NARRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION. 175 



tlie investigation, Mr. Gallatin, who was then Secretary of the 

 Treasury, made a report on the subject, clearly stating the facts, 

 and coming to the conclusion that it was not a perfect title, 

 stating that no patent had ever been issued for it, at New Orleans, 

 the seat of the Spanish authority, from which transcripts of the 

 records of all grants had been transmitted to the Treasury.* 



On the arrival of Lieut. Pike at Mr. Dubuque's on the 1st of 

 September, 1805, he endeavored to obtain information necessary 

 to judge of the value and extent and the nature of the grant of 

 the mines ; but he was not able to visit them. To the inquiries 

 which he addressed to Mr. Dubuque on the subject, the latter 

 replied in writing that a copy of the grant was filed at the proper 

 office in St. Louis, which would show its date, together with the 

 date of its confirmation by the Spanish authority, and the extent 

 of the grant to him. He states the mine to be twenty-seven or 

 twenty-eight leagues long, and from one to three leagues broad. 

 He represents the per centum of metal to be yielded from the 

 ore to be seventy-five, and the quantity smelted per annum at 

 from 20,000 to 40,000 pounds. He stated that the whole product 

 was cast into pig lead, and that there were no other metals at the 

 mines but copper, of the value of which he could not judge. 



Having examined the mines with as much minuteness as the 

 time allowed me would permit, and obtained specimens of its 

 ores and minerals, I returned to the banks of the Mississippi, 

 before the daylight departed, and, immediately embarking, went 

 up the river two leagues and encamped on an island. 



It may be proper to add to this narrative of my mineralogical 

 visit to these mines, a few words respecting the Fox Indians, by 

 whom the country is OAvned. The first we hear of these people 

 is from early missionaries of New France, who call them, in a 

 list drawn up for the government in 1736, "Gens du Sang," and 

 Miskaukis. The latter I found to be the name they apply to them- 

 selves. We get nothing, however, by it. It means Eed-earths, 

 being a compound from misk-iuau, red, and auki, earth. They 

 are a branch of the great Algonquin family. The French, who 

 formed a bad opinion of them, as their history opened, bestowed 



* For the facts in this case, see Collection of Land Laics of the United States, 

 printed at Washington, 1817. 



