AN HISTORICAL ADDRESS. 5 
rudely rocked. Spain, in the first period of American dis- 
covery the most enterprising, confined her attention mainly 
to the southern countries, and stretched her bloody and vic- 
torious arm over the weak and luxurious natives of torrid 
climes. Most of her northern expeditions proved complete 
and disastrous failures, and De Soto, the first discoverer of 
the Mississippi, three hundred and thirty years ago, found 
only an unhonored grave beneath its waters. France, fol- 
lowing later in the track of her enterprising fishermen, 
gained her first permanent foothold on the northern Amer- 
ican coasts and islands; thence penetrating, by the naviga- 
ble route of the St. Lawrence and the chain of northern 
lakes, tu the interior districts, from whence the Upper Mis- 
sissippi was eventually reached. English colonies at first | 
occupying the intermediate country along the Atlantic sea- 
board, eventually as the result of fierce and continued wars 
dispossessed the other European powers, and extended her 
dominion over the greater part of eastern North America. 
To French enterprise solely is due the credit of the earli- 
est exploration, and the first permanent settlements along 
the whole course of the Mississippi Valley. Fortunately, 
the record of this first discovery is full and complete, as we 
now proceed to note. 
Nearly two hundred years ago—on the 17th of June, 
1673—two bark canoes, containing barely eight persons, 
entered the Mississippi river. Their route was by an almost 
continuous water passage, by way of Green Bay, on Lake 
Michigan, ascending the Fox river, of Wisconsin, to its 
upper marshes, where, by a short portage, the canoes were 
transferred to the waters of the Wisconsin, thence, by an 
easy descent, reaching the Mississippi river. The chief 
member of this exploring party, though not its actual lead- | 
er, was Father James Marquette, a "Catholic priest, who, | 
with self-denying zeal, had devoted his life to missionary 
labor among the western aboriginal tribes. His associate, 
