ille Lac region." The Songaskicons (Sissetons) were at that time
located on the Des Moines river (in Iowa), and the Houetabons
(Ouadebatons) at and around Big Stone Lake. The Isantees occupied the
region lying between the mouth of the Minnesota River and Spirit Lake
(Mille Lacs) with their principal village--_Kathaga_--where the city of
Minneapolis now stands. These facts account for the "one hundred and
twenty leagues" as distances were roughly reckoned by the early French
explorers.

September 1, 1678, Daniel Greysolon DuLuth, a native of Lyons, France,
left Quebec to explore the country of the Dakotas. "The next year (1679)
on the 2nd day of July, he caused the king's arms to be planted in the
great village of the Nadouessioux (Dakotas) called Kathio" (_Kathaga_)
"where no Frenchman had ever been, also at the Songaskicons and
Houetabons, one hundred and twenty leagues distant from the former. * *
* * On this tour he visited Mille Lacs, which he called Lake Buade, the
family name of Frontenac, governor of Canada." _Neill''s History of
Minnesota_, p. 122. This is correct, except the name of the
village--_Kathio_, which is a misprint or perhaps an error of a copyist.
It should be _Kathaga_. DuLuth was again at the Falls of St. Anthony in
1680 and returned to Lake Superior via the Mississippi, Rum River and
Mille Lacs, according to his own dispatches.

Franquelin's "_Carte de la Louisiane_" printed at Paris A.D. 1684, from
information derived from DuLuth, who visited France in 1682-3, and
conferred with the minister of the Colonies and the minister of
Marine--shows the inaccuracy, as to points of compass at least, of the
early French explorers. According to this map, Lake Buade (Mille Lacs)
lies north-west of Lake Superior and Lake Pepin lies due west of it.

DuLuth was afterward appointed to the command of Fort Frontenac near
Niagara Falls, and died there in 1710. The official dispatch from the
Governor of Canada to the French Government is, as regards the great
explorer, brief and expressive--"Captain DuLuth is dead. He was an
honest man."

To Daniel Greysolon DuLuth, and not to Father Hennepin, whom he rescued
from his captors at Mille Lacs, belongs the credit of the first
exploration of Minnesota by white men.

Father Hennepin was a self-conceited and self-convicted liar. Daniel
Greysolon DuLuth "was an honest man."

NOTES TO THE SEA-GULL

[1] _Kay-oshk_ is the Ojibway name for the sea-gull.

[2] _G