small grains. The northwest coast, the Alas- 
 kan Peninsula and Behring's Straits are left out of this account. Who 
 is responsible for the change? LePage's History was published in 1768. 
 Dumont's "Memoires sur la Louisiaue" came out in 1753. Prior to the 
 publication of Dumont's work, LePage had contributed to the Journal 
 CEconomique a series of articles which he terms in his preface an abridg- 
 ment of his history. In Dumont's book there is abundant evidence of 
 jealousy and hard feeling towards LePage. He alludes repeatedly to the 
 articles in the Journal CEcouomique and accuses the 1 writer of borrow- 
 ing his manuscript and appropriating his work. While repeatedly speak- 
 ing of him as a friend, he charges him with blunders, inaccuracies and 
 falsehood." "His friend" had apparently furnished Dumont with 
 the information he had gathered upon the subjects in which he was 
 interested. These quotations were inserted in the Memoires with due 
 acknowledgment only for the purpose, we should judge, of being 
 attacked with argument or ridiculed with satire. We have no other 
 
 'Dumont's Memoires, vol. I, p. 113, and note. 
 s ld., vol. III., p. 269. 
 
21 
 
 clue to Burnout's identity than what is furnished in the book itself. 
 His Memoires were edited by M. L. L. M., said to have been L'Abbfr 
 LeMascrier. They have been erroneously attributed by some to Butel 
 Dumont, 1 a French lawyer and author born in 1725. As the author of 
 these Memoires was in Louisiana in 1721,* it is of course out of the 
 question that Butel Dumont could have written the book. The charge 
 against LePage of plagiarism, which is made in this book, has been 
 accepted by many as true, owing to the similarity of the contents of the 
 two books, but a careful examination of them may prove that injustice 
 has been done LePage du Pratz. His fantastic theories may invite 
 attack, and he may record stories repeated to him by others which seem 
 incredible, but when he confines himself to the description of what he 
 himself saw, there is seldom room for criticism. On the other hand, 
 when Dumont tells us that he saw a rattlesnake 3 twenty-two feet in 
 length, and a frog 4 which weighed thirty- two pounds, we may well ask 
 if it was in the region that we know as the Louisiana of that time. 
 
 About the same time that these books were published, a great war was 
 going on among the cartographers, a review of which, although it may 
 not enable us to reach an exact conclusion, will aid us in comprehending 
 the relations of these two men and the extent to which partisan feeling* 
 might have been aroused in such a contest. 
 
 Joseph Nicolas De Lisle in 1752, and Philippe Buache in 1753, pre- 
 sented to the French Academy of Science, Memoires 5 accompanied by 
 charts, the object of which was to reconcile the fabulous voyages of 
 Admiral Fonte ; Maldonado's mythical straits of Anian ; the unknown Sea 
 of the West, which occupied the whole or any part of the interior of 
 our continent to suit the geographer's taste ; and the alleged river of the 
 West which was dotted in to suit the fancy of the engraver, with the 
 then recent discovery of our coast by Behring. The French cartogra- 
 phers clung to Fonte and Maldonado with a pertinacity worthy of a 
 better cause. Writers in Russia, Germany and England took up the 
 fight, and articles were published in the scientific works of the day and 
 in tracts specially devoted to the subject, in which these charts were 
 ridiculed and unworthy motives were attributed to the geographers. 
 "But within this century," says one of these tracts, 6 "the French 
 
 'Nouvelle Biographic Generate, see.Butel-Dumont. 
 
 2 Dumont's Memoires, Preface and v. II., p. 69. 
 
 3 Id., vol. L, p. 109. 
 
 4 Id., vol. II., p. 267. 
 
 5 DeLisle's Explication de la carte des Nouvelles decouvertes, etc., 
 Paris, 1752. Buache's Considerations Geographiques, etc., Paris, 1753. 
 I desire to acknowledge the assistance of Mr. Justin Winsor in 
 looking up the cartography of the Sea of the West. He called my 
 attention to these Memoires for which my thanks are especially due. 
 
