EXPEDITIONS FOR ITS DISCOVERY.

203

were well acquainted with the ramification of lakes on Les Hauteurs des Terres long before his visit. Its discovery had been attempted by United States expeditions many years previously. Lieutenant Pike, of the United States army, started on snow shoes from Sandy Lake in 1805, but only succeeded in reaching Leech Lake; and Governor Cass, now a veteran of the United States Senate, was appointed to command an exploring expedition to the head waters of the Mississippi, with the additional object of enforcing, by a military display, the allegiance of the Indians to the United States-of prohibiting the introduction of spirituous liquors-and of inducing the tribes to transfer those commercial relations which they had been accustomed to maintain with the English traders, to those of the American Company;

-a step they had hitherto shown themselves very unwilling to take. At Sandy Lake this demonstration was made, and Governor Cass hoisted here the stars and stripes-made a depôt of his heavy supplies -left with him his military escort and part of his French canoemen and proceeded with light canoes and a select party to ascend the river. The trading fort at that time consisted of a stockade of squared pine timber thirteen feet high, and facing an area of a hundred feet square, with bastions pierced for musketry at the south-east and north-west angles. It enclosed two ranges of buildings. Cass and his party only succeeded in discovering a few more little lakes. Schoolcraft calculates the number of lakes

204

TWO CLASSES OF LAKES.

between Sandy Lake and the northern frontier at about ten thousand. They fall principally under two classes those with clean sandy shores and a considerable depth, and those with marshy margin and abounding in wild rice. The former yield various species of fish; the latter serve not only as a storehouse of grain for the natives, who gather it in August and September, but they invite myriads of waterfowl into the region, and thus prove a double resource to them.

CHAPTER XVIII.

EARLY TRADERS-COUREURS DES BOIS-CHIPPEWAYS.

BEFORE daylight on the following morning the missionary came off to us with letters. As means of communication with civilisation were somewhat rare, he was glad to avail himself of the opportunity which we afforded. We did not get away so early as usual, as the voyageurs had slipped across to the mainland during the night, and did not make their appearance until the sun was far up in the heavens. A sluggish winding river connects Sandy Lake with the Mississippi; and we were delighted to see some wild ducks, although we did not succeed in bagging any. We passed a deserted trading post and village, where Le Fêve told us he had formerly lived. Its present condition was significant of the change which the country was gradually undergoing; and as our voyageur looked with a melancholy interest at the scene of some of his former trading exploits, it recalled to mind those associations which connect the early history of the North-west with the remarkable men of whom Le Fêve and Cadot were the descendants.

206

MICHAEL AKO, AND PICARD DU GAY.

The first men who attempted to engage in trade with the Dakotahs were those who accompanied Father Hennepin upon his voyage of discovery to the Upper Mississippi. In looking through the annals of the Minnesota Historical Society, I find their names given, and they are worthy of being recorded as Michael Ako and Picard du Gay. In 1680 these men visited Mille Lacs, the Spirit Lake of the Dakotahs, with an outfit of a hundred and eighty dollars, furnished by the enterprising La Salle, and remained in captivity there for two months. On their return they met the Sieur de Luth, who afterwards performed the journey in which we were now engaged, and who was the first white man to come by way of Lake Superior to the Upper Mississippi. As yet, however, no trading posts had been established among the Sioux, and it was reserved for Nicholas Perrot to erect a fort for trading purposes upon the shores of Lake Pepin, a short distance below St Paul. He and his comrades are those who, Dakotah tradition asserts, gave seed and corn to the nation; through their influence the Dakotahs began to be led away from the rice-grounds of the Mille Lacs region. His first interview with them is thus described: "The Dakotahs first met with white men while on the war-path far in the south. The war party was a large one, and the white men with whom they met were few. The Dakotahs were penetrated with fear, and felt reverence for the white men, similar to that which they feel for the gods. The white men were also agitated with