the discovery of the South sea, has returned three months ago, and discovered some very fine countries, and a navigation so easy through the beautiful rivers he has found, that a person can go from Lake Ontario and Fort Fontenac in a bark to the Gulf of Mexico, there being only one carrying place, half a league in length, where Lake Ontario communicates with Lake Erie. These are projects which it will be possible to effect when peace shall be firmly established and whenever it will please the king to prosecute these discoveries. Joliet has been within ten days' journey of the Gulf of Mexico, and believes that water communications could be found leading to the Vermilion and California seas, by means of the river that flows from the west [the Missouri] into the grand river [the Mississippi] that he discovered, which runs from north to south, and is as large as the St. Lawrence opposite Quebec.

"I send you by my secretary the map he has made of it, and the observations he has been able to recollect, as he has lost all his minutes and journals in the shipwreck he suffered within sight of Montreal, where, after having completed a voyage of twelve hundred leagues, he was near being drowned, and lost all his papers and a little Indian, whom he brought from those countries. These accidents have caused me great regret. Joliet left with the fathers at the Sault de Ste. Marie, in Lake Superior, copies of his journals; these we cannot get before next year. You will glean from them additional particulars of this discovery, in which he has very well acquitted himself."

It is not known that the copies of Joliet's journals, mentioned in Frontenac's report, were delivered to the French government; but an account of the voyage by Marquette was published in 1691 by Thevenat. This fact has caused an undue importance to be attached to the name of the missionary in connection with the dis covery of the Mississippi, and at the expense of the fame of Joliet.*

*The Count of Frontenac," says Shea (Wis Hist. Coll., Vol. VII, page 119), on the 14th of November, [1674] in a dis

Explorations begun by Joliet were continued. La Salle, in 1679, with Father Louis Hennepin, coasted along the western shore of Lake Michigan, landing frequently. The return of Henry de Tonty, one of La Salle's party, down the same coast to Green bay, from the Illinois, followed in 1680. The same year, Father Hennepin from the upper Mississippi, whither he had gone from the Illinois, made his way across what is now Wisconsin, by the Wisconsin and Fox rivers to Green bay.*

He was accompanied by Daniel Greysolon Duluth, who,on his way down the Mississippi had met Hennepin in September, 1678. Duluth left Quebec to explore, under the authority of the governor of New France, the region of the upper Mississippi, and establish relations of friendship with the Sioux and their kindred,

the Assiniboines. In the summer of 1679 he was in the Sioux country and early in the autumn of that year at the head of Lake Superior holding an Indian council. In June, 1680, he set out from that point to continue his explorations. Going down the Mississippi he met with Hennepin,as stated above,journeyed with him to the Jesuit station, near the head of Green bay, across what is now the State of Wisconsin. Following the voyages of Hennepin and Duluth was the one by Le Sueur, in 1683, from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi, ascending that river to the Sioux country in the region about St. Anthony, and his subsequent establishment, said to have been in 1693, at La Pointe, in the present Ashland Co., Wis. He was, at least, a voyageur stationed at Chegoimegon during that year. He continued to trade with the Sioux at intervals to the year 1702.

patch to Colbert announced the successful issue of Joliet's

expedition; "but Shea then adds: "They had to wait for fulldetails till the account drawn up by Father Marquette should be sent down," as though such an account was really expected; but the fact was, as stated by Fontenac himself, that copie of Joliet's journals were what was looked for,

*Hist. of Northern Wis., page 44.

+Ibed.

Nicholas Perrot was again in the northwest in 1684. He was commissioned to have chief command, not only "at the bay," but also upon the Mississippi, on the east side of which stream, at the foot of Lake Pepin, he erected a post. Here he spent the winter of 1685-6. The next year he had returned to Green bay. He vibrated between Montreal and the west until 1697. In 1699 St. Cosme and his companions coasted along the west shore of Lake Michigan. Other explorations followed, but generally in the tracks of previous ones. Except at "the bay," there was not so long as the French had dominion over the northwest, a single post occupied for any length of time by regular soldiers. This post was called Fort St. Francis. There were other stockades-one at La Pointe in 1726, and, as we have already seen one upon the Mississippi; but neither of these had cannon. At the commencement of the French and Indian War, all three had disappeared. At the ending of hostilities, in 1760, there was not a single vestage of civilization within what are now the bounds of Wisconsin, except a few vagrant Frenchmen among the Indians; there was no post; no settlement, west of Lake Michigan. But before dismissing the subject of French supremacy in the northwest, it is proper to mention the hostility that for a number of years existed between the Fox Indians and Frenchmen.

