.v'48 EXPEDITION TO THK 



supposed to be the Riviere Longue* or Riviere Morteof La- 

 hontan, and the Mitschaoywa of Coxe ;t this is the same 

 stream which Coxe afterwards calls Meschaouay4 But it is 

 impossible to read the Baron Lahontan's account of this 

 river, without being convinced that the greater part, if not 

 the whole, of it is a deception. By his own account he must 

 have ascended it upwards of one hundred and eighty leagues, 

 have met on its banks three distinct nations, the Eokoros, 

 the Essanapes, and the Gnacsitares, the names of which are 

 not recorded by any later traveller ; have seen a population 

 considerably greater than that which could have existed 

 there : in a word, his description bears such evident marks 

 of fiction, that we can credit no part of it. 



Major Long's party passed on the 28th down a valley, 

 bounded on both sides by high bluffs and precipices ; their 

 ride was a picturesque one ; the green sward of the ravine 

 contrasted richly with the grayish hue of the lime and 

 sandstone bluffs, which rose like high walls on either side 

 of them. At last the valley widened, and they found them- 

 selves almost instantaneously in sight of the majestic IMis- 

 sissippi, in whose broadly extended valley nature displayed 

 herself with gigantic features. The river, one of the largest 

 in the world, rolling its waters wdth an undiminished ra- 

 pidity, in a bed checkered with islands, was a spectacle, 

 which, however often observed, always filled the mind with 

 awe and with delight. It was impossible to behold the 

 great devastation in the earth's surface, whether consi- 

 dered as caused by the Mississippi or as pre-existing to 



• Lahontan, ut supra, Let. 16, vol. 1, p. 112. 



•}• Description of the English province of Carolana, by the Spaniards 

 called Florida, and by the French la Louisiane ; by Danief Coxe, Esq, 

 London, 1741, p. 19. 



t Idem, ibid. p. 63. 



