•SOURCE OP ST. Peter's river. 319 



Thus it appears from this manuscript, that le Sueur's 

 discoveries of blue earth were made in 1695, but that all 

 further operations were interrupted until 1700; we find 

 in the same manuscript, under the date of the 10th of Fe- 

 bruary, 1702, that le Sueur arrived at the mouth of the 

 Mississippi that day with two thousand cwt. (quintaux,) 

 of blue and green earth. An extract from a narrrative of 

 his voyage is then given from the time that he left the 

 Island of Tamarois, (12th July,) unto the 13th December, 

 1700. From this extract, which is fraught with interest, 

 as it is the first account we can find, in which St. Peter's 

 river is mentioned, we gather that he reached the mouth 

 of the Missouri on the 13th of July, 1700, and the mouth 

 of the Wisconsan on the first of September ; and that, on 

 the 14th, he passed Chippewa river, on one of the branches 

 of which, he had, during his first visit to the country, 

 found a piece of copper weighing sixty pounds. He next 



commandans pour le Roi au dit pays, et siir les decouvertes et re- 

 cherches de M. Benard de la Harpe, nomme au command ement de 

 la Baye St. Bernard ; par M. Benard de la Harpe," MS. This is stated 

 to be a copy of the original, which was, in the year 1805, In the pos- 

 session of Dr. Sibley, as appears from a note, annexed to it, certifying 

 it to be a true copy, and dated Natchitoches, October 29th, 1805. 

 From the manuscript it appears that M. de la Harpe was on the lower 

 Mississippi, in the early part of the 18th century, and that he conti- 

 nued there until the commencement of the year 1723. His appoint- 

 ment to the command of St. Bernard's Bay, was made in the year 1721. 

 He appears to have proceeded to it at that time ; but owing to the 

 weakness of his garrison, he found himself unable to continue his post 

 there. His journal throws considerable light upon the history of the 

 discoveries of the French on the lower Mississippi, and is closed with 

 a memoir upon the importance of the colony of Louisiana, and upon 

 the situation of that colony in 1724 ; together with some observations 

 upon the best passage to the Western Ocean, and upon the origin of 

 the Indians of Aniericai 



