country as large as the state of Massachusetts would scarcely embrace the various and widely separate localities which our latest maps and best geographies designate as the head-spring of the "Father of the Waters." As we are not aware that there has been published any connected narrative of the successive attempts which have been made to explore the Mississippi, and as a brief historical sketch of the order of discovery along this Ganges of the West cannot but prove acceptable to our readers, we shall lay before them, as succinctly as the matter will admit, the amount of what is known on this interesting subject.

It is now nearly three hundred years since the river Mississippi was first seen by any European.

The first authentic, or even probable account of a river answering the description of the river Mississippi, is to be found in a Narrative of the Expedition of Fernando de Soto against the Indians of Florida, written" by a Portugall gentleman of the noble and most loyall citie of Euora," in the year 1557, and translated into English by the well known Richard Hakluyt, prebendary of Westminster.* De Soto, according to Moreri, landed on the coast of Florida on the 25th of May, 1539, and travelling towards the west, in search of gold and silver, reached a river, near the banks of which he died, and into which he was thrown, in order to conceal his death from the Indians, who had been given to believe that the christians were immortal. There is every reason to believe that this was a part of the Red river not far from its junction with the Mississippi,t which De Soto had crossed a short time previous to his death, after having traced its course some distance upward and downward. At least, the following description of the Rio Grande, where De Soto and his party crossed it, taken from the (1686) translation of the Portuguese historian, answers very well to the Mississippi. "This river is the greatest of all Florida.

* It is worthy of enquiry, whether the "very great River Madalena," mentioned in Nunez's Relation of Narvaez's expedition into Florida, as having been crossed by that adventurer in August, 1528, be not the river Mississippi instead of the Brassos de Dios or Colorado, as some of the historians who speak of it suppose.

Charlevoix states expressly that De Soto died on the banks of the Mississippi, (vol. I. p. 24.) near the mouth of the Rio Colorado (vol. III. p. 434.) which is evidently the Red river of Louisiana, and not the Rio Colorado of the Province of Texas. The Mississippi is called the Cucagua by De Soto's historian Garcilasso de la Vega; and Tamaliseu, Tapatu, Mico, and Ri, at different points of its course, by the gentleman of Eluas.

Where we passed it, it was half a league over, so that a man could not be distinguished from one side to the other. It was very deep and very rapid, and being always full of trees and timber that was carried down by the force of the stream, the water was thick and very muddy." "The river at its month divides itself into two large branches, each of which are at least a league and half over." "The coast from the mouth of the river bears east and west to the river of Palms, whence it bears north and south to the river Panuco." The distance, too, from the mouth of the Great River to the mouth of the Panuco, corresponds to the distance from the Mississippi to Tampico; for the survivors of the expedition were fifty days in passing in canoes, after various stoppages and accidents, from one place to the other. Herrera's account is, however, not so consistent with this hypothesis. The Spaniards, he says, computed that the river was 15 leagues wide at the mouth, and thought that they had been at the very source of the river, down which they had descended at least 800 leagues. Both Herrera and the "gentleman of Eluas❞ declare that the river carries its waters, fresh, and free from all admixture with the ocean, for two days voyage into the gulf, a notion which prevailed with regard to the Mississippi as late as the time of Charlevoix.

We are informed by the Portuguese historian, and the account is confirmed by Herrera, that his successor, Luis de Moscoso, or Moscolo, as he is called by Moreri, went in canoes down the Mississippi, to the Gulf, and coasting its western shore, reached at last the harbour of Panuco. De Soto died on the 21st of May, 1542, so that we may safely state the year 1541 as the period of the earliest discovery of the Mississippi river. It is but proper to add, however, that the details given in the Narrative above spoken of, are vague and contradictory, and that little else can be depended upon, but the general inference, that this river was certainly seen by Europeans as early as the year we have just mentioned.*

There are various narratives of the adventures of De Soto and his followers in Florida. 1. A detailed but extremely improbable account is given by the Inca (as he called himself) Garcilasso de la Vega, in his History of the Conquest of Florida. 2. Herrera in his History of the Continent and Islands of America, also gives a minute description of the achievements of De Soto. 3. Hakluyt's translation of the Portuguese historian has been already mentioned. 4. In Vol. IV. of Samuel Purchas's Pilgrim there is likewise an account of De Soto's expedition. 5. "The Relation of the Invasion and Conquest of Florida by the Spaniards under the command of Fernando de Soto. Written in Portuguese by a Gentleman of the Town of Eluas. Now Englished, &e." was pub

