A Half Century of Conflict Volume I Part 23

[361] Penecaut, _Journal_. _Proces-verbal de la Prise de Possession du Pays des Nadouessioux, etc., par Nicolas Perrot, 1689._ Fort Perrot seems to have been built in 1685, and to have stood near the outlet of the lake, probably on the west side. Perrot afterwards built another fort, called Fort St. Antoine, a little above, on the east bank. The position of these forts has been the subject of much discussion, and cannot be ascertained with precision. It appears by the _Prise de Possession_, cited above, that there was also, in 1689, a temporary French post near the mouth of the Wisconsin.

[362] This weeping over strangers was a custom with the Sioux of that time mentioned by many early writers. La Mothe-Cadillac marvels that a people so brave and warlike should have such a fountain of tears always at command.

[363] In 1702 the geographer De l'Isle made a remarkable MS. map ent.i.tled _Carte de la Riviere du Mississippi, dressee sur les Memoires de M. Le Sueur_.

[364] According to the geologist Featherstonhaugh, who examined the locality, this earth owes its color to a bluish-green silicate of iron.

[365] Besides the long and circ.u.mstantial _Relation de Penecaut_, an account of the earlier part of La Sueur's voyage up the Mississippi is contained in the _Memoire du Chevalier de Beaurain_, which, with other papers relating to this explorer, including portions of his Journal, will be found in Margry, vi. See also _Journal historique de l'etabliss.e.m.e.nt des Francais a la Louisiane_, 38-71.

[366] _Iberville a ----, 15 Fevrier, 1703_ (Margry, vi. 180).

[367] _Bienville au Ministre, 6 Septembre, 1704._

[368] Beaurain, _Journal historique_.

[369] Hubert, _Memoire envoye au Conseil de la Marine_.

[370] Penecaut, _Relation_, chaps. xvii., xviii. Le Page du Pratz, _Histoire de la Louisiane_, i. 13-22. Various doc.u.ments in Margry, vi.

193-202.

[371] For an interesting contemporary map of the French establishment at Natchitoches, see Thoma.s.sy, _Geologie pratique de la Louisiane_.

[372] Benard de la Harpe, in Margry, vi. 264.

[373] Beaurain says that each of these bands spoke a language of its own. They had horses in abundance, descended from Spanish stock. Among them appear to have been the Ouacos, or Huecos, and the Wichitas,--two tribes better known as the p.a.w.nee Picts. See Marcy, _Exploration of Red River_.

[374] Compare the account of La Harpe with that of the Chevalier de Beaurain; both are in Margry, vi. There is an abstract in _Journal historique_.

[375] _Relation de Benard de la Harpe._ _Autre Relation du meme._ _Du Tisne a Bienville._ Margry, vi. 309, 310, 313.

[376] _Bienville au Conseil de Regence, 20 Juillet, 1721._

[377] _Instructions au Sieur de Bourgmont, 17 Janvier, 1722._ Margry, vi. 389.

[378] The French had at this time gained a knowledge of the tribes of the Missouri as far up as the Arickaras, who were not, it seems, many days' journey below the Yellowstone, and who told them of "prodigiously high mountains,"--evidently the Rocky Mountains. _Memoire de la Renaudiere_, 1723.

[379] This meeting took place a little north of the Arkansas, apparently where that river makes a northward bend, near the twenty-second degree of west longitude. The Comanche villages were several days' journey to the southwest. This tribe is always mentioned in the early French narratives as the Padoucas,--a name by which the Comanches are occasionally known to this day. See Whipple and Turner, _Reports upon Indian Tribes_, in _Explorations and Surveys for the Pacific Railroad_ (Senate Doc., 1853, 1854).

[380] _Relation du Voyage du Sieur de Bourgmont, Juin-Novembre, 1724_, in Margry, vi. 398. Le Page du Pratz, iii. 141.

[381] _Journal du Voyage des Freres Mallet, presente a MM. de Bienville et Salmon._ This narrative is meagre and confused, but serves to establish the main points. _Copie du Certificat donne a Santa Fe aux sept _[huit]_ Francais par le General Hurtado, 24 Juillet, 1739._ _Pere Rebald au Pere de Beaubois, sans date._ _Bienville et Salmon au Ministre, 30 Avril, 1741_, in Margry, vi. 455-468.

[382] _Instructions donnees par Jean-Baptiste de Bienville a Fabry de la Bruyere, 1 Juin, 1741._ Bienville was behind his time in geographical knowledge. As early as 1724 Benard de la Harpe knew that in ascending the Missouri or the Arkansas one was moving towards the "Western Sea,"--that is, the Pacific,--and might, perhaps, find some river flowing into it. See _Routes qu'on peut tenir pour se rendre a la Mer de l'Ouest_, in _Journal historique_, 387.

[383] _Extrait des Lettres du Sieur Fabry._