“The thick canes now began to appear so close and strong that the buffalo could not break through them; the insects became intolerable, and as a shelter against the sun of July, the sails were folded into an awning. They had now left the region of prairies, and forests of whitewood, admirable for their vastness and height, crowded even the skirts of the pebbly shore. It was also observed, that in the land of the Arkansas the Indians had guns. “Near the latitude of thirty-three degrees, on the western bank of the Mississippi, stood the village of Mitchigamea, in a region which had not been visited by Europeans since the days of De Soto. ‘Now,’ thought Marquette, ‘we must indeed ask the aid of the Virgin.’ Armed with bows and arrows, with clubs, axes and bucklers, amid continual whoops, the natives, bent on war, came to meet them in vast canoes made out of hollow trees; but at sight of the mysterious peace-pipe held aloft, God touched the hearts of the old men, who checked the impetuosity of the young, and throwing their bows and quivers into the canoes, as a token of peace, prepared a hospitable welcome. “The next day, a long wooden canoe, containing ten men, escorted the discoverers for eight or ten leagues, to the village of Arkansea, the limit of their voyage. They had left the region of the Algonquins, and could now only speak by an interpreter. Half a league above Arkansea, they were met by two boats, in one of which stood the commander, holding in his hand the peace-pipe and singing as he drew near. After offering the pipe, he gave bread of maize. The wealth, of his tribe consisted in buffalo skins; their weapons were axes of steel, a proof of commerce with Europeans. “Thus had our travellers descended below the entrance of the Arkansas to the genial climes which have scarcely any winter but rains; and so, having spoken of God, and the mysteries of the Catholic faith; having become certain that the Father of Rivers went not to the ocean east of Florida, nor yet to the Gulf of California, Marquette and Joliet left Arkansea, and ascended the Mississippi. “At the thirty-eighth degree of latitude they entered the river Illinois, and discovered a country without its parallel for the fertility of its beautiful prairies, covered with buffaloes and stags—for the loveliness of its rivulets and the prodigal abundance of wild ducks and swans, and of parrots and wild turkeys. The tribe of Illinois that tenanted its banks entreated Marquette to come and reside among them. One of their chiefs, with their young men, conducted the party, by way of Chicago, to Lake Michigan, and before the end of September all were safe in Green Bay.