The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1877-08-30
WISCONSIN HISTORY.
The State Explored at least Five Years
Before the Settlement of Boston
Nicolet's Voyage Of 1884.


consin is younger than twenty-nine of
our states, but reckoned from the year it
was first traversed by white men, it is
older than almost all of them.
Most eastern readers of Brancroft's
first edition of Omitted States History"
saw with surprise that Wisconsin was
crossed by Joliet and Marquette on their
way to descend the Mississippi as early
as 1673-more than two centuries ago.
But some years ago. in 1858, the Catho-
lie champion, J. G.. Shea, discovered
| in the Jesuit Relation for the year 1910
| this passage, written by the Jesuit
| FatherLe Jeune, from Quebec to France:
"M. Nicollet, who has penetrated far
| thest into these most distant regions,
has assured me that if he had pushed on
| three days longer on great river which
| issues from the second lake of the HUI
runs Lake Michigan) he would have
| found the sea- Now strongly suspect
this sea is on the North of Mexico, and
that thereby we could have an entrance
into Japan and China"
On the strength of this testimony,
Parkman (''Jesuits in North America,
p. 1861 wrote: GAS early as 1859, NIcol-
let assembled the Green Bay of Michigan
and crossed the Mississippi"
The word Mississippi, meaning great
aUaters, ambiguous-and,th though really
denoting river, might well be mistaken
for sea.
Thus thirty-four years-more than
generation-were at once added to the
age of Wisconsin.
Badgers now boosted that European
feet had trod their soil and foated on
their waters within nine years after the
founding of Boston, which claims to be
of all other cities most ancient, as well
as honorable.
1t has just come to light that they had
better reason than they new of for
greater boast than this. In the lowest
LIE Jenue, it will be noticed, writing in
1850 regarding the explorations of M.
Nichollet, gives no date. That that
voyager had Just then returned was a
natural inference of Shea, Parkman and
others, who thought his tidings too
good not to be trumpeted through the
world as if by telegraph. B..
But they were all mistaken. Nicollet's
expedition to the Wisconsin river is now
proved to have been in the year 1884
But how is this new antiquity proved
How are five years added at stroke to
the historic era of Wisconsin
A record has been detected in Cana
dian archieves, by Benjamin Suite, of
Ottawa, that Nicollet started from Three
Rivers on a Western voyage in July,
1854 and returned the year following.
But it is natural to ask, MAY not this
adventurer have made later voyages,
even as he had made others before ?''
Suites answer is, "By no means.
The.vOyage of II IS his last. In
1886 Nicollet be e Interpreter and
fur-factor for the French company
called the ''Hundred associates" Their
accounts show that he was stationed at
their post of Three Rivers, midway be-
twee Montreal and Quebec, and that
he remained there till 1912, when while
un business journey to the latter city
he was accidently drowned" Thus
Suite proves an abb for Nicollet I'm
til then, some one can show Nicollet to
have had divine upiquity-or as medie-
walls believed of angels and devils, d.
biquity, the power of being in two places
at once-he must be admitted to have
discovered Wisconsin some five years
before white men have been supposed to
have shown themselves there. Doubt
less it will add cubit to the stature of
every Badger to have five years thus
duOco W b1G duldlS VI lis cOIuInOu W6stiUu,
Possibly it may turn out that they
have still more reason to exult. Suites
researches have made it out that Nicol-
let domesticated as one of themselves
among the Indians as early as 1913, at
first on the Ottowa, half way to Lake
Huron, and after two years in tribes bor-
dering on that lake itself.
The Badger State was but one step
further, and was a thoroughfare for
prehistoric commerce in Mexican shells.
Since the impossible always happens,
why may it not yet be demonstrated that
Nicollet had explored Wisconsin even
earlier than the year 1630-that is, be-
fore the settlement of Boston itself q
Wisconsians would have these five years
added to their annals as gladly as any
ancient maiden would have them SUBJ
tracted from hers.
Suite describes Nicollet as meeting
the Wisconsin tribes III a council of
four thousand warriors who feasted on
SIX score of beavers. He appeared be-
fore them in robe of state, adorned |
with figures of flowers and birds. APP
preaching with pistol in each hand he |
fired both at once. The astonished ma
tives hence styled him ''Thunder Bear
er." This spectacular display was in
keeping with the policy which marked |
the old French regime in two worlds,
and which for two centuries proved |
equally sovereign in both.
Wisconsin antiquity being demonstra-
ted to be so considerable, let no New |
Highlander or old Highlander taunt us as |
big Ounce did the infant phenomenon in
a Sabbath school, saying: mo wonder
you can tell without book who made |
you, you have not been made more than |
fortnight