Hennepin at the Falls of St. Anthony 381 



cloth from the hands of an Indian who had stolen it from him, and 

 put it on the body of the baptised child. 



(f) His chasuble had been desecrated by the son of Aquipaguetin, 

 who had used it to wrap up some of the bones of his deceased rela- 

 tives, and swinging the bundle over his shoulders had paraded through 

 the village. It had then been presented to some of their allies, situ- 

 ated about 500 leagues to the west. 



(g) Hennepin was required to serve as barber for the heads of 

 Indian children, and as surgeon for bleeding persons afflicted with 

 asthma, and he also administered a never-failing drug (orvietan) to 

 others who were sick. 



It appears therefore that his life with the Sioux at Mille Lacs was 

 one of deprivation and of hunger; and when the Indians were pre- 

 paring to take him on their annual buffalo hunt his fellow country- 

 men heaped upon him the crowniog act of ingratitude and insult. The 

 three Frenchmen were given a canoe for their joint use in descending 

 the Mississippi; but Accault and Du Gay refused to give him passage 

 in it, and paddled off without taking him, one of them shouting out to 

 him that he had paddled the Franciscan far enough already. He was 

 afterward taken in however by tv/o Indans. It is evident that in this 

 emergency Hennepin was reduced to the lowest pittance of earthly 

 possessions. In this condition he was compassionately conveyed by 

 the Indians as far as the mouth of Rum river where the whole party 

 halted for some time for the purpose of replenishing their stock of 

 canoes. 



Events which took place here, united with what precedes, have an 

 important bearing on the personal appearance of Hennepin at the falls 

 of St. Anthony. At the Indian camp Hennepin remembered that La 

 Salle had promised to send him additional supplies and messages from 

 the Illinois, to meet him at the mouth of the Wisconsin river. This 

 delay, at the place which is now known as Champlin, opposite the 

 mouth of Rum river, was galling to him, and he solicited permission 

 from the chief of the Sioux to descend in advance of meet these dis- 

 patches at the mouth of the Wisconsin. This was granted and Du 

 Gay was also permitted to accompany him, Accault preferring to re- 

 main with the Indians. These two forlorn and adventurous French- 

 men set out in a small, leaking, birch canoe. They were given an 

 earthen pot, and a gun and a knife. They had a single robe made 

 of beaver skins which was to serve them together. They had no 

 guide nor assistants. This is the party that discovered the falls of 

 St. Anthony. It consisted of two, ragged and hungry Frenchmen has- 

 tening to an appointed place to get supplies and news from La Salle. 



The particulars of this discovery are given briefly by Hennepin in 

 the following words: 



"This cataract is forty or fifty feet high, divided in the middle of 

 its fall by a rocky island of pyramidal form. * ♦ * As we were 

 making the portage of our canoe at the falls of St. Anthony of Padua 

 we perceived five or six of our Indians who had taken the start, one 

 of whom had climbed an oak opposite the great fall, where he was 

 weeping bitterly, with a well-dressed beaver-robe, whitened Inside and 



