HISTOKICAL SKETCH. 7 



1679, Du Luth.] 



to be almost impassable. It receives no considerable river on the western side except that of the 

 Otontenta, and another, which comes from the west>northwest seven or eight leagues from the 

 Falls of St. Anthony of Padua. 



On the eastern side you meet first an inconsiderable river, and then further on another, 

 called by the Indians Onisconsin, or Misconsin, which comes from the east and east-northeast. 

 Sixty leagues up you leave it and make a portage of half a league, and reach the bay of the 

 Puans by another river which, near its source, meanders most curiously. It is almost as broad 

 as the river Seignelay, or Islinois, and empties into the river Colbert a hundred leagues above the 

 river Seignelay. 



Twenty-four leagues above you come to the Black river, called by the Nadouessions, or Mali, 

 Chabadeba, or Ohabaoudeba. It seems inconsiderable. Thirty leagues further up you find the 

 Lake of Tears,* which we so named because the Indians who had taken us, wishing to kill us, 

 some of them wept the whole night to induce the others to consent to our death. This lake, 

 which is formed by the river Colbert, is seven leagues long and about four wide. There is no 

 considerable current in the middle that we could perceive, but only at its entrance and exit. Half 

 a league below the Lake of Tears, on the south side, is Buffalo river, full of turtles. It is so called 

 by the Indiang on account of the numbers of buffalo found there. We followed it for ten or 

 twelve leagues ; it empties with rapidity into the river Colbert, but as you ascend it it is always 

 gentle and free from rapids. It is skirted by mountains far enough off in some places to form 

 prairies. The mouth is wooded on both sides and is full as wide as that of the Seignelay. 



Forty leagues above is a river full of rapids, by which, striking northwest, [northeast] you 

 can proceed to lake Conde as far as Nimissakouat** river, which empties into that lake. This first 

 river is called Tomb river,t because the Issati left there the body of one of their warriors, killed 

 by a rattlesnake, on whom, according to their custom, I put a blanket. This act of humanity 

 gained me much importance by the gratitude displayed by the men of the deceased's tribe in 

 a great banquet which they gave me in their country, and to which more than a hundred Indians 

 were invited. 



Continuing to ascend this river ten or twelve leagues more, the navigation is interrupted by a 

 cataract, which I called the Falls of St. Anthony of Padua, in gratitude for the favors done me 

 by the Almighty through the intercession of that great saint, whom we had chosen patron and 

 protector of all our enterprises. This cataract is forty or fifty feet high, divided in the middle of 

 its fall by a rocky island of pyramidal form. The high mountains which skirt the river Colbert 

 last only as far as the river Onisconsin, about one hundred and twenty leagues ; at this place it 

 begins to flow from the west and northwest without our having been able to learn from the 

 Indians, who have ascended it very far, the spot where this river rises. They merely told us that 

 twenty or thirty leagues below [above?] there is a second fall,tt at the foot of which are some vil- 

 lages of the prairie people called Thinthonka,l who live there a part of the year. Eight leagues 

 above St. Anthony of Padua's Falls, on the right, you find the river of the Issati, or Nadoussiondj. 

 with a very narrow mouth, which you can ascend to the north for about seventy leagues to lake 

 Buade,? or of the Issati, where it rises. AVe gave this river the name of St. Francis. This last 

 lake spreads out into great marshes, producing wild rice, like many other places down to the bay 

 of the Piians.ffi This kind of grain grows in marshy places, without any one sowing it ; it resem- 

 bles oats, but tastes better, and the stalks are longer as well as the ear. The Indians gather it in 

 due season. The women tie several ears of it together with whitewood bark to prevent its being 

 all devoured by the flocks of ducks and teal found there. The Indians lay in a stock for part of 

 the year and to eat out of the hunting season. 



Lake Buade, or lake of the Issati, is situated about seventy leagues west of lake Conde ; it 

 is impossible to go from one to the other by land on account of the marshy and quaggy nature of 

 the ground ; you might go, though with difficulty, on the snow in snowshoes ; by water there are 

 many portages, and it is one hundred and fifty leagues, on account of the many turns to be made. 

 From lake Conde, to go conveniently by canoe, you must pass by Tomb river, where we found only 

 the skeleton of the Indian whom I mentioned above, the bears having eaten the flesh and pulled 

 up the poles which the deceased's relatives had planted for a monument. One of our boatmen 



* Lake Pepin. ** Bois Brule. t St. Croix. ft Little Falls. J Tintonwan Jt Rum river. Milie Lacs. JJ Green 

 Bay. 