 6 Remarks in Support of the New Chart of North and South America. 
 By T. Green, Esq., London, 1753, p. 22. 
 
22 
 
 geographers have wholly omitted New Albion, and converted Port Sir 
 Francis Drake into Port San Francisco, dishonoring the name of the 
 knight and changing it into one of their spurious saints." Our two his- 
 torians, who were then at work upon their books, were necessarily 
 affected by this contest. To take sides with his countrymen would have 
 cost LePage du Pratz his faith in Moncacht-Ape. To him the tale of 
 the Indian, crossing the country in search of the home of his ancestors, 
 was more in sympathy than were the wild conjectures about the sea in 
 the heart of the continent. It must be borne in mind that the measure of 
 the breadth of our continent from ocean to ocean had only been taken at 
 Mexico. Every league that the explorers on the Missouri added to its 
 width was a surprise. California 1 was an island on many charts for nearly 
 two hundred years after an expedition sent out by Cortez had settled the 
 fact that it was a peninsula. If the island theory had to be abandoned, 
 then the next way to narrow the distance from shore to shore was by 
 means of an inland sea. Fuca's inlet and Aguilar's alleged river were 
 accepted as entrances to this theoretical sea. The tales of the Indians 
 were believed to prove its existence. The most incredible thing to the 
 French geographer of that day the thing which he was least prepared 
 to admit was the broad stretch of land from Nova Scotia to Oregon. 
 La Hontan, in 1705, published in his book a copy of an Indian map 
 drawn on deer's skin, showing the Rocky Mountains and a river heading 
 about where the Columbia heads and flowing indefinitely West. This 
 chart is recognized by LePage 2 in the map which accompanied his 
 history. Such a river might, perhaps, have been permitted to flow into 
 the " Sea of the West," as the distance from its source to its mouth 
 was absolutely an unknown quantity, but LePage was aware and admits 
 the fact, 3 that belief in Moncacht-Apfe's tale involved giving up this 
 favorite speculation of the French geographers. He thus was com- 
 pelled to take the opposite side in this controversy from that maintained 
 by the " Premier Geographer of the King of France, and one of the 
 most eminent Astronomers of the Academy of Science." 4 
 
 1 Remarks in Support of the New Chart of North and South America. 
 By T. Green, Esq., London, 1753, p. 22. 
 
 2 LePage du Pratz. Histoire de la Louisiane, Vol. III., pp. 138, 139, 
 note. La Hontan's chart is there alluded to with the statement that this 
 river must have been the one which Moncacht-Ap6 descended to the 
 " Sea of the South or Pacific." 
 
 3 Histoire de la Louisiane, Vol. III., p. 138. Speaking of the Sea of 
 the West of the cartographers, he says, "For my part I am strongly 
 impelled to believe that it exists only in imagination." Same, p. 137 : 
 " I can not persuade myself otherwise than that he travelled upon the 
 shores of the Sea of the South, of which the northern part may be called 
 if you wish, the Sea of the West. Same, p. 139 : " This beautiful river 
 falls into the sea, at the west, . . . which by this account indicates only 
 the Sea of the South or Pacific Ocean." 
 
 4 Remarks in Support of the New Chart of North and South America. 
 ByT. Green, Esq., London, 1753, p. 46. 
 
23 
 
 Dumont ranged himself with his countrymen. He had written to 
 Buache 1 a letter in which he expressed opinions on the subject similar 
 to those which may be found in his book. His opinion is also plainly 
 shown in the following extract, taken from his book, which immediately 
 follows the Indian's story: 2 " Whatever one may think of this narra- 
 tive of Sieur LePage, which some perhaps will look upon less as a 
 reality than as a bad copy of Robinson, it cannot possibly suffice to give 
 more light to our geographers concerning the true position of the Sea 
 of the West and the route to take to arrive there through North 
 America. To make this more certain it is necessary to consult the new 
 chart of North America recently made by Messrs. De Lisle and Buache." 
 A change had come over the spirit of his dream since writing in his 
 preface: "his (LePage's) reflections seem just; amongst others, those 
 where he points out to us a route to find the Sea of the West by the 
 river Missouri, based upon a description made to him by a Yazoo 
 Indian known to the author." 
 
