11



quette, a French Missionary, stood on the banks of the
Upper Mississippi; and having descended that river to
its junction with the Arkansas, returned to Chicago on
Lake Michigan, passing up the river Illinois. After
Iim, the enterprizing but unfortunate La Salle, resolved
upon a further exploration of the regions of the northwest:
and with that view, built in 1769 on Lake Erie, the first
large vessel that ever ploughed its beautiful waters. He
proceeded up the Lakes to Michilimackinac, where he
left his ship and embarking in canoes, sailed along the
coast until he reached the southern extremity of Lake
Michigan. From there he crossed over the portage to
the Illinois, and descended that river and the Mississip-
pi to the Gulf of Mexico. In 1717 "the company of
the West,"9 under whose auspices Fort Chartres was es-
tablished, became entitled, by virtue of a grant from
Louis XIV, to the immense territory, comprizing Lou.
isiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Illinois, Mis-
souri and Arkansas;  and a chain of posts was estab-
lished by the French government, to connect their pos-
sessions in Canada with those in Louisiana by a line of
communication from Quebec to New Orleans.
  Although surrounded, as we have seen, by settlements
at every point of the compass, and composing a part of
the extensive territory embraced by the patent of the
Virginia company, Kentucky remained a dangerous and
unexplored wilderness-unexplored, if we concede the
expedition of Dr. Walker to have been an entire failure-
and scarcely known by tradition to the restless and en-
terprising inhabitants of the New World, until the year
silently sunk in the middle of the stream. The discoverer of the Mississippi slept be-
neath its waters.  He crossed a large part of the continent in search of gold, and found
nothing so remarkable as his burial place."
 Hall's Sketches, 1. 143.