§ 1. SHORT ACCOUNT OF PERROT AND HIS WRITINGS.
Nicolas Perrot, whose name is already well known to the readers of the early history of Minnesota, was born in 1644, and repaired, at an early age, to New France, where he resided, almost habitually, from 1665 to 1689, amongst the diverse races of its most distant part—the extremity of the angle formed by the valleys of the St. Lawrence and of the Mississippi. “At first simple coureur du bois by trade (1665-1684), and interpreter incidentally (1671-1701), he was at last, under the successive governments of M. M. de la Barre, Denonville and Frontenac (1684-1699), charged with a command analogous to that of our chiefs of Arab bureaux in Algeria.” In his capacity of interpreter, he was present at the convocation of the tribes at Sainte-Marie-du-Sault, where, on the 14th of June, 1671, the French government assumed the sovereignty of the regions beyond the Great Lakes. Nearly eighteen years later, on the 8th of May, 1689, he himself, acting as principal agent, took formal possession, in the name of the King of France, of all the country visited by him, or that might be visited, from Green Bay to the regions beyond the St. Croix and St. Peter. Subsequent to 1718, no information concerning him can be obtained.
The writings of Perrot are as follows:
1. Memoire sur les Outagamis, addresse au Marquis de Vaudreuil.
2. Plusieurs memoires tant sur les guerres des Iroquois contre les Illinois et les nations d’en haut, que sur les trahisons des sauvages, et en particulier, des Outaouais et des Hurons.
3. Memoire sur les moeurs, coustumes, et relligion des sauvages de l’Amerique Septentrionale.
Of these works, the last one only, the “Memoir upon the manners, customs and religion of the savages of Northern America,” which must have been written some time between 1718, and 1721, has come down to us; though the “Plusieurs memoires” &c., is supposed to have been inserted, almost literally, by La Potherie, in the second volume of his history. It was not composed for publication, but for the confidential information of the Intendant of Canada, M. Begon, and remained in manuscript till 1864, when it appeared at Leipzig and Paris, being Part Three of the Bibliotheca Americana, edited by the Rev. Father J. Tailhan, of the Society of Jesus, on whose authority the preceding facts are stated. “There is only one copy of Perrot’s memoir in existence, of the last century; the same, probably, that Father Charlevoix used, and which he received from M. Begon, Intendant of Canada, in 1721. Our edition is a scrupulous reproduction of it.” [T.]
Scattered through this book are accounts of the Sioux and other tribes living in the region comprised within the limits of the present Minnesota, and between it and Lake Michigan; and, in the same connection, a description of the country of the former nation, and other geographical information of more or less direct reference. As an interesting addition to our knowledge of the historical geography of this region, all such notices have been carefully searched for, and are here given in a collected form for the use of the Historical Society of Minnesota. The extracts are purely in Perrot’s own words; no changes having been made, even in the orthography. In addition, though trenching somewhat on the domain of history, the episode of the disappearance of Father Menard is included;—partly by reason of the new and interesting version of the matter, and partly as showing that he should be considered as one of the very earliest European visitors to Minnesota. Our first desideratum being accurate texts, comments are best postponed; yet the notes of Father Tailhan are so well considered that this compilation would be incomplete without the insertion of such of them as correspond to the extracts from the original work. The translator has also ventured upon two or three explanatory remarks, or interpolations, of his own, distinguishable by being inclosed within brackets; except the dates, which are the Father’s.
§ 2. Extracts from his “Memoire sur les moeurs, &c.”
Car le pays du nord est la terre du monde la plus ingratte, puisque, dans quantitez d’endroits vous ne trouveriez pas un oiseau a chasser; on y ramasse cependant des bluets dans les mois d’aout et de septembre[2]....
Les Chiripinons ou Assiniboualas sement dans leurs marais quelques folles avoines qu’ils recueillent, mais ils n’en peuvent faire le transport chez eux que dans le temps de la navigation(1)....
Les Kiristinons qui hantent souvent le long des bords du Lac Superieur et des grandes rivieres, ou sont plus communement les elans(2)....
Les sauvages que l’on nomme Saulteurs [Chippewais] sont au sud du lac Superieur ... ils ont pour voysins et amis les Scioux, sur les limites desquels ils chassent, quand ils veulent....
