HISTOKICAL SKETCH. 9 



1680, La Salic.] 



As Hennepin's account of his visit to the Falls St. Anthony has been 

 much criticised for the exaggeration and the egotism which pervade it, the 

 account of La Salle, who planned and despatched the party, is added. It is 

 very probable that La Salle misrepresents Du Luth, and his travels in the 

 upper Mississippi region. Charlevoix refers to Du Luth as a man of veracity, 

 bravery and honor, and Le Clercq as a man of ability and experience. 



LA SALLE ON THE DISCOVERY OF THE FALLS OF ST. ANTHONY. 



La Salle's letter from Fort Frontenac, 22nd of August, 1682, is found 

 in Part II. of Margry's Decouvertes et etablissements des Francais dans 

 I'ouest et dans le sud de I'Amerique septentrionale. It contains internal evi- 

 dence that La Salle derived his information of this expedition from Michel 

 Accault, the real leader of the party. Translated into English as follows : 



The river Colbert, named Qastacha by the Iroquois and Mississipy 



by the Outaouacs, into which the river of the Islinois, called Teakiki, empties, comes from the 

 northwest. 1 have caused it to be explored by two of my men, one of the name of Michel 

 Accault and the other a Picard,* with whom the K. P. Louis Hennepin was associated, in order not 

 to lose the opportunity to proclaim the gospel to those people who inhabit the upper country who 

 had never heard it. They left Fort Creve Cceur in the afternoon of the 28th of February, with 

 the Peace Calumet, which is a protection against the savages of these countries that they seldom 

 violate. The said Michel Accault was somewhat acquainted with their language and their 

 customs. He knew all their habits, and was a friend of several of those tribes to whom I sent 

 him, where he had been acquainted; also, he is prudent, courageous and cool. They had about 

 one thousand pounds of goods, such as are most valued in those regions, which, combined with 

 the Peace Calumet, are never disregarded by those tribes, since they are nearly destitute of 

 everything. They met at first a number of Islinois, who were ascending their river on a return 

 to their village, who used every effort to induce them to abandon the journey. Michel Accault, 

 who believed he should lose the honor of accomplishing the undertaking, encouraged by the 

 example of the B. P. Louis Hennepin, who desired also to signify his zeal, and wishing to keep 

 his word which he had given me to perish or to succeed, encouraged his comrade who was 

 dispirited by the statements of the savages, and made him believe that the design of the Indians 

 was to profit themselves with their merchandise, and to seize their provisions, and that they 

 should not change the resolution which they had taken. In fact, they continued their journey 

 down the river Theakiki until the 7th of March, 1680, when they fell in with a nation called 

 Tamaroa, or Maroa, about two leagues from the mouth of the river where it reaches the Colbert. 

 This nation numbers two hundred families or thereabout. They desired to conduct them to their 

 village, situated at that time on the west coast of the Grand river, six or seven leagues above the 

 entrance of the Iheakiki. They would not follow them, but arrived, the same day, at the conflu- 

 ence of the two rivers, distant about fifty leagues from Fort Creve Cosur and ninety from 

 the village of the Islinois. The river Theakiki is nearly everywhere of equal size throughout 

 these ninety leagues, approaching the size of the Seine, in front of Paris, where it is confined within 

 its own bed ; but at various places, as at PimiteouiJ one league to the east of Creve Coeur, and 

 two or three other times below, it swells out to one or two leagues, over much space, while the 

 two shores which border it below the village of the Islinois, are distant from each other about 

 half a league. The land which they enclose between them is swampy, as well as the bed of the 



*His real name was Du Gay. fPeoria. 



