912                    WISCONSIN       BLUE     BOOK.


  the mouth of the Wisconsin, and the site of Prairie du Chien. Below Lake
  Pepin the party were taken prisoners by the Sioux, and carried to the present
  site of St. Paul, thence to the 'Mille Lacs.  Kept here for two months,
they
  started with a party on a buffalo hunt. At the mouth of Rum River, Hennepin
  and Auguel were set at liberty, given a gun, knife, an earthen pot and
a small
  canoe. They began their journey, descended the river into the Mississippi,
and
  passed the great falls, which Hennepin named after St. Anthony. Nearing
the
  mouth of the Chippewa River, being driven by starvation, they ascended
that
  river and joined a party of Sioux hunters, by whom they were roughly treated,
  but permitted to live.
  Du Luth voyaged from Lake Superior to the Mississippi with a small party.
  He canoed up the Bois Bruld now a famous trout stream midway between Bay-
  field and Superior-crossed over from its upper waters to the head of the
  Saint Croix, and descended that river into the Mississippi. He there heard
of
  some white men with the Sioux, and pushing on found Hennepin and Auguel,
  with the Indian hunting party near the mouth of Chippewa River. Rescaojng
  Hennepin and his companion, the united parties returned to the Mille Lacs.
  That year, in his voyage up the river, Father Hennepin was the first white
man
  to visit the fine prairie on this river, now Prairie du Chien. In autumn,
Du Luth
  and Hennepin drifted down to the mouth of the Wisconsin River, thence up
that
  stream; they then portaged across to the Fox, down which they paddled,
and
  proceeded to Mackinac. Later, Du Luth made several voyages of this kind.
  1683.-Le Sueur, a prominent fur-trader, passed the Fox and Wisconsin route,
  thence ascended the Mississippi to the Falls of St. Anthony (at the present
MXin-
  neapolis).
  1685.-Nicolas Perrot, a daring chief of the courears de s tois, whose previous
  explorations are above narrated, was appointed "commandant of thei
west," with
  a small squad of twenty soldiers. He came to Green Bay, and there met Indians
  from the west, who told him  of white men far to-the soathwest. who lived
in
  houses that "walked on the water"'-probably Spaniards in sailing
vessels. Per-
  rot, desirous of further discoveries, passed over the Fox-Wisconsin route.
 He
  wintered on the east bank of the Mississippi, about a mile above where
is now
  the village of Trempealeau. Afterwards he established several trading posts
on
  the river, among them Fort St. Nicolas, near the site of Prairie du Chien,
and
  worked lead mines in Iowa and Wisconsin.
  1689.--Perrot took possession of 'the St. Croix, St. Peter, and Upper Missis-
,sippi valleys, in the name of the French king.
   1693.-Le Sueur was sent by the authorities of New France, at Quebec, to
 restore the French prestige in the west, which had been much weakened by
the
 intrigues of the Dutch-English traders from Albany on the Hudson. He built
a
 stockaded fort at La Pointe. on Chequamegon Bay, and another on an island
in
 the Mississippi, near Red Wing, Minnesota, which latter became the centre
of
 western commerce.
   1699.-Returning from France which he had visited, Le Sueur brought with
him thirty experienced miners, and on his voyage up the Mississippi found
lead
mines at or near the sites of Dubuque and Galena, and at the "Smoke
Dig-
gings," near Potosi, Wisconsin.
  In October, Father St. Cosine, a Sulpitian missionary from Quebec, found
the
Fox Indians opposed to his passing up the Fox river route to the Mississippi,
and went south to the west shore of the lake. He stopped, as he supposed,
at
the present site of Sheboygan, where another missionary, Father Marest, had
wintered and planted a cross.
   1700.-Father St. Cosine visited Milwaukee Bay; finding there many Mascou-
tin Foxes, Potawatomi, etc. He calls the Milwaukee River the "Milwarick."
  Wars %Yith the Fox or Outagamie Indians.-The Fox Indians, object-
ing to the use by French traders of the great waterway from Green Bay to
the
Mississippi, levied tribute on all who passed thereby. In 1712, while on
a visit
to Detroit, whither they had been invited by the French commandant, they
with
their allies, the Sauk and Mascoutin, were attacked by a body of French In-
dians, and after defending themselves during a vigorous siege of nineteen
days,