CHAPTER XXX. MILWAUKEE AND ROCK RIVER CANAL. Early navigation of Rock River Public attention directed to canal in 1836 - Petition for caual charter in 1836; no action Survey in 1837 - Charter of Canal Co., January 5, 1833- Provisions of the act Co. authorized to apply to Congress for aid Co. organized February 3, 1838 - Co. memorialize Congress for grant of land - Engineer submits estimate of cost- Byron Kilbourn appointed agent to go to Washington, and goes-Memorial presented in Senate - Favorable report and bill - Bill passed Senate June 1, excluding preemptions - Referred in House - Passed House with amendments which were concurred in by Senate Bill became a law June 18th -- Kilbourn presents bill to Legislature at session of 1838, which Canal Co. wished passed It authorized the Territory to borrow $500,000-Provided for Territorial offices, for the appraisal and sale of the granted lands- Bill introduced in Council on 15th of December — Adjourn- ment to 21st of January Popular hostility to canal - Another bill introduced in Council on 25th of January, which became a law on the 26th of February, 1839 - It authorized loan of only $50,000- Change in Territorial officers and their duties - Other provisions unsatisfactory to Canal Co. - Officers appointed by governor -- Final location of canal 6th May - Plats of location sent to Commissioner General Land Office, and lands designated; 139,191 acres -- Session of Legislature 1839 Report of canal commissioners - Land sales - Settlers protected - -- Bonds for $50,000 had been executed, agent appointed to sell them, who reported that he could not - Even num- bered sections and preëmption - Canal Co. present memorial, which complains of act of last session Salaries too high-Resolutions of inquiry adopted - Kilbourn's reply - Resolution of inquiry by the House and response - - Resolution of Council that president of company present plans and estimates of cost of canal - They are submitted - Proceedings in House Report of committee - Bill to abandon construction of canal - - Amendments adopted providing an opposite policy Concurred in and became a law - Compensation of officers reduced - To be elected by Legislature - Canal fund HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. CHAPTER I. 66 EARLY EXPLORATIONS OF "FLORIDA" AND 'LOUISIANA." The historical compilation made by General WILLIAM R. SMITH, and published in 1854 by authority of the Legislature, and now out of print, presents an elaborate review of the early history of Wisconsin, previously to 1836, and as intimately connected with it, a retrospective view of the explorations of the whole valley of the Mississippi river. An epitome of this historical retrospect of these early explorations will be given, consisting chiefly of extracts from that valuable work, sustaining as they do, a relation to the more modern history of the Territory, no less intimate than interesting. The southern coast of the North American continent, near St. Augustine, Florida, was discovered on Easter Sunday, 1512, by JUAN PONCE DE LEON, a companion of Columbus. He named the new found country Pascua Florida. The Spaniards of early times designated all of North America, from the Gulf of Mexico to the great lakes, by the name of Florida, and under that name claimed the whole sea-coast as far as Newfoundland. PONCE DE LEON was appointed Governor of the country, and in 1521 was killed by the natives. In 1516 DIEGO MIRUELO sailed for Havana and landed at some point in Florida, which he has not distinctly described. Ten years later PAMPHILO DE NARVAEZ obtained permission from Spain to prosecute discoveries and make further conquest of Florida. In 1528, he, with three hundred men (of whom eighty were mounted), landed near Appalachee Bay. In a fruitless search for gold they wandered over the lands lying north of the Gulf for six months, when they again sought the gulf coast, where they desperately embarked in rude boats which they had manufactured, and finally perished in a storm. The chivalric and romantic adventures of FERDINAND DE SOTO are so familiar to every American, that only the briefest possible reference to them is demanded: In May, 1539, DE SOTO, having participated with PIZARRO in the conquest of Peru, and having obtained leave from the Spanish king to conquer Florida, accompanied by a well armed and brilliant band of six hundred men, with between two and three hundred horses, landed in the bay of Spiritu Santo, or Tampa Bay, eager to prosecute his contemplated enterprise, and filled with hope and spirit of adventure. Nearly two years were spent by DE SOTO and his band of adventurous followers, during which they climbed the mountains of Georgia, captured the town of Mavila or Mobile, passed the winter (1540-1) near the Yazoo, and finally on the first of April, 1541, reached the Mississippi River not far from the 35th parallel of latitude. After spending months in explorations west of the Great River, and spending the third winter of their wanderings on the Washita, they descended this river to its junction with the Mississippi, where, in May, 1542, DE SOTO died of a malignant fever. His body was wrapped in a mantle, and sunk in the middle of the stream. The discoverer of the Father of Waters, the most remarkable of all his discoveries; he slept beneath its turbid current, and one-half of his six hundred followers had left their bones among the mountains