HISTORICAL SKETCH. 23 



1 766 Carver.] 



rapids, which the Indians never attempt to pass. Another reason is that they find a constant 

 supply of food for themselves and their young, from the animals and fish which are dashed to pieces 

 by the falls and driven on the adjacent shore. 



Having satisfied my curiosity, as far as the eye of man can be satisfied, I proceeded on. still 

 accompanied by my young friend,* till I had reached the river St. Francis, near sixty miles above 

 the falls. To this river Father Hennepin gave the name of St. Francis, and this was the extent of his 

 travels, as well as mine, toward the northwest. As the season was so far advanced, and the weather 

 extremely cold, I was not able to make so many observations on these parts as I otherwise should 

 have done. 



It might however, perhaps, be necessary to observe that in a little tour I made about the 

 falls, after traveling fourteen miles by the side of the Mississippi, I came to a river nearly twenty 

 yards wide which ran from the northeast, called Rum river. And on the 20th of November came 

 to another termed Goose river, and about twelve yards wide. On the 21st I arrived at the St. 

 Francis which is about thirty yards wide. Here the Mississippi itself grows narrow, being not 

 more than ninety yards over ; and appears to be chiefly composed of small branches. The ice 

 prevented me from noticing the depth of any of these rivers.f 



The country in some places is hilly, but without large mountains, and the land is tolerably 

 good. I observed here many deer and carraboes, some elk, with abundance of beavers, otters and 

 other furs. A little above this to the northeast, are a number of small lakes, called the Thousand 

 lakes ; the parts about which, though but little frequented, are the best within many miles for 

 hunting, as the hunter never fails of returning loaded beyond his expectations. 



CARVER ASCENDS THE MINNESOTA. 



On the 25th I returned to my canoe which I had left at the mouth of the river St. Pierre ; 

 and here I parted with regret from my young friend the prince of the Winnebagoes. This river 

 being clear of ice by reason of its southern situation, I found nothing to obstruct my passage. 

 On the 28th, being advanced about forty miles, I arrived at a small branch that fell into it from 

 the north ; to which as it had no name that I could distinguish it by, I gave my own, and the 

 reader will find it in the plan of my travels denominated Carver's river. About forty miles higher 

 up I came to the forks of the Verd and Red Marble rivers, which join at some little distance before 

 they enter the St. Pierre. 



The river St. Pierre, at its junction with the Mississippi, is about a hundred yards broad, 

 and continues that breadth nearly all the way I sailed upon it. It has a great depth of water, and 

 and in some places runs very briskly. About fifty miles from its mouth are some rapids, and 

 much higher up there are many others. 



I proceeded up this river about two hundred miles, to the country of the Nadowessies of 

 the Plains, which lies a little above the forks formed by the Verd and Red Marble rivers [i. e. The 

 Blue Earth and Watonwan rivers, N. H. W.] just mentioned, where a branch from the south 

 nearly joins the Messorie river.! By the accounts I received from the Indians I have reason to 

 believe that the river St. Pierre and the Messorie, though they enter the Mississippi twelve hundred 

 miles from each other, take their rise in the same neighborhood, and this within the space of a 

 mile. The river St. Pierre's northern branch [i. e. The main river. N. H. W.] rises from a num- 

 ber of lakes [Big Stone L. N. H. W.] near the Shining Mountains, and it is from some of these, 

 also, that a capital branch [Red River of the North. N. H. W.] of the river Bourbon [Nelson 

 river. N. H. W.] which runs into Hudson's bay, has its sources. * * * I have learned that 

 the four most capital rivers of North America, viz., the St. Lawrence, the Mississippi, the river 

 Bourbon, and the Oregon, or River of the West, have their sources in the same neighborhood. 

 The waters of the three former, are within thirty miles of each other ; the latter, however, is 

 rather farther west.? 



*A young "prince" of the Winnebago Indians whom be had encountered a few miles below the Minnesota river. 



fThe distance to Rum river is approximately correct. The Goose river is now the Crow river, and the Elk, -which 

 is now sometimes styled the St. Francis river (though Hennepin applied the name to the outlet of L. Buade) is the only 

 one to which Carver can refer, said to be 30 yards wid. 



JThe sources of the Waraju river are near those of the Bock river, the latter being a branch of the Missouri. Car- 

 ver wintered at the mouth of the Waraju (or Cottonwood) river. 



This idea of the proximity of the source of the Oregon to those of the other rivers mentioned is represented on the 

 map accompanying Du Pratz' Histoire de la Louisiane, 



