The European discovery of America

    We have already seen how the first men in America probably came from Asia. It appears also that the first inhabitants of Europe came from Asia. About the year 1,000 A. D. the bold Vikings, living in the Scandinavia countries pushed their dragon-headed boats across the Atlantic to Iceland, Greenland and North America. Because they found wild grapes and a kind of wild grain- probably it was wild rice-they called the latter country Vinland the Good. History tells us that many sailors visited Vinland, but few people in Europe took much interest in a country that was farther out in the ocean than Greenland. Not until the time of Columbus, Vespucious and the Cabots, did people in Europe realize that the North and South American continents were really a new world. Then the Spanish conquered Mexico and Peru, the English settled the eastern coast of North America and the French established trading posts along the St. Lawrence river and in the Great Lakes country.

The discovery of Iowa, June 17, 1673

    Having heard of a great river to the west of Lake Michigan, the French governor at Montreal, Canada, decided to find out more about it, for this task he chose the trader Joliet, born at Quebec and therefore a French Canadian; and the missionary Father Marquette, born and educated in France. Both spent the winter of 1672-1673 at St. Ignace in northern Michigan, making preparations for the trip. A map of the region to be traversed was made; and two....

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...Birch bark canoes with spruce and cedar framework were built. They selected five trusty men familiar with life in the woods to paddle the canoes. Joliet and the men dressed in buckskin suits, but Father Marquette worn a black cloth gown and carried a rosary. Having loaded the canoes with provisions of corn and smoked buffalo meat, besides blankets, guns, camp utensils and instruments, and a quantity of trinkets, for presents to the Indians, the explorers paddled out of the bay at St Ignace into Lake Michigan. They entered Green Bay, ascended the Fox River, carried their canoes and supplies across to the Wisconsin, and floated down that river.

First bit of Iowa seen by white man

On the 17th of June, 1673, they caught their first view of the long sought Mississippi River, and across it, they beheld the bluffs of McGregor in what is now Iowa-"with a joy," wrote Father Marquette in an account of the voyage, "which he could not express." The canoes now turned south. Of Indians they saw no signs, but deer and buffaloes were plentiful, and wild turkeys were often seen. A big sturgeon nearly destroyed one of he canoes. Late each afternoon they landed to prepare their meals of cooked corn and broiled fish or meat. Then putting out the fire they floated some miles farther on and anchored after dark at a safe distance from the shore, leaving one of the party on guard while the others slept. At sunrise they were under way again.

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A fine speech and a fine banquet

    On June 25, they discovered human footprints at the water's edge on the west bank-probably not far from the mouth of the Iowa River. Leaving the five wood rangers in charge of the canoes, the leaders landed unarmed. They found a trail and followed it five or six miles over a fine rolling prairie to a group of three villages inhabited by a tribe of Illinois (Illini) who were living west of the river for the time being. Father Marquette knew their language which was an Algonkian dialect. The chief greeted the Frenchmen with a fine speech. He said that the earth had never seemed so beautiful, nor the sun so bright, or the river so calm and so free from rocks as on that day. Neither had their tobacco ever tasted so good, nor their corn appeared so fine as when the Frenchmen came to visit them.

    To make sure that the white men meant peace and not war, the calumet or peace pipe went around, and this ceremony was followed by an exchange of presents. Then the Indians served a banquet of four courses-boiled corn, roast fish, dog and buffalo. When the Indians learned that the Frenchmen did not relish dog meat, they at once removed it. During the banquet the Indians were in constant attendance on their guests. They carefully picked the bones from the fish and blew on it before placing it in the mounts of the Frenchmen. The corn was served to each individual with a big wooden spoon.

Down the Mississippi and back

    The explorers occupied the chief's wickiup during the following night. In the morning nearly 600 of the Indians followed their visitors down to their canoes, warning them against proceeding farther south for fear that they would come to grief among hostile tribes. Not heeding their warning, the explorers continued the way down stream. They passed the mouth of the Illinois river, then that of the Missouri River. The latter river they described as a "torrent of yellow mud sweeping in its course logs, branches, and uprooted trees." Below the mouth of the Ohio river, the Indians were less friendly. Still when the white men held up the peace pipe, which the Illinois chief had given to Marquette, they never failed to secure safe passage. When they reached the Arkansas river, they felt certain that the Mississippi did not empty into the Gulf of California- as they at first thought- but the Gulf of Mexico, and since they were in danger of encountering both hostile Indians and hostile Spaniards, they continued south, they de-�.

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....cided to turn their canoes upstream. But instead of going back by the Wisconsin and Fox rivers route, they went up the Illinois River and across the site of the present city of Chicago to Lake Michigan.

Death of Father Marquette

    At Green Bay the two friends parted having paddled over 2,500 miles. For a while Marquette lay sick. When his health seemed restored he attempted to found a mission among the Illinois Indians. But he took sick again, and in the spring of 1675 "this beautiful spirit passed away from the earth."

    Father Marquette left an interesting account of the great voyage, which may be found in the Jesuit Relations, and there you will want to read it.

    Joliet went back to Montreal. He lived a long time after and undertook several exploring trips into the Hudson's Bay country. He died before 1737, the exact date being uncertain. Iowa had been visited by white men, but no permanent white settlers built his home in the Iowa country until more than a century later.

Questions and Exercises: Why did the Vikings call America "Vinland the Good?" Why did the French explorers use cedar and spruce for the frames of their canoes and not oak and hickory? What is a portage? Where did the explorers carry their canoes? On a map point out the route of the explorers.