that agitated the minds of these first of Frenchmen to gaze on the ‘Father of Waters,’ [Footnote:  It is thought possible that in 1658-59 Pierre Esprit Radisson and Medard Chouart des Groseilliers crossed the Mississippi while hunting furs in the country west of Lake Superior; but there is an element of doubt as to this.  Save for the Spaniards, Jolliet and Marquette were the first white men on the Mississippi, so far as known.] questions that were not to be laid at rest until La Salle, nine years later, toiled down the river and from its mouth viewed the wide expanse of the Gulf of Mexico.

After a brief rest the party launched their canoes and for over a week drifted downward with the current, anchoring their canoes in mid-stream at night for fear of an attack by hostile Indians.  But during this time they saw no human beings; the only living things that caught their eyes as they sped past forest and plain were the deer browsing along the banks, the birds circling overhead, and immense herds of buffalo moving like huge armies over the grassy slopes.  At length they reached a village of friendly Illinois, and here they were feasted on fish, dog, and buffalo meat, and spent the balmy midsummer night in the open, sleeping on buffalo robes.  While at this village, Marquette, who had a rare gift of tongues, addressed the Illinois in Algonquin, and thus preached the Gospel for the first time to the Indians of the Mississippi.  Here their hosts warned them of the dangers they were going to—­death from savages or demons awaited them in the south—­and presented them with a calumet as a passport to protect them against the tribes below.

After leaving this village the explorers came upon a ‘hideous monster,’ a huge fish, the appearance of which almost made them credit the stories of the Indians.  According to Marquette:  ’His head was like that of a tiger, his nose was sharp, and somewhat resembled a wildcat; his beard was long, his ears stood upright, the colour of his head was grey, and his neck black.’  Onward swept the explorers past the mouth of the Illinois.  A few miles above the present city of Alton they paused to gaze on some high rocks on which fabulous creatures were pictured.  ‘They are,’ wrote Marquette in his narrative, ’as large as a calf, with head and horns like a goat; their eyes red; beard like a tiger’s, and a face like a man’s.  Their tails are so long that they pass over their heads and between their forelegs, under the belly, and ending like a fish’s tail.  They are painted red, green, and black.’  The Indians of the Mississippi were certainly not without imagination and possessed some artistic skill.  No doubt it was these pictured rocks that had originated among the Menominees and Illinois the stories of the demons with which they had regaled Marquette and Jolliet.

While the voyagers were still discussing the pictured rocks, their canoes began to toss and heave on rushing waters, and they found themselves in the midst of plunging logs and tumbling trees.  They were at the mouth of the Missouri.  As they threaded their way past this dangerous point, Marquette resolved that he would one day ascend this river that he might ’preach the Gospel to all the peoples of this New World who have so long grovelled in the darkness of infidelity.’