 We find no trace of a controversial spirit in LePage's book, 3 and 
 yet we may rest assured that the influences which cost Dumont his 
 belief in Moncacht-Ape's story would only fan the fires of faith with one 
 of LePage's enthusiastic temperament. 
 
 Although Dumont claims in his preface to have known the Yazoo 
 Indian, still he credits the story, as we have seen, to LePage, and there 
 is enough of identity to assure the common origin of the two versions. 
 Their differences, however, are so radical that they cannot be explained 
 as the ordinary changes to which such stories are subject in passing 
 from person to person. The ill-will that Dumoiit entertained toward 
 LePage might perhaps have furnished an adequate motive for him to 
 have altered or suppressed the story; but, in addition to the fact that 
 Dumont's version is much the more credible of the two, it must be 
 borne in mind that LePage had recently published a series of articles in 
 the Journal (Economique and it is presumable that he was on the spot, 
 or where he could see Dumont's book when it should come out, and 
 would therefore notice any changes in statements attributed to himself 
 as authority. With LePage on the spot and with the pages of a period- 
 ical at his command, Dumont might venture to prod him with satire and 
 comments, but would scarcely have dared to falsify him. It seems 
 incredible that LePage should not have seen Dumont's book, but if he 
 did so his failure to notice in his own work the references to himself 
 with which Dumont's pages bristle, remains a mystery to puzzle us still. 
 
 Considerations Geographiques, etc., par Philippe Buache. Paris 
 1753, p. 36. 
 
 2 Dumont's Memoires sur la Louisiane, Paris, 1753, p. 246, et seq. 
 
 3 Unless the following extract from the preface, referring to certain 
 other Relations, may be considered as alluding to some individual, 
 perhaps Dumont: "It is then absolutely necessary to destroy these 
 false opinions occasioned by these untrue accounts, often full of malig- 
 nity and nearly always of ignorance." 
 
24 
 
 The review of this partisan controversy and the proof of its close 
 connection with the Moncacht-Ape story has enabled us to see some of 
 the sources of information which would inevitably have attracted the 
 observation of a geographer during the interim between Moncacht-Ape's 
 telling his story and LePage's publication of his history. That LePage's 
 attention was attracted to the controversy of the cartographers we 
 know, 1 because he tells us that the French charts show the possibility 
 of the connection of the land at the North-west of America and the 
 North-east of Asia, as suggested by the Indian. But these were not the 
 only sources of information open to LePage in 1758 which have not been 
 included in our review of the knowledge which he might have obtained 
 at the date of the Indian's story. During the sixteen years which had 
 passed between the return to Siberia of the Behring's Expedition in 
 1742 8 and the time of LePage's going to press, more or less of the 
 information gathered by that expedition had been furnished to the public. 
 The war of the geographers as to the authenticity of the Fonte and 
 Maldonado forgeries necessarily attracted great attention to the report* 
 of the men who accompanied Bearing. Buache J in his Memoire to the 
 Academy seeks to identify their land-falls with the Fou-Sang of the 
 Chinese. Among other things recorded by the naturalists who accom- 
 panied the expedition, and published by Miiller 4 in 1758, we find the 
 facts that the coast Indians were in the habit of eating seals, and were 
 observed to eat roots which they had dug out of the ground. It will 
 thus be seen that information upon these two points had been in posses- 
 sion of European naturalists for at least fifteen years. It would not 
 have been remarkable if during that time it had come to the ears of a 
 man of LePage's 5 tastes, but on the other hand there had been no such 
 publication of it as to justify us in saying that he must have seen it. 
 
 The knowledge of the coast-line discovered by Behring must have 
 been brought to his attention by DeLisle and by Buache's charts, and as 
 he was not hampered by the necessity of reconciling the actual discover- 
 ies with the hypothetical maps based upon the alleged voyages of Fonte 
 and Maldonado, he would naturally have constructed a coast line which 
 would approximate the real one. If the coast line of Siberia, explored 
 
 'LePage du Pratz, "Histoire de la Louisiane," Paris, 1758, vol. III., 
 p. 136. 
 
 2 Miiller returned to St. Petersburg Feb. 15, 1743. See Muller's 
 Voyages Asia to America, Jefferys' translation, p. 107. 
 
