“ the highlands of the White River” in the "eastern portion of what is now the Indian Territory.” It was in the month of August, 1541, that De Soto reached the most northern point of his journey. Consult the following: A Relation of the Rev. Father Friar Marco de Nica, touching his Discovery of the Kingdom of Cevola or Cibola. 1539. (Hakluyt's Collection of Voyages, vol. III. London. 1600.) The Relation of Francis Vasquez de Coronado, Captain General of the People which were sent in the Name of the Emperor's Majesty to the Country of Cibola. 1540. (Hakluyt, vol. III.) The Rest of this Voyage to Acuco, Tiguex, Cicuic, and Quivira, etc. By Francis Lopez de Gomara. (Hakluyt, vol. III.) A Brief Relation of Two Notable Voyages: the first made by Friar Auglistin Ruyz, a Franciscan, in the Year 1581; the second by Antonio de Espejo, in the Year 1583, who together with his Company discovered a Land, etc., which they named New Mexico. (Hakluyt, vol. III.) Relation du Voyage de Cibola entrepris en 1510. Par Pedro de Castaneda de Nagera. (Coll. H. Ternaux-Compans. Vol. IX. Paris. 1838.) Relation du Voyage fait a la Nouvelle-Terre sous les Ordres du General Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, Commandant de l' Expedition. Redigee par le Capitaine Juan Jaramillo. (Coll. H. Ternaux-Compans. Vol. IX.) 160 9. MAY 23.—The second charter of Virginia (7th James I.) granted "all those lands, countries, and territories, situate, lying, and being in that part of America, called Virginia,” from Cape or Point Comfort, to the northward, two hundred miles, and to the southward, two hundred miles, and i up into the land throughout from sea to sea.” This grant made Kansas English, Point Comfort being on the 37th degree of latitude. 1670. In writing to the Superior of Missions, in 1670, Father Marquette spoke of the Missouri river, from the report he had of it from the Indians. "Six or seven days below the Ilois” (Illinois river), he says, "is another great river, on which are prodigious nations, who use wooden canoes; we cannot write more till next year, if God does us the grace to lead us there." Among these “prodigious nations” was the Kanzas. (Hale's Kanzas and Nebraska, p. 9.) 1673. JUNE 10.—Marquette, accompanied by Joliet, a trader of Quebec, and five other Frenchmen, descending the Wisconsin in canoes, entered the Mississippi. They floated down as far as the Arkansas. In returning they ascended the Illinois river. Father Dablon published his narrative of this expedition in 1678— with a map on which appears the name of the Kansa tribe of Indians. Marquette's manuscript map is still preserved at St. Mary's College, Montreal. John Gilmary Shea has translated and published the narrative, and with it a fac simile of the map. 16 77. 1682. APRIL 9.- La Salle reaches the Gulf of Mexico. Hildreth says: "Formal possession of the mouth of the river was cere- moniously taken for the King of France. The country on the banks of the Mississippi received the name of Louisiana, in honor of Louis XIV., then at the height of his power and reputation; but the attempt to fix upon the river itself the name of Colbert did not succeed.” Colbert was the French Father Membre wrote a narrative of this expedition, which is published in Shea's History of the Mississippi. He says: “We found the Ozage In 1684, La Salle left France with four ships, to plant a colony at the mouth of the Mississippi. The vessels missed the entrance of the Missis- sippi, passed to the westward, and landed their company on the coast of Texas, in February, 1685. In January, 1687, La Salle determined to reach Canada by land; but, after three months' wanderings, he was murdered by Hennepin published in France an account of his exploration of the Mis- sissippi, from the mouth of the Illinois to the Falls of St. Anthony. Hil- dreth says the French missionaries and fur traders had explored the Mississippi, the Fox, the Wisconsin, and the Illinois from their sources to their mouths, while the upper sources of the Connecticut, the Delaware, the Susquehanna, the Potomac, and the James remained as yet unknown to FEBRUARY 27.-Iberville, born at Quebec, with two brothers, Sauvolle May.—Iberville plants a colony on the Bay of Biloxi, within the limits Iberville died of yellow fever, in 1707, at St. Domingo. 1 712. SEPTEMBER 14.