e St. Lawrence in promise, and that was
the Mississippi. The two rivers are essentially different in their
approaches and in type. The mouth of the St. Lawrence opens directly
towards Europe and of all American rivers lies nearest to the seafaring
peoples of Europe. Since it flows chiefly in a rocky bed, its course
changes little; its waters are clear, and they become icy cold as they
approach the sea and mingle with the tide which flows into the great
Gulf of St. Lawrence from the Arctic regions. The Mississippi, on the
other hand, is a turbid, warm stream, flowing through soft lands. Its
shifting channel is divided at its mouth by deltas created from the
vast quantity of soil which the river carries in its current. On the
low-lying, forest-clad, northern shore of the Gulf of Mexico it was not
easy to find the mouth of the Mississippi by approaching it from the
sea. The voyage there from France was long and difficult; and, moreover,
Spain claimed the lands bordering on the Gulf of Mexico and declared
herself ready to drive out all intruders.

Nature, it is clear, dictated that, if France was to build up her power
in the interior of the New World, it was the valley of the St. Lawrence
which she should first occupy. Time has shown the riches of the lands
drained by the St. Lawrence. On no other river system in the world is
there now such a multitude of great cities. The modern traveler who
advances by this route to the sources of the river beyond the Great
Lakes surveys wonders ever more impressive. Before his view appear
in succession Quebec, Montreal, Toronto, Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit,
Chicago, Duluth, and many other cities and towns, with millions
in population and an aggregate of wealth so vast as to stagger the
imagination. Step by step had the French advanced from Quebec to the
interior. Champlain was on Lake Huron in 1615, and there the Jesuits
soon had a flourishing mission to the Huron Indians. They had only to
follow the shore of Lake Huron to come to the St. Mary's River bearing
towards the sea the chilly waters of Lake Superior. On this river, a
much frequented fishing ground of the natives, they founded the mission
of Sainte Marie du Saut. Farther to the south, on the narrow opening
connecting Lake Huron and Lake Michigan, grew up the post known as
Michilimackinac. It was then inevitable that explorers and missionaries
should press on into both Lake Superior and Lake Michigan. By the time
that Frontenac c