The things we do!

But that narrow strip of prairie
which they crossed that June day in 1673 was in a sense the coast of a new
sea, they knew not what sea--or, better, it was the rim of a new world.
On the 17th of June they entered the Mississippi with a joy which they
could not express, Marquette naming it, according to his vow, in honor of
the Virgin Mary, Riviere de la Conception, and Joliet, with an earthly
diplomacy or gratitude, in honor of Frontenac, "La Buade." For days they
follow its mighty current southward through the land of the buffalo, but
without sight for sixty leagues of a human being, where now its banks are
lined with farms, villages, and towns. At last they come upon footprints
of men, and following them up from the river they enter a beautiful
prairie where a little way back from the river lay three Indian villages.
There, after peaceful ceremonies and salutations, they, the first
Frenchmen on the farther bank, their fame having been carried westward
from the missions on the shores of the lakes, were received.


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