Page:American History Told by Contemporaries, v2.djvu/342

314 bout half a league wide at its mouth. On ascending this river about forty-five leagues, he found a portage of more than a mile in length, consisting in part of marshy ground, from which a little stream took its rise and flowed into the Puan bay, inhabited by a great number of Indian tribes, who trade in furs to Canada. . ..

"From the loth to the 14th, M. de Sueur travelled seventeen leagues and a half, passed the river Raisin, and also on the same day a great river coming from the North called the Bon-Secours, on account of the great number of buffalo, deer, bears and roebucks found there. Three leagues from the banks of this river is a lead mine, and at seven leagues above, on the same side, he passed another river, in the neighborhood of which he discovered a copper mine, from which he took sixty pounds of ore in a former voyage : but to make it of any value, a peace must first be made between the Scioux and the Outagamis. At a league and a-half further to the North-West is a lake, six leagues long and more than a league in width, called Lake Pepin. . ..

". . . On the 15th he passed a small river, and saw several canoes descending, filled with Indians. He heard them make a noise similar to that just before they are going to fall upon their enemy ; and, having placed his men behind some trees, he ordered them not to fire until the word of command was given. The chief of the party, after making some observations, advanced with the calumet, (which is a sign of peace among the Indians,) and said that, not having seen before any French men navigating the Mississippi in boats like theirs, they took them to be English, and raised the war-cry.

"M. le Sueur told them that the King of France, of whom they had heard so much in Canada, had sent him to settle in the country, and he wished all the nations who inhabited it, as well as those under his protection, to live in peace. . . . ".. . He then entered Blue River [Minnesota], so called from some mines of blue earth which he found on its banks. At this place he met nine Scioux, who told him that this river came from the country of the Scioux of the West. He built a post here, but finding that his estab lishment did not please the Scioux of the East as well as the neighboring tribes, he had to tell them that his intentions were only to trade in beaver skins, although his real purpose was to explore the mines in this country, which he had discovered some years before.

"He then presented them with some powder, balls, knives and tobacco, and invited them to come to his fort, as soon as it was