Passing northward, to our left as we start from the Mississippian inlet to go around the shore, the first prominent feature is Raven's point, distant from the inlet 4 m. The maps all represent this as much longer and sharper than it looked to my eye; probably much of the point that was once land is now under water, owing to the dam. It is the site of a squalid village of Chippewas, who have been civilized into the whole assortment of our own vices. A considerable stream falls in here, which I suppose is Kaminaigokag r. of Nicollet and Owen, though it is nameless on more modern maps. Its mouth is in Sect. 18, T. 146, R. 29, close to the N. border of Sect. 19; near by is a lake about a mile in diameter, probably due to overflowage. Rounding Raven's point and proceeding N. 4 m. further, we come to a little bay into which flows a considerable stream from the W. This is Third r., often marked "III. R." The reason for this name will presently appear. Schoolcraft in Narr. Journey of 1820, pub. 1821, p. 246, calls it "Thornberry river, or La rivière des Epinettes," but F. épinette does not mean "thornberry": see [note20], p. 319. The mouth of Third r. falls in the N. W. ¼ of Sect. 33, T. 147, R. 28. Coasting now E. along the N. shore, we round the prominence which defines Third River bay, and which I call Windy pt. from my experience there—it had no name that I could discover. It consists of a floating-bog for some distance back, and in this morass, further eastward, a small creek empties in Sect. 35 of the T. and R. last said; this may be called Bog cr., if no earlier name can be found; it is not one of the regularly enumerated streams. A mile and a half eastward of Bog cr., nearly or exactly on the line between Sect. 36 of the same township and Sect. 31 of T. 147, R. 27, is the mouth of Pigeon r. No other name is heard on the spot; but this is Second r. or "II. R." of the geographers. Schoolcraft, l. c., called it Round Lake r., and Round l. is present name of its principal source. There is a good landing here on a bit of beach under a firm, bluffy bank, the site of the most decent and well-to-do Chippewa village about the lake. Three and a half miles E. S. E. of Pigeon r. is the wide, irregular opening of Cut Foot Sioux r., otherwise First r., or "I. R.," which discharges from a system of lakes, the nearest one of which is marked Cut Toe l. by Owen, and Keeskeesedatpun l. on the Jewett map of 1890. This is the river called Turtle Portage r. by Schoolcraft, l. c. Several houses stand on and under the high land on the E. or left bank, a fraction of a mile back of the opening, among them the trading-house of one Fairbanks, where the usual robberies are perpetrated under another name, but without further pretense of any sort. Four miles from the mouth of the Cut Foot Sioux, in a direction about S. S. E., is the outlet of the Mississippi, at the bottom of a large bay, offset from the rest of the lake by prominent points of land. The separation of this bay from the main body of waters is scarcely less well-marked than that of Pike bay from the rest of Cass l. I propose to call it Dam bay. The points of land which delimit its opening into Lake Winnibigoshish are: A long linguiform extension from the S., occupying all the ground not overflowed of Sects. 15 and 16, T. 146, R. 27, which may be designated Tongue pt.; and opposite this, on the N., a much less extensive prominence, which may become known as Rush pt., in Sect. 10 of the T. and R. last said. Paddling 1½ m. from Cut Foot Sioux r., we go through the strait between Tongue and Rush pts., and are then in Dam bay, a roundish body of water about 2½ m. in diameter. At the S. end of this is the short thoroughfare (outlet of the Mississippi), less than a mile long, which leads into Little Lake Winnibigoshish, and has been dammed at its lower end, in the S. W. ¼ of Sect. 25, necessitating, of course, a portage of a few yards in canoeing. The dam in part consists of a solid embankment, stretching from the S.; the rest is the wooden construction for raising and lowering a series of gates by which the flow of water can be regulated. This work looks sadly in need of repair, and is said to be none too secure. At the N. end of the dam is a high wooded hill, a fine spring of water, and some vacant buildings; on the other side is a narrow pond over a mile long, called Rice l.
