Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/83

 HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 23 ouly an extension of Canada. Wlieu reports uaiue to them of the great river that very probably emptied into the western sea or the Sea of Japan, they were moved to accept it as part of New France and laid claim to it ac- cordingly. No more adventurous or hardy men were concerned with the early settlement and ex- ploration of the new world than these same French in Canada. Better than any one else they understood and sympathized with the Indian ; for better than any one else they en- tei'ed into and shared his life. The mighty forests, the unexplored regions, the wild life had no terrors but rather attractions for them. Thus it was that the hardy woodsmen, traders, trappers, and canoe men of Canada explored and hunted throughout a wide ex- panse of territory. They set their traps and hunted in all the woods, they pushed the prows of the adventurous canoes into all the waters about them, they found the secret trails of the Indians and followed them into the west. They took part in the long hunts of the Indian, lived his life, traded to him the beads, the calico, the hatchets, and some- times the arms of the white men, and re- ceived in turn the choicest furs caught in the wide domain that stretched from the lakes far to west and south and north. To these men, fitted by nature and experi- ence for daring adventure and exploration in distant territories, the news of the mighty river of the west, so great that it dwarfed all the other rivers of the continent and poured a mighty flood of waters to an unknown sea, came like a challenge, and, in response to that challenge, we find them making their way farther and farther into the west. It is probable that some of these men made their way into Missouri and perhaps pene- trated to the southeast coi-ner of the state. It seems certain from the narrative of Radis- son, one of the most famous of these hardy and daring explorers, that he and Groseilliers made their way once, if not oftener, to Mis- souri, coming at least as far as the mouth of the ilissouri. He speaks of the 'forked river' — perhaps, if not certainly, the Mississippi; of the ti-ibe of Indians living ujjon one branch of it, ' • of extraordinary height and biggnesse, ' ' referring no doubt to the Osages who were celebrated for their height and size. Others probably came, also, lured by the hope of riches, and the desire of adventure, but little is known of them and their wanderings. They established no trading posts or settlements within the state and left, with the exception of Radisson, no accounts of their wanderings to enable us to judge with any certainty con- cerning the course of their travels. But these obscure and almost unknown voy- ages and explorations, barren of any tangible result in one way, produced a great effect in another way, and were, therefore, of impor- tance. The reports which they brought back of the country through which they travelled, of its soil, its rivers, the Indians and the rich trade which might be secured with them, of the mighty river that poured its flood south- ward and perhaps westward, of an empire that might be won for France and for New France, induced the French authorities of Canada to arrange for the exploration of the wilderness and of the great river. In 1672, Frontenac, the newly appointed and energetic governor of Canada, determined to send an expedition to explore the course of the great river and to take possession of the country it traversed, for Prance. No man seemed better suited for such an expedition