"I had lost my wife, and all the children whom I had by her, when I undertook my journey towards the sun-rising. I set out from my village contrary to the inclinations of all my relations, and went first to the Chicasaws, our friends and neighbours. I continued among them several days to inform myself whether they knew whence we all came, or at least whence they themselves came; they, who were our elders; since from them came the language of the country. As they could not inform me, I proceeded on my journey. I reached the country of the Chaouanous, and afterwards went up the Wabash or Ohio, almost to its source, which is in the country of the Iroquois or Five Nations. I left them however towards the north; and during the winter, which in that country is very severe and very long, I lived in a village of the Abenaquis, where I contracted an acquaintance with a man somewhat older than myself, who promised to conduct me the following spring to the Great Water. Accordingly when the snows were melted, and the weather was settled, we proceeded eastward, and, after several days journey, I at length saw the Great Water, which filled me with such joy and admiration that I could not speak. Night drawing on, we took up our lodging on a high bank above the water, which was sorely vexed by the wind, and made so great a noise that I could not sleep. Next day the ebbing and flowing of the water filled me with great apprehension; but my companion quieted my fears, by assuring me that the water observed certain bounds both in advancing and retiring. Having satisfied our curiosity in viewing the Great Water, we returned to the village of the Abenaquis, where I continued the following winter; and after the snows were melted, my companion and I went and viewed the great fall of the river St. Laurence at Niagara, which was distant from the village several days journey. The view of this great fall at first made my hair stand on end, and my heart almost leap out of its place; but afterwards, before I left it, I had the courage to walk under it. Next day we took the shortest road to the Ohio, and my companion and I cutting down a tree on the banks of the river, we formed it into a pettiaugre, which served to conduct me down the Ohio and the Missisippi, after which, with much difficulty I went up our small river; and at length arrived safe among my relations, who were rejoiced to see me in good health.
"This journey, instead of satisfying, only served to excite my curiosity. Our old men, for several years, had told me that the antient speech informed them that the Red Men of the north came originally much higher and much farther than the source of the river Missouri; and as I had longed to see, with my own eyes, the land from whence our first fathers came, I took my precautions for my journey westwards. Having provided a small quantity of corn, I proceeded up along the eastern bank of the river Missisippi, till I came to the Ohio. I went up along the bank of this last river about the fourth part of a day's journey, that I might be able to cross it without being carried into the Missisippi. There I formed a Cajeux or raft of canes, by the assistance of which I passed over the river; and next day meeting with a herd of buffaloes in the meadows, I killed a fat one, and took from it the fillets, the bunch, and the tongue. Soon after I arrived among the Tamaroas, a village of the nation of the Illinois, where I rested several days, and then proceeded northwards to the mouth of the Missouri, which, after it enters the great river, runs for a considerable time without intermixing its muddy waters with the clear stream of the other. Having crossed the Missisippi, I went up the Missouri along its northern bank, and after several days journey I arrived at the nation of the Missouris, where I staid a long time to learn the language that is spoken beyond them. In going along the Missouri I passed through meadows a whole day's journey in length, which were quite covered with buffaloes.
"When the cold was past, and the snows were melted, I continued my journey up along the Missouri till I came to the nation of the West, or the Canzas. Afterwards, in consequence of directions from them, I proceeded in the same course near thirty days, and at length I met with some of the nation of the Otters, who were hunting in that neighbourhood, and were surprised to see me alone. I continued with the hunters two or three days, and then accompanied one of them and his wife, who was near her time of lying-in, to their village, which lay far off betwixt the north and west. We continued our journey along the Missouri for nine days, and then we marched directly northwards for five days more, when we came to the Fine River, which runs westwards in a direction contrary to that of the Missouri. We proceeded down this river a whole day, and then arrived at the village of the Otters, who received me with as much kindness as if I had been of their own nation. A few days after I joined a party of the Otters, who were going to carry a calumet of peace to a nation beyond them, and we embarked in a pettiaugre, and went down the river for eighteen days, landing now and then to supply ourselves with provisions. When I arrived at the nation who were at peace with the Otters, I staid with them till the cold was passed, that I might learn their language, which was common to most of the nations that lived beyond them.