and in the morasses of the south, from Georgia to Arkansas. A desire of conquest and a greed for gold were the incentives of all these adventurers. More than a century later, the missionary spirit of religion led to numerous explorations of the Mississippi valley by the route of the great lakes. CHAMPLAIN had discovered the lake which bears his name more than ten years before the landing of the pilgrims at Plymouth. In 1616, LE CARON, a Franciscan friar, reached the rivers of Lake Huron. In 1627, a charter grant of New France was obtained from Louis XIII. by a number of French merchants, organized by a French nobleman - the Duke de RICHLIEU - which in cluded the whole basin of the St. Lawrence, and of such other rivers as flowed directly into the sea, and also Florida. After the restoration of Quebec in 1632, by the English, they entered on the government of their province. The Jesuits BREBEUF and DANIEL, followed soon by LALLEMAND, in 1634 penetrated to the heart of the Huron wilderness, where soon after two villages, St. Louis and St. Ignatius, sprung up, and where was raised the first house of the Society of Jesus. As early as 1618, M. NICOLLET lived with the Indians on the Ottawa river, and two years later, with tribes bordering on Lake Huron. It is well authenticated that before 1640, NICOLLET penetrated Wisconsin as far as the Wisconsin river. In the Jesuit relation for 1640 is found this passage written from Quebec to France, by Pere LE JEUNI: "M. NICOLLET, who has penetrated farthest into these most distant regions, has assured me that if he had pushed on three days longer, on a great river which issues from the second lake of the Hurons (Lake Michigan), he would have found the sea. Now I strongly suspect this sea is on the north of Mexico, and that thereby we could have an entrance in Japan and China." PARKMAN in his "Jesuits in North America" writes as follows: "As early as 1639, NICOLLET ascended the Green Bay of Michigan, and crossed the waters of the Mississippi." It is not probable that NICOLLET saw the river that is now known as the "Mississippi," while it is certain that his visit to the Wisconsin river was in 1634, and not in 1639. A record in the Canadian Archives shows that NICOLLET started from Three Rivers on a western voyage in July, 1634. It is not improbable that NICOLLET may have trod the soil of Wisconsin earlier than 1634, but no reasonable doubt exists of his visiting the Wisconsin tribes in council during that year, where, it is recorded, there were assembled "Four thousand warriors, who feasted on six score of beavers. He appeared before them in a robe of state, adorned with figures of flowers and birds. Approaching with a pistol in each hand, he fired both at once. The astonished natives hence styled him 'Thunder Beaver.'" In 1641, the fathers RAYMBAULT and JOGUES, the first envoys from Christendom, met at the Falls of St. Mary two thousand Indians who had assembled to receive them. As early as 1652, Eather JEAN DEQUERRE, Jesuit, went from Sault St. Marie to the Illinois and established a flourishing mission, probably that of "St. Louis," where Peoria is now situated. He visited various Indian tribes and was killed in 1661, in the midst of his apostolic labors. In 1654, two fur traders joined a band of Ottowas and made a western voyage of five hundred leagues. In two years they returned, accompanied with fifty canoes and two hundred and fifty men. The traders visited Green Bay, and two of them passed the winter of 1659 on the banks of Lake Superior. In 1657, Father JEAN CHARLES DROCOUX, Jesuit, went to Illinois, and returned to Quebec the same year. In the autumn of 1660, PERE RENE MESNARD, having been chosen by the bishops of Quebec to visit Lake Superior and Green Bay, reached Keweena, and the next year having wandered in the forest, was never more seen. In 1665, PERE CLAUDE ALLOUEZ embarked on a mission to the far west. He reached the falls of St. Mary in September, and from thence went to the great village of the Chippewas at Chegoiemegon. Here a grand inter-tribal council was held. There were present the Potowatamies from Lake Michigan; the Sacs and Foxes from the west; the Hurons from north of Lake Superior; the Sioux from the headwaters of the Mississippi, as well also as the Illinois, whose enticing description of the noble river flowing to the south, on which they dwelt, and their vast prairies replete with buffalo and deer, created a desire to explore their country, which was not long to remain ungratified. In 1667, ALLOUEZ returned to Quebec, and in 1668, CLAUDE DABLON and JAMES MARQUETTE returned to the Sault, where they established the mission of St. Mary's, the oldest European settlement within the bounds of the state of Michigan. In 1669, NICHOLAS PERROT was despatched to the west as the agent of the Intendant Talon, to prepare a congress of the Indian nations at St. Mary's. PERROT visited Green Bay, and from there was escorted by the Potowatamies, to the Miamis at Chicago, being the pioneer of European explorers to the southern part of Lake Michigan. There is reason to suppose that about the same time, ROBERT CAVELIER DE LA SALLE reached the Ohio river by way of Lake Erie, and descended it as far as the rapids at Louisville. In 1669, ALLOUEZ made an excursion to Green Bay, and up the Fox river as far as the town of the Mascoutins, and in the autumn of 1670, having been joined by DABLON, the |