Si on avance dans le nord, vers l’entree d’Ouisconching, l’hiver y est extremement froid et long. C’est la ou les castors sont les meilleurs, et le pays ou la chasse dure plus longtemps dans l’annee....
Ils tirent aussy l’hyver de dessous la glace dans les marests ou il y a beaucoup de vase et peu d’eau, une certaine racine, ... mais elle ne se trouve que dans la Louisianne, a quinze lieues plus haut que l’entree d’Ouisconching. Les sauvages nomme en leur langue cette racine Pokekoretch....
Mais les peuples plus avancez dans le nord, jusqu’a la hauteur d’Ouisconching, n’ont plus de ces nefles, et ceux qui sont encore plus loin manquent de ces noix semblables a celles de France....
Car ce pays [des sauvages des prairies] n’est que plaines; il y a seulement quelques islets ou ils ont coustume d’aller camper pour faire secher leurs viandes....
Quand touts les Outaouas se furent repandus vers les lacs [au Mechingan (3)], les Saulteurs et les Missisakis s’enfuirent dans le nord, et puis a Kionconan(4) faute de chasse; et les Outaouas craignants de n’estre pas assez forts pour soustenir les incursions des Iroquois, qui estoient informez de l’endroit ou ils avoient fait leur establissement, se refugierent au Micissypy, qui se nomme a present la Louisianne. Ils monterent ce fleuve a douze lieues ou environ d’Ouisconching, ou ils trouverent une autre riviere qui se nomme des Ayoes(5). Ils la suivirent jusqu’a sa source et y recontrerent des nations qui les receurent cordialement. Mais, dans toutte l’etendue de pays qu’ils parcoururent, n’ayant pas veu de lieu propre a s’establir, a cause qu’il n’y avait dutout point de bois, et qu’il ne paroissoit que prairies et rases campagnes, quoyque les buffles et autres bestes y fusses en abondance, ils reprirent leur mesme route pour retourner sur leurs pas; et, apres avoir encore une fois aborde la Louisianne, ils monterent plus haut.
Ils n’y furent pas longtemps sans s’ecarter pour aller d’un coste et d’autre a la chasse: je parle d’une partie seulement de leurs gens, que les Scioux rencontierent, prirent et ammenerent a leurs villages, ... et puis les rendirent a leurs gens.
Les Outaouas et Hurons les recurent fort bien a leur tour, sans neantmoins leur faire de grands presents. Les Scioux estant revenus chez eux avec quelques petites choses qu’ils avoient receues des Outaouas, en firent part aux autres villages leurs alliez, et donnèrent aux uns des haches et aux autres quelques cousteaux ou alaines. Touts ces villages envoyerent des deputez chez les Outaouas(6).—— ...
Les Scioux faisoient milles caresses aux Hurons et Outaouas partout ou ils estoient.—— ... Les Outaouas se determinerent enfin a choisir l’isle nommee Pelee pour s’establir; ou ils furent quelquees annees en repos. Ils y receurent souvent la visitte des Scioux....
Les Hurons, ayant assez d’audace pour s’imaginer que les Scioux estoient incapables de leur resister sans armes de fer et a feu, conspirerent avec les Outaouas de les entreprendre et de leur faire le guerre, afin de les chasser de leur pays, et de se pouvoir estendre d’avantage pour chercher leur subsistance. Les Outaouas et les Hurons se joignirent ensemble et marcherent contre les Scioux. Ils crurent que sitost qu’ils paroistroient, ils fuiroient; mais ils furent bien trompez; car ils soustinrent leurs efforts, et mesme les repousserent, et s’ils ne s’estoient retirez ils auroient estez entierement deffaits par le grand nombre de monde, qui venoient des autres villages de leurs alliez a leur secours. On les poursuivit jusqu’a leur establissement, ou ils furent contraints de faire un mechant fort, qui ne laissa par d’estre capable de faire retirer les Scioux, puisqu’ils n’oserent entreprendre de l’attaquer.