Immediately below the dam, the Mississippi dilates into Little Lake Winnibigoshish (once Rush l.), of irregularly oval figure, 2¾ m. long by scarcely over 1 m. in greatest breadth, its longest diameter about N. W. to S. E. At a point near the S. E. is the portage, or carrying place, over to Ball Club l., whose head is there distant about a mile: see [note56], p. 150. The outlet of the Mississippi is on the S., in the N. W. ¼ Sect. 6, T. 145, R. 26. Thence the river flows scarcely W. of S. for 3 m. direct, but I judge fully 6½ by its extremely tortuous channel, to a place in Sect. 24, T. 145, R. 27, where some rapids occur; these, however, are easily shot. The further course of the river is S. E., 8 m. direct, but more than twice as far by the bends, to the confluence of Leech Lake r., or Pike's "Forks of the Mississippi": see back, [note last cited], p. 151. This whole section of the Mississippi, from Little Lake Winnibigoshish to the mouth of Leech Lake r., is easy canoeing down, with plenty of smooth, swift water, even at low stages, and good places to camp all along on the wooded points against which the channel continually abuts as it bends from side to side of the low bottom-land, mostly overgrown with reeds (Phragmites communis) and bulrushes (Scirpus lacustris), but toward Leech Lake r. becoming meadowy and thus fit for haying. Besides the main bends, or regular channel, there are a great many minor sluices or cut-offs, practicable for canoeists; and one is borne quickly along by the current, without minding much whether one is in the channel or not. This way down, though circuitous and several times as far as the route by Ball Club l., which lies off to the left as you descend, is decidedly preferable; but going up river I should advise one to take the route through Ball Club, and portage over to Little Lake Winnibigoshish.
[VII-23] William Morrison is the first of white men known to have been at Lake Itasca. He wintered at Lac la Folle, 1803-4, visited Lake Itasca in 1804, and again in 1811 or 1812. Mr. Morrison was b. Canada, 1783, d. there Aug. 9th, 1866. He kept a journal, which was lost, of his movements before 1824. He described "Elk" l. to his daughter, Mrs. Georgiana Demaray, and various other persons; he considered and declared himself the first of white men at the source, though his claim does not appear to have become a matter of authentic, citable publication till 1856: see Final Rep. Minn. Geol. Surv., I. p. 26. The document on which his claim mainly rests is the extant original of a letter addressed by William to his brother Allan, dated Berthier, Jan. 16th, 1856. This is published verbatim in Brower's Report, Minn. Hist. Soc. Coll., VII. 1893, pp. 122-124. Brower says (l. c. p. 120) that the "Morrison letter," as originally published in Minn. Hist. Soc. Coll., I. 1856, pp. 103, 104, or 2d ed., 1872, pp. 417-419, is "a composite production." The article there covering the William Morrison letter is entitled "Who Discovered Itasca Lake?" and includes a letter from Allan Morrison to General Alexander Ramsay (now ex-Secretary of War and President of the Society), dated Crow Wing, Benton County, M. T., Feb. 17th, 1856. Charles Hallock, Esq., formerly of New York, the well-known author of the Sportsman's Gazetteer and many other works, founder of the Forest and Stream weekly in New York, and of the town of Hallock, now the seat of Kittson Co., Minn., published a version of the "Morrison letter," said to be a "correct copy," in his article The Red River Trail, Harper's Mag. XIX. No. cix, June, 1859, p. 37, which aroused the jealous recalcitration of Mr. Schoolcraft, whose reclamation was made in a letter to George H. Moore, Esq., Librarian of the New York Historical Society, dated Washington, Aug. 12th, 1859, and published in the N. Y. Evening Post, Aug. 23d, 1859, p. 1, column 4. I have not inspected Morrison's autograph letter; but I have compared the three printed versions here in mention—the one of 1856 or 1872, Hallock's of 1859, and Brower's of 1893. They are all to the same effect, and evidently from one source; but the textual discrepancies of all three are so great that they can scarcely be called "copies." Brower speaks of "several letters written by Mr. Morrison on this subject," and states that the one he prints, of Jan. 16th, 1856, "is given in full, and just as written and signed." From this imprint I extract the following clauses: "I left the old Grand Portage, July, 1802, ... in 1803-4, I went and wintered at Lac La Folle.... Lac La Biche is near to Lac La Folle. Lac La Biche is the source of the Great River Mississippi, which I visited in 1804, and if the late Gen. Pike did not lay it down as such when he came to Leech lake it is because he did not happen to meet me.... I visited in 1804, Elk lake, and again in 1811-12," etc. Nothing appears to invalidate this letter; for Mr. Schoolcraft's contemptuous contention of 1859 belittled Mr. Morrison and Mr. Hallock without disproving or even disputing Mr. Morrison's claim. The gravamen of Mr. Schoolcraft's charge is contained in the statement "that he [Morrison], or his friends in Minnesota, should have deferred forty-seven years to make this important announcement, is remarkable." It may have been "remarkable"; but it is not inexplicable. Mr. Henry D. Harrower, in the Educational Reporter Extra, Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor and Co., New York and Chicago, pub. Oct., 1886, 8vo, p. 17, has some discerning and judicious remarks on this score: "The statements of the brothers Morrison have generally been received without question by scientists and geographers in Minnesota; and in his letter Allan Morrison expresses surprise that anyone should be ignorant of the title of his brother to the discovery of Itasca prior to Schoolcraft. It is a curious fact, however, that Allan Morrison acted as guide for Charles Lanman for a number of weeks in 1846, during which time they visited Itasca Lake; and that Lanman, in his published account of the trip, nowhere mentions Wm. Morrison, or intimates that he was ever at the source of the Mississippi, but definitely ascribes the discovery to Schoolcraft in 1832. See Lanman's 'Adventures in the Wilderness,' vol. i, pages 48, 75, etc. I venture the opinion that Morrison first identified his Elk Lake of 1804 with Schoolcraft's Itasca when he read Schoolcraft's 'Summary Narrative' (1855); and that it is safe to say that if Morrison discovered Lake Itasca, Schoolcraft discovered Morrison." This may be considered to raise the question, What constitutes discovery? But that does not affect the main issue. Mr. Morrison's declaration that he visited Lake Itasca in 1804 and again in 1811-12 thus far rests uncontested. If the case is ever re-opened, it will probably be upon newly discovered documentary evidence of priority of discovery by some Frenchman. When Pike was at Leech l. he just missed, by some months and scarcely more miles, the glory of the most important discovery he could possibly have made in the course of this or his other expedition.
