WISCONSIN
062
WISCONSIN
officially. Wisconsin formed part of the vast New
World, to which Spain made a general claim under
the name of Florida, but no Spaniard appears to
have come within hundreds of miles of the present
state boundaries. In 1608 Quebec was founded as
the capital of New France, and the French mis-
sionaries and fur-traders pushed westward into the
wilderness, New France claiming by virtue of dis-
covery the whole great inland water system. It
was not until 16.34, however, that Nicolet, an in-
terpreter, who had lived with the Huron Indians,
was sent by Champlain, Governor of New France,
into what we call the Northwest. He landed, in
what is now Wisconsin, somewhere upon the shores
of Green Bay, and was welcomed as a god by the
Indians. Twenty years later two French fur-
traders, Radisson and Groseilliers, wintered near
Green Bay, and in the spring of 1655 ascended the
Fox River, crossed to the Wisconsin River, and
some time the following year exi:)lored the shores of
Lake Superior and returned to Quebec. Three
years later, with other fur-traders and accompanied
by friendly Indians, they were again on Lake Superior,
where they heard rumours of copper mines; and some-
where on the southern shore they built a rough fort.
On this expedition they wandered as far west as
Minnesota, and ultimately returned in safety to
Canada. The Jesuit missionaries had gained a
foothold among the Huron Indians in Ontario, and
when, after a disastrous war with the Iroquois, the
Hurons fled to northern Wisconsin, they were fol-
lowed in 1660 by Father Menard. The following
spring the missionary, with one white companion,
visited the Huron villages on the Chippewa and
Black Rivers, crossed to the Wisconsin River, and
descended it for some distance, whereat a portage
Father Menard disappeared and was never again
heard of. In 1665 his place was taken by Father
AUouez, who instructed the roving Indians of various
tribes, which had been scattered by the Iroquois,
and in 1669 he was reUeved by Father Mai-quette,
whose zeal and the labours and romance attaching
to whose ventures have connected his name in-
dissolubly with the history of this part of the country.
In 1666 Perrot, a fur-trader, had visited the tribes
near Green Bay and persuaded the Potawatomi to
send a delegation to Montreal to see the Governor of
New France. Father AUouez in 1669 was again
in the vicinity of Green Ba.v, where he wintered.
In the early spring he visited various Indian villages,
returning in the late spring to Sault Ste Marie,
but coming back in the same autumn with Father
Dablon, when several missions were founded. In
1671 the representative of New France at Sault Ste
Marie took formal possession of the Northwest in
the name of the King of France. The following
year Father AUouez and Father Andre worked at
the extension of the missions.
In 1673 Father Marquette began his wanderings. He and JoUiet entered Green Bay, ])as,sed up the Fox River, portaged to the Wisconsin River, followed the latter to its mouth, went down the Mississippi to the mouth of the Arkansas, and here planted a cross and started to retrace their way. They went up the Mississippi River and the Illinois River to the site of the present city of (^liicago, where they portaged to Lake Michigan, and arrived safely in September at the mission which Father AUouez had built at De Pere, and in their journey encountered many Indians of the more southerly tribes. The following year Marquette with two assistants set out to establish a mission among the Illinois tribes. From Green Bay they portaged to Lake Micliigan and travelled in canoes to the mouth of the (Chicago Rivor, where they wintered, and resuming their journey in the spring they went as far as the site of the present city of Peoria. Then Father Mar-
quette, stricken with a mortal illness, turned north-
wards again, but died on the journey (19 May, 1675).
Meantime Father AUouez and Fathers Andre and
Silvy continued their missionary work around Green
Bay, and in 1677 Father Albanel arrived at De Pere
as superior of the missions in that part of the world.
The same year Father AUouez went south to the
lUinois. In the two following years Duluth ex-
I)lored the western end of Lake Superior and dis-
covered a new route to the Mississippi; in 1679
La Salle, who had received from the King of France
a monopoly of the western fur trade, arrived at
Green Bay in the first sailing vessel ever seen on the
Great Lakes. This vessel went back loaded with
furs, while La Salle and a strong party came south
on the west shore of Lake Michigan in canoes, despite
the wild weather, and made a landing in MUwaukee
Bay, finally proceeding to the IlUnois country.
Hence Father Hennepin, a Recollect friar, with two
companions explored the Upper Mississippi and were
taken prisoners by the Sioux, ultimately to be rescued,
however, by Duluth, who with them crossed by the
route of the Wisconsin and Fox Rivers to De Pere,
and in 1683 defended that mission against an attack
by the Iroquois. The meting out of justice to the
Indians, who had murdered Frenchmen, made Lake
Superior safe for French traders.
In 1685 Perrot became commandant of the west; he established trading posts on the Mississippi, and, in 1690, discovered the lead mines in south-western Wisconsin, which were destined to have such an important effect upon the development of the district. The route from Green Bay by the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers had become the most travelled, but the wars between the Indians had rendered this route unsafe, and in 1693 Frontenac ordered Le Sueur to keep open the route from Lake Superior to the Mississippi. In 1696, however, licences for fur trading were revoked, western outjiosts were recalled, and the forts aban- doned. In 169S Father Buisson de St. Cosme came south along the western shore of Lake Michigan to the Chicago portage, visiting on the way an Indian village near the present site of Sheboygan, and stopijing also at Milwaukee and at the site of the present city of Racine. Two years later Le Sueur, with a party of miners from France, went up the Mississippi to examine various lead deposits, among others those of Wisconsin. In 1701 peace was made between the Iroquois and the north-western tribes, a large number of Indians from Wisconsin attending the council at Montreal, and in 1702 the trader, St- Denis, paid the Fox Indians liberally to allow his trading canoes to reach the Mississippi once more over the Fox-Wisconsin route, which had been for some years untraveUed by white men. But a few years later, the Indian wars recurring, the trade routes became again unsafe. In 1716 La Porte, having been ordered to conduct a campaign against the hostile In- dians, arrived at Green Bay with 800 men, and shortly afterwards peace was concluded and hostages given. In 1718 it was reported that there was a settlement of French tr.aders at Green Bay, where a fort had been built. In 1727 a fort was built on Lake Pepin in order to split the alliance of Indian tribes in this neighbourhood and furnish a basis for a furtlier advance westward, but in the following year this was abandoned, and it was not until 1731 that the Fox tribe, after years of warfare, was broken and to a great extent dispersed. In 1738 Louis Denis, Sieur de la Ronde, secured a permit to work the Lake Superior copper mines, and shortly thereafter lead mining was inaugurated in south-western Wisconsin. Fur trading continued on a large scale (one co-partner- ship being said to have cleared 100,000 livrcs per year from the \\isconsin fur trade alone), and gradually the various Indian tribes were reconciled to each other under French iniluence. Wisconsin Indians look part
