20 THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY: 
ing the customs of these Indians, learning their language, 
and acquiring such geographical knowledge of the region 
of country to the west as might be available in the prosecu- 
tion of his great scheme of penetrating to the Pacific Ocean. 
His published map, made up from these various sources of 
information, was in point of accuracy far in advance of any 
before published, though necessgrily defective in reference 
to the remote districts, in regard to which he had to depend 
upon the exaggerated statements of Indians, whose infor- 
mation was conveyed by means of rough maps, traced with 
charcoal on sheets of bark, 
Tn the following season, not succeeding in his design of 
procuring the necessary outfit and goods for prosecuting his 
journey across the continent, he returned to Prairie du 
Chien, and from there again ascended the Mississippi as far 
as the Chippewa river, followed up the latter stream, and by 
a succession of portages reached Lake Superior, where 
most of the summer and fal] months of 1767 were spent in 
exploring its northern shores. 
It was in the course of these various journeys, that Capt. 
Carver, who, with genuine Yankee sagacity seemed to have 
been particularly attracted by the picturesque region on the 
east bank of the Mississippi, lying between the Falls of St. 
Anthony and that beautiful expansion of the Mississippi 
known as Lake Pepin, secured from the Indian chiefs occn- 
pying this district, a grant of land, included in the above 
limits, and extending eastward four days journey, reckoned 
in round numbers at one hundred and twenty miles, thus 
including a large portion of the present states of Wisconsin 
and Minnesota, This large grant, duly attested and signed, 
only needed the confirmation of the British Crown to secure 
to its possessor a lordly domain, in extent and value equal- 
ing the broad patent of Charles II. to William Penn. To 
secure this rich prize, Carver, on the completion of his jour- 
ney in 1769, sailed for England and laid his papers and 
