Addendum to the above. I found when at Deer River that the nomenclature of the natives does not agree with that on our best maps regarding the lake to be called "White Oak." The first White Oak l. of the above note, and of all our modern maps—the one which Pike comes to before he reaches White Oak pt.—is a small one 1½ × ¾ m., lying chiefly in Sects. 3 and 10 of T. 55, R. 27, 4th M., and through it goes one but not the other of the two courses into which the Mississippi is here widely divided. The people never call this White Oak l., but apply that name to the much larger one through which Deer r. discharges above White Oak pt.—the Deer l. of Nicollet, Stephen's lake of our maps. This is a pear-shaped body of water 2¾ m. in extreme length, with a greatest breadth of over a mile at its lower end. It lies mainly in Sects. 1, 2, and 12 of T. 144, R. 25, 5th M., but with the butt end overrunning into T. 56, R. 27, 4th M., and both the inlet and the outlet of Deer r. being in the latter township. It is thus entirely off Pike's trail, N. and W. of White Oak pt. This lake discharges into a loop of the Mississippi by a short thoroughfare of ½ a mile, ending close above White Oak pt., in the N. E. ¼ of Sect. 13, T. 144, R. 25, 5th M. The miserable hamlet of Deer River—as vile a place as it was ever my bad luck to discover—lies W. of Deer r., and a mile or more N. of White Oak l. Here is the terminus of the D. and W. R. R., a siding of which runs down to the lake at a point ½ a mile W. of the inlet of Deer r., where a pier is built. On crossing the lake to get into and go up the Mississippi the usual route is through the outlet and thence down the Mississippi for nearly a mile, to get into a long, straight cut-off which avoids some great bends. But there is a shorter way still, if one can find it, as I did on coming down—an obscure point directly opposite the pier, in the reeds, where a canoe can be pushed through into the nearest bend, and so save more than a mile. A fact which may have originated or perpetuated the above noted confusion of names is that, above this large White Oak or Stephen's l. there is a point of hard-wood called Little White Oak pt., occupying a position with reference to the larger lake like that which the original Pointe aux Chênes or Oak pt. bears to the lesser lake. A glance at the Engineer chart, or at such a good map as Jewett's, on the scale of 2 m. to the inch, will give a clearer idea of these points than the most elaborate description is likely to convey.
[II-55] "Chewockomen," as well as the "Chewockmen" of the 1807 ed., is far from any recognized or acceptable spelling of the Chippewa word, one fairly good form of which is Kitchimokomen. Schoolcraft has Chimoquemon. It means Big Knives or Long Knives, and is commonly so translated, the reference being either to the swords of the officers or the bayonets of the soldiers, which have often struck Indians forcibly, both in a literal and in a figurative sense. Kitchimokomen corresponds to the Sioux name Isantanka, of the same meaning and application.
[II-56] On leaving White Oak pt. on the morning of Jan. 31st, Pike and Miller proceeded approximately up the course of the Mississippi to the "fork" above said, i. e., the confluence of Leech Lake fork with the main stream. This stretch, which Pike calls "nearly 15 miles long," is just 6 m. in an air-line, and not much more by the trail. The Mississippi here flows through "meadows," as Pike correctly says; these meadows are in part what Nicollet named Eagle Nest savannah. It is absolutely flat and low marshy ground, alternating with haying fields, extending widely on both sides of the river, S. and W. of White Oak l. Little White Oak pt. reaches the river in a narrow tongue of higher ground, from the N., while higher up several bends of the river abut against woodland on the S. Throughout this reach the river is exceeding tortuous; its bends are, moreover, so connected with collateral channels, in part natural and in part artificial, that the stream is virtually double and incloses a series of large islands in its sinuous folds. Some of these thoroughfares float the steamboats that ply on the river to transport the hay; others are mere ditches, through which only canoes can be shoved. Two m. below (N. N. E. of) the Leech Lake fork, the Mississippi receives an important affluent, namely, the discharge of Ball Club l., which enters at about the middle of the S. border of Sect. 31, T. 145, R. 25, 5th M., and thus only about 4 m. due W. of Deer River (town). The difference in level between this lake and the river is so slight that sometimes, when the latter is full, it backs up into the former. Ball Club is a pretty large lake—6 m. long, usually called 7, and 1 to 2 m. broad in different places, with its long axis about N. W. and S. E.; its shape is not very well delineated on the Engineer chart, being not elbowed enough. The outlet