Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XI.djvu/692

 674 MISSOURIS MISTAKE the Missouri receives all the great rivers which rise on the eastern declivity of the Rocky mountains, with the single exception of the Arkansas, and a large share of the waters which lie between its own bed and that of the Upper Mississippi. The area which it drains is esti- mated at 518,000 sq. m. The most important places on its banks are Fort Benton in Mon- tana, Yankton in Dakota, Sioux City and Council Bluffs in Iowa, Omaha in Nebraska, Atchison and Leavenworth in Kansas, and St. Joseph, Kansas City, Lexington, Booneville, Jefferson City, and St. Charles in Missouri. About 400 m. from its source the river passes through a narrow gorge denominated the " Gates of the Rocky mountains." It is 5f m. long, and the perpendicular walls of rock, which rise directly from the water to the height of 1,200 ft., are only 450 ft. apart. For the first 3 m. there is but one spot where a foot- hold could be obtained between the water and the rock. The Great falls are 145 m. below this point. They are among the grandest on the continent, and consist of four cataracts, re- spectively of 26, 47, 19, and 87 ft. perpendicu- lar descent, separated by rapids. The whole fall in 16i m. is 357 ft. MISSOURIS, or Missourias, a tribe of Indians belonging to the Dakota family, and calling themselves Nudarcha, Missouri being the name given them by the Illinois. Marquette in 1673 first heard of them as the first tribe up the river which bears their name. As allies of the Illinois they soon established friendly re- lations with the French, and were among the tribes who in 1712 marched to the relief of Detroit. In 1719 they entrapped and cut to pieces a Spanish expedition sent against them from Mexico. In 1720 the French under De Bourgmont established a fort on an island near the Missouris, and the great chief aided him to reach and make peace with the Comanches. He took some of the chiefs to France in 1725, and Dubois, a sergeant who had married a girl of the tribe, returned with them as command- er of the post; but the French were soon after massacred to a man. Friendly relations were afterward restored, and Missouris served in the French operations against the Chick- asaws. They were opposed to the English ascendancy. Lewis and Clarke found them in 1805 reduced to a band of 300 souls, with 80 warriors, on the south side of the Platte, at war with the Omahas, Poncas, Osages, Sioux, and Kansas. Great numbers had been carried off by smallpox, and, abandoning their ancient village in a fertile plain on the Missouri below the Grand, they had sought refuge with the Ottoes, with whom they have ever since been connected. After various sales of lands by them to the government, the combined tribes were removed to the Big Blue. In 1862 they numbered 708, and in 1872 had decreased to 464. They now receive $9,000 a year, but when ten payments have been made the annu- ity is to be reduced to $5,000. Missions at- tempted by the Presbyterians, as well as all attempts at education, have proved unavailing. MISTAKE. It is a fundamental principle of law that no man shall avail himself, either to establish or resist a claim, of his mistake or ignorance of law. So also in criminal law it is an ancient maxim : Ignorantia legia nemi- nem excusat. The reason sometimes assigned, that the law supposes every one to be acquaint- ed with it, is nothing more than a repetition of the rule in other words. The true reason is, the extreme danger of permitting any per- son to shelter himself under his ignorance of the law, or to found a right upon it. For this would be, in the words of the king's bench in England, "to hold out a premium for igno- rance," and ignorance of that which it is of the utmost importance that all men should know. Hence the law distinguishes most care- fully between a mistake of law and a mistake of fact; for the latter, as a general rule, is rectified, and all mischievous consequences pre- vented, as far as possible ; and a mistake as to the law of a foreign state or country is regard- ed only as a mistake of fact, because no one is under any obligation to become acquainted with a foreign law. To this general rule there are some important qualifications ; the princi- pal one being, that no mere acknowledgment, or waiver of defence or right, made under a mistake of law, is binding. Thus, if one has a good legal defence against a promissory note, but, through ignorance or mistake of the law, supposes himself bound to pay it, and on this supposition gives a promise to pay it, the promise will not, in general, be binding upon him. In many cases also much relief is to be obtained by the construction of a contract ; but this is always governed and limited by cer- tain definite rules. It is often said by ethical writers, that a party to a contract is bound to execute the contract in the sense which he knew the other party to put upon it. This may be true always in a moral sense ; but it certainly is not true in a legal sense, although courts have sometimes seemed to think it was a good rule of law. The true rule and the reason of it are easily seen. If A contracts with B in writing to sell him 100 mules, and receives the money, and B at the time, being a foreigner perhaps or for some other reason, understood that he was buying horses, all which A knew, nevertheless B could not claim horses under the contract. He could, by prov- ing his mistake and A's knowledge of it, make out a case of fraud, and this would annul the contract, and then he could recover his money. But the reason why he could do no more is, that the law will not, under pretence of con- struing a contract, make a new contract for the parties. Hence, it is another way of ex- pressing the same rule, that the actual inten- tion of the parties to a contract shall be car- ried into effect, so far as it is possible to arrive at that intention by a rational construction of the words they have actually used, but no fur-