82 NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 



been deemed improbable, and received with distrust. After 

 navigating the St. Peter's, Lahontan went down the Missi- 

 sippi, taking notice of the Des Moines River, which he 

 called Otenta ; the same name by which Hennepin had 

 designated a river falling into the Missisippi from the w^est ; 

 visited a village of Otenta people, probably Illinois, and 

 passed down to the Missouri, up which he sailed some dis- 

 tance, meeting some Arkansas and a band of unknown In- 

 dians, and proceeded dow^n as far as the mouth of the Ohio, 

 called by him, Ouabach (Wabash) ; and then, ascending the 

 Missisippi, passed up through the Illinois, on w^hich, at Fort 

 Crevecoeur, he met with Sieur Tonti, w^ho, it appears, w^as 

 yet remaining where he had been left nine years before by 

 La Sale. 



Lahontan was probably the fost European who had as- 

 cended the Missouri, as well as the St. Peter's, and must be 

 considered the discoverer of both these noble rivers. 



The river now called Des Moines, was laid down in the 

 map accompanying Lahontan, and mentioned by him, and 

 also by Hennepin, under the name of Otenta. In Charle- 

 voix, and in the Histoirc Generale des Voyages, published in 

 1757, it is called Moingona. 



A person who has seen this country, knows that it has 

 undergone great changes at more than one epoch. It bears 

 evidence that at one time the w^hole surface of the Missisippi 

 valley has been submerged ; and w^e make a short digression 

 in this place, to state more fully our opinion on this matter. 

 There is no doubt that, at some remote period, by the con- 

 vulsion of an eartliquake, the land of this valley has been 

 upheaved, and has thrown off the water that covered it, 

 which may have extended from the Gulf of Mexico to 

 Hudson's Bay, separating our hemisphere into two conti- 

 nents. Such was my own decided opinion, frequently 



