Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-07-04
ss.nnn Ireiend,x address

Bishop Ireiond's ADDRESS.
| Gen. Siblex, statingthat the Historical
Society and its friends had hoped that Arcn-
bishop Tache, of Manitoba, would 1aVor
them with an address, but that the Arch
hiahop, On account of fatigue, had asked TO
be excused, called on Bishop Ireland to sup
DIV his place. The Bishop, as he came LOT
! ward, was received with strong oemohstIa-
tions of the popular favor IN Wnlcn ne WAS
held, and was listened to throughout us Ut
pumentative address with marked 1nteress,
manifested in applause OF each salient point
| in his defence of Father hennepln's Title 10
honor. He spoke as follows:
| MIR, President, Ladies and Gentlemen: The
scene which the assembled multitude COM
memorates to-day is indeed one well deserving
IN this 2OOth anniversary, the attention of the
neonle of the Northwest. A group OF weary
yoyagers, Louis Hennepin and his two COM
naniops. Ako and Augue!le, stood IN mute
amazemept before Jonder cataract-the hrst
white men into whose ears pealed Its solemn
music-whose eyes feasted upon lis tumn!tu-
ous waters, then free and unfettered as they
hurried over the precipice in wild, unbridled
Nav There was, however, to the scene a
Significance far broader than Its ex-
terror outlines might suggest-lt was
the dawning upon the Northwest
of the bright day of civilization. 1t was the
registration of the State of Minnesota on the
| page of history. lApplause.l HenceforWaro
the name of Louis Hennepln can never pe
SHARED from our history. His name Is the
| first which the pen of annalists will trace The
| frat picture which the painter of noted events
| in the history of Minnesota will color with bis
newell will be tie long gowned franciscan
With his two npanies at his side, hands up
| lifted, christening the cataract under the
name of one of the heroes OF the churcn, 3D.
Anthony, of Padua lApplause;
Hennepin, Immediately upon his return TO
Paris. France chronicIed his discovery, and
narrated in quaint and picturesque language,
the story of the Northwest, and owing to ms
hoax this Northwest was henceforWaru De-
fore the eyes OF the world. Un all the
maps which afterwards were traced OF the
the American continent, maps which stlil re-
vealed the fact that great portion OF our coun-
try was wrapped in obscurity, the Falls OF 81
Anthony were always one of the great land
marks as If arounds them, as 1t seemed, should
clnster ia the future the deStlnles and the glor-
les of the land of Columbus iApplause. Hen
nenin must remain the hero of this anniversary,
the hero of the early history OF minnesota.
His is a name which we CANNOT Iorget. Is IL
name will briefly ask, that we can to-day
pronounce with atfectionate pride9 Certainly
in MANY respects be is not unworthy of our ad-
miration. Hennepin was brave voyager. He
was a scholar. He was jealous ana dlslnter-
ested missionary of the cross. IL mas peen saio
that his writings show little vanity, that he
dgells with rather too much complacency
on what he himself has said and done.
Rut we can wsll overlook the weakness when
we remember that having been for long years,
during his solitary juurneyings, accustomed to
dwell only on himself and what he did, he
naturally contin ued without any preconcelved
eff ,rt to still talk good deal in his narrative
about himself. Laughter. :.
We can well believe that his
little vanity, or what Is calieo
vanity. was the love of narrating peculiar to
travellers in distant and on our own lands, and
not at all the result of deep-seated or odious
pride.
forth in history as an untruthfui writer, as
having designedly made false statements. Is
this assertion proved?
Hennepin. in $685. three years after his dis
covery of the Falls published in Paris his
sDescriution of Louisiana" This volume has
never been translated into English. 1t will, In
few weeks be given to the American public
from the pen of John Culinary Shea, OF New
York Now. this volume Is undoubtedly the
work of Hennepin, and We add, 1t Is
undoubtedly accurate and truthful. There
is no one statement in any contemporary
ments of Hennepin in this volume. His de-
scription of the life among the early Sioux is
admitted to be very accurate by the American
historian, Parkman. Hennepin was the first
writer to give to the world Sioux words. and
the Sioux scholars to-day recognize all OF those
words though his violation, of them, at times,
was somewhat singular.
letter to the voysger adore ssed to Seigneiay
Duluth at the same time that Hennepin was
in Paris in the monastery of Saint German
writing his book, substantiates Henneplns
ACCOUNT of his captivity IN the Northwest.
Duioth SAYS that having been on Lake Superior
he followed river leading to the Mississippi
where he heard of the captivity of Hennepin
and his com panions, and having rowed down
the Mississippi for over eighty
leagues he found Father Henne-
pin, and re- assembled with him the Mississippi
He gives the details of Hennepin's captivity.
He states even the fact that his sacerdotal
vestments had been stolen from him by the
Sioux,-ihus corroborating the details of Hen
nepin's book. Hennepin, when he wrote this
book in Paris, appeals to the testimony of his
COMPANION Ako, then also in Paris. And,
seven years later. LeClerq quotes Hennepin's
work az one of undoubted authority, referring
his readers to it. Here then, we have Henne-
pin, the author of the volume published in
Paris in 1858, undoubtedly truthful narrator;
and whatever accusation could or has been
volume.
| What then, was the occasion of this accusa-
ton? 1t was this: Fourteen years later, in
the year 1897, volume of
travels New Discoveries" as il
was called, was published at Utrecht. This is
| the volume which was at an early day trans
lated into English. Through this volume,
| mainly, Hennepin has been known to our
English and American writers. Now in this
| volume there are really pages which cannot be
| said to Contain a truthful narrative. In these
pages it is related that Hennepin made voy-
age down the lower Mississippi, in the spring
of 1850, allowing himself so short time to
make the voyage, that 1t becomes
| at once an absolute impossibility.
If Hennepin wrote all the volume We must
abandon the defense. Now this book has late
| ly been subjected TO very close scrutiny by
one our most renowned American scholars,
John Culinary Shea. Some years ago Shea
wrote on Hennepin aud wrote very bitterly
about him, stating thai he could not
be put forth as a truthful historian. On later
| and more careful examination Shea has changed
his opinion. His book will be before the
public in few weeks, and will present in full
his line of arguments. he has com pared one
with the other the Two volumes, the volume
written at Paris and the one at Utrecht. The
| style is different. The Utrecht embraces all
that was said in the first edition with additions
| the object of which additions seems to have
been TO bring the volume mp to date. Errors
! occur, blunders of which Hvnne-
pin could not be supposed capable;
| blunders in the wording of things relating to
IA noIi oh pbru. $h,A loo