use of his opposition to the "ecclesiastics, who deplored of rum and licentious coureurs des bois' upon the morals and desired both excluded from the country." Frontenac st in Christianity, and still less confidence in the Jesuits. cation to the government he bluntly said to Cobert, the beak frankly to you, they think as much about the convers as of souls. The majority of their missions are In 1683 Frontenac was re-commissioned as Governor of on after assuming the duties of the office, he "issued Frenchmen in the Upper Mississippi country should kinaw." In consonance with this order, Perrot abanand it remained unoccupied until 1688, when he returned to its re-occupation. In May of the next year Perrot ed the country in the name of his king, and issued the inciamento, which is the first official document relating nd consequently worthy of preservation: , commanding for the king, at the post of the Nadouessioux,* commisDenonville, Governor and Lieutenant-Governor of all New France, to of commerce among all the Indian tribes and people of the Bay des ) Nadouessioux (Dahkotahs,) Mascoutins and other Western nations ssippi, and to take possession in the king's name of all the places ofore been and whither he will go. e eighth of May, one thousand six hundred and eighty-nine, do, in the erend Father Marest of the Society of Jesus, missionary among the Monsieur de Borieguillot [Charlevoix writes Boisguillot,] commandne neighborhood of the Ouiskonchet on the Mississippi; Augustine Sieur de Caumont, and of Messieurs Le Sueur, Herbert, Lemire and Frontenac. The site of this post is on an island on the west side of the channel of the Mississippi River, about eight miles above Red Wing, nd is therefore in Goodhue county. The island was easily accessible y canoes, yet very retired. The fort was erected as a barrier and proection against hostile Indians. Referring to its location, Charlevoix aid: "The island has a beautiful prairie, and the French of Canada ave made it a channel of commerce for the western posts, and many pass the winter here, because it is a good country for hunting." It is aid that the foundation of this old fort is still pretty clearly outlined. ts location, at least, is well known to many of the residents of Goodque county, whose farms are in the near vicinity of the island upon which it was built. The third fort was completed on the 14th of October, 1700, and was ocated at the mouth of St. Remi, a small tributary of Blue Earth River. t was founded by LeSueur, who visited that country to search for opper. This fort was "called L'Huiller, after the Farmer-General in Paris, who had aided the project " of searching for copper mines. The fourth and last French post or fort, of which there is any known ecord, was built by LaPerriere du Boucher, in the fall of 1727. This ost was located on the Minnesota side of the Mississippi, opposite Maiden Rock. Boucher is known to American history as the leader of he Indian attack on Haverhill, Massachusetts, a few years before the uilding of this fort. Haverhill was completely sacked by the red ends and their devilish white leader. The puritan minister of the vilage was killed, his wife was scalped, and the brains of their infant hild dashed out against the ground. FORT SNELLING. ADVANCE GUARD OF AMERICAN OCCUPANCY. "On the 10th of February, 1819," says Mr. NEILL, in his History of [innesota, "an order was issued from the War Department, concenating the Fifth Regiment of Infantry at Detroit, with a view to transortation by way of Fox and Wisconsin rivers to Prairie du Chien. fter garrisoning that post and Rock Island, the remainder were to roceed to the mouth of the Minnesota, then designated as the Saint 'eter's, to establish a post at which the headquarters of the regiment ere to be located. About the time of this order the portion of Illi. vas organize approved Oct ed. set out fro the Mississipp with commissi overed to set th ection or other After some difficu s factor, to co rael Brisbois Tired Owens wa rated as clerk of sheriff." pleting this Sunday morning ght men, twenty nitwo large ke erected within t age of water whic red in making t of destination un and pickets were ci children as acco the e quarters were the reign of winter Le log cabins, plast winter the scur rely, that for a few -50 sudden was th they retired at who was relieved f en a bench, when as found lifeless. onth of May, 182 eat at a spring not tamed Coldwater. Leavenworth rema Sat, 1890 organized under an act of the territorial legislature of oved October 16, 1818,* and when the Fifth Regiment et out from Detroit for its new field of service on the Mississippi, Colonel Leavenworth, its commander, was commissions in blank for the county officers. He was I to set the machinery of the county in motion, and by or otherwise, submit the choice of officers to the inhabme difficulty, he succeeded in getting John W. Johnson, actor, to consent to serve as chief justice of the county Brisbois and Francis Bouthillier were chosen as assoOwens was appointed judge of probate; John S. Findlay as clerk of the court; and Thomas McNair was selected ff." ting this trust, Colonel Leavenworth left Prairie du morning, the eighth of August, with a detachment of n, twenty men as laborers, boatmen, etc., and fourteen o large keel boats, for the site of the first American within the limits of Minnesota. In consequence of water which prevailed at that time, more than a month making the trip, as the expedition did not arrive at ination until the