23t> EXPEDITION TO THE 



year, nea^ the mouth of Red river. If we mistake not, 

 two vessels under the command of Wood, an Englishman, 

 entered its mouth about 163"6.* Father Marquette and the 

 Sieur Joliet, to whom the discovery has been generally at- 

 tributed, did not see the Mississippi before 1673. They 

 entered from the Wisconsan and descended to the Arkan- 

 saw. Coxe tells us,t that, among the savages, for about 

 half its course it was called Meschacebe, afterwards Chu- 

 cagua, Sassagoula and Malabanchia. It is said that at 

 Guachoya, (probably an old place on the Mississippi above 

 Red river,) it was " called Tamaliseu ; in the country of 

 Nilco, Tapatu; and in Coga, Mlco; in the port or mouth, 

 Ri."t The French first called it Colbert, then St. Louis 

 river. The Spaniards had previously called it Rio Grande, 

 Spirito Santo. 



At Prairie du Chien the breadth of the river is estimated 

 at one-half of a mile, including a long and narrow island. Its 

 current, though rapid compared with that of many other 

 streams, is gentle when contrasted with that of the same river 

 lower down ; it is only when it has been swollen by the Mis- 

 souri and the Ohio, that it acquires the extreme rapidity 

 which characterizes it. The village of Prairie du Chien is 

 situated four or five miles above the mouth of the Wis- 

 consan, on a beautiful prairie, which extends along the 

 eastern bank of the river for about ten miles in length, and 

 which is limited to the east by a range of steep hills rising 

 to a height of about four hundred and thirty-five feet, and 



* AVe have endeavoured, but in vain, to find our authority for this 

 statement ; but it has entirely escaped our recollection. This is not, 

 however, the same Colonel Wood of Virginia, whom Coxe mentions 

 as having discovered several branches of the great rivers Ohio and 

 Meschacebe. — (Coxe's Carolana, p. 120.) 



f Description of the English province of Carolana, by Daniel Cose. 

 London, 1741, p. 4. 



+ Narrative of de Soto's Invasion, ut supra, p. 122. 