Les incursions continuelles que les Scioux faisoient sur eux les contraignirent de fuir(7). Ils avoient eu connoissance d’une riviere qu’on nomme la Riviere Noire; ils entrerent dedans et, estant arrivez la ou elle prend sa source, les Hurons y trouverent un lieu propre pour s’y fortiffier et y establir leur village. Les Outaouas pousserent plus loin, et marcherent jusqu’au lac Superieur, et fixerent leur demeure a Chagouamikon. Les Scioux, voyant leurs ennemis partis, demeurerent en repos sans les suivre d’avantage; mais les Hurons n’en voulurent point demeurer la; ils formerent quelques partys contre eux, qui firent peu d’effect, leur attirerent de la part des Scioux de frequentes incursions, et les obligerent de quitter leur fort pour aller joindre les Outaouas a Chagouamikon, avec une grande perte de leurs gens. Aussytost qu’ils furent arrivez, ils songerent a former un party de cent hommes pour aller contre les Scioux, et s’en vanger.
Il est a remarquer que le pays ou ils sont [les Sioux] n’est autre chose que lacs et marests remplis de folles avoines, separes les uns des autres par de petites langues de terre qui n’ont tout au plus d’un lac a l’autre que trente a quarante pas, et d’autres cinq a six ou un peu plus. Ces lacs ou marests contiennent cinquante lieues et d’avantage en carre, et ne sont separes par aucune riviere que par celle de la Louisianne, qui a son lit dans le milieu, ou une partie de leurs eaux viennent se degorger. D’autres tombent dans la riviere de Sainte Croix, qui est situee a leur egard au nord-est, et qui les range de pres. Enfin les autres marests et lacs situez a l’ouest de la riviere de Saint Pierre s’y vont jetter pareillement; si bien que les Scioux sont inaccessibles dans un pays si marecageaux, et ne peuvent y estre detruits que par des ennemis ayant des cannots comme eux pour les poursuivre; parceque dans ces endroits il n’y a que cinq ou six familles ensemble, qui forment comme un gros, ou une espece de petit village, et tous les autres sont de mesme eloignez a une certaine distance, afin d’estre a portee de se pouvoir prester la main a la premiere alarme. Si quelqu’une de ces petites bourgades est attaquee, l’ennemy n’en peut deffaire que tres peu, parceque tous les voysins se trouvent assemblez tout d’un coup, et donnent un prompt secours ou il est besoin. La methode qu’ils ont pour naviguer dans ces sortes de lacs est de couper dedans leur semences, avec leurs cannots, et, les portant de lac en lac ils obligent l’ennemy qui veut fuir a tourner autour; qui vont tousjours d’un lac a un autre, jusqu’a ce qu’ils les ayent tous passez, et qu’ils soient arrivez a la grand terre.
Les cent hommes Hurons s’engagerent dans le milieu de ces marests, sans cannots, ou ils furent decouverts par quelques Scioux, qui accoururent pour donner l’alarme par tout. Cette nation estoit nombreuse, dispersee dans toutte la circonference des marests, ou l’on recueilloit quantite de folles avoines, qui est le grain de cette nation, dont le goust est meilleur que celuy du riz.
Plus de trois mil Scioux se rendirent de touts costez, et investirent les Hurons, ... de tout ce party, il n’en echapa qu’un(8).
...
Les Hurons, se voyant fort peu de monde, prirent le party de ne pas songer a se venger et de vivre paisiblement a Chagouamikon pendant plusieurs annees. Pendant tout ce temps la, ils ne furent point insultez des Scioux, qui ne s’appliquerent uniquement qu’a faire la guerre aux Kiristinons, aux Assiniboules et a toutes les nations du nord, qu’ils ont detruits et desquels ils se sont aussy faits detruire respectivement....