In May, 1820, Lewis Cass, then governor of Michigan, left Detroit with 38 men, among whom was Henry Rowe Schoolcraft. Proceeding by Michilimackinac he struck the Miss. r. at Sandy l., and entered it July 17th. The narrative recites that he went to Peckagama falls, thence 55 m. to the Forks, 45 to Lake Winnipec, and about 50 m. more to the large lake then first called Cassina and afterward Cass l. by Schoolcraft. This was entered July 21st; but the party went no further. It was then represented to them that the source of the river was in a lake called La Beesh, i. e., La Biche, erroneously supposed to be 60 miles N. W.; upon which the river was computed to be 3,038 m. long, at an altitude of 1,330 feet: for the particulars of this voyage, see Schoolcraft's Narrative Journal, etc., pub. E. and E. Hosford, Albany, N. Y., 1821, 1 vol. 8vo, pp. i-xvi, 17-419, 4 unpaged pages of index, map, plates; it is full of errors. The Cradled Hercules, as Nicollet later called it, slept on this till Schoolcraft returned in 1832 to awaken the infant, with Lieut. Allen, Rev. Mr. Boutwell, Dr. Houghton, and Mr. Johnston, under the leadership of Chief Ozawindib.
Giacomo Constantino Beltrami was b. Bergamo, Italy, 1779; au mieux, Mme. La Comtesse de Campagnoni née Passeri, at Florence, 1812; exiled, 1821; Fort St. Anthony (Snelling), May 10th, 1823; and when Long's expedition came in July of that year, he accompanied it up the Minn. r. and down the Red River of the North to Pembina, where he took offense and his congé simultaneously, between Aug. 5th-9th. The differences between the American soldier and the expatriated Italian were great and various. Major Long ejected Signor Beltrami on the spot, and on paper dismissed him not less curtly and contemptuously, making this harsh judgment a personal matter over initials S. H. L. in Keating, I., p. 314: "An Italian whom we met at Fort St. Anthony attached himself to the expedition and accompanied us to Pembina. He has recently published a book entitled, 'La Découverte des Sources du Mississippi,' &c., which we notice merely on account of the fictions and misrepresentations it contains." Mr. Schoolcraft makes a point of snubbing Sig. Beltrami: see posteà. The amiable M. le Professeur Nicollet alone has a kindly word for his co-laborer in Mississippian exploration: "He descended Turtle river, which empties into Lake Cass;—that had been the terminus of the expedition of 1820, under the command of General Cass, and in honor of whom it is so named. Now, as the sources of Turtle river are more distant from the mouth of the Mississippi than this [Itasca] lake, Mr. Beltrami thought himself authorized to publish that he had discovered the sources of the Mississippi. Hence, perhaps, may be explained why, as late as Mr. Schoolcraft's expedition of 1832, the sources of the river were laid down as N. W. of Lake Cass. I may be mistaken, but it strikes me that American critics have been too disdainful of Mr. Beltrami's book, which found many readers on both continents, whilst it propagated some painful errors," Rep. 1843, p. 59. Hon. J. V. Brower, the latest and altogether the best monographer, stigmatizes Sig. Beltrami as "a hero-worshipper with but one hero, and that himself," Miss. R., etc., 1893, p. 136. With me the question is not one of Beltrami's character, temperament, imagination, sex-relations, etc., but simply, What did he do about the Mississippian origines? Brower gives a clear, connected, and fair answer, ibid., pp. 137-141, in part from an article by Mr. A. J. Hill of St. Paul. Beltrami bravely made his way alone to Red l., which he left Aug. 26th, 1823; was guided Aug. 28th to the vicinity of Turtle l.; found a spot whence he thought water flowed four ways, N., S., E., W., to three oceans, and which was a part of the divide between Mississippian and Hudsonian waters; named Lake Julia, tributary to Turtle l., as a "Julian source" of the Mississippi, which it was; declared it to be the true source, as he defined the "source" of a river, by position relative to position of the mouth; declared and certainly believed he had discovered this source, in which he was mistaken, as it was already known; named other lakes for other friends; and was informed by his guide of Lake Itasca, which he located on his map with approx. accuracy by the name of Doe l., translating Lac La Biche of the F., though it appears in his text as Bitch l. by mistake. For Beltrami distinctly speaks, II. p. 434, of Lake Itasca: "which the Indians call Moscosaguaiguen, or Bitch lake, which receives no tributary stream, and seems to draw its waters from the bosom of the earth. It is here in my opinion that