great river that divided itself in two," and
was called "the Forked River," because "it had two branches, the one
toward the west, the other toward the south, . . . toward Mexico."
These people were the Mandans or Omahas, or Iowas, or other people of
the Missouri.[13]

A whole world of discoveries lay before them. In what direction should
they go? "We desired not to go to the north till we had made a
discovery in the south," explains Radisson. The people of the fire
refused to accompany the explorers farther; so the two "put themselves
in hazard," as Radisson relates, and set out alone. They must have
struck across the height of land between the Mississippi and the
Missouri; for Radisson records that they met several nations having
villages, "all amazed to see us and very civil. The farther we
sojourned, the delightfuller the land became. I can say that in all my
lifetime I have never seen a finer country, for all that I have been in
Italy. The people have very long hair. They reap twice a year. They
war against the Sioux and the Cree. . . . It was very hot there. . . .
Being among the people they told us . . . of men that built great
cabins and have beards and have knives like the French." The Indians
showed Radisson a string of beads only used by Europeans. These people
must have been the Spaniards of the south. The tribes on the Missouri
were large men of well-formed figures. There were no deformities among
the people. Radisson saw corn and pumpkins in their gardens. "Their
arrows were not of stone, but of fish bones. . . . Their dishes were
made of wood. . . . They had great calumets of red and green
stone . . . and great store of tobacco. . . . They had a kind of drink
that made them mad for a whole day." [14] "We had not yet seen the
Sioux," relates Radisson. "We went toward the south and came back by
the north." The _Jesuit Relations_ are more explicit. Written the
year that Radisson returned to Quebec, they state: "Continuing their
wanderings, our two young Frenchmen visited the Sioux, where they found
five thousand warriors. They then left this nation for another warlike
people, who with bows and arrows had rendered themselves redoubtable."
These were the Crees, with whom, say the Jesuits, wood is so rare and
small that nature has taught them to make fire of a kind of coal and to
cover their cabins with skins of the chase. The explorers seem to have
spent the summer hunting antelope, b