La Salle and the discovery of the great West - North Central ...

1680.] HIS VOYAGE NORTHWARD. 249then, to his own guidance in the absence of better,let us follow in the wake of his adventurous canoe.It was laden deeply with goods belonging to LaSalle, and meant by him as presents to Indians onthe way, though the travellers, it appears, proposedto use them in trading on their own account. Thefriar was still wrapped in his gray capote and hood,shod with sandals, and decorated with the cord of St.Francis. As for his two companions, Accau 1 andacquired by personal intercourse with the tribe, as no Frenchmanthen understood the language. These words, as far as my informationreaches, are in every instance correct. Thus, he says that theSioux called his breviary a "bad spirit,"— Ouackanche. Wakanshe, \Sor Wakanshecha, would express the same meaning in modern Englishspelling. He says elsewhere that they called the guns of hiscompanions Manzaouackanchtf, which he translates, " iron possessedwith a bad 8pirit. ,, The western Sioux to this day call a gun Manzawakan,"metal possessed with a spirit." Chonga (shonka), "adog," Ouasi (wahsee), " a pine-tree," Chinnen (shinnan), " a robe," or" garment," and other words, are given correctly, with their interpretations.The word Louis, affirmed by Hennepin to mean " thesun," seems at first sight a wilful inaccuracy, as this is not the wordused in general by the Sioux. The Yankton band of this people,however, call the sun oouee, which, it is evident, represents theFrench pronunciation of Louis, omitting the initial letter. ThisHennepin would be apt enough to supply, thereby conferringcompliment alike on himself, Louis Hennepin, and on the King,Louis XIV., who, to the indignation of his brother monarchs, hadchosen the sun as his emblem.Various trivial incidents touched upon by Hennepin, while recountinghis life among the Sioux, seem to me to afford a strongpresumption of an actual experience. I speak on this point withthe more confidence, as the Indians in whose lodges I was oncedomesticated for several weeks belonged to a western band of thegame people.1Called Ako by Hennepin. In contemporary document*, it iswritten Accau, Acau, D'Accau, Dacau, Dacan, and D'Accault.