Le Pere Mesnard qu’on avoit donne pour missionnaire aux Outaouas [1660], accompagne de quelques Francois qui alloient commercer chez cette nation, fust abandonne de touts ceux qu’il avoit avec luy, a la reserve d’un qui luy rendit jusqu’a la mort touts les services et les secours qu’il en pouvoit esperer. Ce Pere suivit les Outaouas au lac des Illinoets, et dans leur fuitte dans la Louisianne jusqu’au-dessus de la Riviere Noire. Ce fut la qu’il n’y eust qu’un seul Francois qui tint compagnie a ce missionnaire et que tous les autres le quitterent. Ce Francois dis je suivoit attentivement la route et faisoit son portage dans les mesmes endroits que les Outaouas; ne s’ecartant jamais de la mesme riviere qu’eux. Il se trouva, un jour [Aout 1661], dans un rapide qui l’entrainoit dans son cannot; le Pere pour le soulager debarqua du sien, et ne prit pas le bon chemin pour venir a luy; il s’engagea dans celuy qui estoit battu des animaux, et voulant retomber dans le bon, il s’embarrassa dans un labyrinthe d’arbres et s’egara. Ce Francois apres avoir surmonte ce rapide avec bien de la peine, attendit ce bon Pere, et comme il ne venoit point, resolut de l’aller chercher. Il l’appella dans les bois de touttes ses forces, pendant plusieurs jours, esperant de le decouvrir, mais inutilement. Cependant il fit rencontre en chemin d’un Sakis qui portoit la chaudiere du missionnaire; qui luy aprist de ses nouvelles. Il l’asseura qu’il avoit trouve sa piste bien avant dans les terres, mais qu’il n’avoit pas vue le Pere. Il luy dit qu’il avoit aussy trouve la trace de plusieurs autres qui alloient vers les Scioux. Il luy declara mesme qu’il s’imaginoit que les Scioux l’auroient pu tuer ou qu’il en auroit este pris. En effet, on trouva, plusieurs annees apres, chez cette nation, son breviaire et sa soutanne, qu’ils exposoient dans les festins en y vouant leurs mets, ... chasser du costez des Scioux, car Chagouamikon n’en est eloigne, coupant par les terres en ligne direct, que de cinquante a soixante lieues, ...
... on luy donna pour second M. de Lude [du Lhut] qu’il envoya avertir [1684] a Kamalastigouia, au fond du lac Superieur, ou estoit son poste(9)....
Je fus envoye a cette baye [des Puans, poste de Saint Francois Xavier], charge d’une commission pour y commander en chef et dans les pays plus eloignes du coste du ouest, et de ceux mesme que je pourrois decouvrir [1685]....
Je ne fus pas plustot arrive dans les endroits ou je devois commander, que je recus ordre de M. Denonville de revenir avec tous les Francois que j’avois ... Je me trouvais en ce temps-la dans le pays des Scioux ou la gelee avoit brise tous nos cannots; je fus contraint d’y passer l’este [1686]....
Je fus pas terre chez les Miamis qui estoient a soixante lieues environ de mon poste [dans le pays des Scioux], et m’ens revins par terre de mesme que j’y estoit alle....
Quelques jours apres je m’en fus a travers les terres a la Baye avec deux Francois. J’en rencontroit a tout moment qui m’enseignoient le meilleur chemin et me regaloient fort bien(10)....
[2] Au lecteur. Dans ces extraits, le text que donne le Pere T. a ete implicitement suivi; mais quant aux accents grammatiques, on doit pardonner leur absence, puis ce qu’il n’y a pas encore de type Francais dans les imprimeries de St. Paul.
H.
TRANSLATION.
For the country of the north is the most ungrateful country in the world, since, in many places, you would not find a bird to hunt; still, blueberries are gathered there in the months of August and September....
The Chiripinons, or Assiniboines, sow wild rice in their marshes, which they afterwards gather, but they can only transport it home during the period of navigation(1)....
The Kiristinons, who often frequent the shores of Lake Superior and of the great rivers, where the elk are most commonly to be found(2)....
The savages, called Sauteurs, [Chippewas] are on the south of Lake Superior....
They have for neighbors and friends the Sioux, upon whose limits they hunt, when they wish....
Advancing to the north, towards the entry of the Wisconsin, the winter is extremely cold and long. It is there that the beavers are the best, and the country where hunting lasts the longest during the year....
They take, also, in winter, from under the ice, in marshes where there is much mud and little water, a certain root; ... but it is only found in Louisianne, fifteen leagues [4½ miles] above the entry of the Wisconsin. The savages name this root, in their language, Pokekoretch....
But the tribes the furthest advanced in the north, as far as the latitude of the Wisconsin, do not have these medlars, and those who are yet further, want also the nuts similar to the ones of France....
For this country [of the savages of the prairies] is entirely plains; there are only some islands [oases] where it is their custom to camp to dry their meat....
