THE DESERTED MISSIONS.

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distinguished family, for three of its sons accompanied the French army to our own shores, and perished on the battle-fields of the American Revolution. James Marquette was as ardent and enthusiastic in following the Cross as the others of the name have been in following the sword. At his own request, he was removed from the province of Champaigne, which contained no foreign mission, and was transferred to the province of France, which contained the missions in the far West. Having, at the earliest opportunity, sailed for that new field of labor, he had arrived at Quebec on the 20th day of September, 1666. That was a period of deep interest in the history of the colony, and in the progress of discovery in the interior of the continent. The long war of extermination waged by the Iroquois upon the French and their Indian allies had been brought to a conclusion; and, with the return of peace, the prospects of the missionaries had begun to brighten. The region of the western missions, so long laid waste and neglected, had been reöpened, and was then being enlarged. All New York, from Onondaga to the Niagara River, had been explored. The deserted missions had been revived along Lake Huron, and at St. Mary's at Keweenaw Bay, on Lake Superior, and at Green Bay.

Marquette was stationed, at first, for two years, at the mouth of the Saguenay- -a most strange river that pours nearly a fathomless tide into the shallower St. Lawrence. That was not more important as a mission than as a place of traffic with the Indians; who, since the war was over, yearly flocked to it from Nova Scotia, from Hudson's Bay, and from Lake Superior. During the season for trading, religious instruction alternated with sharp bargains. The twists which conscience received in the daytime could hardly be taken out by a few hours' devo

tion in the evening. The missionaries, however, managed their affairs with great prudence, mollifying the irritated feelings of the Indians, and rebuking the rapacity of the traders. Much of human nature in its wildest aspects was to have been learned there, as well as the Indian languages, and a general knowledge of the surrounding country.

At the conclusion of that period, Marquette had been ordered to Lake Superior. In going there, he followed up the usual route of the western missionaries, ascending the Ottawa River, thence down the French River to Lake Huron, and across that lake to St. Mary's. It was both a toilsome and a dangerous journey. At St. Mary's, Marquette built his cabin on the American side, just at the foot of the rapids, where he continued instructing the Indians that were returning from their long flight from the Iroquois, until after Allouez' departure for Green Bay, and the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers.

Marquette had been dispatched, next after that, to Lapointe, the most distant mission on Lake Superior, and also the most dangerous. There he added considerably to the information which he had already obtained respecting the Mississippi. The occasion of a visit from some Illinois Indians, who had come a thirty-days' journey from the south, by land, and some part of the way along that river, afforded him an excellent opportunity for prosecuting his inquiries. They told him that that river ran so far to the south that they did not know where it might terminate. They described a portion of the Missouri also, and named over various tribes on both those rivers, even so far down as those that raised two crops of corn in a single summer. All these things Marquette had carefully written down, and he had begun digesting a plan for exploring the whole course of the Mississippi, and

MISSION OF LAPOINTE.

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would have set out alone. But the mission at Lapointe was a disastrous one, and had to be abandoned, soon after that, in consequence of a threatened inroad of the Dacotahs, a fierce race, with long, black, streaming hair, and who wore stone knives in their belts. The poor Christian Indians, who had been driven, years before, across the Mississippi by the Iroquois, were now driven back again across Lake Superior by the Dacotahs. Making their escape in a fleet of canoes, they reached the foot of the lake, and from thence went down to Michilimackinac, and established themselves on the northern shore of those straits.

A mission had been attempted the previous year on the neighboring island of that name, but it had become deserted. The spot which Marquette had there selected as a new home for his flock was, indeed, bleak and sterile, surrounded by tempestuous lakes; but the waters were teeming with fish, and would afford them an easy communication with all the other missions. A rude chapel of logs was speedily erected, its roof covered over with bark. The Indians built, near by, a palisade fort, as an additional security against the danger of being again dislodged by their enemies. There they have remained to this day. The mission of St. Ignatius, at Michilimackinac, was founded in the summer of 1672. And it was while engaged in laying the foundation of that mission that Marquette received the joyful intelligence that the government was preparing an expedition to the Mississippi, and that he had been appointed to accompany it.

Joliet, however, did not arrive there, on his way from Quebec, until late in the fall, when the navigation of the lakes was about closing; but he brought with him the commissions, and the instructions to proceed, as soon as

it should become practicable, to the Mississippi, and explore its waters. He was received at Michilimackinac with rejoicings, and much prayer and thanksgiving, for the great favor conferred on them of being sent to open the way into a new region, reputed to be filled with marvels and wonders. The succeeding winter was spent in making preparations for the great journey, which was to immortalize their names, and by its results affect the destiny of nations. All that before then had become known concerning the Mississippi, and the country and nations along its banks, was carefully reviewed. The various rumors that had reached the different missions, from Lapointe to the Illinois, were rigidly scrutinized, and compared with the reports of the Christian Indians, many of whom had crossed over the plains as far as the Missouri. Those wanderers were gathered into Marquette's cabin, and questioned as to what they had seen and heard in that distant country. The figurative language of the Indians had to be stripped of its exuberant metaphors, and reduced into harmony with well-known facts respecting other rivers and other countries. And there, in that gloomy abode in the center of the North American wilderness, in midwinter, Marquette and Joliet drew upon the ground, for want of a table, the first rude map of the Mississippi River, and the water-courses that might lead to it. The spectacle must have been sublime, of those two solitary white men, kneeling within a tawny circle of wondering Indians, and planning out the most important discovery of that age.

When at length the dissolving snows indicated the near approach of the season for lake and river navigation, they set about providing the more material and substantial parts of their outfit. The Canadian canoe is constructed very differently from those canoes which were in use

THE CANADIAN CANOE.

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on the Hudson and the Delaware, and which may now occasionally be seen on our western and southern waters. The latter is more properly called a "dug-out"-the name by which it is known throughout the south-west. The Canadian canoe consists of a frame-work of slender cedar splints, running lengthwise from stem to stern, supported upon ribs of spruce, and encased in a covering of birch bark, which is securely fastened with fibrous roots, and smeared along the seams with pitch. It possesses sufficient strength, and, at the same time, is so light that it may easily be carried across portages on the shoulders of two men; and it may be paddled through smooth water at the rate of four or five miles an hour. The Canadian canoe sits gracefully on the water, and, at a little distance off, seems scarcely to touch the surface; but it is a lively craft, and has the reputation of being tricky with strangers. A novice stepping into it might find himself suddenly plumped into the water.