HISTORICAL SKETCH. 3 



1659, Groselliers and Radisson.] 



represented as flowing north instead of south, is no uncommon error for 

 the early geographers who have mapped the rivers ot Minnesota and 

 Manitoba ; and La Salle, in 1682, applies the same name to the Mississippi. 

 Champlain also had knowledge of the mining of copper in the upper 

 waters of the Saguenay (or St. Lawrence), but he seems not to have had 

 definite knowledge whether the mines were on the south shore of lake 

 Superior or on the " floating island " (Isle Eoyale) near the north shore. 



The Relations of the Jesuit missionaries, so far as published, cover the 

 period from 1626 to 1679. The adventurous fathers more frequently men- 

 tion the savage inhabitants of the country than its geographical features. 

 The Dakotahs are mentioned by Paul le Jeune in 1640, who says they dwelt 

 in the neighborhood of Ouinnipigon (Winnebago), and that they and the 

 Assinipouars (Assiniboines) had been visited by Mcollet, interpreter for the 

 Algonquin and Huron languages for the Messieurs de la Nouvelle France, 

 in their own countries.* 



The Relation for 1659 thus refers to the Poualak (Assiniboines). "As 

 wood is scarce and very small with them, nature has taught them to burn 

 coal (charbon de terre) in its place, and to cover their wigwams with skins. 

 Some of the more industrious also make cabins of clay (or turf) much in 

 the same way that swallows build their nests'."f 



GROSELLIEKS AND RADISSON. 



The actual exploration of the state proceeded westward from lake 

 Superior. In the year 1659 two Frenchmen, in the interest of commerce, 

 made the next recorded visit to the Nadouessioux at lake Buade (Mille 

 Lacs), where they spent the winter. Returning to France they endeavored 

 to establish trade with the "forty Sioux villages" of that locality, but did 

 not succeed. Groselliers, however, enlisted the English in an expedition 

 through Hudson's bay to Fort Rupert. He seems to have reached lake 

 Superior from Hudson's bay, perhaps by way of the Me-me-si-pi, or Pigeon 

 river, on the international boundary, inasmuch as that river, on several 

 ancient maps of the northwest, is styled R. Grossillers. 



*Nll's Minnesota, p. 101. 



fSuch habitations were occupied by the lowas on the upper Minnesota when the Sioux first came there, and are 

 probably the source of many of the " mounds '' seen in the state of Minnesota, 



