SOURCE OP ST. Peter's river. 317 



of the same substance. After removing a black burnt crust 

 as hard as rock, the copper could be scraped with a knife. 

 Several reasons, but particularly the want of pecuniary 

 means, prevented le Sueur from following up the disco- 

 very. This account corresponds in part with that contain- 

 ed in a very interesting manuscript belonging to the Ame- 

 rican Philosophical Society, and which appears to have 

 been written with considerable care and accuracy. We 

 find it therein stated, that the said " le Sueur arrived at 

 the mouth of the Mississippi with M. d' Iberville in Dec. 

 1699; that he brought over with him thirty workmen. He 

 had been," says the author of the MS. " a famous traveller 

 from Canada, and was sent by M. L'Huillier, a principal con- 

 tractor, (fermier general,) under government, in order to 

 form an establishment near the source of the Mississippi. 

 The object of this enterprise was to obtain from that place, 

 an ore of green earth which that gentleman had discover- 

 ed ; the following was the origin of this undertaking, in 

 1695. M. le Sueur, by order of the Count de Frontenac 

 Governor General of Canada, caused a fort to be erected 

 on an island on the Mississippi, upvvards of two hundred 

 miles above the Illinois ; in order to keep up peaceful re- 

 lations between the Sioux and Chippewa nations, which 

 reside on the shores of a lake upwards of five hundred 

 leagues in circumference, which lake lies one hundred 

 leagues east of the river; the Sioux reside upon the upper 

 Mississippi. In the same year, according to his orders, he 

 descended to Montreal with a chief of the Chippewa, named 

 Chingouabe, and a Sioux, called Tioscat^, who was the 

 first of his nation that ever was in Canada ; and as they 

 expected to draw from his country many articles valuable 

 in trade, the Count de Frontenac, the Chevalier de la Cail- 

 liere, and de Champigny, received him very amicably. 



