my pines which fringed the
stream, countless camp fires were gleaming. Men, women and children
were running about in all directions. Some were cooking the supper;
some, rearing frail shelters for the night. There was chattering and
bandied jokes and laughter. The proud warriors, despising any menial
employment, strutted about with lordly air.

Michael Ako was a most graceless fellow, and it was his influence which
had excluded Father Hennepin from the canoe. But Anthony Auguelle was
much more devoutly inclined. He was ashamed of their conduct. In the
evening he sought out Father Hennepin, and offered a poor excuse for
not receiving him into their canoe, saying it was so small and frail
that had three been in it, it would inevitably have been swamped. The
father was not deceived, though he accepted the apology.

After four days' paddling down the St. Francis River, the little fleet
reached its mouth, where it empties into the Mississippi. They crossed
to the west shore of the great river, and encamped upon an eminence
there. It was impossible for Father Hennepin to be very accurate in his
estimate of distances. He judged that they were then about twenty-four
miles above the Falls of St. Anthony.

At this spot there was a forest of birch trees, and suitable wood for
canoe frames. They had commenced the voyage with old canoes, which were
frail and decayed, and in which they could not safely launch forth upon
the turbulent flood of the Mississippi. The whole band consequently
encamped for several days upon this eminence, to construct new canoes.
The veteran hunters wandered through the forests and over the prairies,
to hunt stags, deer, and beaver. The larger boys and girls brought to
the encampment their arms full of birch bark, with carefully selected
twigs for frames. The experienced women, with nimble fingers, joined
the seams and fashioned the buoyant and graceful boat. All were busy.

But the hunters were unsuccessful. They brought in but little game. The
whole community was fed upon thin broth, and there was but little of
that. Father Hennepin, accompanied by Anthony Auguelle, in their great
hunger, wandered about searching for wild berries. They found but few,
and those which they ate often made them sick. The surly Michael Ako
refused to go with them.

The tribe of Indians encamped in July, 1680, upon the Upper Mississippi,
opposite the mouth of St. Francis River, numbered between four and five
hundred souls.