“It indicates,” says Mr. Neill, “the post which had been recently established by Du Lhut near the lower extremity of Lake Huron, and gives the present name, Manitoulin, to the large island of Lake Huron, and marks on the west shore a Baye de Saginnam. It places the mission on the south shore of Sault Ste. Marie, and names the rivers and points on the north and south shores of Lake Superior. A stream near the present northern boundary-line of the United States is called ‘R. des Grossillers,’ after the first explorer of Minnesota. The river entering Lake Superior at the present Fort William is ‘Kamanistigouian, ou Les Trois Rivières.’ Isle Royale is called ‘Minong;’ upon the northeast part of ‘Lac Alepimigon’ is Du Lhut’s post, ‘Fort La Tourette.’ At the portage between the sources of the St. Croix and a stream entering Lake Superior is ‘Fort St. Croix,’ which Bellin says was afterward abandoned. The St. Croix River is called ‘R. de la Magdelaine.’ At the lower extremity of Lake Pepin is ‘Fort St. Antoine;’ and the site of the present town of Prairie du Chien, near the mouth of the Wisconsin, appears as ‘Fort St. Nicolas,’ named in compliment to the baptismal name of Perrot. The Minnesota River is marked ‘Les Mascoutens Nadouescioux,’ indicating that it ran through the country of the Prairie Sioux. After Pierre Le Sueur had explored this river, De l’Isle, in his map of 1703, gives it the name of St. Pierre, as it is supposed in compliment to Le Sueur.”
A map of the next year (1689), also in the Archives, claims to be based on “Mémoires et relations qu’il a eu soin de recueillir pendant pres de 17 années.” Harrisse thinks this also a copy by De la Croix, and notes others of the probable dates of 1692 and 1699 respectively.[620] Harrisse also records[621] a manuscript map, “composée, corrigée, et augmentée sur les journaux, mémoires, et observations les plus justes qui en ont été ftes. en l’année 1685 et 1686,” which is also preserved in the French Archives; and a Carte Gēralle du voyage que Monsr De Meulles ... a fait; ... commencé le 9e Novembre et finy le 6e Juillet, 1686,[622] which was dedicated to Seignelay in the same year.
Parkman[623] says of the maps of Franquelin subsequent to his Great Map of 1684, that they all have more or less of its features, but that the 1684 map surpasses them all in interest and completeness.
It is convenient to complete here this enumeration of the maps of the western lakes and the Mississippi basin before we turn to La Salle’s explorations from the Gulf side.
One of the earliest of the printed maps is that called Partie occidentale du Canada, ou de la Nouvelle France, ou sont les nations des Ilinois, de Tracy, les Iroquois, et plusieurs autres peuples, avec la Louisiane nouvellement découverte, ... par le P. Coronelli, corrigée et augmentée par le Sr. Tillemon à Paris, 1688, of which the annexed sketch follows a copy in Harvard College Library. This was united with the Partie orientale in 1689 in a single smaller map.[624]
FRANQUELIN’S 1688 MAP.