we shall fix the western sources of the Mississippi," as Schoolcraft and Allen did, nine years afterward. Beltrami proceeded to Cass l., and thence to Fort St. Anthony, where he arrived after great hardships in a state of extreme destitution; went to New Orleans, and there published his first book, 1824. In all this I see no necessary occasion for disdain or derision; the man did the best he could—"angels could do no more." He showed courage, fortitude, endurance, perseverance, ambition, and enthusiasm—all admirable qualities. He wrote an extravagant book, to be sure; but it displays less egotism and more fidelity to the facts, as he understood them, than Hennepin's, for example, and has a higher moral quality than the average Jesuit Relation. He shot high, but not with a longer bow than many a traveler before and since himself. One test of his good faith is the perfect ease with which we can find the facts in his book and separate them from the figments of his overwrought imagination. Heredity and environment conspired to lead him into grave errors of judgment and some misstatements of fact; but which one of us who write books can stone his glass house with impunity? Beltrami's Julian source will run in the books as long as the water runs from that source, alongside the Plantagenian and Itascan sources. Beltrami's map locates Doe=Itasca l. with greater accuracy than any earlier map does. The "pointed similarity" it has been said to bear to Pike's—and I fear as a suggestion of plagiarism—does not extend to the Itascan source, for there is not a trace of this on Pike's published map. Beltrami went from New Orleans to Mexico, traversed that country, reached London about 1827, published his Pilgrimage, etc., 2 vols., and d. at Filotrano, Feb., 1855, in his 76th year. He fills the niche in Mississippian geographical history between Cass, 1820, and Schoolcraft and Allen, 1832; meanwhile, Itasca State Park lies mainly in Beltrami Co., Minn., which includes both the Julian and Itascan sources. There was nothing the matter with Beltrami but woman on the brain; he had a queen bee in his bonnet—that is all. Much that has been taken for puerile conceit is the virile badinage of a man of the world, of wit, and of penetration. I have read his Pilgrimage with interested attention; it is clear to me that Beltrami was no mere flâneur—by no means such a trifler as some of his passages might excuse one for supposing him to be. He was a well-read and well-traveled man; his obiter dicta on various things, as religion, politics, society, and other broad themes, are generally acute. He was a brave man; I imagine Major Long had a time of it with Sioux, and Signor Beltrami too; it seems to have been a case of scalping-knife and stiletto. As I have already cited the military mailed hand, let us see the fine Italian hand: "Major Long did not cut a very noble figure in the affair; I foresaw all the disgusts and vexations I should have to experience," II. p. 303; "met a band of Sioux. The major thought he read hostile intentions in their faces; he even thought they had threatened him;—of course everybody else thought so too—like Casti's courtiers; ... it was incumbent on me, therefore, to be very much alarmed, too; ... I rather think the fright they threw the major into was in revenge for his giving them nothing but boring speeches. If they meant it so they had every reason to be satisfied," II. pp. 336-37; "Colonel Snelling's son, who shewed the most friendly concern and apprehensions for me. He also left the major at the same time, not without violent altercation, ... with considerable regret I parted from Dr. Say, one of the naturalists attached to the expedition, the only one who deserved the designation [this was a tickler for Prof. Keating's fifth rib]," II. 370; "they [Colonel Snelling, Major Taliaferro, and others] were indignant against Major Long for acting towards me in the miserable manner that he did. With respect to myself, I feel towards him a sort of gratitude for having by his disgusting manners only strengthened my determination to leave him," II. p. 483. Beltrami was evidently able to keep his own scalp, and his book is vastly diverting, except in the boggy places, where he mires us down with his gynæcosophy. It is entitled: A Pilgrimage in Europe and America, leading to the Discovery of the Sources of the Mississippi River, etc., 2 vols., 8vo, London, 1828, pp. i-lxxvi, 1-472, and 1-545, map and plates. It is dedicated "To the Fair Sex. Oh Woman!" The text is in epistolary form, ostensibly addressed to the countess, and consists of 22 letters, 1821-23; matter of Julian sources, II. p. 409 seq., and map.
