62, Sauks and Foxes, 700 warriors (Gorrell,
Wis. Hist. Colls., I., 32). This, it must be observed, was after the Fox
wars.]

[Footnote 74: Jes. Rels., 1670; Butterfield's Discovery of the
Northwest.]

[Footnote 75: In 1820 those in Wisconsin numbered about 600 hunters.]

[Footnote 76: On these Indians consult, besides authorities already
cited, Shea's Discovery, etc. lx.; Jes. Rels.; Narr. and Crit. Hist. of
Amer., IV., 168-170, 175; Radisson's Voyages; Margry, IV., 586-598.]

[Footnote 77: Jes. Rels., 1666-7.]

[Footnote 78: Jes. Rels., 1670.]

PERIODS OF THE WISCONSIN INDIAN TRADE.

The Indian trade was almost the sole interest in Wisconsin during the
two centuries that elapsed from the visit of Nicolet in 1634 to about
1834, when lead-mining had superseded it in the southwest and land
offices were opened at Green Bay and Mineral Point; when the port of
Milwaukee received an influx of settlers to the lands made known by the
so-called Black Hawk war; and when Astor retired from the American Fur
Company. These two centuries may be divided into three periods of the
trade: 1. French, from 1634 to 1763; 2. English, from 1763 to 1816; 3.
American, from 1816 to 1834.

FRENCH EXPLORATION IN WISCONSIN.

Sagard,[79] whose work was published in 1636, tells us that the Hurons,
who traded with the French, visited the Winnebagoes and the Fire Nation
(Mascoutins),[80] bartering goods for peltries. Champlain, the famous
fur-trader, who represented the Company of the Hundred Associates,[81]
formed by Richelieu to monopolize the fur trade of New France and govern
the country, sent an agent named Jean Nicolet, in 1634,[82] to Green bay
and Fox river to make a peace between the Hurons and the Winnebagoes in
the interests of inter-tribal commerce. The importance of this phase of
the trade as late as 1681 may be inferred from these words of Du
Chesneau, speaking of the Ottawas, and including under the term the
Petun Hurons and the Chippeways also: "Through them we obtain beaver,
and although they, for the most part, do not hunt, and have but a small
portion of peltry in their country, they go in search of it to the most
distant places, and exchange for it our merchandise which they procure
at Montreal." Among the tribes enumerated as dealing with the Ottawas
are the Sioux, Satiks, Pottawattomies, Winnebagoes, Menomonees and
Mascoutins--all Wisconsin Indians at this time. He adds: "Some of these
tribes occasionall