AN HISTORICAL ADDRESS. 19 
value attaches to his accounts of the Indian tribes of that 
region, some of which had hardly before been visited by 
civilized men. His views moreover of the future of this 
country were far in advance of his time, and sound in a 
measure almost prophetic, as may be seen from the follow- 
ing extract (Introduction, p. 28) :— 
“To what power or authority this new world will become 
dependent after it has arisen from its present uncultivated 
state, time alone can discover. But as the seat of empire 
from time immemoria] has been gradually progressing to- 
wards the west, there is no doubt but that at some future 
period mighty kingdoms will emerge from these wilder- 
nesses, and stately palaces, and solemn temples with gilded 
spires reaching the skies, supplant the Indian huts whose 
only decorations are the barbarous trophies of their van- 
quished enemies.” 
From the body of the narrative, we learn that in the year 
1766, the,route of Marquette in 1673, by way of Green Bay 
and the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, had already become a 
well-known avenue of trade with the Indian tribes of the 
northwest. That Prairie du Chien, so named by French 
traders, was then occupied as a central point for supplies, 
and a general rendezvous for meeting the various Indian 
tribes occupying the upper Mississippi, whose navigable 
waters, no longer silent and deserted as at the time of Mar- 
quette’s discovery, afforded a ready means of conveyance 
both north and south. In pursuing his journey to the north- 
west, Capt. Carver passed up the Mississippi from Prairie 
du Chien, by the same mode of conveyance as that used by 
Hennepin in 1680—bark canoes, and reached the Falls of 
St. Anthony late in the fall of 1766. Early in December of 
that year, he followed up the St. Peters river, and spent 
| that winter with some bands of the Sioux Indians occupy- 
ing winter quarters north of the great bend of this river. 
Here, according to his narrative, he was engaged in observ- 
— ae 
