ing as a kind of police, were continually haranguing the
throng, urging the people not to press too close, and not to be
troublesome. Many presents were made them of belts and scarfs woven
from hair and fur, and other small articles of Indian manufacture,
brilliantly colored and richly embroidered with shells. They had also
knee-bands and wrist-bands which were quite ornamental.

That night the guests slept in the wigwam of the chief. The next
morning they took leave of their generous entertainers. The chief
himself accompanied them to their canoes, followed by a retinue of
nearly six hundred persons.

We cannot record this friendly reception without emotion. How beautiful
is peace! How different would the history of this world have been but
for man's inhumanity to man!

CHAPTER II.

_The First Exploration of the Mississippi River._

River Scenery. The Missouri. Its Distant Banks. The Mosquito Pest.
Meeting the Indians. Influence of the Calumet. The Arkansas River. A
Friendly Greeting. Scenes in the Village. Civilization of the Southern
Tribes. Domestic Habits. Fear of the Spaniards. The Return Voyage.

Father Marquette and M. Joliet had astronomical instruments with which
they ascertained, with much accuracy, the latitude of all their
important stopping places. As they state that the two villages, which
they visited, were on the western side of the Mississippi, at the
latitude of forty degrees north, and upon the banks of a stream flowing
into the Great River, it is supposed that these villages were upon the
stream now called Des Moines, which forms a part of the boundary
between Iowa and Missouri. The Indians called the villages Pe-ou-a-sea
and Moing-wena. They were probably situated about six miles above the
present city of Keokuk.

It was three o'clock in the afternoon, of a day near the end of sunny,
blooming June, when our voyagers resumed their adventurous tour. Nearly
the whole tribe they had visited stood upon the bank to bid them adieu.
They floated along through a very dreary country of precipitous rocks
and jagged cliffs, which quite shut out from their view the magnificent
prairie region which was spread out beyond this barrier.

Upon the smooth surface of one of these rocks, apparently inaccessible,
they saw, with surprise, two figures painted in very brilliant colors
and with truly artistic outline. They thought that the painting would
have done honor to any European artist. The figures w