:288 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



Among the early writers on the Louisiana country none are more interesting 

 than Lieutenant Dumont, who spent twenty years in the colony. In the first 

 ■volume of his Historical Memoirs he says, " I am going to give here the list of 

 all the names of the savage nations, inhabiting this country. The asterisk which 

 will be found before some of their names, denotes that we are actually at war 

 with the nations thus marked." He then gives a list of the Indian tribes, and 

 among others the Missouris are marked with an asterisk. Following the list he 

 says, ''The savages which on this list are not noted by an asterisk, are reckoned 

 among our friends, but mark this, however, that though they may be friends, it 

 is always wisest not to trust one's self to them fully." 



Another French annalist, M. LePage DuPratz, whose history has proven a 

 mine of information for later writers says, in writing of the Missouri River: 

 -" The Missouri takes its source at 800 leagues as well as can be ascertained from 

 the place where it empties in the St. Louis. Its waters are muddy, troubled and 

 charged with niter, and it is because of these waters that the St. Louis is so 

 muddy to the sea. The reason of the color is that the former flows over sand 

 and firm ground, while the latter takes its course across fertile lands where one 

 sees but few rocks, and although the Missouri comes from a mountain toward 

 New Mexico we must remember that all the country through which it passes is 

 for the most part rich soil. This river not having been ascended by the French 

 but a short distance about three hundred leagues at most, the branches which 

 empty in it are only known to the natives. It makes no difference what names 

 they bear at present, being in a country little frequented. The best known of 

 these is the Qsage, which takes- its name from a nation which dwells on its banks; 

 it empties in the Missouri River near its mouth. The largest known river which 

 falls into the Missouri is the Canzes. It has nearly two hundred leagues course 

 through a beautiful country. From what I have been able to learn of the course 

 of the Missouri, it flows from its source to the Canzes from west to east, there it 

 makes a great elbow which ends in the neighborhood of the Missouris, where it 

 retakes its course toward the southeast, there to lose its. name and waters in the 

 St. Louis." 



This extract is from the pen of one of the best informed men in the colony 

 at the time it was written, and shows that the information possessed by those, who 

 from their position would be presumed to be well informed concerning the Mis- 

 souri was very meager, even as late as the middle of the last century. The same 

 writer continues, " The waters of this river of the Missouri, are always thick 

 and muddy and it seems that its source is not far from the place where, on the 

 map of M. de Lisle, they make Fort Dauphin, or the sea of the west." This 

 sea of the west was an imaginary lake that M. de Lisle located in the northwest part 

 of this map of Louisiana from information derived from Indians. It is possible 

 they were attempting to describe Salt Lake. 



Under date of November 17th, 1750, Father Louis Vivier wrote from Kas- 

 kaskia as follows:* " Mississippi signifies Great River in the Illinois language. 



* Lettres Edifantes, Vol. VII. 



