Summary Narrative of an Exploratory Expedition to the Sources of the Mississippi River, in 1820 / Resumed and Completed, by the Discovery of its Origin in Itasca Lake, in 1832

by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft

He arrives at Michilimackinac in 1688, and there first hears of the assassination of La Salle. In 1689 he visits Green Bay, and passes through the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers into the Mississippi. So far, his work appears to be the result of actual observation, and is entitled to respect; but what he relates of Long River appears wholly incredible, and can only be regarded as some flight of the imagination, intended to gratify the public taste for travels, during an age when it had been highly excited by the extravagant accounts which had been published respecting the wealth, population, and advantages of Peru, Mexico, the English and Dutch colonies, New France, the Illinois, and various other parts of the New World.

To convey some idea of this part of the Baron's work, it will be sufficient to observe that after travelling ten days above the mouth of the Wisconsin, he arrives at the mouth of a large stream, which he calls Long River, and which he ascends eighty-four days successively, during which he meets with numerous tribes of savages, as the Eskoros, Essenapes, Pinnokas, Mozemleeks, &c. He is attended a part of the way by five or six hundred, as an escort; sees at one time two thousand savages upon the shore; and states the population of the Essenapes at 20,000 souls; but this tribe is still inferior to the Mozemleeks in numbers, in arts, and in every other prerequisite for a great people. "The Mozemleek nation," he observes, "is numerous and puissant. The four slaves of that country informed me that, at the distance of 150 leagues from the place where I then was, their principal river empties itself into a salt lake of three hundred leagues in circumference, the mouth of which is about two leagues broad; that the lower part of that river is adorned with six noble cities, surrounded with stone, cemented with fat earth; that the houses of these cities have no roofs, but are open above like a platform; that, besides the above-mentioned cities, there are an hundred towns, great and small, round that sort of sea; that the people of that country make stuffs, copper axes, and several other manufactures, &c."

In 1721, P. De Charlevoix, the historian of New France, was commissioned by the French Government to make a tour of observation through the Canadas, and in addition to his topographical and historical account of New France, published a journal of his voyage through the Lakes. He was one of the most learned divines of his age, and although strongly tinctured with the doctrines of fatality, and disposed to view everything relative to the Indian tribes with the over-zealous eye of a Catholic missionary, yet his works bear the impress of a strong and well-cultivated mind, and abound in philosophical reflections, enlarged views, and accurate deductions; and, notwithstanding the lapse of a century, he must still be regarded as the most polished and illustrious traveller of the region. He first landed at Quebec in the spring of 1721, and immediately proceeded up the St. Lawrence to Fort Frontenac and Niagara, where he corrects the error into which those who preceded him had fallen, with respect to the height of the cataract. He proceeds through Lakes Erie, Huron, and Michigan, descends the Illinois and Mississippi to New Orleans, then recently settled, and embarks for France. The period of his visit was that, when the Mississippi Scheme was in the height of experiment, and excited the liveliest interest in the French metropolis; people were then engaged, in Louisiana, in exploring every part of the country, under the delusive hope of finding rich mines of gold and silver; and the remarks he makes upon the probability of a failure, were shortly justified by the event.

In 1760, Alexander Henry, Esq. visited the upper lakes, in the character of a trader, and devoted sixteen years to travelling over different parts of the north-western region of the Canadas and the United States. The result of his observations upon the topography, Indian tribes, and natural history of the country, was first published in 1809, and, as a volume of travels and adventures, is a valuable acquisition to our means of information. This work abounds in just and sensible reflections upon scenes, situations, and objects of the most interesting kind, and is written in a style of the most charming perspicuity and simplicity. He was the first English traveller of the region.

The date of Carver's travels over those regions is 1766. Carver, whose travels have been treated with too indiscriminate censure, was descended from an ancient and respectable English family in Connecticut, and had served as a captain in the provincial army, which was disbanded after the treaty of peace of Versailles, of 1763, and united to great personal courage a persevering and observing mind. By his bravery and admirable conduct among the powerful tribes of Sioux and Chippewas, he obtained a high standing among them; and, after being constituted a chief by the former, received from them a large grant of land, which was not, however, ratified by the British government. The fate of this enterprising traveller cannot but excite regret. After having escaped the massacre of Fort William Henry, on the banks of Lake George, in 1757, and the perils of a long journey through the American wilderness, he was spared to endure miseries in the heart of the British metropolis, which he had never encountered in the huts of the American savages, and perished of want in the city of London, the seat of literature and opulence!

Between the years 1769 and 1772, Samuel Hearne performed a journey from Prince of Wales's Fort, in Hudson's Bay, to the Coppermine River of the Arctic Ocean. McKenkie's voyages to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans were performed in 1789 and 1793. Pike ascended the Mississippi in 1805 and 1806.

Such is a brief outline of the progress of discovery in the north-western regions of the United States, by which our sources of information have been from time to time augmented, and additional light cast upon the interesting history of our Indian tribes—their numbers and condition, and other particulars connected with the regions they inhabit. Still, it cannot be denied that, amidst much sound and useful information, there has been mingled no inconsiderable proportion that is deceptive, hypothetical, or false; and, upon the whole, that the progress of information has not kept pace with the increased importance which that section of the Union has latterly assumed—with the great improvements of society—and with the spirit and the enterprise of the times. A new era has dawned in the moral history of our country, and, no longer satisfied with mere geographical outlines and boundaries, its physical productions, its antiquities, and the numerous other traits which it presents for scientific research, already attract the attention of a great proportion of the reading community; and it is eagerly inquired of various sections of it—whose trade, whose agriculture, and whose population have been long known—what are its indigenous plants, its zoology, its geology, its mineralogy, &c. Of no part of it, however, has the paucity of information upon these, and upon other and more familiar subjects, been so great, as of the extreme north-western regions of the Union, of the great chain of lakes, and of the sources of the Mississippi River, which have continued to be the subject of dispute between geographical writers.

Impressed with the importance of these facts, Governor Cass, of Michigan, projected, in the fall of 1819, an expedition for exploring the regions in question, and presented a memorial to the Secretary of War upon the subject, in which he proposed leaving Detroit the ensuing spring, in Indian canoes, as being best adapted to the navigation of the shallow waters of the upper country, and to the numerous portages which it is necessary to make from stream to stream.

The specific objects of this journey were to obtain a more correct knowledge of the names, numbers, customs, history, condition, mode of subsistence, and dispositions of the Indian tribes; to survey the topography of the country, and collect the materials for an accurate map; to locate the site and purchase the ground for a garrison at the foot of Lake Superior; to investigate the subject of the north-western copper mines, lead mines, and gypsum quarries, and to purchase from the Indian tribes such tracts as might be necessary to secure to the United States the ultimate advantages to be derived from them. To accomplish these objects, it was proposed to attach to the expedition a topographical engineer, an astronomer, a physician, and a mineralogist and geologist, and some other scientific observers.

Mr. Calhoun not only approved of the proposed plan, but determined to enable the governor to carry it into complete effect, by ordering an escort of soldiers, and enjoining it upon the commandants of the frontier garrisons, to furnish every aid that the exigencies of the party might require, either in men, boats, or supplies.