In 1673, Marquette, a French monk, and Joliet, a trader, starting from Quebec, traversed the great northern Lakes, ascended the Fox River to its source, made a small portage west to the Wisconsin, and descended that river to the Mississippi, where they arrived on the 7th of July. Committing themselves to the current, the two solitary travellers reached a village of the Illinois, near the mouth of the Missouri, where they were kindly received and hospitably entertained. After a brief stay, they proceeded down to a settlement of the Arkansas, near the river of that name. They did not proceed farther at this time, but returned to Quebec, by the same route, fully impressed with the belief that they could reach the Gulf of Mexico, by continuing their course on the great river. There was immense rejoicing in Quebec at the result of this adventure. _Te deum_ was sung in the Churches, on the occasion, and the great Western Valley set down as belonging to France by right of discovery. They were little aware how brief their dominion in that land would be, or how soon the fruits of all their toils would fall into the hands of a nation then unborn, that in one little century, should leap to independence and power, and claim an honorable place among the hoary empires of the earth. Six years after the return of Marquette and Joliet, Robert, Chevalier de la Salle, commenced operations for a further exploration of the Mississippi. With seventeen men, he proceeded to the Little Miami, near the mouth of which he built a fort. From thence he traversed the country, till he came to the Falls of St. Anthony. Descending the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico, he returned by land to Quebec during the year 1681. He then proceeded to France, procured a vessel, and sailed in 1685, with the intention of entering the river through the Gulf, but was unable to find its mouth.