[361] Penecaut, _Journal_. _Proces-verbal de la Prise de Possession du Pays des Nadouessioux, etc., par Nicolas Perrot, 1689._ Fort Perrot seems to have been built in 1685, and to have stood near the outlet of the lake, probably on the west side. Perrot afterwards built another fort, called Fort St. Antoine, a little above, on the east bank. The position of these forts has been the subject of much discussion, and cannot be ascertained with precision. It appears by the _Prise de Possession_, cited above, that there was also, in 1689, a temporary French post near the mouth of the Wisconsin. [362] This weeping over strangers was a custom with the Sioux of that time mentioned by many early writers. La Mothe-Cadillac marvels that a people so brave and warlike should have such a fountain of tears always at command. [363] In 1702 the geographer De l'Isle made a remarkable MS. map entitled _Carte de la Riviere du Mississippi, dressee sur les Memoires de M. Le Sueur_. [364] According to the geologist Featherstonhaugh, who examined the locality, this earth owes its color to a bluish-green silicate of iron. [365] Besides the long and circumstantial _Relation de Penecaut_, an account of the earlier part of La Sueur's voyage up the Mississippi is contained in the _Memoire du Chevalier de Beaurain_, which, with other papers relating to this explorer, including portions of his Journal, will be found in Margry, vi. See also _Journal historique de l'Etablissement des Francais a la Louisiane_, 38-71. [366] _Iberville a ----, 15 Fevrier, 1703_ (Margry, vi. 180). [367] _Bienville au Ministre, 6 Septembre, 1704._ [368] Beaurain, _Journal historique_. [369] Hubert, _Memoire envoye au Conseil de la Marine_. [370] Penecaut, _Relation_, chaps. xvii., xviii. Le Page du Pratz, _Histoire de la Louisiane_, i. 13-22. Various documents in Margry, vi. 193-202. [371] For an interesting contemporary map of the French establishment at Natchitoches, see Thomassy, _Geologie pratique de la Louisiane_. [372] Benard de la Harpe, in Margry, vi. 264. [373] Beaurain says that each of these bands spoke a language of its own. They had horses in abundance, descended from Spanish stock. Among them appear to have been the Ouacos, or Huecos, and the Wichitas,--two tribes better known as the Pawnee Picts. See Marcy, _Exploration of Red River_. [374] Compare the account of La Harpe with that of the Chevalier de Beaurain; both are in Margry, vi. There is an abstract in _Journal historique_. [375] _Relation de Benard de la Harpe._ _Autre Relation du meme._ _Du Tisne a Bienville._ Margry, vi. 309, 310, 313. [376] _Bienville au Conseil de Regence, 20 Juillet, 1721._ [377] _Instructions au Sieur de Bourgmont, 17 Janvier, 1722._ Margry, vi. 389.