In 1830, Cass was directed by the War Department to request Schoolcraft, who was then an agent of the Office of Indian affairs of the W. D., to proceed into the Chippewa country to endeavor to put an end to the hostilities between the Chippewas and the Sioux. The wars which neither Pike, nor Clark, nor anybody else had succeeded in stopping permanently in those quarters were thus indirectly the cause, and directly the occasion, of the rediscovery of the source of the Miss. r. Schoolcraft left St. Mary's, at the foot of Lake Superior, late in June, 1831, with 27 persons, exclusive of guides and Indian portagers. But the atrocious massacre of Menomonees by the Sacs and Foxes at Prairie du Chien, and other circumstances, diverted this expedition from the sources of the river, and Schoolcraft returned to the Sault Ste. Marie. The plan was resumed early in 1832, when another party was made up of some 30 persons, on the basis of an attempt to effect permanent peace between the two principal tribes. Schoolcraft left the Sault June 7th, 1832. This place was and is on a large lake which S. calls Igomi, Chigomi, and Gitchigomi, and others Kitchi Gummi—though we prefer Lake Superior to the Chippewa vernacular. On July 3d, he reached Mr. Aitkin's trading-house on the discharge of Sandy l., a distance of about 150 m. by the usual St. Louis and Savanna rivers route. Cass l. was entered on the 10th; this was the point of departure for new exploration, as it was that where the Cass expedition had ended July 21st, 1820. Cass l. was then determined to be 2,978 instead of 3,038 m. from the Gulf of Mexico by the course of the river. The Indian guide, Ozawindib, began to make history and immortalize his name at this point. He took the party up the Miss. r. to Lac Traverse or Pamitchi Gumaug, that is, to Lake Bemidji, and thence by the chain of lakes Schoolcraft called Irving, Marquette, La Salle, and Plantagenet, up the course of the "South" (better called East) fork of the Miss. r. to the Naiwa r. and Usawa l., thus discovering the linked chain which later became known as the "Plantagenian source": see [note8], p. 162. Ozawindib then portaged the party over to the lake which Morrison had discovered in 1804. Camp was pitched on the island which by common consent bears Schoolcraft's name, July 13th, 1832. The party consisted of 16 persons, including Ozawindib, Mr. Schoolcraft, Lieut. James Allen, U. S. A., Dr. Douglass Houghton, Rev. Wm. T. Boutwell, and Mr. George Johnston. The name "Itasca" was a whim of Schoolcraft's, which would mislead anyone who should search Indian languages for its etymology, especially as Mr. S. himself affects obscurantism by saying: "Having previously got an inkling of some of their mythological and necromantic notions of the origin and mutations of the country, which permitted the use of a female name for it, I denominated it Itasca." This is a dark hint of mystic and very likely phallic superstitions; but the facts in the case are given in Brower's Report, p. 148, from personal interview with the Rev. Boutwell himself, who said in substance that once when he and Mr. S. were in the same canoe in 1832, the latter suddenly turned and asked him what was the Greek and Latin definition of the headwaters or true source of a river. Mr. B. could not on the spur of the moment rally any Greek, but mustered Latin enough to give Mr. S. his choice of Verum Caput (true head) or Veritas, Caput (truth, head); by combining which latter two words, beheading one and bobtailing the other, Mr. S. made (Ver)ITASCA(put), and said, "Itasca shall be the name." He was quite equal to such juggling with words; e. g., his Lake Shiba is named by a word which consists of the initial letters of schoolcraft, houghton, iohnston (for johnston), boutwell, and allen. It is lucky Mr. Boutwell did not think of the Greek for "head waters," or Itasca might have been named Lake Hydrocephalus. Mr. Schoolcraft perpetuated the etymological myth by perpetrating some stanzas, two lines of which are: "As if in Indian myths a truth there could be read, And these were tears indeed, by fair Itasca shed." None of the party appears to have noticed the smaller lake south of Itasca, though it was only 333 yards from the head of the W. arm, which was not explored; and in fact the visit of so much historical moment was in itself but momentary. The main point ascertained was the location of