France and Spain were devout Roman Catholics, and were anxious to convert the savages to their religion. No doubt Champlain was a sincere and good man, and desirous to save these heathen souls.

The sending for these missionaries, was a very important fact in the history of America. From that time forward they came in scores, all intent upon penetrating deeper and deeper into the wilderness, and setting up the cross, the emblem of their religion, where the Indians could bow before it. These Catholic priests, most of them, were "Jesuits," or "members of the Order of Jesus." They were nearly all excellent, self-denying men, who bore suffering, great perils, and cruel death, with meekness and heroism, in the service of their religion. While good John Eliot was at work teaching the Bible to the "bloody heathen" of New England, these. priests had penetrated to the shores of Lake Huron and Lake Superior, and planted the cross in northern Michigan. While the English colonists had only learned the geography of the sea-coast on which they lived, these early Jesuits had explored the interior of the continent, all the Mississippi valley, and the whole course of the mighty father of rivers. The history of their travels is no less interesting than that of the early voyagers, who one century earlier had explored the region about the Gulf of Mexico, and discovered the "South Sea," and the mouth of the Mississippi River. It was fortunate for history that these Jesuits were men of education, who nearly all wrote accounts of the places they visited, and drew maps of the country over which they passed. Our first maps of the Mississippi valley we owe to these missionaries.

One of the earliest Jesuits was Isaac Jogues. He came with an earnest desire to do good to the uncivilized Indian, and was one of those who went to Lake Huron to establish a mission at St. Mary's, on Lake Superior. Unfortunately the small-pox had broken out in the vessel which brought the Jesuits, and the infection spread from them to the savages. The Indians regarded the plague as an evil spirit sent among them by the priests, and for a time refused to listen to them. Poor Isaac Jogues was taken prisoner and dreadfully treated. They tore out his finger-nails, and forced him to run up and down a line of savage warriors, each of whom would strike at him as he ran, with war-clubs or tomahawks, till he was mutilated and bleeding, and almost dead. Yet when he was at length released, and sent to his friends, Jogues could not rest till he had again been sent to preach to the Indians, and he was finally mur

dered by them with great tortures. Generally, however, the Jesuits made friends with the Indians, and were loved by them. Their manner of worship attracted the Indians more than the severe and simple mode of the Puritans. The priests brought pictures of the Virgin and the child Jesus to show the savages; they wore robes of brilliant colors when they celebrated mass; sometimes they would lead a band of Indians in solemn procession bearing banners and sacred images, to a place where a rude church was erected; all the ceremonies were like a new kind of play to these children of the wilderness, in which they joined with grave delight.

The New England colonists hated the priests and accused them of inciting the savages to carry bloodshed into their borders. I do not believe this to be true, as in all the accounts of their lives and characters they appear to be men of great gentleness and purity, quite ready, and even anxious to die for their religion. They advocated temperance among the Indians, and when the French fur-traders began to sell rum and brandy to the savages, the Jesuits begged that the sale of it should be stopped.

But though they petitioned the French Minister to forbid the sale of liquor to the Indians, they could get no better answer than this: "The principle is good, but it will ruin trade, for the Indians are very fond of brandy, and if we do not sell it them, they will go and sell their furs to the Dutch traders in New York and get brandy of them."

So the French government said, "Give the Indians the brandy," and all the prayers of the Jesuits did not arrest the evil.

CHAPTER XXIX.

THE MISSISSIPPI EXPLORED.

James Marquette is sent to the Great River. — He goes with Joliet to Wisconsin. — Carrying their Canoes on their Backs. -The Bison and Deer. - Greeting of the Illinois. · Death of Marquette. Robert La Salle in Illinois. - Fort Heartbreak. — Murder of La Salle. - Hennepin goes to Falls of St. Anthony. Adventures of Marquette and Joliet. Explorations of the Mississippi River by La Salle and Hennepin.

IN the year 1673 a very important mission was undertaken by two of the Jesuits who had been teaching the Indians in the region of Lake Superior. These two men, James Marquette and Louis Joliet, were selected by the superior officer of their order to

go on a voyage of discovery down among the Illinois Indians. It was a mission on which Marquette, who was a most pious and devoted man, had long desired to be sent. Every day for many months he had prayed that God would put it into the heart of the priest from whom he received his orders, to send him down among these unknown savages, to whom he longed to preach the gospel. He had, also, another object in view besides the conversion of the Illinois tribe. He had heard of a broad river which the Indians called "Mississippi"-"great river "— which ran through a beautiful, fertile country till it reached the sea. You know this was more than a century after De Soto had explored the Mississippi, from its mouth almost to its junction with the Missouri, and the tradition of a great river in the centre of this continent had become dim, and was almost forgotten. None of the French or English knew anything about the river, except by rumors from the Indians, of a great "father of waters" in the west. So Marquette, who had heard these rumors, longed to go and explore there. When he heard that leave had been granted him to set out, he fell on his knees and thanked God.