—The whole province of Louisiana, with a monopoly of 6 agreed to send every year two ships from France with goods and emigrants. He was to be entitled, also, to import an annual cargo of slaves from Africa, notwithstanding the monopoly of that trade in the hands of a special company. The French Government agreed to pay annually 50,000 livres ($10,000) toward supporting the civil and military establishments. In the grant, the river "heretofore called Mississippi” is called St. Louis, the “Missourys” is called St. Philip, and the “Ouabache” is called St. Jerome. Louisiana is made “dependent upon the General Government of New France" (Canada). The following is copied from the grant : "3. We permit him to search for, open, and dig, all sorts of mines, veins, and minerals, throughout the whole extent of the said country of Louisiana, and to transport the profits thereof into any part of France, during the said fifteen years; and we grant in perpetuity to him, his heirs, and others claiming under him or them, the property of, in and to the mines, veins and minerals which he shall bring to bear, paying us, in lieu of all claim, the fifth part of the gold and silver which the said Sieur Crozat shall cause to be transported to France, at his own charges, into what port he pleases, (of which fifth part we will run the risk of the sea and of war,) and the tenth part of what effects he sball draw from the other mincs, veins, and minerals; which tenth he shall transfer and convey to our magazines in the said country of Louisiana. We likewise permit him to search for precious stones and pearls, paying us the fifth part in the same same manner as is mentioned for the gold and silver... "7. Our edicts, ordinances, and customs, and the usages of the Mayoralty and Shrievalty of Paris, shall be observed for laws and customs in the said country of Louisiana. “Given at Fontainebleau, the 14th day of September, in the year of grace 1712, and of our reign the 70th. “LOUIS. "By the King: PHELIPEAUX, &c. "Registered at Paris, in the Parliament, the four-and-twentieth of September, 1712." After five years Crozat resigned his patent. 171 7. The exclusive commerce of Louisiana for twenty-five years, with extensive powers of government and a monopoly of the Canadian fur trade, was bestowed on the Company of the West, otherwise called the Mississippi Company. The American Cyclopædia says: “On the death of Louis XIV., and the accession of the Duke of Orleans to the regency, John Law reentered Paris with a fortune of more than $500,000, made by gambling. The financial affairs of the French kingdom being at this time in the utmost embarrassment, he soon gained a hearing, and, having secured the patronage of the regent, in 1716 established a bank under royal authority. This institution was authorized to discount bills of exchange, and to issue notes redeemable in specie of fineness equal to that of the current money of the realm. As it accepted at par Government bills, on which there was a discount of nearly eighty per cent., and as there was a general want of private credit, its stock was soon taken, and a very lucrative business established. Law, however, aimed higher than this. He believed that while there was no standard of prices, or of money, credit was everything, and that a state might with safety treat even possible future profits as the basis of a paper currency. With this view he established the Mississippi or West India Company, based on the scheme of colonizing and drawing profit from the French possessions in North America. This company, enlarging its scope, soon absorbed the French East India Company, under the general title of the 'Company of the Indies.' It extended its capital to 624,000 shares of 550 livres each, and engaged itself to lend the King 1,600,000,000 livres at three per cent. An extraordinary fever of stock gambling had been gradually excited by these financial efforts, and the result was that the shares of the company rose to thirty-five or forty times their original value. Great extravagance resulted. Land near Paris rose to the value of 100 years' purchase, and most objects of commerce in the same proportion. But the constant decrease of specie in France, and the constant issue of Government notes, which by May, 1720, had reached the sum of 1,925,000,000 livres, soon undermined the company. A crash came, the shares sank in value, and Law, from the position of the Comptroller-General of Finances, became a fugitive. It seems, however, to be well established that he was a sincere believer in his own scheme, and that he acted honestly, and with a lively desire to promote the public welfare. He laid by no money, and when he left France took with him only 800 louis d'or. He finally died in great poverty in Venice.” 