Hennepin now felt a desire to learn the language of his new family; but there was on both sides such a total ignorance, as did not leave him a single point from which to set out. At length he caught the word Tabetchiaben," How do you call this?" which served as a basis. As in answer to this he received the names of successive objects, he wrote them down upon paper,—an operation which, with others unintelligible to them, conveyed the idea of him as a supernatural being. They addressed him by the appellation of Spirit, and in unfavourable weather solicited a change, though he solemnly deprecated any such power. The paper, or white, as they called it, was imagined to be another Spirit, to whom he told and by whom he was reminded of every thing. They amused themselves with telling him long catalogues of the names of objects, always adding, "Spirit tell that to white." As they were naming all the parts of the different objects, they included some that were frivolous, and even indecent; and as they saw him omitting these, they called out, "Tell that to white too! Tell that to white too!" Their fear and veneration were especially excited by a round iron pot which the French had brought with them, as less brittle than earthen ware. It was tendered as a present to several whose favour it was desirable to gain ; but they repelled it with horror, believing it to be a malignant power, and would not even touch it, without having their hands well covered with beaver-skin. The women, not daring to sleep in the same house with it, took care to have it hung without doors, on the bough of a tree.

Winter now came on, and a severe scarcity of provisions affected the settlement, in which Hennepin very amply shared. Neither their tenderness for

him as a son, nor their veneration as a divinity, prevented them from giving him scarcely a sufficiency of food to keep soul and body together. His mothers had other children who came much closer to them, and to whom they were more inclined to give the little they could spare, than to this foreign and mysterious son. Hennepin at last was able to subsist only on roots and berries which he collected, without being able to make any very nice distinction whether they were palatable, or even wholesome.

This extreme want, without any means of supply, made it next to impossible for the savages to refuse to their captives permission to depart. Accordingly they sailed down the river Mississippi, meeting with various adventures, which, for brevity's sake, and because they have nothing very striking, are here omitted. They met, however, the Sieur de Luth, with a party, coming to inquire after them, and endeavour to form a settlement on the Mississippi. Hennepin turned back with them; but found so many obstacles, that he determined for the present to return to Canada.

During his residence among the savages, Hennepin made inquiry of some who came from the westward concerning the South Sea and the Strait of Anian, which had been one of La Salle's principal objects. Several assured him that they had come five hundred leagues from the westward, and had never found any great lake or sea, nor, consequently, any

VOL. I.

2 C

straits, and had heard of none such from any of their neighbours. There were only great rivers, traversing a boundless extent of plain, great part of which was destitute of wood. He concludes, therefore, that there is no Strait of Anian, and no separation between Asia and America. Although this last inference be so very erroneous, it was yet a natural one under Hennepin's circumstances. It was always hitherto supposed, that, if the South Sea bounded North America, it must be immediately behind the settlements formed by Europeans along the coast; nor was it ever imagined that the continent could stretch here to such an immense and continuous breadth as it actually does.

The many adverse events which had attended this expedition, deterred for some time any others from attempting to penetrate beyond the lakes. Indeed, the government seems never to have concerned itself to form a settlement in these vast interior regions of America, but left them to be explored by individuals animated by private adventure or religious zeal. Among the first, and one of the most conspicuous, was Baron La Hontan, a French gentleman of good family, who went out early to Canada, hoping to retrieve his paternal fortune, which had suffered by several misadventures. Being employed by government upon the lakes, he became so intimate with the savages, that the public, it appears, accused him of having become a savage himself; which, he insists, was doing him more honour than he deserved. However, this intimacy between him and the Indians led him to the scheme of penetrating deeper into their territories.

He formed the plan of an expedition to

those eastern regions beyond the Mississippi, which European enterprise had never till now contemplated. His object was to ascend that great tributary, which he calls Long, but which I apprehend to be that known under the name of Peter's River. He proceeded first to Lake Michigan, the general point of outset, and, descending the Oniscousin, found himself in the Mississippi. He passed successively through the country and numerous villages of the Eokoros, the Essanapes, and the Gnaczitares; but he is not celebrated for the genuineness of his names. Among these last he found himself beyond the range of the calumet of peace, that mystic and sacred symbol not being here understood. They appeared, however, the most polished Indians he had yet met with; their houses were well constructed, and their villages large. They were well acquainted by report with the Spaniards of New Mexico, with whom their wide wanderings brought them sometimes into contact. The French were here visited by a party of a people called Mozeemlik, who were said to be very powerful, and who pleased them by their grave and polite deportment. and polite deportment. They reported, that far to the west there was a great salt lake, about three hundred leagues in circumference, and with a wide opening to the south. In the interval there was a broad range of very high and steep mountains, which could not be crossed without great difficulty. From them rivers flowed,-on one side to the Mississippi, on the other towards the salt lake. These statements sufficiently authenticate the journey and information of La Hontan. The salt lake, a name which the Americans familiarly apply to the

sea, appears to be Queen Charlotte Sound, the river the Columbia, and the mountain-range evidently that of the Rocky Mountains. From the lake on which the Gnaczitares dwell, La Hontan descended in five weeks to the Mississippi. He went down that river as far as the Illinois; in ascending which he found the fort of Crevecœur still under the command of De Tonti, who, he says, was highly respected in that neighbourhood.

Among the missionary travellers the most eminent was Father Charlevoix. He made what may be termed the grand tour of interior America; proceeding up the St Lawrence through the lakes, and then down the Mississippi to New Orleans. As he was well attended, and effectually supported in a route now repeatedly traced, he met with few adventures; but he collected materials for the best published account, both of the very extensive dominions then possessed by France in America, and of the institutions and character of the Indian tribes. On the former subject his information is now superseded; but on the latter he will, in the following chapter, furnish us with a great part of the materials on which its information is to be founded.