Box 27, Folder 1: Geographical and Topographical Description of Wisconsin, 1844

29

Antiquities

The mounds are generally scattered about without any apparent order or arrangement, but are occasionally arranged into irregular rows, the animals appearing as if drawn up in a line of march. An instance of this kind is seen near the road seven miles east from the Blue Mounds, in Iowa County. At one place near the Four Lakes it is said that one hundred tumuli of various shapes and dimensions may be counted; those representing animals being among others that are round or oblong.

Fragments of ancient pottery of a very rude kind are often found in various localities. They were formed by hand or moulded as their appearance show evidently that these vessels were not turned on a "potters wheel". Parts of the rim of vessels usually ornamented with small notches or figures are most abundant.

A mound is said to have been discovered near Cassville on the Mississippi which is supposed to represent an animal having a trunk like the elephant or the

17

Antiquities

now extinct Mastodon. Should this prove true it will show that the people who made these animal earthworks were contemporaries with that hugh monster whose bones are still occasionally found; or that they had then but recently emigrated from Asia and had not lost their knowledge of the elephant.

31

Early History

The first settlement of Wisconsin may be dated [back] as far back as 1670 when Green Bay was first occupied by French fur traders, thirteen years before Philidelphia was founded by William Penn, and two years before the first settlement of Charleston South Carolina. Three years after these enterprising and enthusiastic Frenchmen had established themselves at the Bay of Puans, now Green Bay, (1673) Father Joseph Marquette accompanied by Joliet went up the Neenah (Fox) river-crossed the portage-and descending the Wisconsin discovered the Mississippi on the 17th of June.

The Legislature has very properly named a county on the Neenah in memory of the first white man who ever saw the "Father of Waters" in this part of its course. It was six years after this discovery was made before La Salk made his voyage up the lakes in the first vessel (the Griffin) built above the Falls of Niagara, and who claimed the honor of having first discovered the Miss.

An interesting account of this voyahe was published by Louis Hennepin in Paris, and is preserved in the first volume of Transactions of the

* Marquette was not the first discoverer of the Mississippi- that honor belongs to Hernando de Soto who crossed it in 1541- See Bancroft, His. U,S. i p. 57

18

Early History

American Antiquarian Society. The Griffin was of about sixty tons burden, and carried five small guns. She sailed on the 7th of August 1679 with 34 men, and on the 2d of September they left Mackina for the Bay of Puans. "Mr. [De] La Salle" says Hennepin "without taking any body's advice resolved to send back the ship to Niagara laiden with furs and skins, to discharge his debts. Our pilot and five men with him were therefore sent back; they sailed on the 18th with a westerly wind. It was never known what course they steered, nor how they perished but it is supposed that the ship struck upon the sand, and was there buried: this was a great loss to Mr. LaSalle and other adventurers, for that ship with its cargo cost about sixty thousand lives". Thus the want of harbors on Lake Michigan began to be felt more than a century and a half ago, and the fate of the Griffin was only a precursor of a thousand similar disasters.

The adventurors continued their voyage in from canoes along the coast of the lake by Milwaukee

33

"the mouth of the river of the Miamis"-(Chicago?) to where a fort was erected. During this voyage they experienced one of those several storms which are still so much dreaded on this lake. "The violence of the wind obliged us to drag our canoes sometimes to the top of the rocks, to prevent their being dashed to pieces. The stormy weather lasted four days during which we suffered very much and our provisions failed us; we had no other subsistence but a handful of Indian corn, once in twenty four hours, which we roasted or else boiled in water; and yet rowed almost every day from morning till night. Being in this dismal stress, we saw upon the coast a great many ravens and eagles, from whence we conjectured there was some prey, and having landed upon that place, we found above the half of a fat wild goat which the wolves had strangled. This provision was very acceptable to us, and the rudest of our men could not but praise the divine Providence who took so particular care of us."

From this place La Salle returned; and Hennepin