THE OHIO VALLEY-GREAT LAKES ETHNOHISTORY
ARCHIVES: THE MIAMI COLLECTION
It is noted that the following work from the Miami Archives should be read and
considered within the historical context in which it was composed and printed.
The opinions expressed and the language used do not reflect the opinions or
standards of the Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology, but are, rather,
indicative of thought in that historical moment during which the document was
published.
Joseph Kellogg's Observations on
Senex's Map of North America
(Due to length divided here into two parts)
In: Stearns, Raymond P., Mississippi
Valley
Historical Review, vol. 23, pp. 345-354.
pp. 349, 350, 351, 352, 353, 354.
(page 349) of extending trade, for many fellows of the society
were fully as interested in trade and empire as in the new science and the
society long served as an altar at which mercantilistic enterprise and
"experimental philosophy" were wedded in a manner suggestive of the
laboratories of present day "big business." At the time of Dudley's
election, one of the society's interests was the revision and publication of a
series of maps prepared by John Senex, a London engraver, cartographer, and
bookseller who later (1728) became a member of the society. In 1710- the year
in which Kellogg had gone to the Mississippi Valley- Senex had published in
London a map of "North American Corrected from the Observations
Communicated to the Royal Society at London, and The Royal Academy at
Paris."15 In 1715, he set forth
"A Map of Louisiana and of the River Mississippi," and four years
later "A New Map of the English Empire in America." These, with other
maps of the new world, were revised and included in Senex's A New General
Atlas . . . of The World. The Maps, which are all Engraven or Revised by Mr.
Senex, are laid down according to the Observations communicated to the English
Royal Society, The French Academy of Sciences, and those made by the latest
Travellers."16
One of the "latest Travellers" whose communications reached Senex by way of the Royal Society was Joseph Kellogg. Paul Dudley, in his conversations with Kellogg, showed him a copy of Senex's map of North America published in 1710. Kellogg view- (page 350) ed it with the eye of one who has first hand information and offered corrections which Dudley conceived to be worthy of the Royal Society's attention. Accordingly, with the map spread before them, Kellogg dictated to Dudley an account of his expedition to the Illinois Country which Dudley wrote and communicated (March 15, 1720/21) to John Chamberlayne in London as "A Short Account of a Trading Voyage performed by Joseph Kellogg an English Man of New England in Company with Six French Men from Canada to Mississippi in the year 1710 in two Cannoos made of Birch Bark, with some general remarks made by the Said Kellogg." Chamberlayne showed the manuscript to Sir Hans Sloane who, on May 11, 1721, read it with Dudley's letter of explanation, to the Royal Society.17
"The Journal of Mr. Kellug's Trading Voyage from Canada to Missisipi," said Dudley in his letter to Chamberlayne,
is what I took from his own mouth and then digested into the method you see, and tho' he be not a man of Letters, yet has so much probity and ingenuity that you may depend upon the truth of what he says. I have sometimes thought it might not be improper to communicate his corrections and observations to Mr. [Anthony] Hammond sometime of the Navy to whome Mr. Senexe's Map of North-America is dedicated or to Mr. [Edmond] Halley of the Royal Society to whom that of South America is addressed and who indeed corrected it. But it is yours and I leave it wholly to your disposall. If you should send it to either of those Gentlemen I must pray you to do me the Honour of mentioning my name with Respect to them; without doubt Mr. Senex will be thankfull for a sight of it. . .18
How greatly Kellogg's account affected Master Senex's subsequent map manuacture it is impossible to determine, but the Royal Society read it with interest, carefully entered in the minutes of the meeting an analysis of Kellogg's corrections to Senex's map of North America, and, after the society had ordered its secretary to extend thanks to Dudley, Sir Hans Sloane "proposed Mr. Dudley for [a] Member."19 Unlike Dudley's other scientific communications to the Royal Society, the account of Kellogg's expedition was not published in the Philo- (page 351) sophical Transactions, possibly because it was thought inexpedient to make public Kellogg's information when tension was growing between France and England in the new world. The manuscript, written in Dudley's hand, still lies in the society's archives in London,20 and it is from the original copy that the following transcript is taken. Whether Kellogg had preserved observations in a journal to which he referred when talking with Dudley it is impossible to say; his French captors were not likely knowingly to permit him, at his release in 1714, to carry such a journal out of New France. In any case for a young man of nineteen years, Kellogg had been unusually observant on the voyage of 1710, and when, some nine or ten years later, he gave a verbal report of what he had seen together with suggestions for the correction of Senex's map, he made statements with an honest intent, unstained by braggadocio, intrigue, and personal ambition such as had colored many French accounts of similar expeditions.
