AN OUTLINE HISTORY OF WISCONSIN. Early Explorations.— 1634.-Jean Nicolet, a French explorer, was sent by Samuel de Champlain, governor of New France, at Quebec, to explore the northwest. He came by way of Lake Michigan and landed on Wisconsin soil just below the mouth of Fox river. Clothed in silken robes he advanced into a village of the Winnebagoes, discharging pistols held in each hand. He was received with welcome. A great feast was then held, 120 beavers being eaten. He then proceeded up the Fox river to near the present site of Berlin, where was a palisaded village of the Mascoutins. 1659. Sieur Radisson and Sieur Groseilliers followed in the wake of Nicolet, and wintered among the Pottawattomies in the Green Bay region, and in the spring of 1659 went up the Fox river, made portage and entered the Wisconsin, spending four months on the trip. The narrative of Radisson indicates that they proceeded as far as the mouth of the Wisconsin and saw the Mississippi. 1661.- The same adventurers, Radisson and Groseilliers, with six other fur traders and a band of Huron Indians, skirted the south shore of Lake Superior in their canoes, passed the Pictured Rocks, learned of the great mines of copper, and entered Chequamegon Bay, late in autumn. Near the present site of Ashland they built a "fort " close to the water's edge. Hiding their stores in a caché, they visited the Huron village on the headwaters of the Chippewa river, and wandered as far west as the Mille Lac region in Minnesota, wintering among the Indians. 1662.-The same party returned to Chequamegon Bay and built a fort on Oak Point, eastward of Ashland. They returned to Three Rivers in Canada the same year. Meanwhile Pere Menard, a Jesuit missionary, who had been left at Keweenaw Bay by Radisson's party while on their way westward, set out to visit the Huron villages on the Chippewa and Black rivers. Suffering intensely from mosquitoes, hunger and the insolence and cruelty of the Indian guides, they reached the Black river. While portaging one of its rapids, Menard lost the blind trail, and was never seen again. He was killed by lurking savages or died from exposure. His kettle, breviary and cassock are said to have been afterwards seen in the possession of the Indians. 1665.-Claude Allouez, an eminent pioneer missionary, was sent by his superior to open a mission on Lake Superior. He came from Canada, by way of the lakes, into Chequiamegon Bay and chose for the site of the mission a point on the southeast shore, between the sites now occupied by Washburn and Ashland, which he named "La Point du Saint Esprit." Remaining here four years, he was relieved by a younger zealot, Pere Marquette. 1669.- Pere Allouez was invited by the Pottawattomies to Green Bay. 1670.- The Sieur Saint Lusson, piloted by a hardy adventurer, Nicholas Perrot, came to Sault Ste. Marie and there in the presence of Allouez and other Jesuits and the man Perrot acting as interpreter took possession of the northwest in the name of the French king. Among the party was Louis Joliet. 1671.- Father Allouez founded a mission on the south side of Fox river, six miles from its month. naming it the mission of St. Francis Xavier, on the site of the present city of Depere (so called from mission des peres, the mission of the fathers). 1672.- Father Allouez established the mission of Saint Marks on the Wolf river, near Lake Shawano. He made a voyage to the Fox river, visiting the Foxes and Mascoutins, two Indian tribes above Lake Winnebago. Here he established the mission of St. James the following year. 1673.-Louis Joliet and Pere Marquette set out in May, from St. Ignace mission, at the straits of Mackinaw, in canoes paddled by voyageurs or boatmen, and reached the Mascoutin village on the Upper Fox, June 7th, pushed up through its reeds, made the portage at the present site of Portage City, into the Wisconsin river, which they descended to its mouth, arriving there June 17th. They descended the Great river as far as the mouth of the Arkansas. The narratives of this voyage and journey by Marquette have made the names of Joliet and Marquette immortal. 1674.