HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT. 307 



had in view the reclamation of the Indians, and, connected 

 with this, the collection and dissemination of information re- 

 specting their language, history, traditions, customs, and char- 

 acter ; their numbers and conditions ; the geological features 

 of their country, and its natural history and productions. It 

 also proposed some definite means of action for furthering 

 the moral instruction of the Indians, and for helping the mis- 

 sionaries in all work for their benefit. As president of this 

 society, Mr. Schoolcraft was asked to lecture on the gram- 

 matical construction of the Algonquin languages as spoken by 

 the Northwestern tribes, and to procure a lexicon of it ; also 

 to deliver a poem on the Indian character at the annual meet- 

 ing of 1833. Other literary efforts of this period were, an 

 address before the Historical Society of Michigan in 1830, 

 and an address, in 1831, before the Detroit Lyceum, on the 

 natural history of the Territory. In the summer of 1832 

 Mr. Schoolcraft, under a commission from the Government, 

 organized and commanded an expedition to the country about 

 the sources of the Mississippi River. The primary object of 

 the expedition was to extend to the Indians living north of 

 St. Anthony's Falls the measures previously taken with those 

 south of that point, to effect a pacification ; also, to endeavour 

 to ascertain the actual source of the river. He ascended the 

 St. Louis from Lake Superior to Sandy Lake summit, and 

 passed thence direct to the Mississippi six degrees below the 

 central island in Cass Lake, which was till then the ultimate 

 point of geographical discovery. Thence he went up the 

 river and its lakes, avoiding too long circuits of the stream 

 by portages, to the junction of the two branches, where by the 

 advice of his Indian guide he took the left-hand, or Plantage- 

 nian branch, to Lake Assawa, its source. Thence he went by 

 portage, a distance of " twelve resting-places," to Itasca Lake, 

 which he struck within a mile of its southern extremity. The 

 lake was judged to be about seven miles in length, by one or 

 two broad ; " a bay, near its eastern end, gave it somewhat the 

 shape of the letter y" The discoverer returned, through the 

 stream and its lakes, to St. Peter's. 



The narrative of this expedition was published in 1834; 

 and was republished, with the account of the expedition of 

 1820, in 1853, under the title, Narrative of an Exploratory 

 Expedition to the Sources of the Mississippi River in 1820, 