seventeenth of September. While ckets were being erected, the officers, and such of their en as accompanied them, lived in the large boats." ters were completed," remarks Minnesota's historian I of winter was felt, and the removal from the open cabins, plastered with clay, was considered a privilege." r the scurvy appeared among the troops, and raged at for a few days military duty was suspended. It is den was the attack, that soldiers apparently in good y retired at night, were found dead in the morning. s relieved from his tour of sentinel duty, and stretched ench, when he was called four hours after to resume and lifeless." of May, 1820, the command "entered into summer spring not far from the old Baker trading house. The Coldwater." worth remained in command at the new cantonment liered by Colonal Tegish Selling Anthony was lowered to its place. The first barracks were log structures. When the winter of 1820-21 came in, no part of the fort was far enough advanced to afford protection from the cold and storms, and the troops were forced to retreat to the quarters occupied during the previous winter. The pine lumber used in the construction of the fortifications was cut on Rum River by the soldiers, and was the first ever cut in the territory. In the fall of 1822, the fort was so far completed as to admit of its occupancy, and from that time to the present it has never been unoccupied. During the summer of 1820, Governor Cass, of Michigan; Dr. Wolcott, Indian agent at Chicago and surgeon; Captain Douglass, military engineer; H. R. Schoolcraft, mineralogist; Lieutenant Mackay; James Doty, Esq., secretary; Major Forsyth, private secretary to the governor ; C. C. Trowbridge, topographer, besides the voyageurs, soldiers and Indians accompanying the party, and amounting in all to about forty persons, after visiting the upper part of the country, came down to Fort St. Anthony. The object of the visit (which originated with Governor Cass and was approved by John C. Calhoun, then Secretary of War,) was for the purpose of becoming better acquainted with the Indian tribes and the mineral and agricultural resources of this district of country, then included in Michigan Territory, of which Cass was governor. The party arrived at the garrison at "Camp Cold Water" on the 30th of July, when all was busy, and were received with the customary national salute. In addition to the work that had been done on the fort, ninety acres of ground had been broken and were under cultivation. Green peas had been ready for the table on the fifteenth of June; corn was ripe enough for roasting ears on the fifteenth of July, and wheat was ripe for the harvest. In 1824 General Winfield Scott visited Fort St. Anthony on a tour of inspection, and at his suggestion the name was changed to Fort Snelling, the reason for the change being fully explained in the following extract from his report to the War Department: "This work, of which the War Department is in possession of a plan, reflects the highest credit on Col. Snelling, his officers and men. The defenses, and for the most part the public storehouses, shops and quarters being constructed of stone, the whole is likely to endure as long as the post shall remain a frontier one. The cost of erection to the government has only been the amount for tools and iron, and the per diem paid to soldiers employed as mechanics. "I wish to suggest to the General-in-Chief and through him to the War Denartment incorrect, as th eight miles bel gestion of Ge Henry Leavenwo July 5, 1814, a 4 1534. e in September, Fith regiment.) se of the commissary hers, for Mrs. Ellet, Forms correct, as the work stands at the junction of the Mississippi and St. it miles below the great falls of the Mississippi, and called after St. 1 ion of Gen. Scott was adopted and orders were issued. nce when the name of Fort St. Anthony only exists in Leavenworth, under whose direction the beginning of was commenced, was born in Connecticut, December 10, educated to the profession of the law. When the war of he was commissioned Captain in the twenty-fifth Infantry promoted to Major of ninth Infantry in August, 1813; tenant Colonel and Colonel for distinguished services at y 5, 1814, and at Niagara Falls, where he was wounded. ted Lieutenant Colonel of the fifth Infantry in February, me Brevet Brigadier General in July, 1824, and Colonel Fantry December 16, 1825. He established various milihe frontier, one of which, the flourishing city of Leavenperpetuates his name. He died at Cross Timbers, Texas, be inappropriate to remark here that the first white Minnesota were the wives of army officers. The first of September, 1819, with Col. Leavenworth. On Saturday, eptember," as related in Major Forsyth's narrative, that ccompanied by Col. Leavenworth, Major Vose, Dr. Purt Clark and Mrs. Gooding (the wife of Captain Gooding giment,) set out to visit St. Anthony's Falls." Conseis no reason to doubt that Mrs. Gooding was the first ho ever saw that rushing, roaring cataract. Mrs. Clark, commissary of the post, came in 1820, bringing an infant at Fort Winnebago, Wisconsin. Besides these there Mrs. Ellet, in a sketch of Mrs. Clark, says: "Huts had t, though in the rudest manner, to serve as a shelter ter, from the rigors of a severe climate. After living y in the boat for a month, it was a highly appreciated Clark to find herself at home in a log hut, plastered with d for her reception. It was December before they got ters, and the fierce winds of that exposed region, with |