When the Ottowas had scattered towards the lakes [to Mechingan(3)], the Sauteurs and the Missisakis fled to the north, and then to Kionconan(4), for want of hunting; and the Ottowas, fearing they were not strong enough to resist the incursions of the Iroquois, who were informed of the place where they had made their establishment, took refuse on the Mississippi, called at present the Louisianne. They ascended this river to twelve leagues, or about [33 miles] from the Wisconsin, where they found another river that is called [river] of the Ioways(5). They followed it to its source, and there met nations who received them cordially. But, in all the extent of country which they overran, having seen no place proper to establish themselves, by reason that there was no wood there at all, and that prairies and level plains were all that appeared, although buffaloes and other animals were there in abundance, they returned upon their steps by the same route; and, after having once more reached the Louisianne, they ascended higher.
They were not there long without scattering, going from one side to another for hunting: I speak of a portion, only, of their people, whom the Sioux met and led to their villages, ... and then returned them to the rest.
The Ottowas and Hurons received them very well in their turn, without, however, making them any great presents. The Sioux having arrived at home with some little matters that they had received from the Ottowas, divided portions of them with the other villages, their allies, and gave to the ones, hatchets, and to others, knives or awls. All these villages sent deputies to the Ottowas(6)....
The Sioux received the Ottowas and Hurons in the best manner, wherever they went.... The Ottowas at last resolved to choose the island called Bald, [Pelee] to settle on; where they were several years in repose. They often received there the visit of the Sioux....
The Hurons, having so much audacity that they imagined the Sioux were incapable of resisting them without fire-arms and weapons of iron, conspired with the Ottowas to make war upon them, in order to drive them from their country, so as to be able to spread themselves more, to procure means of subsistence. The Ottowas and the Hurons joined together and marched against the Sioux. They believed that as soon as they would appear, the others would fly; but they were much deceived, for their attacks were sustained, and they were even repulsed; and if they had not retreated, would have been entirely defeated by the great number of people who came from the other allied villages to the assistance of the Sioux. They were pursued to their settlement, where they were obliged to make a hasty fort, which, however, was sufficient to cause the Sioux to retire;—not daring to storm it.
The continual inroads that the Sioux made upon them constrained them to fly(7). They had known of a river called the Black River. This they entered; and, having arrived where it takes its source, the Hurons found there a place fit to fortify themselves in, and to establish their village. The Ottowas, however, pushed beyond, and reached Lake Superior, where they fixed their home at Chagouamikon. The Sioux, seeing their enemies fled, remained in peace, without following them any more. But the Hurons were not content to stop there; they sent some parties against them, which, however, making little impression, drew frequent incursions on the part of the Sioux, and caused them to quit their fort to join the Ottowas at Chagouamikon, with a great loss of their people. So soon as they arrived there, they thought of forming a war party of one hundred men to go against the Sioux, and to revenge themselves for their former defeats.
It is to be remarked that the country where they are [the Sioux] is nothing but lakes and marshes, filled with wild rice, separated, the ones from the others, by little tongues of land, which, at the most, from one lake to the other, are but thirty to forty steps, and, in many cases, only five to six or a little more. These lakes, or marshes, contain fifty or more leagues square, [19 or 20,000 square miles] and are divided by no river but the Louisianne, which has its bed in the middle, and into which a part of their waters is emptied. Others fall into the river of Sainte Croix, which is situated, in respect to them, to the north-east, and flows near them. Finally, the other marshes and lakes, situated to the west of the river of Saint Peter, throw themselves similarly into it. Thus, the Sioux are inaccessible in that marshy country, and cannot be destroyed there, but by enemies having canoes, like themselves, to follow them; for, in these places, there are only five or six families together, which form a hamlet, or a kind of small village; and all the others are in the same way, at a certain distance, in order to be ready to help each other at the first alarm. If any one of these little villages is attacked, the enemy can hurt it but slightly; for all the neighbors assemble at once, and give prompt assistance where it is needed. The way they have of navigating these lakes is to strike into their [rice] fields with their canoes, and, carrying them from lake to lake, they force the flying enemy to turn round. Thus, they can go from one to another, till they have passed them all, and have arrived at the main land.
The hundred Hurons became entangled in the middle of these marshes, without canoes, where they were discovered by some Sioux, who hastened to give a general alarm. This nation [the Sioux] was numerous, scattered through all the extent of the marshes where they were gathering wild rice which is the grain of this people, and tastes better than rice.
More than three thousand Sioux approached, from all sides, and invested the Hurons, ... of all this party but one escaped(8).
