France and England in North America, Part III: The Discovery of the Great West (1870)Parkman, Francis
History
France and England in North America, Part III: The Discovery of the Great West (1870)
Parkman, Francis
Canada -- History -- To 1763 (New France)
We now come to the map of Marquette, which is a rude sketch of a portion
of Lakes Superior and Michigan, and of the route pursued by him and Joliet
up the Fox River of Green Bay, down the Wisconsin, and thence down the
Mississippi as far as the Arkansas. The River Illinois is also laid down,
as it was by this course that he returned to Lake Michigan after his
memorable voyage. He gives no name to the Wisconsin. The Mississippi is
called "Riviere de la Conception;" the Missouri, the Pekitanoui; and the
Ohio, the Ouabouskiaou, though La Salle, its discoverer, had previously
given it its present name, borrowed from the Iroquois. The Illinois is
nameless, like the Wisconsin. At the mouth of a river, perhaps the Des
Moines, Marquette places the three villages of the Peoria Indians visited
by him. These, with the Kaskaskias, Maroas, and others, on the map, were
merely sub-tribes of the aggregation of savages, known as the Illinois. On
or near the Missouri, he places the Ouchage (Osages), the Oumessourit
(Missouris), the Kansa (Kanzas), the Paniassa (Pawnees), the Maha
(Omahas), and the Pahoutet (Pah-Utahs?). The names of many other tribes,
"esloignees dans les terres," are also given along the course of the
Arkansas, a river which is nameless on the map. Most of these tribes are
now indistinguishable. This map has recently been engraved and published.
Not long after Marquette's return from the Mississippi, another map was
made by the Jesuits, with the following title: _Carte de la nouvelle
decouverie que les peres Jesuites ont fait en l'annee 1672, et continuee
par le P. Jacques Marquette de la mesme Compagnie accompagne de quelques
francois en l'annee_ 1673, _qu'on pourra nommer en francois la
Manitoumie._ This title is very elaborately decorated with figures drawn
with a pen, and representing Jesuits instructing Indians. The map is the
same published by Thevenot, not without considerable variations, in 1681.
It represents the Mississippi from a little above the Wisconsin to the
Gulf of Mexico, the part below the Arkansas being drawn from conjecture.
The river is named "Mitchisipi, ou grande Riviere." The Wisconsin, the
Illinois, the Ohio, the Des Moines (?), the Missouri, and the Arkansas,
are all represented, but in a very rude manner. Marquette's route, in
going and returning, is marked by lines; but the return route is
incorrect. The whole map is so crude and careless, and based on
information so inexact, that it is of little interest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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