Itasca to the S. W. of Cass l., where Beltrami had already represented it to be, instead of the N. W. where Schoolcraft had supposed it was. The many little lakes and streams in the Itasca basin, and all nice topographic features, were left to be discovered by Nicollet and his successors. Their Chippewa guide took them back by way of the main, west, or Itascan course of the river to Cass l., whence they went to Leech l., thence by the chain of lakes to Crow Wing r., and so on to the Mississippi again. It is certainly not my desire to disparage Mr. Schoolcraft; but one who could be taken to the source of the Mississippi and leave it the same day, seeing nothing but what was shown him, and giving only a glance at that, was not the person who should have snubbed Beltrami as he did when he wrote that "a Mr. Beltrami, returning from the settlement of Pembina by the usual route of the traders from Red Lake to Turtle Lake, published at New Orleans, a small 12mo volume under the title of 'La découverte des sources du Mississippi, et de la Riviere [sic] Sanglante,' a work which has since been expanded into two heavy 8vo volumes by the London press" (Narrative, etc., heavy 8vo, New York, 1834, p. 73). That sort of a sneer at a prior explorer in the same region comes with particularly bad grace from a gentleman who was expert in expanding his own stock of information to the most voluminous proportions, and whose cacoëthes scribendi, by dint of incessant scratching, finally developed a case of pruritus senilis, marked by an acute mania for renaming things he had named years before: see his Summary Narrative, etc., Philada., Lippincott, Grambo and Co., 1855. Mr. Schoolcraft never forgave Sig. Beltrami for telling where Lake Itasca would be found; had he done so, he would have been untrue to the supreme selfishness, inordinate vanity, vehement prejudices, and conscientious narrow-mindedness with which his all-wise and all-powerful Calvinistic Creator had been graciously pleased to endow him. Another account of Schoolcraft's expedition of 1832 occupies pp. 125-132 of Minn. Hist. Soc. Coll., I. 2d ed. 1872; Mr. Boutwell's narrative of the same is found ibid., pp. 153-176.
James Allen's name is not so well known in this connection as it should be. That is to say, the public seldom connects his name with the discovery of Lake Itasca. But if Mr. Schoolcraft was the actual head of the expedition of 1832, and became its best known historian, Lieutenant Allen was a large and shapely portion of the body of that enterprise, decidedly the better observer, geographer, and cartographer; item, the commander of the military escort, which might have been necessary for safety and success; item, the author of an able, interesting, and important report upon the subject, which he made to the military authorities. He was detailed for this duty by order of A. Macomb, Major-General, commanding the army, dated Hdqrs. of the Army, Washn., May 9th, 1832, and proceeded to Fort Brady, Mich., with a detachment consisting of Corporal Wibru, and Privates Briscoe, Beemis, Burke, Copp, Dutton, Ingram, Lentz, Riley, and Wade, of the 5th Infantry. He was gone June 6th-Aug. 26th, 1832. His movements were the same as Mr. Schoolcraft's, except where the latter left him in the lurch on the St. Croix; his operations more extensive and more intelligently directed to explore and report upon the country. He named Schoolcraft isl. and various other things; Allen's bay was named for him by Mr. Schoolcraft, and Allen's l. by Mr. Brower. Allen was an Ohio man, appointed from Madison, Jefferson Co., Ind., cadet at West Point, July 1st, 1825; 2d lieut. 5th Infantry, July 1st, 1829; 2d lieut. 1st Dragoons, Mar. 4th, 1833; 1st lieut. May 31st, 1835; capt., June 30th, 1837; on detached service, engineering duty, Chicago, 1837-38; d. suddenly at Fort Leavenworth, Kas., Aug. 22d or 23d, 1846, as lieutenant-colonel of a Mormon battalion of volunteer infantry he had raised to re-enforce our Army of the West, "beloved while living, and regretted after death, by all who knew him," Hughes, Doniphan's Exped., 1847, p. 53. His valuable Mississippi report, completed at Fort Dearborn (Chicago), Nov. 25th, 1833, was transmitted to Congr. by Hon. Lewis Cass, Sec. of War, Apr. 11th, 1834, and published in Amer. State Papers, Class V. Milit. Affairs, V. Ex. Doc. No. 579, 1st Session, 23d Congr., folio, pp. 312-344, and map.
