s than they supposed; a mistake into which they must
have been led, by hearing of the incursions of the Iroquois; for even at
that early day they could not but know that the head-waters of the Ohio
were not distant from the hunting-grounds of that warlike confederacy.
Even this explanation, however, scarcely lessens our wonder that they
should have known so little of courses and distances; for had this river
been as short as it is here delineated, they would have been within four
hundred miles of Montreal.

After leaving the Ohio, they suffered much from the climate and its
incidents; for they were now approaching, in the middle of July, a
region of perpetual summer. Mosquitoes and other venomous insects (in
that region we might even call them _ravenous_ insects) became
intolerably annoying; and the _voyageurs_ began to think they had
reached the country of the terrible heats, which, as they had been
warned in the north, "would wither them up like a dry leaf." But the
prospect of death by torture and savage cruelty had not daunted them,
and they were not now disposed to be turned back by any excess of
climate. Arranging their sails in the form of awnings to protect them
from the sun by day and the dews by night, they resolutely pursued
their way.

Following the course of the river, they soon entered the region of
cane-brakes, so thick that no animal larger than a cat could penetrate
them; and of cotton-wood forests of immense size and of unparalleled
density. They were far beyond the limits of every Indian dialect with
which they had become acquainted--were, in fact, approaching the region
visited by De Soto, on his famous expedition in search of Juan Ponce de
Leon's fountain of youth.[68] The country was possessed by the Sioux and
Chickasaws, to whom the _voyageurs_ were total strangers; but they went
on without fear. In the neighborhood of the southern boundary of the
present state of Arkansas, they were met in hostile array by great
numbers of the natives, who approached them in large canoes made from
the trunks of hollow trees. But Marquette held aloft the symbol of
peace, the ornamented calumet, and the hearts of the savages were
melted, as the pious father believed, by the touch of God. They threw
aside their weapons, and received the strangers with rude but hearty
hospitality. They escorted them, with many demonstrations of welcome, to
the village of Michigamia; and, on the following day, having feasted
their s