Note I-66 — Chapter I · ITINERARY: ST. LOUIS TO ST. PAUL, AUGUST 9TH-SEPTEMBER 21ST, 1805.

That much-named river, whereto hangs a tale of great length. Pike here has the right name of it, though it is now usually called Cannon r., by perversion of the French Rivière aux Canots: Cano, Canot, Canon, Canow r. of various writers; Riviere au Canon, Canoe r., Cannon r., Pike, passim; Canon r., Long's map; Eamozindata or High Rock r., Long's text, 1824, I. p. 263; Inyan Bosndata r., Natural Obelisk r., Standing Rock r., Lahontan r., Cannon r., Nicollet, text and map. It is commonly supposed that the stream marked R. aux Raisins on Franquelin's map of 1688 is this river, and I see no objection to this identification; for though the name is suspiciously like a mistake for R. aux Racines, the river is laid down as above the Chippewa, and can hardly have been intended for Root r. The main question is whether R. Morte and R. Longue (Long r.), Lahontan, 1686-87, are names to be added to the synonyms of this stream. The Baron Lahontan, "Lord Lieutenant of the French colony at Placentia in Newfoundland," gives an account of himself on the Miss. r. in Letter XVI. of his book, pp. 104-141 of the English ed., Lond., 1735. This letter is "Dated at Missilimakinac, May 28th, 1689, containing an Account of the Author's Departure from, and Return to Missilimackinac. A Description of the Bay of Puante, and its Villages. An Ample Description of the Beavers; followed by the journal of a remarkable Voyage upon the Long River, and a Map of the adjacent Country." According to this relation Lahontan came by the Fox-Wisconsin route to Prairie du Chien Oct. 23d, 1686, thus hard upon the heels of Accault's party, who had Hennepin along: "On the 3d [of Nov.] we entered the Mouth of the Long River, which looks like a lake full of Bull-rushes; we found in the middle of it a narrow Channel," etc. He continued his journey, on paper if not on the river, and returned to the Mississippi Mar. 2d, 1687; dropped down to the Missouri Mar. 17th; went up the Missouri to the Osage r.; down the Missouri to the Mississippi again Mar. 25th; down the Mississippi to the Wabash, and back up to the Illinois Apr. 7th; up the Illinois to Fort Crêvecœur Apr. 16th; arrived at "Chekakou" Apr. 24th; and made Michilimackinac soon afterward. The whole crux of Lahontan's relation is in his Long r., which he professes to have ascended a great distance to the countries of the Eororos, Esanapes, and Gnacsitares, where he also got wind of equally peculiar people called Mozeemlek and Tahuglauk. The main feature of his map is the "Morte or River Longue," represented as larger than that portion of the Mississippi which he traces, and as heading in a great lake which connects across high mountains by numerous large streams with another great river which runs off his map due W. De te fabula narratur. But there is nothing to forbid us to suppose that Lahontan went up to or toward, or even ascended, some such stream as Cannon r., and then simply tacked this on to St. Peter's r. by hearsay. We must in justice observe that all he professes to know about Long r. above the point he says he ascended it he acknowledges he got from the natives; and he is careful to separate his map into two parts by a heavy line lettered "The Division of the Two Maps," i. e., his own and one "drawn upon Stag-skins by ye Gnacsitares." Such a piece of patch-work would easily make his Long r. out of Cannon or some similar stream, run on to the whole course of St. Peter's above the Mankato or Blue Earth r. Fortunately we have little to do with the Baron's crazy-quilt, but I must here quote Nicollet, because he sees reason to believe that Lahontan really did ascend Cannon r., and has signalized his conclusion by naming it Lahontan r. on his map. Though the gentle Nicollet's quality of mercy was never strained, yet his judgments, even his special pleadings, deserve always the most respectful consideration. Nicollet says, in substance, Rep. pp. 20, 21, that he was forced to this conclusion after surveying the Undine region; that the principal statements of the Baron "coincided remarkably well with what I have laid down as belonging to Cannon river.... His account, too, of the mouth of the river is particularly accurate"; the objection that the Baron says that he navigated Long r. in November and December, when it is usually frozen, is in part overcome by the fact that it is one of the last to freeze, and the last resort of the wild fowl; and while he must convict the Baron of "gross exaggeration of the length of the river," of its numerous population, and other pretended information, he would conclude "that if La Hontan's claims to discoveries are mere fables, he has had the good fortune or the sagacity to come near the truth." As this musty old straw has never been threshed over to find any more grains of wheat in it than Nicollet believed he had garnered, no one else is likely in the future to make more of it than this; and our alternative seems to be to accept Nicollet's results, or noll. pros. the whole case. I incline to the former, partly from my habitual inclination to account for as many historical names as possible, partly because I have so much confidence in Nicollet. It does not seem to have occurred to him that his view of the case would be strengthened by the original though probably not new suggestion I have made, to the effect that fables of the St. Peter, tacked on to some facts of Cannon r., would explain Lahontan's Long r.