CHAPTER II
FIRST EXPLORATIONS
THE river which gives
name to the beautiful territory of Minnesota, was
discovered by La Seur, a Frenchman, in 1760. It was
known to the world as the St. Peter's until in 1852,
when it was "Resolved by the Senate and House
of Representatives, that from and after the passage
of this act, the river in the territory of Minnesota,
known as the St. Peter's, should be known and designated
on the public records as the Minnesota River."
It is a Dakota word, and
signifies, according to Dr. Williamson, "turbid
or whitish water."
Setting out on an exploring expedition.
(click on image for larger size)
The extreme northwest
was penetrated by traders and Jesuits, from the Canadas,
soon after
St. Peters
(click on image for larger size)
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"Our pilgrim fathers moored their
bark
On the wild New England shore."
Of some of these we give brief sketches.
The first white men known
to have entered these unexplored wilds, were two French
traders from Quebec, in 1654. Their ostensible object
was the purchase of furs from the Dakota or Sioux
Indians, who then occupied most of the country east
of the Mississippi. Their object accomplished, they
returned with flattering accounts of the remote region
they had visited, and a like adventurous spirit was
thereby awakened in others.
Bearing in his hand the
standard of his faith to plant amid the wilds, and
within the sight of the natives of this region, Menard,
a Romish priest, enters the broad arena, alone,
with his cossack and prayer book. His native enthusiasm,
combined with a love of his religion, rendered him
a fit person for enterprise. He was a man of age and
experience, and admirably fitted to the toils of the
mission. His journey was beset with trials. Such was
his scarcity of food, that he was even reduced to
the necessity of living no pounded bones, but, finally,
he arrived at his destination, on the 15th October,
1660. "For more than eight months, surrounded
by a few French voyageurs, and many savages, I dwelt,"
to use his own language, "in a kind of small
hermitage, a cabin built of fir branches, piled on
one another, not so much to shield me from the rigor
of the seasons, as to correct my imagination, and
persuade me that I was sheltered."
On the 20th of August,
1661, while making a tour to visit the Hurons, his
comrade made a portage with the canoe, and Menard
entered the woods. No traces of him
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could afterwards be found, and as the
Indians have a tradition that the first white man
who built his "teepee" among them was murdered,
it is probable that such was his fate.
Many years afterward,
his cassock and prayer book were found in a Dakota
lodge, and were regarded by the possessor as "wakan,"
or supernatural.
Menard might have perished
from starvation, as this among the early explorers
was not unfrequent, according to tradition. An intelligent
native, lately deceased at La Pointe, related the
following story: "While the natives were dwelling
on the island, a party of lads who were spearing fish
through holes in the ice, discovered a smoke arising
from its eastern extremity, which was then seldom
visited. Proceeding in the direction, they found in
a rough cabin, two white men in the last stages of
starvation. Coasting the lake late in the fall, they
had been driven by the ice on the island, and not
knowing that any human beings were near, they had
almost perished, having roasted and eaten their blankets."
This event saddened, thought
it did not deter the Jesuits from further attempts
to plant missions among the Indian tribes of this
region.
Menard was succeed by
Claude Allong, a Jesuit, who acted somewhat in the
capacity of a missionary while in pursuit of copper.
After spending two years under the head of Lake Superior,
he embarked on the Wisconsin River, and after paddling
seven days, entered the great "Father of Waters,"
four hundred miles below St. Anthony's Falls; the
first white man who dipped his paddle in the Upper
Mississippi, but stopping short of the limits of Minnesota.
In the spring of 1680,
Louis Hennapin descended the
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Illinois River in a canoe, accompanied
by La Salle, who was murdered by one of his own party.
Notwithstanding the terrors
depicted by the Indians, Hennapin resolved upon the
hazardous undertaking of ascending the might stream.
He built a more commodious boat, and after a fatiguing
and dangerous voyage of nineteen days, arrived at
the mouth of the Minnesota River. He was first to
stand on "Pilot Knob," and drink in the
Eden-like beauty of all the eye could scan; the first
to listen to the roar of our far-famed cataract, and
to gaze with admiration on its radiant bow, while
his glowing soul expanded amid such glorious scenes.
He left the marks of his enthusiastic devotion to
his church on everything. The falls which he named
for his patron saint, he describes as being sixty
feet high. From the fact that they are constantly
receding, and that within the last ten years they
have fallenaway several feet, perhaps a rod, it is
quite probable, that at that time, they were as high
as he asserts (though now scarcely fifteen feet),
and, indeed, there is indubitable evidence of this
a half mile below.
"Father Hennapin"
was kindly received by the several Indian tribes,
who had not then learned hostility to the whites,
and during his brief sojourn, was surprised by the
arrival of a party of French traders. In the month
of September following, they all bade adieu to the
lovely land, leaving it for others to profit from
their discoveries, and become the rich partakers of
its golden fruit.
A spirit of adventure
was awakened in France by the publication of these
"Travels and Discoveries," and many daring
adventurers plunged into the heart of the unknown
wild, some impelled by the sprit of gain, and others
with the mere love of novelty and desire for adventure.
Chapter III
