e Glazier]

CHAPTER XXXIX.

DISCOVERY OF THE SOURCE OF THE MISSISSIPPI.

Short rations.--Empty haversacks and depleted
cartridge-boxes.--Statement of Chenowagesic.--Captain Glazier's
diary.--Vivid description.--Coasting Itasca.--Chenowagesic
puzzled.--The barrier overcome.--Victory! the Infant
Mississippi.--Enthusiastic desire to see the source.--The goal
reached.--A beautiful lake.--The fountain head.--An American the
first white man to stand by its side.--Schoolcraft.--How he came
to miss the lake.--Appropriate ceremonies.--Captain Glazier's
speech.--Naming the lake.--Chenowagesic.--Military
honors.--"Three cheers for the explorer."

Captain Glazier had instructed his Indian guides to wake him early the
following morning, July twenty-second; but when he himself awoke at six
o'clock he found the remainder of the party still sound asleep, the
toilsome portages of the preceding day having completely exhausted them.
Rousing his companions, preparations were begun for breakfast, which
consisted of a small piece of bacon and one "flap-jack" each. But the
determination of the previous night had so inspirited all that the small
dimensions of the breakfast were scarcely noticed, and the conversation
turned upon the absorbing topic--would they discover a source of the
Mississippi other than Lake Itasca?

Chenowagesic again repeated his statement that there was another lake to
the south, which he called Pokegama, meaning, "a lake on the side of or
beyond another lake." This lake, he said, was smaller than Itasca, but
contributed to the latter through its largest inflowing stream. Captain
Glazier, therefore, instructed him to guide them to this lake and allow
them to make their own observations regarding it. Accordingly, breakfast
being over, the canoes were launched and the coasting of Itasca begun.

Captain Glazier's own account of the events succeeding this breakfast on
Schoolcraft Island is so clear, and his description brings so vivid a
picture before the eye of the reader, that it is only necessary to quote
the following passages from his diary for the reader to understand the
importance of the discovery which he made:

"Notwithstanding the fact that we were now confronted with empty
haversacks and depleted cartridge boxes my companions were still eager
to follow my lead in the work of exploration beyond Itasca, which from
the beginning had been the controlling incenti