A Short Account of a Trading Voyage performed by Joseph Kellug and English Man of New England in Company with Six French Men from Canada to Missisippi in the year 1710 in two Cannoos made of Birch Bark, with some general remarks made by the Said Kellug.
His departure was from Mon-Real, which is an Island in Canada River Sixty Leagues above Quebeck (It would be best to have a map of North America before you, while you are reading); from thence they went not up the River Iriquois [St. Lawrence] and so to the falls of Niagara, but a Northwest Course up the Grand River [Ottawa] as high as Mattawan, and then carried their Cannoos a Short League over land to the Small Lake Nippising (which should be placed nearer to Mattawan and the Grand River), and from thence by a Small River called the French River they went into one of the Great Lakes, Viz't. the Lake Huron. The Countrey from Mattawan to Lake Huron is as miserable as you can well Suppose. He observed no pine or Spruce (page 352) from Canada to Missipi, but abundance of Black Walnut. Mr. Senexe's Map of North America calls the Lake Huron by the Name of Michigan,21 but this Mr. Kellug affirms to be a Mistake,22 & the alias dictum of Michigan (or otherwise called Michigan) Should be placed upon the Lake Ilinois for that is often called by the Name of Michigan. Here also it may be remarked once for all23 that these great Lakes are never frozen (unless round the Edges) but the main Body of their Waters are always open like the Sea, being near fifty leagues in length.
Having Entred the Lake Huron they Coasted it along on the North Side of the Island Manytaualin [Manitoulin] till they come to the North-west end of it, keeping always pretty near the Shoare, for there is no Venturing far off in a Birch Cannoo. They Wintered in a Village Of the Outawas, an Indian Tribe not very numerous setled between the three Lakes; the Name of the Village was Michalmakinas, which in the Language of the Outawas Signifies a Turtle. Here again Mr. Kellug, having Mr. Senexe's map upon the Table, offered another correction as to the Situation of the Lake Superiour,24 for he Seemed confident that the Map had placed that Lake too near the other two Lakes by at least twenty or thirty Leages. The Streights or communication between the two Lakes Huron and Ilinois or Michigan are about two Leagues over, and frozen every Winter. Here they found very good fishing for Trouts,25 and confirmed Father Hennepins Account of their prodigious bigness;26 Mr. Kellug himself halled up Several of more than fifty pound weight. The Water clear, Sweet, and fresh, forty Fathom deep. Having passed These Streights, They Entred the Lake Ilinois or Michigan; here again Mr. Kellug observed a Mistake as to the Situation of the Lake. For whereas the Map places the length of it North & South, he assures me that it lyes near North North East and South South west,27 or as his Phrase was, The South end Should be placed more to the Westward. This Great Lake also they Coasted till they came near the South west end of it, and then carried their cannoos over land a full League to a Branch of the River Ilinois, and this was their biggest carrying place of the whole Voyage, and is called (page 353) Chigaquea. About the head of the River Ilinois are fine large Savannahs or Meadows of forty Miles in length,28 Some of the Richest Land the World affords. This River Ilinois is one of the Great Rivers that falls into Missasippi, and runs a course of one hundred and thirty Leagues before it Empties itself into Missasippi. Into this River Ilinois comes the River Miamis or St. Joseph, as the French call it, issuing from the Lake Ilinois.29 Mr. Kellug in his return went up that River into the Lake; there they met with Sturgeon30 of ten foot long. The Savannahs before mentioned are the noble pasture of Thousands of Buffalo's and wild Cattle and which they saw in great herds; and to their Surprise in Some of the feeding or lodging places of these wild Cattle they discovered bunches of true clover Grass. as they went to the River Ilinois they raised Infinite number of wild fowl, Such as Cranes, Geese, Duck, and Swans in great abundance that feed upon wild oats31 [which] are called by the Indians Mauahomine, by the French Falavoine, and are a very good Grain, and may be boyled and Eat as rice, and will Swell from one quart to ten or twelve; they grow in Such abundance by the Banks of the River as it runs thro' Savanahs that a Man may fill a Cannoo with the grain in a few hours.32 upon this River Ilinois they found wild apple trees and plumb-trees, the apples bitter and Sower, but the plumbs good; & a fruit much like Cucumber that grow upon Small trees or Shrubbs. They call 'em Raisimins. before the River Ilinois falls into the Missasippi it is Joyned by the Ouramani, which in the Indian Signifies Vermillion and So may be named upon the Map.
