CHAPTER V

THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE

EVENTS LEADING UP TO THE PURCHASE-DISCOVERY AND ACQUISITION-LEWIS AND CLARK-THE JUNE RISE IN THE MISSOURI RIVER-THE ARIKARA VILLAGES— GREAT HERDS OF BUFFALO, ELK AND OTHER GAME-MANDAN VILLAGES-FORT MANDAN-THE FLAG ON FORT MANDAN-STARS AND STRIPES THE WINTER OF

1804-05 IN NORTH DAKOTA—THE BEAUTIFUL NORTHERN LIGHTS-VISITING TRADERS SAKAKAWEA, THE BIRD-WOMAN-THE MISSOURI FUR COMPANY-THE RETURN OF THE MANDAN CHIEF.

"Though watery deserts hold apart
The worlds of east and west,

Still beats the self-same human heart
In each proud nation's breast."

-Oliver Wendell Holmes.

DISCOVERY AND ACQUISITION

The Mississippi River was discovered by Fernando de Soto, a native of Spain who in 1519, accompanied the governor of Darien (now Panama) to America, leaving his service in 1528, to explore the coast of Guatemala and Yucatan in search of a passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. After explorations and military service under Pizarro in Peru, early in April, 1538, he undertook the conquest of Florida, then a vast region under the Emperor Charles V of Spain, sailing with a large expedition, and arriving at Tampa Bay, then called Espiritu Santo, May 25, 1539. Seeking gold he explored the rivers of Florida, contending with Indians and pestilential fever, and marched to the northwest and reaching the Mississippi River in the spring of 1541, he marched southwest and northwest in his discoveries, and to the White River, his western limit, then proceeding south in March and April, 1542, along the Washita to, and following, the banks of the Mississippi, during May or June, he contracted the fever and died at the age of forty-six. His body wrapped in a mantle was buried in the stream.

Spaniards have the reputation of being unsuccessful colonizers and de Soto's followers were no exception to the rule. A statement in verse by Prof. William P. Trent, in 1898, accurately describes the quality of their policy, and its results:

"Thine hour has come: a stronger race
Succeeds and thou must fall,

Thy pride but adding to thy sad disgrace,
As wormwood unto gall.

And yet thou hast but reaped what thou hast sown,

For in thy pride of strength,

Thou didst the kingdom of the mind disown,

And so art sunk at length."

In the seventeenth century, Robert Cavalier Sieur de La Salle, emigrant from France to Canada in 1666, and founder of La Chine, in 1669, was leader of an exploring expedition to the head of Lake Ontario and subsequently to the Ohio River and down that river to the site of the present City of Louisville.

In the autumn of 1674, he went to France, and as the result obtained a grant of Fort Frontenac and the settlement May 13, 1675. In 1678, having established in Canada a center for the fur trade of French and Indian settlers in opposition to another organization, he obtained permission from the French government to carry on western explorations for five years, to establish posts and have exclusive control of the trade in buffalo skins, exception being made to trade with the Ottawas who disposed of their furs in Montreal.

In this voyage of discovery, with a company of about thirty men, he sailed for La Rochelle, July 14th, and having established a post, and near the mouth of the Niagara River, built a boat of 55 tons, called the "Griffon," in August, 1679, set out on his expedition, passing through Lakes Erie, St. Clair, Huron and Michigan to Green Bay, thence in canoes to the mouth of the St. Joseph's River, where he established a trading post called Fort Miami, then ascending the St. Joseph's, he crossed to the Kankakee and sailed down until he reached a village of the Illinois, with whom he treated and in January, 1680, having partly built a post near the present site of Peoria, called Fort Crevecoeur, he retraced his steps to Canada from the mouth of the St. Joseph's, striking across Michigan, made his way overland to Lake Erie, and then to his post at Niagara. There he assembled another party and set out again for Fort Crevecoeur with supplies, but finding the fort abandoned he explored the Illinois River to its mouth, and returned for recruits and supplies. December 21, 1681, he started with a party from Fort Miami, ascended the Chicago River, crossed to the Illinois and descended to the Mississippi, and camping with the Indians kept on until the river divided, exploring each channel to the Gulf of Mexico, and on April 9, 1682, erected a cross and a monument bearing the arms of France and the inscription: "Louis the Great, King of France and of Navarre, Reigns This Ninth of April, 1682," at the mouth of the Mississippi, and ran up the French flag, taking formal possession of the country through which the river flowed. The chanting of the Te Deum, the Exaudiat and the Domine Salvum fac Regem, was included in the exercises, which closed with the firing of a salute and cries of "Vive le Roi."

Possession was proclaimed in the following words as translated for Sparks' Life of La Salle:

"In the name of the most high, mighty, invincible and victorious prince, Louis the Great, by the grace of God, King of France and of Navarre, fourteenth of that name, this ninth day of April, 1682, I, in virtue of the commission of His Majesty, which I hold in my hand, and which may be seen by all whom it may concern, have taken, and do now take in the name of His Majesty and of his successors to the crown, possession of this country of Louisiana, the seas, harbors, ports, bays, adjacent straits, and all the nations, people, provinces,