...
The Hurons, seeing that they were so weak in numbers, concluded not to seek for revenge any more, but lived peaceably at Chagouamikon for many years. During all this time, they were not molested by the Sioux, who only applied themselves to making war on the Kiristinons, the Assiniboines, and all the other nations of the north, whom they have much injured, and by whom they have, on their part, been decimated....
Father Menard, who had been appointed missionary to the Ottowas, [in 1660, and who went to them], accompanied by some Frenchmen that were going to traffic with that nation, was abandoned by all who were with him, except one, who rendered to him, to the last, all the services and assistance that he stood in need of. The Father followed the Ottawas to the lake of the Illinois, and in their flight to Louisianne, as far as to above the Black River. There it was that this missionary had but one Frenchman for companion, and where all the rest had left him. This Frenchman, I say, followed carefully the route of the Ottawas, and made his portages in the same places that they had;—never leaving the same river that they were on. He found himself, one day [August, 1661], in a rapid that was carrying him away in his canoe. The Father, to relieve him, disembarked from his own, but did not take the proper road to come to him; he entered one that had been made by animals; and desiring to return to the right one, became embarrassed in a labyrinth of trees and was lost. The Frenchman, after having ascended the rapid, with a great deal of trouble, waited for the good Father, and as he did not come, concluded to search for him. He called his name in the woods with all his strength, for several days, but in vain. However, he met, in the way, a Sauk who was carrying the camp kettle of the missionary; and who told him news of him. He informed him that he had found his track a long way on, in the woods, but that he had not seen the Father himself. He told him, too, that he had found the traces of several others going towards the Sioux. He even said that he thought the Sioux might have killed him, or taken him prisoner. Indeed, several years afterwards, there were found amongst this nation his breviary and cassock, which they exposed at their ceremonies, making offerings to them of their food....
... to hunt in the direction of the Sioux; for Chagouamikon is only fifty to sixty leagues [138 to 166 miles] distant from them, going across the country in a direct line....
... They gave him, for second. M. du Lhut, whom he sent word to [1684] at Kamalastiguoia, at the further side of Lake Superior, where was his post(9)....
I was sent to this bay [Green Bay, post of St. Francois Xavier], charged with the commission to have chief command there, and in the most distant countries on the side of the west, and even in any that I might discover [1685]....
I had no sooner arrived in the places where I was to command, than I received orders from M. Denonville to return, with all the Frenchmen that were with me.
... At that time, I was in the country of the Sioux, where the freezing [of the streams] had broken all our canoes; I was compelled to stay there during the summer [1686]....
I went by land to the Miamis, who were about sixty leagues [165½ miles] from my post [in the country of the Sioux], and returned from them the same way that I had gone....
Some days after, I went across the country to the Bay [Green] with two Frenchmen. I met, continually, with those who showed me the best road, and treated me very well(10).
§ 3. Extracts from the notes to the “Memoire sur les moeurs &c.”
(1) “Assinipoualaks, or warriors of the rock, now Assiniboines, a Sioux tribe, which, towards the commencement of the seventeenth century, having quarrelled with the rest of the nation, was obliged to secede, and took refuge amongst the rocks (assin) of the Lake of the Woods.”
(2) “The Kilistinons lived upon the banks of Lake Alimbegong, between Lake Superior and Hudson’s Bay.”
(3) “Mechingan—eastern Wisconsin and north-western Michigan.”
(4) “Kionconan—Kewenaw of the American maps.“ [Pronounced by the modern Chippewas It is like Ke-wa-yo-nahn-ing.—E. F. Ely.]
(5) “The Iowas, neighbors and allies of the Sioux, dwelt between the 44th and 45th degrees of north latitude, twelve days’ journey beyond the Mississippi: that they very likely belonged to the latter nation, is shown by the name of Nadouessioux Maskoutens, or Nadouessioux of the prairies, that the Algonquins had given them; for Maskoute, [Mush-ku-day,] the root of Maskoutens, signifies land destitute of trees, or prairie.”