"The cold was hardly gone, when I again embarked on the Fine River, and in my course I met with several nations, with whom I generally staid but one night, till I arrived at the nation that is but one day's journey from the Great Water on the west. This nation live in the woods about the distance of a league from the river, from their apprehension of bearded men, who come upon their coasts in floating villages, and carry off their children to make slaves of them. These men were described to be white, with long black beards that came down to their breasts; they were thick and short, had large heads, which were covered with cloth; they were always dressed, even in the greatest heats; their cloaths fell down to the middle of their legs, which with their feet were covered with red or yellow stuff. Their arms made a great fire and a great noise; and when they saw themselves outnumbered by Red Men, they retired on board their large pettiaugre, their number sometimes amounting to thirty, but never more.
"Those strangers came from the sun-setting, in search of a yellow stinking wood, which dyes a fine yellow colour; but the people of this nation, that they might not be tempted to visit them, had destroyed all those kind of trees. Two other nations in their neighbourhood however, having no other wood, could not destroy the trees, and were still visited by the strangers; and being greatly incommoded by them, had invited their allies to assist them in making an attack upon them the next time they should return. The following summer I accordingly joined in this expedition, and after traveling five long days journey, we came to the place where the bearded men usually landed, where we waited seventeen days for their arrival. The Red Men, by my advice, placed themselves in ambuscade to surprize the strangers, and accordingly when they landed to cut the wood, we were so successful as to kill eleven of them, the rest immediately escaping on board two large pettiaugres, and flying westward upon the Great Water.
"Upon examining those whom we had killed, we found them much smaller than ourselves, and very white; they had a large head, and in the middle of the crown the hair was very long; their head was wrapt in a great many folds of stuff, and their cloaths seemed to be made neither of wool nor silk; they were very soft, and of different colours. Two only of the eleven who were slain had fire-arms with powder and ball. I tried their pieces, and found that they were much heavier than yours, and did not kill at so great a distance.
"After this expedition I thought of nothing but proceeding on my journey, and with that design I let the Red Men return home, and joined myself to those who inhabited more westward on the coast, with whom I travelled along the shore of the Great Water, which bends directly betwixt the north and the sun-setting. When I arrived at the villages of my fellow-travellers, where I found the days very long and the night very short, I was advised by the old men to give over all thoughts of continuing my journey. They told me that the land extended still a long way in a direction between the north and sun-setting, after which it ran directly west, and at length was cut by the Great Water from north to south. One of them added, that when he was young, he knew a very old man who had seen that distant land before it was eat away by the Great Water, and that when the Great Water was low, many rocks still appeared in those parts. Finding it therefore impracticable to proceed much further, on account of the severity of the climate, and the want of game, I returned by the same route by which I had set out; and reducing my whole travels westward to days journeys, I compute that they would have employed me thirty-six moons; but on account of my frequent delays, it was five years before I returned to my relations among the Yazous."
Moncacht-apé, after giving me an account of his travels, spent four or five days visiting among the Natchez, and then returned to take leave of me, when I made him a present of several wares of no great value, among which was a concave mirror about two inches and a half diameter, which had cost me about three halfpence. As this magnified the face to four or five times its natural size, he was wonderfully delighted with it, and would not have exchanged it with the best mirror in France. After expressing his regret at parting with me, he returned highly satisfied to his own nation.
Moncacht-apé's account of the junction of America with the eastern parts of Asia seems confirmed from the following remarkable fact. Some years ago the skeletons of two large elephants and two small ones were discovered in a marsh near the river Ohio; and as they were not much consumed, it is supposed that the elephants came from Asia not many years before. If we also consider the form of government, and the manner of living among the northern nations of America, there will appear a great resemblance betwixt them and the Tartars in the north-east parts of Asia.
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