The illustrious name of Jean Nicolas Nicollet is first in time on the roll of those who have applied modern methods of exact and exacting science to the geography of the West. Nicollet is most highly appreciated by those who are themselves most worthy of appreciation and most competent critics. Thus, Gen. G. K. Warren pronounces Nicollet's map "one of the greatest contributions ever made to American geography." It will stand forever as the sound basis of knowledge on the subject. Notices of Nicollet's life and work are found in: Trans. Assoc. Amer. Geol. and Nat., 1840-42, Boston, 1843, pp. 32-34; Amer. Journ. Sci., 1st ser., XLVII. p. 139, sketch by Prof. H. D. Rogers; Minn. Hist. Coll., I. (of 1850-56), 2d ed. 1872, pp. 183-195, memoir by Gen. H. H. Sibley; VI. 1891, pp. 242-245, being reminiscences in the autobiography of Maj. Lawrence Taliaferro; and VII. 1893, pp. 155-165, notice by J. V. Brower with portrait; Ann. Rep. Smiths. Inst., 1870, p. 194; Frémont's Memoirs, I. pp. 30-72, passim; notice in Educational Reporter Extra, Oct., 1886, by H. D. Harrower; and especially N. H. Winchell, Amer. Geol., VIII. Dec., 1891, pp. 343-352, with portrait and best biography. N. was b. at Cluses in Savoy, 1790; d. Baltimore, Md., Sept. 11th, 1843. He was a watchmaker's apprentice till æt. 18; was a natural musician; studied languages and mathematics, and in 1818 published an article which became noted in the annals of insurance for its calculations on probable duration of human life; he wrote others of similar character; 1819 to 1828, he published various mathematical and astronomical treatises; was decorated in 1825 with the Cross of the Legion of Honor; at one time held a professorship in the Royal College of Louis Le Grand; was also an inspector of naval schools; he was in high esteem, and made money. But the fickle goddess of fortune ceased to smile; he made business ventures which failed, and cost him all his worldly goods and all his fair-weather friends; in 1832 he was a poor refugee in the United States. But his amiable character, his accomplishments, his great talents, and greater genius were more conspicuous in adversity than they had been in prosperity. He made friends everywhere, among them some in high stations, able to estimate his abilities and glad to use his services. Under the auspices of the War Department, and with the personal attentions of such men as Pierre Chouteau, Jr., Gen. Sibley, and Maj. Taliaferro, he was enabled to make, 1833-39, those several explorations and surveys which resulted in his Map and Report—a work which would have done credit to anyone under any circumstances, but one which only a Nicollet could have accomplished under the actual conditions. In 1840 and 1841 he was on office duty in Washington, reducing his field-work and preparing his map, which latter was drawn under his direction by Lieuts. J. C. Frémont and E. P. Scammon. This was completed probably in 1840, as it had been submitted to Congress and ordered to be printed, Feb. 16th, 1841. But the hardships he had endured in the field had undermined his frail physique; the further drafts upon his balance of vitality were overdrawn; and the fatal blow was given by Arago, who defeated his election to the French Academy. "Pas même un Academicien," this great soul never wore the crown of his life. His work was published under the editorship of Gen. J. J. Abert, to whom science is indebted in many ways—perhaps in no one of these more than in the recognition of the merits of the gentle Savoyard, and consequently the steps he took to facilitate and complete Nicollet's labors. The publication forms Doc. No. 237, 26th Congr., 2d Session, entitled: Report intended to illustrate a Map of the Hydrographical Basin of the Upper Mississippi River, made by I. [sic] N. Nicollet, etc., 1 vol, 8vo, Washington, Blair and Rives, 1843, pp. 1-170, map, 30¾ × 37 inches; also pub. as Ex. Doc. No. 52, Ho. Reps., 2d Sess., 28th Congr. The report is officially addressed to Colonel Abert; the original journals and other MSS. were to be deposited in the Bureau of the Corps of Topographical Engineers, Sept. 13th, 1843. I have examined the original map, from which the published one was engraved, not without some variant lettering here and there; it is now in bad condition, very brittle, and would soon go to pieces if often unrolled without great care in handling it. I think it should be renovated, without delay, and put in the best possible condition for permanent preservation.