In the year 1693, several fur-traders were plundered by the Fox Indians (located upon Fox river of Green bay), while on their way to the Sioux; the Foxes alleging that the French

Indian allies. The Marquis de Vaudreuil, now that the Foxes continued their hostilities, determined on a war of extermination against them. De Lourigny, a lieutenant, left Quebec in March, 1716. He made his way with alacrity, entering Green bay and Fox river, it is said, with a force of 800 French and Indians, encountering the enemy in a pallisaded fort, which would have been soon reduced had not the Foxes asked for peace. Hostages were given, and Lourigny returned to Quebec. In 1721 the war was renewed, and in 1728 another expedition was organized against these savages, commanded by Marchemd de Lignery. This officer proceeded by way of the Ottawa river of Canada and Lake Huron to Green bay, upon the northern shore of which the Menominees, who had also become hostile were attacked and defeated. On the 24th of August, a Winnebago village on Fox river was reached by De Lignery with a force of 400 French and 750 Indians. They proceeded thence up the river to the home of the Foxes, but did not succeed in meeting the enemy in force. The expedition was a signal failure. But the march of Neyon de Villiers, in 1730, against the Foxes, was more successful, resulting in their defeat. They suffered a loss of 200 killed of warriors, and three times as many women and children. Still the Foxes were not humbled. Another expedition, this time under the direction of Capt. De Noyelle, marched against them in 1735. The result was not decisive. Many places have been designated upon Fox river as points where conflicts between the French and their allies, and the Foxes and their allies took place; but all such designations are traditionary and uncertain. The Sacs and Foxes finally became connected with the government of Canada, and during the French and Indian War were arrayed against the English.

WISCONSIN UNDER ENGLISH SUPREMACY.

On the 9th day of September, 1760, Governor Vaudreuil surrendered Canada to General Amherst, of the British army, and the supremacy

over the northwest passed from France to Great Britain. But in what is now Wisconsin there was little besides savages to be affected by the change. The vagrant fur-trader represented all that there was of civilization west of Lake Michigan. Detroit was soon taken possession of; then Mackinaw, and finally, in 1761, a squad of English soldiers reached the head of Green bay, to garrison the tumble-down post, where now is Fort Howard, Brown Co., Wis. This was on October 12 of the year just mentioned. Lieut. James Gorrell and one sergeant, one corporal and fifteen privates constituted the "army of occupation" for the whole country west of Lake Michigan from this time to June 21, 1763, when the post was abandoned by the commandant on account of the breaking out of Pontiac's War, and the capture of the fort at the fort at Mackinaw by the savages. The cause of the war was this: The Indian tribes saw the danger which the downfall of the French interests in Canada was sure to bring them. They banded together under Pontiac to avert their ruin. The struggle was short but fierce-full of

scenes of tragic interest, with marvels of suffering and vicissitude, of heroism and endurance;" but the white man conquered. The moving incidents in this bloody drama were enacted to the eastward of what is now Wisconsin, coming no nearer than Mackinaw, but it resulted in the evacuation of its territory by British troops, who never after took possession of it, though they continued until 1796 a nominal military rule over it after Mackinaw was again occupied by them.

