MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 271 



Heunepin and LaSalle, who followed Marquette and Joliet, were 

 entirely different in their aspirations and motives. With the hope of, 

 establishing his own fortunes, as well as with the desire of shedding^ 

 luster upon the name of France, the latter purnued his explorations 

 until he reached the mouth of the Mississippi, in 1682, where, with 

 great ceremony, he took formal possession of the country in the name 

 of the king of France, and thus established a foundation for the claim 

 of France to the whole Mississippi valley. Be it said to his credit, 

 that he was the first explorer in this region who established permanent 

 colonies and opened the way for the settlement of Louisiana, Illinois 

 and Missouri. 



The map made by Franquelin, in 1684, and called Carte de la Louisi- 

 ane, was the first to indicate the existence of a river afterward named 

 the Osage, and one of the most important tributaries to the Missouri^ 

 This map embodied the results of LaSalle's explorations. The name 

 " Osage" first appears in 1703, in LaHontan's maps, portions of which 

 are copied in Wiusor's History of the United States, Vol. 4. It was 

 still the search for the precious metals that actuated all the operations 

 of civilized men in the region which we now inhabit. The Iberville 

 exploring expedition was sent out in 1699, by the Farmer General of 

 France, and LeSueur, in charge of a party of men from its numbers, 

 ascended the Mississippi river in search of a copper mine, of which 

 he had been told. In his journal, still preserved kmong the French 

 archives, he speaks of the salt licks of Ste. Geaevievfe, resorted to by 

 both settlers and Indians. He also refers to a lead mine on the Mera- 

 mec, 50 leagues west of the Mississippi, where the Indians resorted ta 

 obtain their lead, and his statements have been verified by subsequent 

 explorers. This is the first mention that history makes of the existence 

 of lead in Missouri, which it shows to have been a mineral-producing 

 area for about 200 years. 



The numerous wars and rivalries between the different nations of 

 Europe in regard to their possessions in the new world, caused Louis 

 XIY, of France, to concentrate all his energies at home ; but as a 

 resort by which he might preserve the right that France had obtained 

 in the New World, in September 1712, he granted, by letters patent, to 

 Anthony Crozat, Counsellor of State and Secretary of the Household, 

 the exclusive privilege of commerce and propriety of the mines and 

 minerals of all that region which is now included in the states of Lou- 

 isiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Mississippi, Tennessee and Illinois. The 

 first governor under Crozat was De la Motte, who arrived in this conn- 

 try and assumed his responsibilities in 1713. Visions of inexhaustible 

 supplies of gold and silver animated Crozat to spend vast sums of 