 3 Considerations Geographiques, etc., P. Buache, Paris, 1753, p. 47. 
 
 4 See Jefierys' translation of Muller's Vovages, Asia to America, 
 1764, p. 90. 
 
 5 That he was in such close contact with the savants of the period 
 as to justify this belief, would appear from the fact that he says in his 
 Preface, that he was urged by " the savants to reproduce his ethno- 
 logical papers for the Journal CEconomique in book form." 
 
25 
 
 fcy Behring in 1728 ; the strange coast opposite reached by Gwosdew, 1 the 
 navigator, in 1730 ; the points on the American coast reached by Behring 
 in 1741, and the general trend of the known coast below be plotted on a 
 chart, the existence of the strait through which Behring twice sailed 
 without seeing America will be inferred without hesitation. The Rus- 
 sians accepted this inference, and published a chart which was repro- 
 duced by Jefferys in 1764. This chart closely resembles the maps of 
 to-day, and Mencacht-Ape's description may fairly be applied to it. 2 
 
 Up to this point we have sought to analyze the sources of knowledge 
 of the historian so as to know what weight the argument of coincidences 
 was entitled to, and also to discover if there was aught in the story or 
 in its relation to the controversies of the day to imperil the judgment of 
 its writer. It remains for us to ask, what about the bearded men who 
 came habitually to the coast with such regularity that their arrival could 
 be predicted within a few days; whose purpose was simply to get a 
 cargo of dye-wood and who had no expectation of traffic on these annual 
 visits ? If we admit this part of the story to be true we shall have no 
 difficulty in accepting the learned argument of M. de Quatrefages to 
 prove that the foreigners came from Lieou-Tchou or the Eastern Isles of 
 Japan, but if we submit the tale to a careful scrutiny, it is not an easy 
 one to believe. There is no sufficient evidence to justify the belief that 
 the Japanese habitually made such venturesome voyages. We have 
 both record and tradition of the arrival of Japanese vessels on our 
 coast, 3 but they have always plainly been unwilling visitors. Even if 
 the theory that the Chinese found their way from coast to island and 
 from island to coast, until they reached the so-called land of Fou Sang 4 
 should be accepted, there is no evidence of habitual visitations. There 
 is no known wood upon our coast of particular value as a dye-wood, 
 and there is no part of the North Pacific coast where the extermination 
 of a particular species of tree would leave the inhabitants without wood. 
 The collection of a cargo of dye-wood in a country which has no valuable 
 woods for that purpose, is not a sufficient reason for an annual visit, 
 and if, correcting the story to make it more probable, we admit that the 
 vessels came for purposes of trade as indicated in the Indian legends, 
 then we must insist upon finding traces of that trade along the coast. 
 A careful examination of the authorities does not disclose in the hands 
 
 Voyages from Asia to America, Miiller translated by Jefferys, Lon- 
 don, 1764, p. 55. Green's "Remarks in support of the New Chart," Lon- 
 don, 1753, p. 25. 
 
 Indeed this is just what LePage himself says of it, vol. III., 136: 
 " The passage of the Russians from Asia to America where they landed, 
 proves to us that the coast may run in a line conformable to Moncacht- 
 Ape's story." 
 
 'Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, April 23, 1872. 
 Paper on the likelihood of an admixture of Japanese blood on our North- 
 West Coast, by Horace Davis. 
 
 4 " Considerations Geographiques," etc., P. Buache, Paris, 1753, p. 11. 
 
 3 
 
26 
 
 of the Indians evidence sufficient to prove the existence of such a trade. 
 Bodega 1 in 1775, at Port Trinidad, found some iron among the Indians, 
 but the chronicler of the expedition reports that what they chiefly valued 
 in traffic " was iron and particularly knives or hoops of old barrels." 
 Cook* found iron and brass among the Indians. Their tomahawks were 
 made of stone. Their arrows were generally pointed with bone. They 
 had chisels and knives of iron; the latter shaped like pruning-knives 
 with the edge on the back. He also met one Indian who had two silver 
 spoons, apparently of Spanish manufacture. And yet he says: 3 "We 
 never observed the least signs of their having seen ships before, nor of 
 their having traded with such people. Many circumstances seem to 
 prove this almost beyond a doubt." 
 
