AN HISTORICAL ADDRESS. 7 
The voyage continues without hindrance or mishap, pass- 
ing the mouth of the Missouri, noted in the map accompa- 
nying Marquette’s narrative as Pekitanoui, or the “* Muddy 
Water.” They glide on the swift and now turbid cur- 
rent past the then unoccupied site of the present metropolis 
of the Mississippi Valley —St. Louis—along the great 
American Bottom, soon after to receive the first permanent 
French settlers. Farther on, the mouth of the Ohio is 
passed, and beyond the sightly bluffs on which Memphis is 
now located. Then comes the monotonous, densely-wooded 
shores, and the interminable cane-brakes, where oppressive 
heat and tormenting insects add their discomforts to the 
unattractive scenery. After passing below the mouth of 
the Arkansas, and encountering different races of Indians, 
not altogether friendly, and being fully satisfied that the 
course of the river was to the Gulf of Mexico, and not as 
represented — into the South Sea, or the Pacifie Ocean — 
they considered that the chief object of their journey was 
accomplished. In order, therefore, not‘ to expose ‘the re- 
sults of their journey to unnecessary risk, they concluded 
to return, and, retracing their course up the Mississippi as 
far as the mouth of the Illinois, they were guided by a still 
more direct water communication up that stream to the 
head of Lake Michigan; and, having uccomplished a ‘trav- 
eled distance of over twenty-five hundred miles, reached 
their starting-point at Green Bay in September, after an 
absence of just four months. 
On his return voyage to Quebec, Jolliet was so untortunate 
as tu lose the notes of his journey, barely escaping with 
his life, by the wreck of his boat in crossing the rapids of 
he St. Lawrence. This disaster served to give additional 
value to the narrative of Marquette, which, having been duly 
transmitted to his ecclesiastical superiors, on the month fol- 
lowing his return, was subsequently forwarded to the French 
authorities. France, however, was not at this time in a con- 
