Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/77

 HISTORY OF GOODHUE COUNTY 47 son * must be accredited as the discoverer of Minnesota first at Prairie Island in 1655,' etc. "That statement is erroneous and I now expunge it from my volume IV, above mentioned. After a careful investigation of the historic record so far as the same is available at St. Paul, I have reached what is to me sufficient conclusion that Mr, Upham's opinions concerning Radisson's explorations cannot be safely accepted or adopted as a part and portion of the history of the discovery of Minnesota. Before I proceeded to Prairie Island, where I fully expected to discover an extensive Huron Indian vil- lage site, Mr. Upham was requested to contribute for the pages of this volume on account of the results of his studies concerning the original discovery of the area of Minnesota. As soon as it was ascertained that no adequate Huron village site comparable with the descriptions given by Mr. Upham could be found on Prairie Island, he was requested to correct his manuscript to con- form to such actual proofs as might be surely ascertained, thereby protecting the credibility and accuracy of Minnesota history. Mr. Upham has repeatedly and positively refused to comply with that reasonable request, incidentally urging that his statement be pub- lished herein as originally written. I comply with that request in order to review for the benefit of Minnesota history the fallacies and inaccuracies which his article contains, similar to the review which he has himself extended against the published treatise on the same subject by the late Captain Russell Blakely. That man- ner of procedure is by me deemed to be the only substantial way to guard against some egregious errors which are about to be precipitated against the integrity and stability of our state history. 'I have failed to discover any substantial declaration, written or printed, definitely indicating that Peter Esprit Radisson, who was in Europe in the early part of 1654, arrived at or near Fox river, "Wisconsin, the same year. His movements during the years 1654 and 1655, after he arrived in New France from Europe, are unknown, unaccounted for and developed in uncertainty and obscurity. Any statement declaring that he certainly proceeded direct from Europe to Prairie Island between the late spring months of 1654 and the early spring of 1655 (conducting a snow- shoe voyage across the present area of "Wisconsin as an incidental necessity), unsupported by any definite corroborative evidence except the vague falsifications contained in the book entitled 'Radisson's Narratives,' is insufficient historical data upon which to base the history of the discovery of Minnesota. The fact that two nameless persons proceeded westward from Quebec in 1654 is not definite corroborative evidence. 'Does the Minnesota Historical Society propose to force upon