, 1875-04-19
LOCAL LETTERS.
7nxtI tu1fS'B LECTURE,

LOCAL LETTERS.
1oxu JOHNS LECTURE.
70 Gat Editor of The ch,eaoo Tribune:
CHICAGO. April l7.-Your correspondents who
cri.icso "Long Johns" late lecsnrs fail to do
It justico As to tho facts Of Its early discovery,
the1o le hardly an accurate htnte.nent 10 1t, Tho
lecture Is not boforo mic, but ns, read it, be-
leyo noted just two and one or both OF these
ho contEndtcts IN another place. Il did not Bcom
boat to publicly contradict these ssatemonts.
rs tho facts arc accessible to ali, and ho has
right to bis opinion about them, and 1t sosmsa
reasonable 10 euppoao that bis n!atements of
later u,tttors would ho accurate and valuable.
since he npppars to bo mistaken IN them, 1t Ia
we'll to lot It nppenr that he docs not caEo enough
about bis subject to tako palus to DO ae1urase
upon 1t.
Here Aro some nistakes--not all. Tho qnota-
tionB ato substantially accurate, as inano them
in my notebook whan reading tho lecture !:
.'Tho firas, writteu account q Chicago bears
turned 10 Canada" Tho two fir-srhtleIs referred
to left Canada in August, 1851 and returned ewo
years nitcr They did not come near here, bit
warc OIL Lake Superior. md went up II. among
tho Sioux.
at is snid (nud there is good reason to BELIEVE
Il truo) that there WAS missionary station at
Macksuaw as oar1y as lG07." Thoro is not tho
hssst Fsss9n sss' To- b'srs asrs any ms sneh ih'a
lndcou, loaf ID n2oat aae unlackl'
There bud been little colony Of woe-bogono
rronchucn at Port Royal. N. s., which Ind boou
established in 1905, but even Tint was abandoned
ih 1907. So that In rho yoar which he scloctn for
tlo establishments Of tlo h1aexInav and Sand
wich ma.alons, thero was nos single French
man In al North America; untesa. possibly, two
or thrco stiag2le1n who wcro 10 unlncky as to
havo been loft nt Fort Royal whcn the reRt got
away. Quebec was founded tho De1t year li6o5).
ESH&I Aex $%n ttArA 11t fAF {r1H1
1903" No. ho wasn't. IIo did visit the Falls Of
St. Mary that year, but. evon then. the perua-
nont mission was not founded till two yoara
later. In 1869. ho was at In Points,
on Lake s1ps1s u 4 asi1 Got 1ge }s7s hn hs
with Louis Joliet chnae from htackinav By tho
vay Of Qrceu bay, down tho Wisconsin, and dis
covered the mississippi JUNG IT: Thcy wont
down ~ far ~ tho mouth Of tho Arknneas. aud
and wore tho frat white men wo havo any reason
to bclieye to have visited this spot.
sin 1G6s, while Marquette VAS s:il In Franco,
tho had Just eaid he Was hero that SEASON. =
council was hold. etc. Wrong again. Father
Indians in 1865 as stated above,
"In 1911, his influence had become 10 cxten-
aiye thai ho assembled all the tribes at tho Eault
St, Mary" etc.. Father Marquette had shout ns
at least as to any Indians from 1lliuo,s-aa
tho Khan Of Tartary had. Thoy wcre induced to
come by Francis do st, Luesoa, agent for tho
Government Of New France. vho visited tho
tribes. accompanied By tho celebrated guido mud
Green bay. and there woto no Indlans from th.a
vicinity ut tho couucit, excops tho Pottauat.o.
mics. Charlcvoix ntatcs explicitly TINT there
weze no Illinois Indians there, AMI that tho
French, "a yes. had never heen them. And lle ap-
pears to be correct. 'Lonc John convoyH tho
ldca that they camo almost from thu confines Of
Mexico, and all by tho influence OF FAther Mar
quo:to.
q Father Claude Allouoz was In this region as
carly as 1866" Oct. !, 1868. Fatl!or Allouez
founded tho Mission OF tho Holy Ghost At La
Fointe, on Lake Superior. LIE nsTer canao hero
until after Marquette had found tho Ilaslssppi.
"TonA passed tnost Of tho winter Of 1G52 at
Chicago" Tontl passed all tho winter Of 1859
Utica, Lat3allo County:
:F.anco sent xssse!s up the st. Lawronco
River about $780," Better than That, Jamcs
Cartier useendod the st. Iawrenco as far as
ea Aees s as, ssna ~ M e and 70 IL a' soa ss q ss 9
the beat euro possible for our antiquity, lo
might hare said {but l,o did not) that rhcso ia
"good reason to beleye" thas Nicol!ot ylAited
Gteen Day In 1889, and passed oreF to rho Wn-
200 mica Of hcre,-whleh would have Deon con-
sidered right In the samo neighhoshood in those
days. And 10 on.
It Is iuoxcusable. even In diae lecture to
make 10 many nsstatesncnts regarding matte1s
upon which al hours reading u ihe public H.
brasy would sat lin right. And since It has
been shown that he was quite ~ inaccurate In
regard to tho Istsr matters upon which he might
be supposed to 10 we'll Informed i would seem
to ba necessary that in tho future lectures Which
il IL unde, stood ha il to deliver On tho a1e sub
tcct. he should quote his authorities. Mine Will
nearly all bo found in any standard work Oh tho
subject. shca's Clsrloyoix, New France, for
iostauce. EDWARD f. ADA.is.