 In addition to the foregoing evidences of some sort of traffic with 
 outsiders on the part of the Indians on the Northwest coast, Greenhow* 
 cites Friar Penas's journal of a voyage of Juan Perez, and also quotes 
 from the narrative of the expedition of Behring, 5 both of which expedi- 
 tions, he says, found knives and articles of iron in the hands of the 
 natives. But he concludes each account with the statement that they 
 appeared never before to have held any intercourse with civilized people. 
 The uniform testimony of the early voyagers to the existence of metallic 
 ornaments and knives in the hands of the Indians, which had apparently 
 been introduced from outside sources, can leave but little doubt of the 
 fact. The negative testimony of Vancouver 6 as to the Indians at 
 Trinidad, whom Bodega had found with both iron and copper, but who 
 in 1798 had neither, must be accepted as proof only that the supply of 
 these Indians was not constant, and that the amount owned by them 
 must have been small. The unfamiliarity of the Indians with vessels 
 and the irregularities of the stock of these metals, especially when taken 
 in connection with the silver spoons, would point to some inland source 
 of supply. 
 
 The first glance at the Japanese chart brought to Europe by Kaempfer, 
 a copy of which is given in the DeLisle and Buache Memoires, showing 
 as it does a familiarity with our coast at least as great as that shown in 
 the original charts of these cartographers, would suggest that this was 
 in itself a strong argument in favor of the annual visits of the Japanese 
 vessels to this part of the world. The trouble with the chart, however, 
 for this purpose is that it shows too much. The accuracy of the outlines 
 of the Gulf of California and of the Gulf of Mexico could not have come 
 from Japanese sources. The same authority that contributed these out- 
 
 1 Miscellanies of Daines Barrington, London, 1775, pp. 488, 489. 
 
 8 Cook's Voyages, London, 1784, pp. 267, 271, 279, 282, 311, 327, 330. 
 
 3 Id., 1784, p. 331. 
 
 4 Greenhow's Oregon, Boston 1844, p. 116. 
 
 5 Id., 1844, p. 132. 
 
 6 Vancouver, London, 1798, v. II., 243. 
 
27 
 
 lines may have furnished, and probably did furnish, the knowledge and 
 conjectures on which the line of our Northwest coast was assumed in 
 this chart. 
 
 So far as the guns and the details with reference to the powder are 
 concerned, the curious statements of Moncacht-Ape may at some future 
 day, when we shall know more about the history of the Japanese and 
 Chinese, have a greater value than they possess at present, as factors in 
 unravelling this complicated question. All that we can now say is that 
 we do not know enough about the weapons or the powder of these 
 people, to make any use of the statements in our attempts to get at the 
 facts of the story. Moncacht-Ape not only anticipated the knowledge of 
 his own day, but also, as yet, of ours, for we have not learned enough 
 about the matter to say whether he told the truth. 
 
 One word as to the route of the Indian, and we shall be prepared, to 
 draw our conclusions from this protracted discussion, having in our 
 review touched upon the various points which we started to examine. 
 Moncacht-Ape specifies that he kept up the North bank of the Missouri. 
 Now if he continued on the North bank of the river to its source, his 
 description of the way to reach the head-waters of the Columbia and of 
 the general direction of that river from that point is irreconcilable with 
 what we know of its course. On the other hand, if he went up the 
 North Platte, which would agree with the general courses he gave, we 
 should expect some record in the narrative, of his crossing the main 
 river and taking up the tributary, for he spent the winter in the vicinity 
 of the mouth of the Platte, and there could be no doubt that the Indiana 
 knew which was the main stream. Further he is particular in mentioning 
 where he crossed the Ohio and the Mississippi rivers, which favors the 
 conclusion that his course was, as he intimates, constantly on the North 
 bank, 1 even at the expense of making his account a little foggy. We 
 have seen that the story of the journey was not only a possibility, but 
 we have occasional records of men whose habits of mind and body lead 
 them to these solitary expeditions. It does not require that we should 
 accept, nor need we reject the alleged motives of the expedition, but we 
 may concede the probability that the outline of the tale came from the 
 Indian's mouth. Dumont, who tells us that he knew him, had been 
 stationed among the Yazoos 2 as well as at Natchez, and in his contempt 
 for Le Page's speculations he would have been glad to denounce the story 
 in more direct terms if he had not believed that there was some truth at 
 its foundation. 3 
 