No sooner had the soldiers under Gorrell left the bay than French traders seized upon the occasion to again make it headquarters for traffic in furs to the westward of Lake Michigan. Not that only, for a few determined to make it their permanent home. By the year 1766 there were some families living in the decayed Fort Edward Augustus and opposite thereto, on the east side of Fox river, where

they cultivated the soil in a small way and in an extremely primitive manner, living, now that peace was again restored, very comfortably. Of these French Canadians, no one can be considered as the pioneer-no one is entitled to the renown of having first led the way, becoming, therefore the first settler of the State, much less the father and founder of Wisconsin. It was simply that "the bay," being, after Pontiac's war, occupied by Canadian French furtraders, their station finally ripened into a permanent settlement-the first in Wisconsin-the leading spirits of which were the two Langlades, Augustin and Charles, father and son. It had all the characteristics of a French settlement. Its growth was very slow. The industries were few and simple. Besides the employments of trading and transporting goods and peltries, the inhabitants engaged in hunting and trapping. Attention was given to the cultivation of the soil only incidently. Gardens were cultivated to some extent for a supply of vegetables. Gradually, however, a few persons turned their chief attention to agriculture.*

In 1783 four white persons occupied in a permanent manner the tract of land where now is Prairie du Chien, in Crawford Co., Wis. They were soon followed by a number of persons who located there. These became permanent traders with the Indians.

Besides the settlement at "the bay" and the one at Prairie du Chien some French traders were located where Milwaukee now is in 1795, but they could hardly be called settlers. Ten years before that date Laurence Barth lived at the portage between the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, now the site of Portage, Columbia Co., Wis., where he was engaged in the carrying trade. But his residence could not fairly be termed a settlement; so that when, in 1796, the English yielded possession of what is now Wisconsin to the Americans (a nominal one, however,) there were really but two settlementsGreen Bay and Prairie du Chien.

*Hist. Northern Wis., p. 49.

WISCONSIN AS A PART OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.

The Congress of the United States, by their act of the 6th day of September, 1780, recommended to the several States in the Union having claims to waste and unappropriated lands in the western country, a liberal cession to the general government of a portion of their respective claims for the common benefit of the Union. The claiming States were Connecticut, New York and Virginia, all under their colonial charters, and the last mentioned, in addition thereto, by right of conquest of the Illinois country. The region contended for lay to the northwest of the river Ohio. Virginia claimed territory westward to the Mississippi and northward to a somewhat indefinite extent. New York, and especially Connecticut, laid claim to territory stretching away to an unbounded extent west ward, but not so far to the south as Virginia. The last mentioned State, by virtue of conquests largely her own, extended her jurisdiction over the Illinois settlements in 1778, and the year after, and erected into a county enough to include all her conquests. But, what is now the State of Wisconsin, she certainly did not exercise dominion over. The three States finally ceded all their rights to the United States, leaving the general government absolute owner of the whole country, subject only to the rights, such as they were, of the Indian Nations who dwelt therein.

Under a congressional ordinance, passed in 1785, for ascertaining the mode of disposing of lands in the western territory, the geographer of the United States was directed to commence the survey of them immediately beyond the Ohio river, upon the plan which has ever since been followed by the general government, resulting in regular latitudinal and longitudinal lines being run, so as to circumscribe every 640 acres of land, not only in Wisconsin but in all the west, wherever these surveys have been brought to completion. Two years subsequent to the passage of the first ordinance, was that of

another and more famous one, providing for the government of the territory northwest of the river Ohio. This is familiarly known as the ordinance of 1787; and to this day it is a part of the fundamental law of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, the five states since formed out of the region included within the limits affected by its provisions;-an act of Congress, passed in 1789, having adapted it to the constitution of the United States. But neither the treaty with Great Britain of 1783, nor the ordinances of Congress which followed, gave the United States anything more than constructive possession of the whole of its western territory. The mother country, it is true, recognized the northern lakes as the boundary between her possessions and those of the now independent states, but finding an excuse in the fact of some of her merchants not being paid their claims as stipulated by the treaty of 1783, she retained possession of the whole northwest, including what is now Wisconsin, until 1796.

By the ordinance of 1787, the United States in Congress assembled declared that the terri-. tory northwest of the Ohio, should, for the purposes of temporary government, be one district, subject, however, to be divided into districts, as future circumstances might, in the opinion of Congress, make it expedient. It was ordained, that a governor, secretary and three judges should be appointed for the territory; a general assembly was also provided for; and it was declared that religion, morality and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education should forever be encouraged. It was also ordained that there should be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the territory, "otherwise than in the punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted." But this organic law was of course nugatory over that portion of the territory occupied by the British, and so continued until the latter yielded possession, and in fact, for some time subsequent thereto.