THE OHIO VALLEY-GREAT LAKES ETHNOHISTORY ARCHIVES: THE MIAMI COLLECTION
It is noted that the following work from the Miami Archives should be read and considered within the historical context in which it was composed and printed. The opinions expressed and the language used do not reflect the opinions or standards of the Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology, but are, rather, indicative of thought in that historical moment during which the document was published.

(page 50)

On the 10th of October, having left Meliwarik early in the morning, we arrived in good season at Kipikawi,¹⁶ which is about eight leagues from it. There we parted with Mr. de Vincennes's party, who continued their course towards the Miamis. Some Indians had led us to suppose that we might (page 51) ascend by this river, and that after making a portage of about nine leagues, we could descend by another river called Pistrui,(see fn. 17) which empties into the River of the Illinois about twenty-five or thirty leagues from Chikagu.(see fn. 18) We avoided this river, which is about twenty leagues in length up to the portage. It passes through quite pleasant prairies, but as there was no water in it, we judged sagely too that there would not be in the Bestikwi, and that instead of shortening our way, we should have had to make nearly forty leagues of the way as a portage. This obliged us to take the route of Chicagu, (page 52) which is about twenty-five leagues from it. We remained five days at Kipikuskwi.

We left it on the 17th, and after having been detained by wind the 18th and 19th, we cabined on the 20th five leagues from the Chicaqw. We should have reached it early on the 21st, but the wind, which suddenly sprung up from the lake, obliged us to land half a league from Apkaw.(see fn. 19) We had considerable difficulty in getting ashore and saving our canoes. We had to throw everything into the water. This is a thing which you must take good care of along the lakes, and especially on [Lake] Michigan, (the shores of which are very flat) to land soon when the water swells from the lake, for the breakers get so large in a short time that the canoes are in risk of going to pieces and losing all on board; several travellers have already been wrecked there. We went by land, Mr. de Montigny, Davion and myself, to the house of (page 53) the Reverend Jesuit Fathers, our people staying with the baggage. We found there Rev. Father Pinet(see fn. 21) and Rev. Father Buinateau, who had recently come in from the Illinois and were slightly sick.

I cannot explain to you, Monseigneur, with what cordiality and marks of esteem these reverend Jesuit Fathers received and caressed us during the time that we had the consolation of staying with them. Their house is built on the banks of the small lake, having the lake on one side and a fine large prairie on the other. The Indian village is over 150 cabins, and one league on the river there is another village almost as large. They are both of the Miamis. Rev. Father Pinet makes it his ordinary residence except in winter, when the Indians all go hunting, and which he goes and spends at the Illinois. We saw no Indians there, they had already started for their hunt. If we may judge of the future by the little while that Father Pinet has been on this mission, we may say that God Blesses the labors and zeal of this holy missionary. There will a great number of good and fervent Christians there. It is true that little fruit is produced there in those who have grown up and hardened in debauchery, but the children are baptized and even the medicine men, most opposed to (page 54) Christianity, allow their children to be baptized. They are even very glad to have them instructed. Many girls already grown up and many young boys are being instructed, so that it may be hoped that when the old stock dies off there will be a new Christian people.

On the 24th of October, the wind having fallen, we made our canoes come with all our baggage, and perceiving that the waters were extremely low we made a cache on the shore and took only what was absolutely necessary for our voyage, reserving until spring to send for the rest, and we left in charge of it Brother Alexander, who consented to remain there with Father Pinet's man, and we started from Chicaqw on the 29th and put up for the night about two leagues off, in the little river which is then lost in the prairies. The next day we began to portage, which is about three leagues long when the water is low, and only a quarter of a league in the spring, for you embark on a little lake that empties into a branch of the river of the Illinois,(see fn. 23) and when the waters are low you have to make a portage to that branch. We made half our portage that day, and we should have made some progress further, when we perceived that a little boy whom we had received from Mr. de Muys, (page 55) having started on alone, although he had been told to wait, had got lost without any one paying attention to it, all hands being engaged. We were obliged to stop and look for him. All set out, we fired several guns, but could not find him. It was a very unfortunate mishap, we were pressed by the season and the waters being very los, we saw well that being obliged to carry our effects and our canoe it would take us a great while to reach the Illinois. This made us part company, Mr. de Montigny, de Tonty and Davion, continued the portage next day, and I with four other men returned to look for this little boy, and on my way back I met Fathers Pinet and Buinateau who were going with two Frenchmen and one Indian to the Illinois. We looked for him again all that day without being able to find him. As next day was the feast of All Saints this obliged me to go and pass the night at Chikagou with our people, who having heard mass and performed their devotions early, we spent all that day too looking for that little boy without being able to get the least trace. It was very difficult to find him in the tall grass, for the whole country is prairies; you meet only some clumps of woods. As the grass was high we durst (page 56) not let fire to it for fear of burning him. Mr. de Montigny had told me not to stay over a day, because the cold was becoming severe; this obliged me to start after giving Brother Alexander directions to look for him and to take some of the French who were at Chicag8.