(6) “We know indeed that two Frenchmen visited, in 1659, the forty Sioux villages without crossing, or even seeing, the Mississippi, of which they have only spoken from hearsay, and from the descriptions that the Hurons of Black River gave them of it. The villages belonged, then, all to the eastern portion of the Sioux territory, situated on this side of the river; that is to say, in the half of the country really occupied by this nation. It may, however, be that in the infant Mississippi, disguised, too, under a Sioux name, our two travelers did not recognize the large and powerful river that the Hurons told them of under its Algonquin title. In this case, they must have been, though without their knowledge, the first to see again in the seventeenth century, the Mississippi, discovered in the sixteenth by Ferdinand de Soto.” ... “One of these travelers was called Des Groseillers, and lived many months with the Sioux. This we gather from the following passage of the M. S. Journal of the Jesuits of Quebec, (Aug., 1660).... “The Ottowas arrived on the 19th.... There were three hundred of them. Des Groseillers was in their company; he had gone to them the year before.... Des Groseillers has wintered with the nation of the Ox [nation du boeuf], which he makes to be 4,000 men. They are the sedentary Nadouesserons’ (Sioux of the East).”
(7) “From the commencement of 1660, the Ottowas inhabited Chegoimegon Point [Shah-gah-wah-mik-ong—Ely], as well as the islands adjacent to it on the southern shore of Lake Superior. The Hurons, at that time, were in hiding near the sources of the Black River, at six days distance (40 or 50 leagues), from the same lake, and at seven or eight from Green Bay. The two peoples were visited, in 1659, by two French traders, who, penetrating beyond, made alliance with the Sioux. It is then between the years 1657 [at which time the Hurons and Ottowas were living in Mechingan,] and 1660, that the events described by Perrot must have taken place; that is, from the flight of these tribes to the Mississippi, up to their first troubles with the Sioux, which were followed by a new migration—that was not their last one.” ... “In reckoning at forty or fifty leagues the six days journey that separated the residence of the Hurons from Lake Superior, I have only applied the rule given in the Relation of 1658 by Father Dreuillettes; ‘You will see also,’ he writes, ‘the new roads to go to the sea of the north, ... with the distance of the places, according to the days travel that the savages have made, which I put at fifteen leagues a day in descending, on account of the rapidity of the waters, and at seven or eight leagues in ascending.’” [The common league of France is equal to 2.76 miles.]
(8) “This disastrous expedition following the arrival of the Hurons at Chegoimegon, it could not, consequently, have taken place before 1662. On the other hand, it preceded, by many years perhaps, the visit that the Chief of the Sinagaux Ottowas paid the Sioux in 1665 or 1666; it is then very likely that the defeat of the Hurons by the Sioux occurred in one of the two years, 1662 or 1663.” ... “Two reasons have impelled me to place in 1665-1666, the arrival of the Sioux prisoners at Chegoimegon, followed by their return to their country with the chief of the Sinagaux and the four Frenchmen of whom Perrot speaks. The first is that, in this year, the Sioux very certainly visited the Point of the Holy Spirit; the second, that, according to the account of these events, as it is given by our author, four or five years at least, had passed away between this visit and the abandoning of Chegoimegon, in 1670-71, by the Hurons and the Ottowas.”
(9) “Kalamalastigouia—an application of DuLhut, made in 1693, in which he solicits the concession of this post, gives the name as Kamanastigouian.”
(10) “Perrot, who was recalled in 1685, from the country of the Sioux, received, four years later, express orders to take possession of it in the name of the king, as seen in the following document: ...
“‘Nicolas Perrot, commandant pour le roi au poste des Nadouesioux ... declarons a tous qu’il appartiendra etre venus a la baye des Puants et au lac des Outagamis, rivieres des dits Outagamis et Maskoutins, riviere de l’Ouiskonche et celle de Mississippi, nous etre transportes au pays des Nadouesioux, sur le bord de la riviere de Sainte Croix, a l’entree de la riviere de Saint Pierre, sur laquelle etaient les Mantantons, et, plus haut dans les terres, au nord-est du Mississippi, jusqu aux Menchokatouches, chez lesquels habitent la plus grande partie des Songeskitoux et autres Nadouesioux qui sont au nord-est du Mississippi, pour et au nom du Roy, prendre possession des terres et rivieres ou les dites nations habitent, et desquelles elles sont proprietaires ... fait au poste Saint-Antoine le dit jour et an que dessus’”—[le 8 Mai 1689.] See Neills’ History of Minnesota, pages 143 to 145, for translation of this “deed” in full.