Groictfi of the Mi'ssissijypi Delta. 103 
GROWTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA. 
By Warrex Upham, St. Paul, Minn. 
In a recent study for the Minnesota Historical Society, on. 
the "Progress of Discovery of the ^Mississippi River,'' I have 
consulted the narrations of the earliest expeditions observing 
the ^Mississippi at its mouths, and of the discoveries of this 
river by white men through the various parts of its course 
from lake Itasca to the Gulf of [Mexico. This research has 
brought together information of the growth and cl\anges of 
the delta and mouths of the Mississippi, which are of much 
geological as well as historical interest. It is also ascertained 
that the course of navigation entering the Mississippi from 
the Gulf of Mexico, or going out from the river, in all in- 
stances definitely identifiable previous to 1699, was by way of 
the Bayou Manchac, not by the river's mouths in the delta. 
The first description of the delta, passes, and mouths, is there- 
fore derived from La Sadie's canoe expedition down the Mis- 
sissippi in 1682. It will be desirable, however, to glance at 
the earlier discoveries of the ^Mississippi or its mouths ; and 
these carry back a cartographic record to the end of the fif- 
teenth century, a little more than four hundred years ago. 
According to Varnhagen, the Brazilian historian, and John 
Fiske's "Discovery of America," Avith whom I fully agree, 
Amerigo Vespucci's first voyage to the western hemisphere, 
made in 1497-98. apparently as pilot and cartographer of an 
expedition commanded by Pinzon and Solis, concerning which 
much doubt and misunderstanding had existed because of the 
lack of many details in A'espucci's narration, was the source 
of the first mapping of Yucatan, the Gulf of ^Mexico, and Flor- 
ida. In Vespucci's chart of that very earlv date the ^Missis- 
sippi river was unmistakably delineated, with a three-mouthed 
delta extending into the gulf. This delineation is preserved 
by ^^'aldseemuller's majx entitled "Tal)ula Terre Xove." 
drafted probably after 1504 and certainly not later than 1508, 
which was published at Strasburg in an edition of Ptolemy in 
•51.3- l^t gives a distorted outline of the Gulf of Mexico, 
with a large river emptying into it by three mouths, pushing 
its delta far into the gulf, in which respect the ^lississippi sur- 
passes any other river, this being indeed the most remarkable 
