Opening the text

Summary Narrative of an Exploratory Expedition to the Sources of the Mississippi River, in 1820: Resumed and Completed, by the Discovery of its Origin in Itasca Lake, in 1832Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe

History

Summary Narrative of an Exploratory Expedition to the Sources of the Mississippi River, in 1820: Resumed and Completed, by the Discovery of its Origin in Itasca Lake, in 1832

Name: Summary Narrative of an Exploratory Expedition to the Sources of the Mississippi River, in 1820: Resumed and Completed, by the Discovery of its Origin in Itasca Lake, in 1832
Author: Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe

Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe

Great Lakes (North America); Mississippi River -- Sources; Northwest, Old -- Description and travel

Their present numbers cannot be accurately given. I was informed that
the village I visited contained two hundred and fifty souls. They have a
large village at Rock Island, where the Foxes and Saucs live together,
which consists of sixty lodges, and numbers three hundred souls.
One-half of these may be Saucs. They have another village at the mouth
of Turkey River; altogether, they may muster from 460 to 500 souls. Yet,
they are at war with most of the tribes around them, except the Iowas,
Saucs, and Kickapoos. They are engaged in a deadly, and apparently
successful war against the Sioux tribes. They recently killed nine men
of that nation, on the Terre Blue River; and a party of twenty men are
now absent, in the same direction, under a half-breed named Morgan. They
are on bad terms with the Osages and Pawnees of the Missouri, and not on
the best terms with their neighbors the Winnebagoes.

I again embarked at four o'clock A. M. (8th). My men were stout fellows,
and worked with hearty will, and it was thought possible to reach the
Prairie during the day, by hard and late pushing. We passed Turkey River
at two o'clock, and they boldly plied their paddles, sometimes animating
their labors with a song; but the Mississippi proved too stout for us;
and some time after nightfall we put ashore on an island, before
reaching the Wisconsin. In ascending the river this day, observed the
pelican, which exhibited itself in a flock, standing on a low sandy spot
of an island. This bird has a clumsy and unwieldy look, from the
duplicate membrane attached to its lower mandible, which is constructed
so as when inflated to give it a bag-like appearance. A short sleep
served to restore the men, and we were again in our canoes the next
morning (9th) before I could certainly tell the time by my watch.
Daylight had not yet broke when we passed the influx of the Wisconsin,
and we reached the Prairie under a full chorus, and landed at six
o'clock.




CHAPTER XVI.

  The expedition proceeds from Prairie du Chein up the Wisconsin
    Valley--Incidents of the ascent--Etymology of the name--The low
    state of its waters favorable to the observation of its
    fresh-water conchology--Cross the Wisconsin summit, and descend
    the Fox River to Winnebago Lake.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

Summary Narrative of an Exploratory Expedition to the Sources of the Mississippi River, in 1820: Resumed and Completed, by the Discovery of its Origin in Itasca Lake, in 1832Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe

History

Summary Narrative of an Exploratory Expedition to the Sources of the Mississippi River, in 1820: Resumed and Completed, by the Discovery of its Origin in Itasca Lake, in 1832

Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe

Great Lakes (North America); Mississippi River -- Sources; Northwest, Old -- Description and travel

Their present numbers cannot be accurately given. I was informed that
the village I visited contained two hundred and fifty souls. They have a
large village at Rock Island, where the Foxes and Saucs live together,
which consists of sixty lodges, and numbers three hundred souls.
One-half of these may be Saucs. They have another village at the mouth
of Turkey River; altogether, they may muster from 460 to 500 souls. Yet,
they are at war with most of the tribes around them, except the Iowas,
Saucs, and Kickapoos. They are engaged in a deadly, and apparently
successful war against the Sioux tribes. They recently killed nine men
of that nation, on the Terre Blue River; and a party of twenty men are
now absent, in the same direction, under a half-breed named Morgan. They
are on bad terms with the Osages and Pawnees of the Missouri, and not on
the best terms with their neighbors the Winnebagoes.

I again embarked at four o'clock A. M. (8th). My men were stout fellows,
and worked with hearty will, and it was thought possible to reach the
Prairie during the day, by hard and late pushing. We passed Turkey River
at two o'clock, and they boldly plied their paddles, sometimes animating
their labors with a song; but the Mississippi proved too stout for us;
and some time after nightfall we put ashore on an island, before
reaching the Wisconsin. In ascending the river this day, observed the
pelican, which exhibited itself in a flock, standing on a low sandy spot
of an island. This bird has a clumsy and unwieldy look, from the
duplicate membrane attached to its lower mandible, which is constructed
so as when inflated to give it a bag-like appearance. A short sleep
served to restore the men, and we were again in our canoes the next
morning (9th) before I could certainly tell the time by my watch.
Daylight had not yet broke when we passed the influx of the Wisconsin,
and we reached the Prairie under a full chorus, and landed at six
o'clock.




CHAPTER XVI.

  The expedition proceeds from Prairie du Chein up the Wisconsin
    Valley--Incidents of the ascent--Etymology of the name--The low
    state of its waters favorable to the observation of its
    fresh-water conchology--Cross the Wisconsin summit, and descend
    the Fox River to Winnebago Lake.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Summary Narrative of an Exploratory Expedition to the Sources of the Mississippi River, in 1820: Resumed and Completed, by the Discovery of its Origin in Itasca Lake, in 1832

Summary Narrative of an Exploratory Expedition to the Sources of the Mississippi River, in 1820: Resumed and Completed, by the Discovery of its Origin in Itasca Lake, in 1832

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