Mississippi to its mouth before La Salle. The whole book is a mere
plagiarism. See Sparks's _Life of La Salle_, where the vain father is
summarily and justly disposed of.

[60] Most of these dates may be found in Bancroft's _United States_, vol
iii.

[61] The legend of the Piasau is well known. Within the recollection of
men now living, rude paintings of the monster were visible on the cliffs
above Alton, Illinois. To these images, when passing in their canoes,
the Indians were accustomed to make offerings of maize, tobacco, and
gunpowder. They are now quite obliterated.

[62] June 10, 1673.

[63] I mean, of course, the upper Mississippi; for De Soto had reached
it lower down one hundred and thirty-two years before.

[64] It was announced, some months since, that our minister at Rome, Mr.
Cass, had made discoveries in that city which threw more light upon this
expedition. But how this can be, consistently with the fact stated in
the text (about which there is no doubt), I am at a loss to divine.

[65] The place of Marquette's landing--which should be classic
ground--from his description of the country, and the distance he
specifies, could not have been far from the spot where the city of
Keokuk now stands, a short distance above the mouth of the Des Moines.
The locality should, if possible, be determined.

[66] It was by virtue of a treaty of purchase--signed at Fort Stanwix on
the 5th of November, 1768--with the Six Nations, who claimed the country
as their conquest, that the British asserted a title to the country west
of the Alleghenies, Western Virginia, Kentucky, etc.

[67] The geographical mistakes of the early French explorers have led to
some singular discussions about Western history--have even been used by
diplomatists to support or weaken territorial claims. Such, for example,
is the question concerning the antiquity of Vincennes, a controversy
founded on the mistake noticed in the text. Vide _Western Annals_. 2d
Ed. Revised by J. M. Peck.

[68] In 1541, De Soto crossed the Mississippi about the thirty-fifth
parallel of latitude, or near the northern boundary of the state of that
name. It is not certain how far below this Marquette went, though we are
safe in saying that he did not turn back north of that limit.

[69] Bancroft's _History of the United States_, vol. iii., p. 161, _et
seq._, where the reader may look for most of these dates.

III.

THE PIONEER.

"I hear the tread of