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

1680.] THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI. 271dells bright with the flowers ofthe white euphorbia,the bluegentian, and the purple balm; and mattedforests, where the red squirrels leaped and chattered.They passed the great cliff whence the Indian maidenthrew herself in her despair; 1 and Lake Pepin laybefore them, slumbering in the July sun, — thefar-reaching sheets of sparkling water, the woodyslopes, the tower-like crags, the grassy heightsbasking in sunlight or shadowed by the passingcloud; all the fair outline of its graceful scenery,the finished and polished master-work of Nature.And when at evening they made their bivouac fireand drew up their canoe, while dim, sultry cloudsveiled the west, and the flashes of the silent heatlightninggleamed on the leaden water, they couldlisten, as they smoked their pipes, to the mournfulcry of the whippoorwills and the quavering screamof the owls.Other thoughts than the study of the picturesqueoccupied the mind of Hennepin when one day he sawhis Indian father,Aquipaguetin, whom he had supposedfive hundred miles distant, descending theriver with ten warriors in canoes. He was eager tobe the first to meet the traders, who, as Hennepinhad given out, were to come with their goods to themouth of the Wisconsin. The two travellers trembled1The " Lover's Leap," or " Maiden's Rock," from which a Siouxgirl, Winona, or the " Eldest Born," is said to have thrown herself,in the despair of disappointed affection. The story, which seemsfounded in truth, will be found, not without embellishments, in Mr».Eastman's Legends of the Sioux.