 'It is but just to allude here to the fact that Charlevoix says, a few 
 years after the savage's journey, "All these natives of whom I have 
 been speaking (The Missouris and Canzes were included) dwell upon 
 the Western bank of the Missouri." Journal of a voyage to North 
 America. Translated from the French of P. de Charlevoix, Vol. II., 
 London, 1761, p. 224. 
 
 'Dumont's Memoires, &c., Paris, 1753, v. II., p. 69. 
 3 This argument was anticipated by Mr. Samuel Engel, who says, "M. 
 Dumont who has given another relation of Louisiana, in which he, or at 
 
28 
 
 The isolation of a life at Natchez kept LePage's active brain at work 
 upon the facts that he had accumulated concerning the migrations of the 
 Indians and their forms of government. He framed theories and then 
 propounded leading interrogatories which were better calculated, per- 
 haps, than he thought to bring forth the answers that he wanted. The 
 running commentaries by Dumont in his Memoires call attention to this 
 weakness on the part of LePage, and the conclusion is irresistible that 
 he colored the statements of the Indians, or the Indians cheerfully 
 adapted their answers to his needs. 
 
 The argument of coincidence between what was stated by Moncacht- 
 Ap6 concerning this unknown region and subsequent discoveries is very 
 properly claimed by M. de Quatrefages as of great value. But if its 
 application should show that there is no error of statement so long as 
 the narrative deals with regions that were thoroughly explored ; that it 
 introduces statements concerning which we are incredulous or doubtful 
 ouly when it arrives at a region about which nothing was then known ; 
 and that in some of the more fanciful portions of the tale we think that 
 we can trace the reproduction of legends already familiar to us from the 
 Relations ; if these are the coincidences that our examination establishes, 
 then our conclusion will be that the personality of LePage has materially 
 affected the value of the story. To show that this is really so, it hardly 
 needs that we should point to the wonderful truthfulness of the story so 
 long as it is confined to the East and to the lower Missouri ; to the ac- 
 curacy with which the course of that river is given where it had been 
 explored ; to the fact that our first conflict with modern explorations 
 comes at the point where the traveller treads on entirely new ground; 
 to the strong family resemblance between the bearded men with their 
 strange clothing, and Sagard Theodat's smooth-faced men with their 
 leggings and shoes ; to the extraordinary differences between the two 
 ndings, in which many of the additional materials found in the later 
 publication correspond closely with new facts brought to the notice of 
 European scientists by the Behring's Expedition. 
 
 As to the curious details concerning the guns and the powder, the 
 only place to which we can look for their corroboration is the Orient. 
 Should research fail to discover the use of similar weapons and materials 
 there, it would stamp this part of the story as a fiction. 
 
 In examining the question of motive and responsibility we have 
 learned enough of the cartographic controversy to see that not alone 
 DeLisle and Buache on the one side and Green and Jefferys on the 
 other, but that men from all parts of Europe drifted into that discussion. 
 
 least his editor, is often of a contrary opinion to M. LePage, far from 
 contradicting this journey of Moncacht-Ap gives an extract from it in 
 his work. Now M. Dumont has, they say, lived twenty-two years in 
 this country. He would not have lost the opportunity to contradict M. 
 LePage, if he had recounted a fable." 
 
 " Memoires et Observations Geographiques, etc. Par M. * * * 
 [Samuel Engel] Lausanne, 1765, p. 108. 
 
