316 LAHONTAN". 



field, the Eokoros said, without 20,000 men at least." Lahontan 

 leaves his canoes at the chief village of the Eokoros, and proceeds in 

 five "pirogues" or log-canoes. Eour days after leaving the village of 

 the Eokoros the party were put to some inconvenience from the cold. 

 " The first day (after leaving the village) we had enough to do," 

 Lahontan says, "to run six or seven leagues by reason of the bul- 

 rushes with which the lake is encumbered. The two follo^\dng days 

 we sailed 20 leagues. The fourth day a west-north-west wind sur- 

 prised us with such a boisterous violence that we were forced to put 

 ashore and lay two days upon a sandy ground where we were in 

 danger of perishing from hunger and cold; for the country was so 

 barren that we could not find a chip of wood wherewith to warm our- 

 selves or to dress our victuals, and as far as our eye could reach there 

 was nothing to be seen but fens covered with reeds and clay, and 

 naked fields. Having endured this hardship, we started again and 

 rowed to an island upon which we encamped, but found nothing 

 there but prairie; however to make some amends we fished up great 

 numbers of little trouts upon which we fed very heartily. At last, 

 after sailing six days more we arrived at the point or land's-end of 

 that island which jou see marked with &Jleur de lis in my map. It 

 was then the 19th day of December, and the severity of the winter 

 had not as yet been great." On the 19th of December villages of the 

 Gnacsitares are sighted. The Essanape messengers whom he sends 

 to the village are at first badly received, because it is imagined that 

 Lahontan and his soldiers are Spaniards from New Mexico. The 

 Gnacsitares instantly send swift runners to a tribe 80 leagues to the 

 south, who were acquaiated with Spaniards. Some of these speedily 

 arrive and pronounce the new comers not to be Spaniards. Eriendly 

 relations are then speedily established between Lahontan and the 

 Gnacsitares. He remained in the neighbourhood untU the 26th of 

 January, when, after setting up a pole bearing the arms of France 

 engraved on a plate of lead, he began his return. The site of thia 

 pole the soldiers named "Lahontan's limit." On the 5th of January 

 he is again in the country of the Essanapes. On the 2nd of March, 

 he is floating on the Mississippi. By the 17th he has descended to 

 the mouth of the Missouri. An excursion is made up this river as 

 far as the Osage. They then return. On the 2 5th they are again 

 in the Mississippi. On the 29th they are at the mouth of the 

 Wabash. Lahontan regretted that he had not time to make an ex- 