I set out the second of November in the afternoon, made the portage, and slept at the river of the Illinois: we went down the river to an island. During the night we were surprized to see an inch of snow and the next day the river frozen in several places, yet we had to break the ice and drag the canoe, because there was no water; this forced us to leave our canoe and go in search of Mr. de Montigny, whom we overtook next day, the 5th of the month, at Stag Island (Isle aux Cerfs). They had already made two leagues portage, and there were still four to make to Monjolly, which we made in three days and arrived on the 8th, of the month. From Isle a la Cache to Monjolly is the (page 57) space of seven leagues. You must always make a portage, there being no water in the river except in the spring. All along this river is very agreeable. It is prairies skirted by hills and very fine woods, where there are numbers of deer as well as on the river. There is an abundance of game of all kinds, so that one of our men strolling around after making the portage, killed enough to give us a plentiful supper and breakfast next morning. Monjolly is a mound of earth in the prairie, on the right as you go down, slightly elevated, about thirty feet. The Indians say that at the time of a great deluge one of their ancestors escaped, and that this little mountain is his canoe which he turned over there. On leaving Monjolly we made about two leagues to another little portage of about a quarter of a league. As one of our men, named Charbonneau, had killed several turkeys and geese in the morning and a deer, we did well to give somewhat of a treat to our people and let them rest for a day.

On the 10th we made the little portage and found half a league of water, and then two men towed the canoe for a league; the rest marched on land, each with his pack, and we embarked for the space of a league and a half and stopped for the night at a little portage, five or six arpens off.

On the 11th, after making the little portage, we came to the river Tealike, which is the real river (page 58) of the Illinois; that which we had descended being only a branch. We put all our affairs in the canoe, which two men towed, while Mr. de Tonty and we with the rest of our men marched on land, always through beautiful prairies. We arrived at the village of the Peanzichias Miamis who formerly dwelt on the ______ of the Mississippi and who some years since came and settled in this place. There was no one in the village, all having gone out hunting. We went that day to halt near Massacre, which is a little river that empties into the river of the Illinois.(see fn. 29) It was from this day that we began to have buffalo, and the next day two of our men killed four, but these animals are lean at this season, they contented themselves with taking the tongues. These cattle seem to me larger than ours; they have a hump on the back, the legs are very short, the head very large and so covered with long hair, that it is said a ball cannot penetrate it. We afterwards saw them almost every day during our voyage to the Akanseas.

After having to carry our baggage for three days, and put it all together in the canoe, the river being low and full of rocks, we arrived on the 15th of November at the place called the Old Fort. It is a rock which is on the bank of the river about a hundred feet high, where Mr. de la Salle built a (page 59) fort which he abandoned.(see fn. 30)
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16 I do not find this name of Kipikawi or Kipikuskwi elsewhere. The river is evidently that emptying into the Lake at Racine, and this route was up the Root River and then by a portage across to the Fox, or Pish- (page 51(fn)) taka (Bestikwi) river, which they descended to the Illinois. The names in this memoir have suffered greatly in transcription, and the copyist seems to have been especially bothered by the 8, which he replaces by vv or w, and sometimes by r and k. As a vowel it corresponds to the English oo (French ou) as a consonant to w.

17 Joutel on his map gives the name of Petescouy to this river, and Charlevoix (Hist. de la Nouvelle France, Vol. III, p. 380.) mentions it as the Pisticoui; it is now called the Fox or Pishtaka or Pistakee, and a lake on its source is also still called Pistakee.

18 The party made their way to Chicago, where they found a Jesuit Miami mission. The mission of St. Joseph's has been usually supposed to have been on the St. Joseph's river from the first. Chicago was from a very early date a place of importance, as one of the routes to the Mississippi. Perrot is said to have visited it in 1671, but this is only an inference of Charlevoix, not borne out by the manuscript of Perrot, to which he refers. Marquette and Joliet passed by it on their return from their exploration of the Mississippi. Marquette passed a winter there subsequently. Allouez took the same route in 1677. La Salle on his second journey to the Illinois went by the way of Chicago, Joutel and Cavelier, the author of the preceeding Journal, were at Chicago in 1687-8, and La Hontan the next year came back from the Mississippi by the same route. After the present author Charlevoix describes the line of travel by Chicago, and the portage is called Portage aux Chenes, on De l'Isle's map of Louisiana (circa 1717) the Desplaines is called the Chicago.

19 This name is inexplicable. They certainly stopped at Chicago, and the name may have been a transcriber's blunder for cette place, that place.

21 Father Francis Pinet was the founder of the Tamarois mission and died there about 1704.

23 Mud Lake, which empties into the Desplaines, and called by the voyageurs Le petit Lac. See note, p. 51.

29 The Iroquois River, Charlevoix tells us (Hist. de la Nouvelle France, vol. III, p. 380), was so called because an Iroquois war party was there surprised and cut to pieced by the Illinois, but the present Iroquois is a branch of the Kankakee about the Desplaines.

30 Rockfort