390 EXPEDITION TO THE 



dition of their first meeting with a white man, but who 

 this was, and when it took place, they are unable to telL 

 They believe that he was a Frenchman, and that he was 

 first discovered by a party of Mende Wahkan toan ; as 

 soon as the Dacotas saw him they were much surprised at 

 his dress and complexion ; they took him prisoner, secured 

 him, and brought him to their camp. He had in his hand 

 a gun. By means of signs they asked him the use of that 

 instrument; he pointed out to them that with it he could 

 take away the life of any object he pleased ; they then 

 placed a man before him, challenging him to the proof of 

 what he had advanced, ; upon his refusal to do it, they 

 placed a dog before him, which he immediately shot and 

 killed. Terrified at the report of the gun, they all ran oflf, 

 considering him as the spirit of the thunder ; as he remain- 

 ed there, they returned to him, called him by the name of 

 Thunder, and held him in great awe and veneration. 



Their first discovery by white men is referred by Cliar- 

 levoix* to the year 1660, when he states that they were 

 met by two Frenchmen proceeding west from Lake Su- 

 perior. Father Hennepin's visit to the Falls of St. An- 

 thony, did not take place till upwards of twenty years af- 

 ter this. Previous to Charlevoix's writings, the Dacotas had 

 been referred to a Chinese origin. This idea is supported 

 by Carver, but upon such weak analogies of language as must 

 surprise us, when advanced by one who certainly was not 

 destitute of judgment and observation. Pike ascribes to 

 them a Tartarean origin, on the ground of " their guttural 

 pronunciation, their high cheek bones, their visages and 

 distinct manners, together with their own traditions, sup- 

 ported by the testimony of neighbouring nations." 



*Hist. de laNouv. France, torn. 2, p. 98. 