July 26th, 1836, Nicollet went from Fort Snelling to the Falls of St. Anthony, with Lieutenants S. N. Plummer, G. W. Shaw, and James McClure, to see him off; 29th, he was ascending the river; at the mouth of the Crow Wing he left the Mississippi, ascended the former to Gayashk or Gull r., went from this to Pine r., visited Kadikomeg or Whitefish l. thence up E. fork of Pine r. to Kwiwisens or Boy r., and down this into Leech l., where he spent a week, mostly camped on Otter Tail pt., where resided his principal guide, Francis Brunet—"a man six feet three inches high—a giant of great strength, but at the same time full of the milk of human kindness and, withal, an excellent natural geographer." He found here Mr. Boutwell, who was good enough to help him out of some sort of a scrape the Chippewas got him into. He left Leech l. in a bark canoe with Brunet, another man named Desiré, and a Chippewa whose name he renders Kegwedzissag, since spelled Gaygwedosay and applied to a creek which runs into present Elk l. He crossed several small lakes and came to one he calls Kabe-Konang—not the same as Schoolcraft's Kubba Kunna, which latter is the one S. called Lake Plantagenet, and is on Nicollet's Laplace r. He continued up Kabekonang r., made a 5-m. portage to Laplace r. (which is also called Naiwa, Yellow Head, and Schoolcraft's r., being the Plantagenet fork of the Miss. r.), and ascended it to a position 1 m. south of Assawa l., where he found the traces of a camp used four years before by the Schoolcraft party. Next morning he was up at 4.30, preparing for the 6-m. portage to Lake Itasca across the Big Burning—by no means an easy thing; the ground was very bad, and the mosquitoes as bad as they knew how to be. Brunet carried the canoe, weighing 110-115 lbs.; Desiré and Kegwedzissag had each a load of 85-90 lbs.; while poor Nicollet had a full burden in proportion to the powers of the slight and frail body that was so soon, alas! to fail him altogether. "I had about 35 pounds' weight unequally distributed upon my body.... I carried my sextant on my back in a leather case thrown over me as a knapsack; then my barometer slung over my left shoulder; my cloak thrown over the same shoulder confined the barometer closely against the sextant; a portfolio under the arm; a basket in hand which contained my thermometer, chronometer, pocket compass, artificial horizon, tape-line, &c. On the right side, a spy-glass, powder-flask, and shot-bag; and in my hand a gun or an umbrella according to circumstances. Such was my accoutrement." Though Nicollet estimated his load at only 35 pounds, it was an awkward one to manage, and more than he should have undertaken to carry through such a place; his head swam more than once, he lost his way, got bogged several times, and only extricated himself by scrambling along slippery and decayed tree-trunks. However, he reached Itasca safely, two hours after the rest, pitched his tent on the island, and proceeded to adjust his artificial horizon. During the three days spent in exploring the basin he made those minute and precise observations which will forever associate his honored name with Mississippian discovery. His approach to the spot duplicated Mr. Schoolcraft's; but the comparison need not be pushed further—it cannot be. Nicollet's return was by way of the main stream to Lake Cass and thence to Leech l.—where, by the way, he had a conference with that sagacious savage Eshkibogikoj, otherwise Gueule Platte or Flat Mouth, with whom he took tea "out of fine china-ware" and spent evenings "full of instruction." Of the fine work he did at Lake Itasca, I must quote his own modest words: "The honor of having first explored the sources of the Mississippi and introduced a knowledge of them in physical geography, belongs to Mr. Schoolcraft and Lieutenant Allen. I come only after these gentleman; but I may be permitted to claim some merit for having completed what was wanting for a full geographical account of these sources. Moreover, I am, I believe, the first traveler who has carried with him astronomical instruments, and put them to profitable account along the whole course of the Mississippi, from its mouth to its sources." He might well have claimed more than this; for, aside from all topographic and hydrographic details, what he discovered, determined, and described was the Mississippi itself above Lake Itasca. His praise is greatest in the mouths of wisest censure, and for once in the history of discovery no one withholds from modest merit and signal achievement their just dues.
The length of this note warns me to resist the temptation to pursue post-Nicolletian exploration and touring—through the names of Charles Lanman, 1846; Rev. Frederick Ayer and son, 1849; Wm. Bungo, 1865; Julius Chambers, of the New York Herald's "Dolly Varden" expedition, 1872; James H. Baker, in official capacities, 1875-79; Edwin S. Hall, U. S. surveyor, 1875; A. H. Siegfried, representing the Louisville Courier-Journal's "Rob Roy" expedition, 1879; O. E. Garrison, 1880; W. E. Neal, 1880 and 1881; Rev. J. A. Gilfillan and Prof. Cooke, in May, 1881, the same year that one X. Y. Z. exploited his fraud—to that of J. V. Brower, 1888-94. The scandalous episode in a record otherwise honorable to all concerned may be read in all its unsavory particulars in the able exposés made by Mr. H. D. Harrower, entitled: Captain Glazier and his Lake, etc., pub. Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor and Co., N. Y., Oct., 1886, pp. 1-58, with 9 maps; by Mr. Hopewell Clarke, in Science and Education, I. No 2, Dec. 24th, 1886, pp. 45-57, with 5 maps; by Hon. James H. Baker, in the report entitled: The Sources of the Mississippi. Their Discoveries, real and pretended, read before the Minn. His. Soc., Feb. 8th, 1887, and published as Vol. VI., Pt. I, of that society's Collections, pp. 28; and by Commissioner Brower, pp. 191-209 of his elaborate and exhaustive monograph, pub. 1893, to which I am greatly indebted, and to which reference should be made for further details, whether in the history or the geography of the Mississippian sources. Nicollet is the pivotal point upon which the whole matter turns from Morrison to Brower, 1804-1894.