As soon as they were ready to start, Joliet and Marquette called together the Indians with whom they had been living, and asked them all sorts of questions about the way to the country of the Illinois. The Indians, who loved the good priests, told them all they knew. Marquette drew a rude map from the direction they gave, and with this poor chart they started in birch bark canoes for the unexplored wilderness.

They took to their boats at Mackinaw, and rowed to Green Bay, Wisconsin. Then they took the Fox River, as far as they could navigate it, thence across a short piece of swampy prairie, over which they carried their birch bark canoes on their shoulders, till they reached the Wisconsin River. Embarked on the beautiful Wisconsin, they soon floated down to its junction with the Mississippi, and were borne upon the bosom of the great Father of Rivers. I wish you would get the map and trace out this journey of Marquette and Joliet. Imagine how perilous it must have seemed, and how blind the way was, and then fancy their joy at finding the river of which they had heard. The two companions paddled merrily on, looking with interest and delight at all they saw. It was June, and the shores were green and beautiful. Over the prairie they saw herds of bison or buffalo scattered, and some

times a moose or elk, seen in the distance, excited their wonder and delight.

They had been just a week on the river, when to their great joy they saw human foot-prints on the bank. They stopped their canoes, pulled them up on the shore and followed the trail. In a short time they found an Indian village, whence all the people came crowding out to see them. It was a village of the Illinois tribe, whom Marquette had longed to find.

These people received Marquette with great kindness, and made a feast for him, where all smoked the calumet, or pipe of peace. At the door of the cabin where they were received as guests, an old man saluted them in these words:

"How beautiful is the sun, O stranger, when thou comest to visit us. All our town awaits thee, and thou shalt enter our wigwams in peace."

The Indians called Marquette "Black gown," on account of the long black cloth robe reaching to his heels which all of the priests

wore.

After a friendly and pleasant visit among these Illinois people, Marquette and Joliet took to their boats again, and went down to the Arkansas region, to within a few days' sail of the mouth of the Mississippi. Their whole voyage is so interesting, that I wish I had space to give you a longer account of it.

Two years after he had been down the river, Marquette was taken ill, after a severe winter sojourn in the Illinois region, near where the city of Chicago is now built. He felt that he was soon to die, and welcomed death with great joy. The companions who were with him built a poor little cabin in the dim forest, and while they wept at his loss, the good Marquette consoled them, and told them not to be sad at his leaving them. When he died, they buried him in the lonely wilderness with many tears, for they all loved him. His body was afterward taken to Mackinaw, and there it reposes at the junction of two lakes whose borders were the scenes of his pure labors.

After Marquette's death, a Frenchman named La Salle planned a new exploration of the Mississippi. Robert La Salle had been educated for a priest, but not liking the life, he had become a skillful captain and navigator. He owned land in Canada, and had been the commander of a fort there. When he started to explore the Mississippi, he took with him a company of men, sailors, mechanics,

carpenters, and other workmen, that he might be able to build forts, or make settlements wherever he might fix upon a favorable spot. He went very much the same difficult and roundabout way which Marquette had taken, through Green Bay, Wisconsin. Instead of taking the Wisconsin River to its junction with the Mississippi, however, he took the Illinois River, and by the middle of winter he found himself near a small lake called Peoria, in the centre of what is now the State of Illinois. He had not found the Indians disposed to be as friendly to him as they were to Marquette, and his journey to this place had been very hard and discouraging. On a little hill near the lake, he set his men to work to build a fort, which he called, in French, "Fort Heartbreak." I think this a very pitiful title, and that poor Robert La Salle, who was a brave man, must have felt very sore at heart when he gave the place this name.

It was the winter of 1681 that La Salle finally got embarked on the great Mississippi to go down its current. In a few weeks they passed from the frozen region of the Illinois to the beautiful southern country of verdure and blossoms. They found plum, peach, mulberry, apple, and pear trees in bloom, and the promise of fruits was luxuriant. At last, in April, they arrived at the Gulf of Mexico, and with great solemnity they planted the cross and raised the arms of France aloft on the shore. He called the great river the River Colbert, in honor of the prime minister of France, and taking possession of the whole country in the name of the "mighty, invincible, and victorious Prince Louis of France," he called it Louisiana.

La Salle made a journey north to tell the results of his voyage, and then came back again to the fort which he had left near the mouth of the river. In this last expedition he attempted to return to Illinois by land. Just after he had started back there was mutiny and dissatisfaction among his men. Some of these mutineers murdered the nephew of La Salle, who was out on an expedition with them. As his nephew did not return, La Salle went out into the forest in search of him, taking with him a priest who belonged to the party. On his way out, La Salle was very sad, and talked like a man in deep melancholy. As they walked on he suddenly came upon the bloody neckerchief of his servant, who had also been killed by these bad men. While La Salle was examining this, two of the murderers who were hidden in the grass, one on each side of him, fired suddenly and gave him a fatal wound in the head. Thus died the brave Chevalier Robert La Salle, the first explorer of the Mississippi