Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/652

 638 HENNEPIN hands, and the soles of the feet ; the men use it to color their beards, and the manes and tails of their horses. It produces a reddish- orange color, which it is said the subsequent application of indigo will turn to black. The leaves and young twigs are reduced to a fine powder, made into a paste with hot water, and spread upon the part to be dyed, where it is usually left over night. The shrub is grown in greenhouses as the Egyptian privet, and is naturalized in the West Indies, where it is called Jamaica mignonette. HEMEPIN, a S. E. county of Minnesota, bounded E. by the Mississippi, N. W. by Crow river, and S. by the Minnesota; area, about 600 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 81,666. It has an undulating surface, covered with good timber, and contains Minnetanka lake. The St. Paul and Pacific, the Milwaukee and St. Paul, and the Minneapolis and Sioux City Junction rail- roads pass through it. The chief productions in 1870 were 379,063 bushels of wheat, 259,418 of Indian corn, 226,361 of oats, 98,863 of po- tatoes, 333,146 Ibs. of butter, 89,414 of maple sugar, 62,800 of flax, and 25,454 tons of hay. There were 3,633 horses, 5,361 milch cows, 1,318 working oxen, 5,449 other cattle, 5,672 sheep, and 5,592 swine ; 6 manufactories of agricultural implements, 2 of bags, 8 of boots and shoes, 2 of bricks, 10 of carriages, 11 of clothing, 2 of confectionery, 8 of barrels and casks, 16 of furniture, 3 of iron castings, 7 of machinery, 1 of vegetable oil, 2 of paper, 5 of saddlery and harness, 6 of sash, doors, and blinds, 1 of soap and candles, 8 of tin, cop- per, and sheet-iron ware, 2 of woollen goods, 14 flour mills, 4 breweries, 3 planing and 23 saw mills, and 5 pork-packing establishments. Capital, Minneapolis. HEMEPIN, Louis, a Franciscan (Recollect) missionary and explorer of the Mississippi river, born at Ath, Belgium, about 1640, died in Holland subsequent to 1701. After his en- trance into the Franciscan order, he made a tour through Germany and Italy, at the close of which he was settled for a year as preacher at Halles in Belgium. His superiors then sent him to Artois, whence he journeyed to Holland, and for eight months had charge of a hospital at Maastricht. At the battle of Senef, between the prince of Conde and William of Orange, in 1674, he was present as regimental chaplain. The next year he was ordered to Canada, and embarked in company with Bishop Laval, whose favor he managed to secure on the voyage, and with the sieur de la Salle. He preached for a while at Quebec. In 1676 he went to the Indian mission at Fort Frontenac, whence he visited the Mohawk country. In 1678 he was attached to La Salle's expedition, and accompanied the chevalier de Tonty and the sieur de la Motte from Fort Frontenac to Niagara, where La Salle constructed the Grif- fin, a vessel for navigating the lakes above the falls. This accomplished, La Salle on Aug. 7, 1679, began his voyage. He passed through Lakes Erie, Huron, and Michigan, to the mouth of the St. Joseph's river, ascended this in canoes to the portage, carried them five or six miles to the Kankakee, and floated down this stream and the Iroquois to the Illinois, on which they built Fort Crevecceur, a little below the present site of Peoria. Hearing no tidings of the Grif- fin, which he had sent back, La Salle returned to Fort Frontenac for supplies, charging Michel Acau, Father Hennepin, and one other with a voyage of discovery, the precise object of which is unknown, but making the mouth of the Wis- consin a rendezvous. Hennepin set out in a canoe, Feb. 29, 1680, and followed the Illinois to its mouth. The party then explored the Mississippi till April 11, when they were taken by a party of Sioux and carried up the river to their villages. During this time Hennepin dis- covered and named the falls of St. Anthony. Daniel Greysolon du Luht had penetrated to. the Sioux country by way of Lake Superior, and made peace with the tribe. Hearing that three Frenchmen were held prisoners, he ad- vanced to where they were, and rescued them in July. He took them down the Mississippi to the Wisconsin, and passed up that river and down the Fox, and so through Green bay to Lake Michigan. From Quebec Henne- pin sailed for France, where he published in 1683 his Description de la Louisiane, nouxelle- ment decouverte au sud-ouest de la Nouvelle France, &c. (I2mo, Paris), containing the fullest published account of La Salle's first expedition, and of Hennepin's own explorations, with a description of the upper Mississippi. Notwith- standing the writer's vanity and fondness for exaggeration, this work is valuable. Hennepin was now appointed guardian of a convent at Renti in Artois ; but refusing to return to America in obedience to his ecclesiastical su- periors, he was compelled to leave France, and proceeding to Holland in lay dress sought the favor of William III. of England. In 1697, 10 years after La Salle's death, Hennepin pub- lished his extraordinary Noutelle decouverte d*un tres grand pays situe dans TAmerique entre le Nouveau Mexique et la Mer Glaciale, &c. (12mo, Utrecht). In this work, which em- bodies his Description de la Louisiane, writ- ten anew and enlarged, he asserts that he de- scended to the mouth of the Mississippi, and was the first European who floated on that river. He gives a journal, description of the scenery, Indian tribes, and the distances along the route, identical with that of Pere Membr6 published by Le Clercq. Hennepin explained his long silence on this important point by saying that he feared the enmity of La Salle, who had ordered him to follow a different course, and who prided himself upon being the first who descended the Mississippi to the gulf of Mexico. Notwithstanding the utter impos- sibility of reconciling the dates given in Hen- nepin's narrative, the story obtained general credence until its falseness was exposed by Jared Sparks. (See "Life of La Salle," by