29 
 
 We have seen that LePage and Dumont espoused opposite sides, and 
 while we could not discover in the history signs of bad temper, we 
 have found the memoires bristling with ill will. Thus we have been 
 able to show a motive for misrepresentation, and if we had concluded 
 that the Dumont ending was a forgery, we should have had little doubt 
 that the rancor that he showed was a sufficient explanation of it. The 
 presence of the two men in France 1 at the time of the publication of 
 the memoires, and Dumont's bold charge of the authorship of the story 
 on LePage has served to fix the responsibility for the two endings upon 
 him. The fact that notwithstanding the ill-will that we have traced to 
 Dumont, his version of the story is the more credible of the two adds 
 emphasis to the conviction. 
 
 Finally, we fancy that we may be able to account, even for the 
 change from the smooth-faced men of Sagard Theodat to the bearded 
 men of the story by showing that such bearded men were alluded 
 to in the publications of the period. 
 
 Spangberg* in 1739 saw on the northern isles of Japan, men of small 
 stature " with pretty long hair all over their bodies, and the men of 
 middle age had black, while the old men had grey beards." Ellis, 3 in 
 1748, says, describing the most recent voyage to Hudson's Bay in 
 search of a northwest passage: "The southern Indians constantly 
 affirm that a great ocean lies but a small distance from their country 
 towards the Sun's setting, in which they have seen ships, and on board 
 them men having large beards and wearing caps." 
 
 Buache 4 tells us that he had a letter written March 15, 1716, by M. 
 Bobe Lazariste de Versailles, in which the statement is made that " in 
 the land of the Sioux, at the head of the Mississippi there are always 
 French traders ; that they know that near the source of the river can be 
 found in the high lands a river which leads to the Sea of the West; 
 that the savages say that they have seen bearded men who have caps, 
 and who collect gold dust on the edge of the Sea. 5 But it is a very long 
 distance from their country, and they must pass through many tribes 
 unknown to the French." 
 
 1 Dumont's presence at this time may be inferred from the language 
 of his preface. LePage returned in 1734. He published some of his 
 articles in the Journal (Economique in 1751. At least Mtiller quotes 
 from one of them in the September number of that year. 
 
 2 Jefferys' Translation, Miiller's Voyages Asia to America, London, 
 1764, p. 72. 
 
 * Ellis's Voyage to Hudson Bay, London, 1748, p. 304. 
 
 4 Buache, Considerations Geographiques, Paris, 1753, p. 38. 
 
 5 This belief in the bearded men and also in the gold-bearing sands of 
 the beaches of the Pacific finds occasional expression among these 
 Hudson's Bay savages. In the Recueil d'Arrests, Amsterdam, 1720, 
 there is a Relation by M. Jeremie, entitled "Relation de la Bale de 
 Hudson," in which occurs this passage. " The savages say that after 
 h'aving travelled many months to the West-Southwest, they found the 
 
30 
 
 We come then practically to the conclusion that there is nothing in 
 the story to tax our credulity if we are not called upon to believe in the 
 annual visits of the bearded men and the various doubtful incidents 
 which their presence involves. We have not been able to trace to the 
 historian a knowledge, or a possibility of knowledge of all the details of 
 the Indian's story which subsequent discovery has verified, and this 
 adds to the probability that the journey was actually accomplished, and 
 the story of it related to Le Page du Pratz. We are not, however, able 
 to relieve him from responsibility for the double endings, and although 
 the general tone and character of his work justify the high esteem in 
 which Mr. Stuart 1 held it, we are nevertheless forced to the unwilling 
 conclusion that the original story of the savage suffered changes at his 
 hands. 
 
 In conclusion we express the hope that the students who may here- 
 after have access to Oriental records, will bear in mind, that proof 
 ought there to be found, if proof there be, of the habitual presence on 
 our shores, at that period, of the bearded men, a presence which we 
 have seen indicated in tradition and story, but for which as yet we have 
 found no other authority than the helpless wrecks which have been 
 borne upon our coast by the Japanese current. 
 
 sea, on which they saw large canoes [these are ships] with men who 
 had beards and caps, who collect gold upon the edge of the sea [that is 
 to say at the mouth of the rivers]." p. 12. On the 26 th page of the 
 same Relation there is another allusion to bearded men who build stone 
 forts, &c. 
 
 1 Transactions of the Quebec Literary and Historical Society of 
 Quebec, Quebec, 1829, vol. I., p. 198.