Volume I Part 23 (1/2)

[361] Penecaut, _Journal_. _Proces-verbal de la Prise de Possession du Pays des Nadouessioux, etc., par Nicolas Perrot, 1689._ Fort Perrot seems to have been built in 1685, and to have stood near the outlet of the lake, probably on the west side. Perrot afterwards built another fort, called Fort St. Antoine, a little above, on the east bank. The position of these forts has been the subject of much discussion, and cannot be ascertained with precision. It appears by the _Prise de Possession_, cited above, that there was also, in 1689, a temporary French post near the mouth of the Wisconsin.

[362] This weeping over strangers was a custom with the Sioux of that time mentioned by many early writers. La Mothe-Cadillac marvels that a people so brave and warlike should have such a fountain of tears always at command.

[363] In 1702 the geographer De l'Isle made a remarkable MS. map ent.i.tled _Carte de la Riviere du Mississippi, dressee sur les Memoires de M. Le Sueur_.

[364] According to the geologist Featherstonhaugh, who examined the locality, this earth owes its color to a bluish-green silicate of iron.

[365] Besides the long and circ.u.mstantial _Relation de Penecaut_, an account of the earlier part of La Sueur's voyage up the Mississippi is contained in the _Memoire du Chevalier de Beaurain_, which, with other papers relating to this explorer, including portions of his Journal, will be found in Margry, vi. See also _Journal historique de l'etabliss.e.m.e.nt des Francais a la Louisiane_, 38-71.

[366] _Iberville a ----, 15 Fevrier, 1703_ (Margry, vi. 180).

[367] _Bienville au Ministre, 6 Septembre, 1704._

[368] Beaurain, _Journal historique_.

[369] Hubert, _Memoire envoye au Conseil de la Marine_.

[370] Penecaut, _Relation_, chaps. xvii., xviii. Le Page du Pratz, _Histoire de la Louisiane_, i. 13-22. Various doc.u.ments in Margry, vi.

193-202.

[371] For an interesting contemporary map of the French establishment at Natchitoches, see Thoma.s.sy, _Geologie pratique de la Louisiane_.

[372] Benard de la Harpe, in Margry, vi. 264.