116 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



river and from his account of what transpired there it would seem that they were 

 also at war with the Osages. After describing their reception he continues : 

 "The next day a woman who governs this nation came to visit me with the prin- 

 "cipal persons of the village. She wept over me, demanding revenge for the 

 "death of her husband, and of the husband of the woman we were bringing back, 

 "both of whom had been killed by the Osages. To take advantage of everything 

 "I promised that the dead should be avenged." About the year 1690 Tonty pe- 

 titioned the king of France to be recompensed for his services, accompaning his 

 petition with an account of the route from the lUinois to the gulf of Mexico. In 

 his petition he refers to the Missouri as follows: "The river of the Missouris 

 "comes from the west and after traversing three hundred leagues arrives at a lake 

 "which I believe to be that of the Apaches. The village of the Missourites, Oten- 

 "tee and Osages are near one another and are situated in the prairie one hundred 

 "and fifty leagues from the mouth of the Missouri." The above extract shows 

 that Tonty's information concerning the country watered by the Missouri was de- 

 rived from heresay and from Indians alone, as no white man had been up the 

 Missouri at that date. It is true Baron La Hontan claimed to have ascended it 

 in 1689 and to have spent eight days on it, but he was so given to exaggeration 

 that I do not feel authorized to repeat what he says in regard to it. In the year 

 1699 the brothers Iberville and Bienville arrived in the gulf of Mexico and estab- 

 lished a French colony near the Mississippi which eventially became the seat of 

 French power in the whole valley. Communication was soon opened with the 

 Illinois country; Tonty went down from Fort St. Louis as soon as he heard of 

 the establishment of the colony and from this date most of our information con- 

 cerning the Missouri country comes from sources connected with the lower settle- 

 ments. 



In "Penicant's Annals of Louisiana from the first establishment of the colony 

 to 1722," the author says under date of 1700 in describing the route of an expedi- 

 tion to the copper mines in the country of the Sioux, "Six leagues more brought 

 "us to the mouth of the Missouri. This river has a very rapid current especially 

 "in the spring of the year when the waters are high ; in passing beyond the islands 

 "which it inundates it roots up the trees, and drags them along in its course, and 

 "it is from this cause that the Mississippi is filled with floating trees. It also as- 

 "sumes its color from this river, neither source of which has ever been discover- 

 "ed, I will not speak of the Indians dwelling on the banks of the Missouri be- 

 cause we have never ascended it." 



In the year 1699 St. Cosme,* a missionary priest from Canada, descended the 

 Mississippi and in a letter describing his trip refers to the Missouri as follows : 

 "On the 6th of December we embarked on the Mississippi; after making about 

 "six hundred leagues we found the great river of the Missouris which comes from 

 "the west and which is so muddy that it spoils the waters of the Mississippi which 

 "down to this are clear. It is said that up this river are a great number of Indi- 



*John Francis Buison, born in Canada 1667, educated for a Jesuit Priest and ordrined in 1690. Went to 

 Natches as a Jesuit missionary in 17oO. Was killed by the Indians in 1707 while descending the Mississippi. 