is from the lower broad end, in the same Sect. in which it joins the Mississippi, and is thus less than 1 m. long (little over ½ m.). This lake is notable because it is the usual and direct route up to Little Lake Winnibigoshish and so on, to avoid the more circuitous course of the Mississippi itself. You traverse the main axis of the lake from its outlet N. W. to its head, and there make a portage of a mile or so over into Little Lake Winnibigoshish. "Ball Club," the now universal name of this body of water, is a term which translates the F. La Crosse; Schoolcraft renders once Lac a la Crose; Pike has Lac Le Crosse and Le Cross. Schoolcraft has in another place Bogottowa l., which aboriginal name is rendered Bagatwa by Beltrami, Pagadowan by Nicollet, by others Pagadawin, etc. All these names refer to the celebrated game of ball, which the learned Anglojibway Warren calls baugahudoway. Several streams feed this lake; one of them comes in at the head, from a small lake which Schoolcraft named Helix l., from the abundance of its snails of that genus. To return from this excursus to Pike at the mouth of the Leech Lake fork, up which he goes: This is of course a definite and well-known point, exactly on the dividing line between the S. W. ¼ of Sect. 7, T. 144, R. 25, and the S. E. ¼ of Sect. 12, T. 144, R. 26, 5th M. I had a good view of the confluence from a bit of high bank on the left or N. side of the Mississippi, looking across the mazes of marsh and meadow land through which both streams meander to their junction. Leech Lake r. is a very large branch of the Mississippi, deserving the name of "fork" which Pike applies; he also calls it the South, and the Sang Sue branch or fork. Beltrami essays the Chippewa name, as Cazaguaguagine-sibi. Inasmuch as Pike considered this river to be the main stream, I propose to designate Leech Lake and its feeders and discharge as the Pikean Source, in distinction from the Julian, Plantagenian, and Itascan sources we shall discuss beyond. Passing the Forks, Pike and Miller go up Leech Lake r., Jan. 31st, to some undetermined point in the vicinity of the largest lake into which this stream expands, and which Pike calls Muddy l. This is of an oval figure, about 4 m. long by half as broad; its outlet is 3¼ m. up Leech Lake r. from the forks. Nicollet named it Lake Bessel, after the famous scientist—his map fairly glitters with the galaxy of illustrious names he reflects from the bosoms of lakes in Northern Minnesota, though I cannot recall an instance in which such academic nomenclature has been "understanded of the people" and retained in their speech. The lake in present mention is always called Mud or Muddy, and is much frequented by the Indians for the eminently utilitarian purpose of gathering wild rice. I saw a string of their canoes heading that way Aug. 15th, 1894.
[III-1] It is simple justice to Pike to state here that, in making this widely erroneous statement, he reflected common report of his day, and that he elsewhere himself qualifies the assertion. Thus, in his general review of the Mississippi (which in the orig. ed. formed Doc. No. 18, p. 41 seq. of the App. to Part 1), he says of the Leech Lake branch: "This is rather considered as the main source, although the Winipeque [read Winnibigoshish] branch is navigable the greatest distance." If the volume of waters collected by Leech l. and then contributed to the Mississippi were made the criterion, the true Itascan source might have to look to its laurels. Deferring other considerations to a more convenient connection, we may here confine attention to the Leech Lake system. The lake itself is much the largest body of water in the Mississippi basin above Mille Lacs, much exceeding in size Lake Winnibigoshish, which itself much exceeds Lake Cass. These three are the largest reservoirs of the whole drainage area whose waters unite at the junction of the Leech Lake branch with the main stream. This area, taken down to Pokegama falls, is about 80 m. from E. to W. and 50 from N. to S.; its content is more than a thousand lakes and rivers, few of which have been named. These are quite clearly divided into two main sets, namely, those of the Leech Lake system on the one hand, and all the rest on the other. Leech l. is not much smaller than Red l. (of a different system); its greatest diameter in one direction is over 20 m.; its figure is extremely irregular, giving a shore-line said to be of about 160 m. length, with 9 principal salient re-entrances and 6 large bays; the feeders, large and small, are 25-30 in number. The "fond du lac" is at that S. W. place where the waters of Kabekona and other lakes discharge by the Kabekona r., in Sect. 9, T. 142, R. 31, 5th M. This series affords, with several portages, a tolerably direct approach to Lake Itasca, which lies at an air-line distance of about 25 m. nearly due W. North of the mouth of the Kabekona, in Sect. 