remote points, which imposed the necessity of passing through forests,
wildernesses, and wild portages, where none but the healthy, the robust,
the fearless, and the enterprising can go.

In 1831, circumstances inclined the tribes on the Upper Mississippi to
hostilities and extensive combinations. He was directed by the
Government to conduct an expedition through the country lying south and
west of Lake Superior, reaching from its banks, which have from the
earliest dates been the fastnesses of numerous warlike tribes. This he
accomplished satisfactorily, visiting the leading chiefs, and counseling
them to the policy of peace.

In 1832, the Sauks and Foxes resolved to re-occupy lands which they had
previously relinquished in the Rock River Valley. This brought them into
collision with the citizens and militia of Illinois. The result was a
general conflict, which, from its prominent Indian leader, has been
called the Black Hawk war. From accounts of the previous year, its
combinations embraced _nine_ of the leading tribes. It was uncertain how
far they extended. Mr. Schoolcraft was selected by the Indian and War
Department, to conduct a second expedition into the region embracing the
entire Upper Mississippi, north and west of St. Anthony's Falls. He
pursued this stream to the points to which it had been explored in 1806,
by Lieut. Pike, and in 1820, by Gen. Cass; and finding the state of the
water favorable for ascending, traced the river up to its ultimate
forks, and to its actual source in Itasca Lake. This point he reached on
the 23d July, 1832; but a fraction under 300 years after the discovery
of its lower portions by De Soto. This was Mr. Schoolcraft's crowning
geographical discovery, of which he published an account, with maps, in
1833. He is believed to be the only man in America who has seen the
Mississippi from its source in Itasca Lake to its mouth in the Gulf