CHAPTER XXXIX.
DISCOVERY OF THE SOURCE OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
Short rations. — Empty haversacks and depleted cartridge-boxes. — Statement of Chenowagesic. — Captain Glazier's diary. — Vivid description. — Coasting Itasca. — Chenowagesic puzzled. — The barrier overcome. — Victory! the Infant Mississippi. — Enthusiastic desire to see the source. — The goal reached. — A beautiful lake. — The fountain head. — An American the first white man to stand by its side. — Schoolcraft. — How he came to miss the lake. — Appropriate ceremonies. — Captain Glazier's speech. — Naming the lake. — Chenowagesic. — Military honors. — "Three cheers for the explorer."
Captain Glazier had instructed his Indian guides to wake him early the following morning, July twenty-second; but when he himself awoke at six o'clock he found the remainder of the party still sound asleep, the toilsome portages of the preceding day having completely exhausted them. Rousing his companions, preparations were begun for breakfast, which consisted of a small piece of bacon and one "flap-jack" each. But the determination of the previous night had so inspirited all that the small dimensions of the breakfast were scarcely noticed, and the conversation turned upon the absorbing topic—would they discover a source of the Mississippi other than Lake Itasca?
Chenowagesic again repeated his statement that there was another lake to the south, which he called Pokegama, meaning, "a lake on the side of or beyond another lake." This lake, he said, was smaller than Itasca, but contributed to the latter through its largest inflowing stream. Captain Glazier, therefore, instructed him to guide them to this lake and allow them to make their own observations regarding it. Accordingly, breakfast being over, the canoes were launched and the coasting of Itasca begun.
Captain Glazier's own account of the events succeeding this breakfast on Schoolcraft Island is so clear, and his description brings so vivid a picture before the eye of the reader, that it is only necessary to quote the following passages from his diary for the reader to understand the importance of the discovery which he made:
"Notwithstanding the fact that we were now confronted with empty haversacks and depleted cartridge boxes my companions were still eager to follow my lead in the work of exploration beyond Itasca, which from the beginning had been the controlling incentive of our expedition, the grand objective towards which we bent all our energies. To stand at the source; to look upon the remotest rills and springs which contribute to the birth of the Great River of North America, to write 'Finis' in the volume opened by the renowned De Soto more than three hundred years ago, and in which Marquette, La Salle, Hennepin, La Hontan, Carver, Pike, Beltrami, Schoolcraft and Nicollet have successively inscribed their names, were quite enough to revive the drooping spirits of the most depressed.
"During our encampment on the island Chenowagesic again reminded me that he had planted corn there many years before, and that his wigwam once stood near the spot where we had pitched our tents. He also repeated what he had told me before launching the canoes at Leech Lake that the region about Lake Itasca was his hunting-ground, and that he was thoroughly acquainted with all the rivers, lakes and ponds within a hundred miles. He further said that Paul Beaulieu was in error concerning the source of the Great River, and led me to conclude that the primal reservoir was above and beyond Itasca, and that this lake was simply an expansion of the Mississippi, as are Bemidji, Cass, Winnibegoshish and several others.
"Fully convinced that the statements of Chenowagesic were entirely trustworthy, and knowing from past experience that he was perfectly reliable as a guide, we put our canoes into the water at eight o'clock, and at once began the work of coasting Itasca for its feeders. We found the outlets of six small streams, two having well-defined mouths, and four filtering into the lake through bogs. The upper end of the southwestern arm is heavily margined with rushes and swamp grass, and it was not without considerable difficulty that we forced our way through this natural barrier into the larger of the two open streams which flow into this end of the lake.