-Joliet and Marquette, returning from their canoe voyage, came up the Missis sippiand Illinois rivers, made portage to Chicago, thence paddled down the shores of Lake Michigan, and in September were again at the St. Francis Xavier's mission. In October, 1674, Marquette started with two assistants to establish a mission at Kaskaskia, among the Illinois Indians. Paddling by way of Green Bay, they came to Sturgeon's Bay; thence he made the portage eastward across the peninsula, where the Sturgeon Bay ship canal now is, paddled up the lake to the mouth of the Chicago river, where they wintered on a sand dune near the shore, in much discomfort. In the spring they proceeded to the Illinois river and Kaskaskia. But a mortal sickness was on the intrepid Marquette; and he turned back to Mackinaw, to die among his brethren. He died on the journey, May 19th, of a dysen tery brought on by the hardships and privations he had suffered. He was buried at the mouth of a little stream on the Michigan side of the lake, some little distance south of the high point called the Sleeping Bear. 1679.-The great explorer, La Salle, appeared upon the scene, arriving at Green Bay early in September, in a schooner built at Niagara river above the falls, called the "Griffin," a rude figure of which monster graced the prow. Sending her back laden with furs, to satisfy his creditors at Quebec, he started with a party of fourteen men in canoes laden with forges, merchandise and arms, up the west shore of the lake. The voyage was one of great peril, as the lake was swept by gales. They were nearly swamped in landing. Touching at one of these landings and camps, at or near the present site of Milwaukee, in the bay of Milwaukee river (which the relation called the " Millioke "), they were visited by a band of Fox or Outagamie Indians who stole several articles from their camp. La Salle intrepidly went out, captured a young Indian and brought him into camp to hold as a hostage, and prepared to fight the Indians, six score strong. He then held a parley, induced them to restore the stolen property or make recompense. He then moved on up the lake coast. The same year a daring chief of the coureur du bois, Daniel Graysolon du Lhut (Duluth), explored the Upper Mississippi, taking special note of the Wisconsin and Black rivers. Visiting the Mille Lac Sioux, his party went with their band on a great buffalo hunt, below the St. Croix river on the Wisconsin side. 1680.- Hennepin, with two companions, Accau and DuGay, set out, under orders of LaSalle, to explore the Upper Mississippi. Leaving the mouth of the Illinois river, March 12th, he passed the mouth of the Wisconsin, and the site of Prairie du Chien. Below Lake Pepin the party were taken prisoners by the Sioux, and carried to the present site of St. Paul, thence to Mille Lacs. Kept here for two months, they were started with a party on a buffalo hunt. At the mouth of Rum river, Hennepin and DuGay were set at liberty, given a gun, knife, an earthen pot and a small canoe. They began their journey, descended the river into the Mississippi, passed the great falls, which Hennepin named the St. Anthony. Nearing the mouth of the Chippewa river, being driven by starvation, they ascended that river and joined a party of Sioux hunters, by whom they were roughly treated," but permitted to live. Du Lhut voyaged from Lake Superior to the Mississippi with a small party. He canoed up the Bois Brule, now a famous trout stream, midway between Bayfield and Superior, crossed over from its upper waters to the head waters of the Saint Croix, and descended that river into the Mississippi, He there heard of some white men with the Sioux, and pushing on found Hennepin and DuGay, with the Indian hunting party near the mouth of the Chippewa river. Rescuing the good Hennepin and his companion, the two parties returned to the Mille Lacs. That year, in his voyage up the river, Father Hennepin was the first white man to visit the fine prairie on this river, now Prairie du Chien. In autumn, Du Lhut and Hennepin drifted down to the mouth of the Wisconsin river, thence up that stream, they portaged across to the Fox, down which they paddled, and thence to Mackinaw. Du Lhut made several voyages of this kind later. 1683.- La Sueur passed the Fox and Wisconsin route, thence ascended the Mississippi to the Falls of St. Anthony. 1685.- Nicholas Perrot, a daring chief of the coureur du bois, whose previous explorations are above narrated, was appointed the "commandant of the west," with an "army" of twenty men. He came to Green Bay, and there met Indians from the west who told him of white men far to the southwest who lived in houses that "walked on the water," probably Spaniards. Ferrot, anxious for further discoveries, passed over the Fox-Wiscon sin route. He wintered on the east bank of the Mississippi, about a mile above the now village of Trempealeau. Afterwards he established several trading posts on the river, among them Fort St. Nicholas, the site of Prairie du Chien, and worked lead mines in Wisconsin opposite Dubuque. |