In the year 1558, an expedition into that part of Florida which bordered on the Mississippi, was set on foot by Don Luis de Velasco, then Viceroy of Mexico; but the Spaniards, shortly after their arrival in that territory fell into feuds, and returned without making any discovery, or establishing any posts. Twenty years after the termination of De Soto's expedition, settlements began to be made along the coast of Florida; but it does not appear that any of the adventurers under Ribaut, Laudonniere, Menendez or De Gourgues were aware of the existence of the river Mississippi. In the year 1630, King Charles 1. granted to Sir Robert Heath, his Attorney General, a patent of all that part of America which lies between latitudes 310 and 36° north, and between the Atlantic on the east and the Pacific on the west. It does not appear by what title this extensive territory, which was by that grant erected into a province under the name of Carolana, originally vested in the sovereignty of England. Be this as it may, the premises defined in that grant, were conveyed, in the year 1638, to the Earl of Arundel, who was at some pains to establish settlements at several points on the Atlantic coast. None of the proprietors, however, seems to have known that his possessions were traversed by a magnificent river, and all knowledge of the country was confined to the coast of the eastern portion, known not long after under the name of Carolina. About the year 1655, the English had in their possession a map of Carolana, in which the principal rivers and Indian tribes were laid down, to the extent of more than two hundred miles square. At least, so it is stated in the description of Carolana by Daniel Coxe, who affirms, that the map was "still in being" at the time he wrote, (1727.) About this time, in the year 1654, if we are to believe the account given by the geographer Jefferys, the Mississippi was discovered by Col. Wood, of Virginia, who spent ten years, it seems, in tracing its course. He assures us, too, that it was seen in 1670, by Capt. Bolt, but does not give us his authority. Thus far our information is derived from sources more or less apocryphal; and the descent into the Mississippi by the way of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, undertaken and accomplished in the year 1673, by lished in London separately in duodecimo, 1686. 6. From these sources, or some of them, the geographer Jefferys appears to have made up his account of De Soto's expedition contained in his First Discovery and Natural History of Florida. 7. There is also a French History of the invasion of Florida, printed by Thierry, Paris, 1685, from which Moreri seems to have derived his information. Most of the above mentioned works are rather scarce, but the greater part of them are to be found in the New-York Historical Society Library.

Father Marquette and Mr. Joliet, must be considered as the date, if not of the discovery, as Charlevoix wishes to consider it, certainly of the first authentic description of this river and its tributary streams.

M. Talon, who preceded the Count de Frontenac in the Intendancy of Canada, has the honour of having projected this expedition. It had been long believed, on the report of the Indians, that to the west and south of Canada, there was to be found a mighty river, by some called Meshasipi, and by others Mississippi, which ran, as they expressed it, neither to the north nor to the east, and which, for that reason, was supposed to have communication with the Gulf of Mexico. Whatever may be said of the previous discoveries made by Spanish and other adventurers towards the mouth of this great river, certain it is, that they had not the remotest suspicion that the sources of this stream were to be found as far north as the latitude of the mouth of the river St. Lawrence. Marquette and Joliet appears at the same time to be totally unacquainted with the existence of any great river emptying into the Mexican Gulf. Relying only on the vague information they could procure from the natives, they set out from Green Bay in Lake Michigan, in the spring of the year 1673, ascended the Fox river, descended the Wisconsin, and on the 17th of June found themselves, according to their computation, on the Mississippi, in latitude 42° 30′ north. Marquette's journal, which is published along with the London edition of Hennepin's New Discoveries, is written with great simplicity and candour. Our readers will be pleased with a quotation from this journal, as the book in which it is contained is not easily procured. The party have passed the portage into the Wisconsin." This river is called Mesconsin: it is very broad, but the Sands make its Navigation difficult; and this difficulty is increased by an infinite number of Islands covered with Vines. The country through which it flows is very fine; the groves disposed at certain distances in the meadows, make a noble prospect; and the fruit of the trees discovers the fertility of the soil. Those groves are full of Walnut-trees, as also of Oaks, and of another sort of trees unknown to us in Europe, the boughs whereof are armed with long Thorns. We saw no other game in these meadows but abundance of Wild-Goats, and Wild-Bulls. Within thirty leagues of this place where we embarked, we found some Iron-Mines; and one of our company, who had formerly seen such mines, told us that these were extraordinary good: They are not above three foot deep, and are situate near a row of rocks, the foot whereof is covered with fine woods. After having rowed ten leagues further, that

is, forty leagues in all from the place where we embarked, we came into the Mississippi on the 17th of June. The mouth of the Mesconsin is about forty-two degrees and a half of latitude. The satisfaction I had to see this famous river, is almost incredible; for though the savages had often spoken of it to our men, none of them had been so bold as to venture so far in this unknown country.

"The Mississippi is formed by several Lakes in the Northcountry, from whence it runs to the South. Its channel is pretty narrow at the mouth of the Mesconsin, being straitened by a row of high mountains on the other side; but however, its stream is very gentle, because of its depth, for we found there nineteen fathom water. But a little below that place, it enlarges itself, and is about three quarters of a league broad. Its banks are very fine; but three days after, we discovered a much better country. The trees are higher, and the Islands so beautiful, that I verily believe there is nothing like it in the world. The meadows are covered with an infinite number of WildGoats and Bulls, and the river with Bustards and Swans without Wings, because their feathers fall in this country about that time. We saw extraordinary fishes, and one of them was so big, that our canoo was like to be broke into pieces, because it run against it. We saw also a very hideous Sea-monster; his head was like that of a Tyger; but his nose was somewhat sharper, and like a Wild-Cat; his beard was long; his ears stood upright, the colour of his head being grey, and the neck black. He looked upon us for some time; but as we came near him, our oars frighted him away: 'I his is the only one we saw. We caught abundance of Sturgeons, and another sort of fish somewhat like our Trouts, except that their eyes and nose are much lesser, and that they have near the nose a bone like a Woman's Busk, three inches broad, and a foot and an half long, the end whereof is flat and very broad, insomuch that when they leap out of the water, the weight of that bone makes them fall backwards. We saw also abundance of Turkey-Cocks on the banks of the river."

From this spot, they floated down the stream, and soon discovered the mouth of the Missouri, called by Marquette Pekitanoni. Proceeding downward, they fell in with several tribes of the Illonwaghs, (or Illinois, to use the French orthography,) who received them with open arms. Pursuing their route, they finally arrived at the mouth of the Arkansa, in latitude thirty-three, where their provisions beginning to fail, they conceived it prudent to return. Accordingly, having ascertained to their satisfaction that the river could only terminate in the Gulf, they went up the Missis