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

INTRODUCTION. 5River, crossed to the Wisconsin, and descended itso far that, as he reported on his return, in threedays more he would have reached the sea. The truthseems to be that he mistook the meaning of his Indianguides, and that the "great water" to which he wasso near was not the sea,but the Mississippi.It has been affirmed that one Colonel Wood, ofVirginia, reached a branch of the Mississippi as earlyas the year 1654, and that about 1670 a certainCaptain Bolton penetrated to the river itself.Neitherstatement is sustained by sufficient evidence. It isfurther affirmed that, in 1678, a party from NewEngland crossed the Mississippi, reached NewMexico, and, returning, reported theirdiscoveries tothe authorities ofBoston, — a story without proof orprobability. Meanwhile, French Jesuits and furtraderspushed deeper and deeper into the wildernessof the northern lakes. In 1641, Jogues andRaymbault preached the Faith to a concourse ofIndians at the outlet of Lake Superior. Then camethe havoc and desolation of the Iroquois war, and foryears farther exploration was arrested. In 1658-59Pierre Esprit Radisson, a Frenchman of St. Malo,and his brother-in-law, Me'dard Chouart des Groseilliers,penetrated the regions beyond Lake Superior,and roamed westward till, as Radisson declares, theyreached what was called the Forked River, " becauseit has two branches, the one towards the west, theother towards the south, which, we believe, runstowards Mexico," — which seems to point to the