the boat and appeared
greatly rejoiced to see me. I accompanied him to his quarters and saw
his family and some of the officers and ladies of the garrison, and then
he and I rode out 8 miles to the falls of St. Anthony. Though very
inferior to those of Niagara, they are still well worth seeing. The
scenery is wild--there are many immense rocks in the river, evidently
broken off from the precipice over which the water is dashed with
considerable noise--the water in its fall is frequently broken--but even
when it is not so, the height is not more than 17-1/2 feet. Returning we
went to a hill from whence we could see the whole of the fall for there
is an island in the middle of the river which hides one half of it when
you are near. A mile or two further brought us to a most beautiful and
lofty cascade on Nine Mile river. The quantity of water was not large,
but it fell amidst the wildest scene, unbroken, over a ledge of rock
which extended far beyond its foundation.--There were not many Indians.
The few I saw were Sioux who looked much degenerated by their contact
with the Whites. The families of the officers appeared very happy; the
ladies told me they were like sisters. For months they have no visitors
but wild Indians--Sioux or Chippeways. An old Scotchman who had been in
this country 50 years told me that all the tribes to the North and West
speak the Chippeway language or its dialects; that the Sioux is entirely
different from it, but that a dialect of it is spoken by the
Winnebagoes, with this difference that the Sioux language has not the
sound of the letter R in it while almost every word of the Winnebago
abounds with Rs. He thinks that a person knowing the two languages--the
C. and S. could travel through the indian country from Mexico to the N.
Pole and make himself understood.--We had to return to the boat by one
oclock, and soon after we started down the river. Near the Mouth of the
St. Croix--about 45 miles below St. Peters, I saw on a prairie a
large stone painted a bright red, to which the Indians offer sacrifices
of tobacco &c. and consider a _Wa-Kon_ or Spirit.--As we were on our
journey sunday afternoon I saw a bark canoe paddling towards us with
great rapidity containing as I first thought an Indian and a white Man.
The steamer was stopt, and soon the chattels (kettle, coffee-pot, &c)
then the men afterwards the boat itself were on board. They proved to be
a miner who had gone from Galena and a stout lad