hen Franklin Pierce.
Old Flat-mouth, the chief, presented the case. Paul Beaulieu interpreted
it so feelingly that the president surrendered without a contest. After
informing him as to the disputed point, he added:

"Father, you are great and powerful. You live in a beautiful
home where the bleak winds never penetrate. Your hunger is
always appeased with the choicest foods. Your heart is kept warm
by all these blessings, and would bleed at the sight of distress
among your red children. Father, we are poor and weak. We live
far away in the cheerless north, in bark lodges. We are often
cold and hungry. Father, what we ask is to you as nothing, while
to us it is comfort and happiness. Give it to us, and when you
stand upon your grand portico some bright winter night, and see
the northern lights dancing in the heavens, it will be the
thanks of your red children ascending to the Great Spirit for
your goodness to them."

Carver seems to have been a sagacious observer and a man of great
foresight. In speaking of the advantages of the country, he says that
the future population will be "able to convey their produce to the
seaports with great facility, the current of the river from its source
to its entrance into the Gulf of Mexico being extremely favorable for
doing this in small craft. This might also in time be facilitated by
canals, or short cuts, and a communication opened with New York by way
of the Lakes."

He was also impressed with the idea that a route could be discovered by
way of the Minnesota river, which "would open a passage for conveying
intelligence to China and the English settlements in the East Indies."

The nearest to a realization of this theory that I have known was the
sending of the stern-wheeled steamer "Freighter" on a voyage up the
Minnesota to Winnipeg some time in the early fifties. She took freight
and passengers for that destination, but never reached the Red River of
the North.

After the death of Carver his heirs claimed that, while at the great
cave on the 1st of May, 1767, the Indians made him a large grant of
land, which would cover St. Paul and a large part of Wisconsin, and
several attempts were made to have it ratified by both the British and
American governments, but without success. Carver does not mention this
grant in his book, nor has the original deed ever been found. A copy,
however, was produced, and as it was the first real es