9, T. 143, of the same R. and M., the Kapukasagitowa, Pikesagidowag, or Bukesagidowag r. falls in from the N. W. This point is only 7 m. directly S. of the southernmost part of Cass l., and a chain of 10 small lakes here lies between Cass and Leech, offering a waterway with some portages. Two of these small lakes are Moss and Shiba of Schoolcraft; two others of them are his Kapuka Sagitowa lakes. Further E. on the N. shore of Leech l. a river falls in from the N. in Sect. 14, T. 144, R. 30. This is Carp r. of Schoolcraft, draining from a chain of small lakes which approach the Mississippi itself in that portion of its course which runs from Cass to Winnibigoshish l. The N. E. extremity of Leech l., called Rush l. by Schoolcraft and Pickering bay by Nicollet, reaches within 4 m. (air-line) of Lake Winnibigoshish; there is a small lake between, named Lake Duponceau by Nicollet, but now known as Portage l., from the function indicated by this name. In fact it is easier to go from Winnibigoshish over into Leech than from Cass over into the same. Along the S. W., S., S. E., and E. shores of Leech l. is a succession of affluents, some of the larger of which respectively establish waterways of communication with Crow Wing r., with Pine r., and with Willow r. The largest of these Leech l. tributaries is Kwiwisens or Boy r., which offers by its system of lakes and portages the most direct route by way of Willow r. to Sandy l. Some of the lakes along this line are by Nicollet named Hassler, Gauss, Deluot, Eccleston, Brûlé, and Rosati. One of the communications with Pine r. is made by Sandy r., which falls into Leech l. from the S. (The Crow Wing connections are noticed elsewhere in detail.) Leech l. discharges by Leech Lake r. near its N. E. extremity, the outlet being in Sect. 29, T. 144, R. 28, 5th M. The discharge is now controlled by a dam which, like the similar structures at the outlet of Lake Winnibigoshish and elsewhere, is designed to utilize the lakes as artificial reservoirs to regulate the flow of the Mississippi according to the requirements for navigation. Leech Lake r. is bowed into an arc whose chord is 16 m. long; Mud l. lies in its course, as already said. The principal projection of land into Leech l. from the N. is the well-known Otter-tail pt.; opposite this, from the south, is Big pt.; continuous with which, by a narrow isthmus, is a very extensive peninsula of remarkable form, something like a badly shaped anchor or a distorted letter T. This Tau-formed peninsula is the best known and most historic place about the lake, as the site of a Chippewa village and various other establishments, of which more anon. There are several islands in Leech l.; the largest is Bear or Mukwa isl. (Macuwa of Beltrami); two others are Pelican and Goose. Leech l. derives its English name from the F. Lac Sang Sue, or L. aux Sangsues, originally bestowed in compliment to the sanguisugent annelids with which it was supposed to be peculiarly favored, by the Chippewas, who conveyed their meaning in the voluble vocable Kasagaskwadjimekang.
[III-2] Voy. en Égypte et en Syrie, etc., 2 vols., 8vo, Paris, 1787; tr. Eng., London, 1787, etc. Constantin François Chassebœuf, Comte de Volney, b. Craon, Anjou, Feb. 3d, 1757, d. Paris, Apr. 25th, 1820, is best known in letters by his celebrated work, commonly called "Volney's Ruins," i. e., Les Ruines ou Méditations sur les Révolutions des Empires, etc., orig. ed. 1791, numberless trans. and eds. down to the present time. The illustrious author was the peer of Voltaire or Paine in philosophy and religion, and underwent the usual vicissitudes of free-thinkers of his time, from the prison to the peerage. His intellect was clear and profound, his erudition vast and varied; so they called him an "infidel"—whatever they may have meant by that—and having given him the name would have hanged him had he been hangable. His researches were chiefly in the fields of history, geography, archæology, linguistics, statecraft, and priestcraft, all of which he illuminated to the great inconvenience of political and ecclesiastical demagogues. Nullum tetigit quod non ornavit; the clergy, however, he adorned with a touch that Voltaire himself might have envied. Count Volney was in the U. S. in 1795-6-7; his controversy with the meritorious but somewhat obtuse Priestley, on the unquestionable unorthodoxy of his Ruins, brought his more formal scientific works into prominence, and accentuated the fame of his most imperishable treatise. Cheap editions of the Ruins abound, usually including the tract originally entitled La Loi Naturelle; this is a little catechism designed by a great philosopher to kindly help little fools out of some of their folly; it is quite worthy to rank with Paine's Age of Reason. Volney's complete works were edited by A. Bossange, 8 vols., Paris, 1820-26. Pike was in good company on the 3d, while he nursed his sore feet.
