t.

I found the Indians friendly, and having no apparent connection with the
movements of Black Hawk, although they are subject to an unpropitious
influence from the Hudson's Bay Company, the agents of which allure them
to carry their trade into that province. The American traders complain
of this with great reason. Many of the Chippewas visit the British posts
in Canada, and their old prejudices are kept alive in various ways; but
I was everywhere received with amity and respect.

_26th_. Having concluded my affairs at St, Peters, I determined to
return to the basin of Lake Superior, by ascending the river St. Croix
to its source, and passing across the portage of the Misakoda, or
Burntwood River, into the Fond du Lac Bay. This I accomplished with
great toil, owing to the low state of the water, in ten days; and, after
spending ten days more in traversing the lengthened shores and bays of
Lake Superior from _La Pointe_, returned to Sault St. Marie on the 14th
of August.

_Aug. 15th_. I had now accomplished the discovery of the true source of
the Mississippi River--and settled a problem which has so long remained
a subject of uncertainty in the geography of this celebrated river. If
De Soto began it (and of this there seems little question, for Narvaez
perished before reaching it), and Marquette and Joliet continued it; if
Hennepin and Pike and Cass carried these explorations higher, I, at
least, went to its remoter points, and thence traced the river to its
primary forks--ascended the one, crossed the heights of Itasca to the
other, and descended the latter in its whole length. This has been done
in a quiet way, without heralding or noise, but under the orders and at
the expense of the United States.

CHAPTER XLV.

Letter from a mother--Cholera--Indian war--Royal Geographical
Society--Determine to leave the Sault--Death of Miss Cass--Death of Rev.
Mr. Richard--Notice of the establishment of a Methodist Mission at
the--The Sault a religious place--Botany and Natural History--New
University organized--Algic Society--Canadian boat song--Chaplains in
the army--Letter from a missionary--Affairs at Mackinack--Hazards lake
commerce--Question of the temperance reform--Dr. D. Houghton--South
Carolina resists--Gen. Jackson re-elected President.

1832. _Aug. 25th_. To clear my table of the correspondence accumulated
during my absence, and report my proceedings to government, required my
first attention. Among the matte