1718. The city of New Orleans founded by Bienville. 1 719. The following is copied from Hale's History: “M. Dutisne, a French officer, was sent from New Orleans, in 1719, by Bienville, the Governor, into the territory west of the Mississippi He visited the village of the Osage Indians, five miles from the Osage river, at eighty leagues above its mouth. Thence he crossed to the northwest, one hundred and twenty miles, over prairies abounding in buffalo, to the villages of the Panionkees or Pawnees. Here were two villages, of about one hundred and thirty cabins, and two hundred and fisty warriors each, who owned nearly three hundred horses. They were not civilized, he says, but readily accessible on receiving a few presents. Fifteen days more westward marching brought him to the Padoucahs, a very brave and warlike nation. Here he erected a cross, with the arms of the King, September 27th, 1719. In his report of his expedition, he gives the details which we have quoted, and notices the salines and masses of rock salt found to this day in the region he travelled over. He found the Osages at the spot which they still occupy. If his measurements were exact, his first Pawnee or Panionkee village was near the mouth of Republican Fork. Fifteen days' westward travel must have been up the valley of one of the forks of the Kanzas river; but the name of the Padoucah Indians is now lost. From the time he reached the Osage villages, Dutisne was exploring the territory of Kanzas.” Dutisne was the first Frenchman who trod this soil. His line of travel in Kansas, coming in along the Osage, was probably through the counties of Linn, Miami, Franklin, Osage, Lyon, Morris, Davis, and then west some two hundred miles. On this supposition he crossed Coronado's route near Fort Riley, thus making that point the junction of the great trails made by the Spanish and French explorers. 1720. A Spanish force, from New Mexico, ravages an Indian village in Kansas, and is cut to pieces by the Indians. 1723. The seat of government removed to New Orleans. 172 4. The Pawnee Indians visited by Bourgmont. They inhabit the country on the river Platte, and their hunting ground extends as far south as the Arkansas. 173 2. The Mississippi Company, for 1,450,000 livres, surrender their charter to the Government. Thus the “Mississippi bubble” burst. The Company had held possession of Louisiana for fourteen years, and left it with a population of 5,000 whites, and 2,500 blacks. 175 5. Ste. Genevieve, Mo., settled by the French. 1760. The English defeat the French in Canada, and complete the conquest of that country. Louisiana alone remains to France. 176 2. NOVEMBER 3.-France cedes Louisiana to Spain. On the same day, all the region east of the Mississippi, except the island of New Orleans, was yielded, by the treaty of Fontainebleau, to England, by France. The navigation of the Mississippi was to be free to both parties. The sovereignty of the eastern half of North America, from Hudson's Bay to the Gulf of Mexico, is vested in the British crown.-Louisiana contains about ten thousand inhabitants.-M. D'Abbadie, Director-General of Louisiana, grants to a company of merchants, of whom Pierre Laclede Liguest was the leader, the exclusive right of trade with the Indians on the Missouri. 17 6 3. FEBRUARY 10.—Definitive treaty of peace and friendship, similar to the preliminary articles of November 3, 1762. France cedes Canada and Nova Scotia, or Acadia, to Great Britain. The boundary between the British and French territories “shall be fixed irrevocably by a line drawn along the middle of the river Mississippi from its source to the river Iberville, and from thence by a line drawn along the middle of this river, and the lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain, to the sea.” The nineteenth article provides for the restoration of Cuba to Spain. In consequence of this stipulated restitution, Florida and all Spanish possessions east of the Mississippi are ceded to England. OCTOBER 7.-Proclamation of the King of Great Britain, erecting the |