[III-3] This clerk is named Roussand beyond, Feb. 9th. He is "a Monsr. Boussant" in the early text, 1807, p. 40.
[III-4] We have no hint of the route by which the main party reached Leech l. after Pike first left them on the 26th of Jan., unless one is conveyed in the statement that Miller returned with a supply of provisions for them. That would seem to imply that they followed Pike's trail, and came to Leech l. by a route the same as his, or one not materially different. This is in fact what they did: see [note51], p. 142. The shorter way would have been that Willow River traverse indicated in [note1], p. 153. What seems to have been a usual route in former days is clearly indicated on Nicollet's map. Starting from Sandy l. it struck W. to Willow r. and went up this to Rosati and Brulé lakes, whence by portage over to Eccleston or Deluot l., and so to the Boy's River connection, continued through Gauss and Hassler lakes. All these have different names now, and I cannot speak with confidence in the new nomenclature. Among the lakes of Nicollet's series appear to be those now called Big Rice, Thunder, and Boy.
[III-5] This letter formed Doc. No. 5, on p. 14 of the App. to Pt. 1 of the orig. ed. It is given [beyond], together with [Mr. M'Gillis' reply]; which latter was Doc. No. 6, p. 17 of the same App. in the orig. ed.
[III-6] This is the first intimation we have that Pike is not already at the west end, or at any rate on the west side of Leech l. He certainly has told us that he "crossed the lake 12 miles" to reach Mr. M'Gillis' house, where he is now quartered. The only place marked on Pike's map is on the W. side, with the legend "N. W. Co. Ho. Lat. 47° 16´ 18´´ N." The position of this seems to have been near Sugar pt., and to be the same as that marked "Old N. W. House" on Lt. James Allen's map facing p. 76 of Schoolcraft's Rep. pub. 1834. There have been various trading-houses at the same and different points about Leech l., simultaneously and successively. In 1832, according to Schoolcraft's large map in the work just said, there was a "Tr. Post" on the E. side of the lake, between the outlet and Boy's r., but the principal one was on the Tau-formed peninsula, and was a post of the Am. Fur Co. Schoolcraft was camped there July 16th, 1832. This place was then also the site of the Chippewa village of Gueule Platte or Flat Mouth, a chieftain of whom Pike has something to say soon, and of whom Nicollet, who met him there in 1836, has told us somewhat, Rep. 1843, p. 61 seq.
[III-7] The Sweet of the above paragraph is elsewhere named by Pike as Wiscoup and Le Sucre, first chief of a Red Lake band of Chippewas; The Burnt, as Oole and La Brule, for which latter phrase I suppose Le Brûlé might be preferred by some fastidious persons. The Buck is Iaba Waddik of Schoolcraft, Summary, etc., 1855, p. 144. The Sweet was probably not so named from any such personal peculiarity as would have singled him out among all Indians of whatever tribe, but with reference in some way to the concrete juice of the sugar-maple, Acer saccharinum, upon which he fed: cf. Sugar pt., a place-name in this vicinity. This is evidently the poetical case of "sweets to The Sweet"—not of saccharum per se. The scholarly Anglojibway, Hon. W. W. Warren, who should know best how to spell Chippewa words of any author I have read, gives the name as Weeshcoob. This chief had great character, and a long career. For some of his exploits which became historical, see Minn. Hist. Coll., V. 1885, pp. 231, 376, 452, 454, 458—latter with esp. ref. to Pike.