HISTORY. 63 



by St. Lusson of the act of taking possession, and of the 

 protection of the king. — {Charl. Hist, de Nouv. Fr.) 



This was the first poHtical event that transpired in the lake 

 country, in which Europeans were parties ; the former inter- 

 course with the country having been for the purposes of trade 

 or of rehgion. And as it is the first, so it is also one of the 

 most important political epochs in its history. It diflfers also 

 from prior pages in being authenticated, while the events 

 that are said to have preceded it, as well as some subsequent 

 relations of discoveries beyond the lakes, to the west, must 

 be considered as apocryphal, or rejected as wholly spurious. 



Mr. Talon, having been very active in setting on foot ex- 

 peditions for discovery in the north and west, and in extend- 

 ing the dominion of France over the nations inhabiting or 

 rather roaming over those countries, was anxious to discover 

 the sources, course, direction, character, and outlet of a great 

 river which had been mentioned to the French by the Indi- 

 ans, and which was supposed to reach the sea on the west, or 

 to fall into the Gulf of Mexico on the south. This river 

 was called by the Indians Massa-sepo, or Missi-sipi, great 

 river. For this purpose he sent father Marquette, a Jesuit, 

 who had been at Sault St. Marie, with Joliet, a citizen of 

 Quebec, and two or three voyageurs, to ascertain the truth 

 of their representations. Talon, at his own request, was 

 recalled in 1672, and the discovery of the river, which has 

 been imputed to Marquette, though it may be doubted, and 

 the more extended discoveries of Hennepin, Tonti, and La 

 Sale, La Hontan and La Sueur, were accomplished under 

 the government of his successor. Count de Frontenac. 



Whether Marquette ever, in fact, performed the service to 

 which he had been appointed by Talon, and actually discov- 

 ered the Missisippi, must be considered rather apocryphal. 

 It is not to be stated as an authentic event, or as one, even, 



