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KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



HISTORICAL NOTES. 



EARLY NOTICES OF THE MISSOURI RIVER AND INDIANS. 



BY JOHN P. JONES, KEYTESVILLE, MO. 



Probably the first white man to hear of the Missouri river was James Mar- 

 quette, * the Jesuit missionary, who in the year 1669 was stationed at La Pointe, 

 near the western extremity of Lake Superior. 



This mission was visited by wandering bands of Indians from the head 

 waters of the Mississippi and from its branches as far south as the lUinois. 



From one of the Illinois Indians, Marquette learned the language of that 

 tribe, and through him and his companions heard of the Missouri. 



In a letter written in the year 1670 to Father Francis Le Mercier, the Superior 

 of the Huron missions, after giving him such information as he had gathered con- 



*Marquette was born in the province of Champagne, France, in 1657, entered the society of the Jesuits in 

 1654, sailed for Canada in 1666, was sent to the Ottawa Mission in 1668, and transferred to La Pointe in 1669, 

 from there to Mackinaw in 1670, from which place he started in 1673 on the voyage of exploration down the 

 Mississippi river, returned in September as far as Green Bay, visited the Illinois in 1675, and died on his re- 

 turn on the east shore of Lake Michigan, May 11th, 1665. 