The next Stage down this River was the Fort Louis alias Crevecoeur. Here again happens a Considerable mistake in the Map,33 for whereas the Fort is placed at the lower end of the little Lake Pimetawi [Peoria], it really stands thirty Leagues above that Lake. Below the Lake Pimetawi, the River Ilinois is Joyned by two Considerable Rivers & at length Empties all its Water into the Great River. The River Missasippi where the River Ilinois Joyns it is more than half an English mile broad, and very deep Water. Here Mr. Kellug found himself in a New World, Compared with the River Canada.
The climate Temperate, every thing Gay and pleasant, abundance of fine fruit trees, Stocks of Small parrots in the Woods;34 that which he remarked of them was that the hinder part of the Head was Yellow the fore part green, and at the Engd of the Bill a ring as red as blood. The Winter is here So moderate that the Snow Seldom lyes above 24 hours, and no more than two or three Inches deep.
Five Leagues from the Mouth of Ilinois brings you to the mouth of another Great River that Joyns Missasippi from the west Side, the Name of it Missouris,35 and is a very great rapid River & much biger then Ilinois. Below Missouris, the next place on the map is the Village Tamaroa alias Cawhukah [Cahokia]; the little River below Tamaroa is called Meschgamne36 and deserves a Name on the map, for there is a French Village37 Setled upon it where they raise Excelent wheat, very good Indian Corn, have a Wind Mill, and had a Stock of Catle, make a very good Sort of wine.38 Mr. Kellug Says they had Several hogshed of it when he was there; it is of a red Colour and has a rough tast. The Land produces Excellent mellons, good beans, turneps, and all Sorts of Garden Erbs; the Woods, oak and Several sorts of Walnuts. Just over against the mouth of Tamaroa River on the other Side of the Missasippi are abundance of Salt Springs where the Natives are Supplyed with Salt;39 they lye just above a Small River called La Salme [La Saline] in the map, near to which little River it might be Said Salt Springs.
The next River towards the Sea that falls into Missasippi is Ouebache;40 This River Ouabache (taking in the River Acansea
which Joyns it near the Missasippi) is a great River of at least Sixty rod
broad and one of the largest that falls into the Missasipi. The River Acansea
goes among the Natives by the name of Ohiyeu which with them signifies fine or
beautiful River. Here also Mr. Kellug Says is a Noble Countrey, vast numbers of
wild Cattle that make great and open roads for many miles together; and
hereabouts Mr. Kellugs Company ended their trading Voyage and so returned back
to Canada.
________________
15 British Museum, Maps 148.e.3.
16 London, 1721 (B. M., Maps 44.f.7).
20 Classified Papers 1660-1740, VII (2), no. 1 (4 pp.). It is endorsed "Voyage from Canada to Missisipi Read May 11th 1721 & Copy'd," in the Register-Book of Ye Royal Society, XI (1722-24), 132-36. The account has been printed in an imperfect form and with no notion as to how it was prepared in Hopkins, The Kelloggs in the Old World and the New, 60-62. From this little known and infrequently available source, Miss Louise P. Kellogg refers to Kellogg's account in The French Régime in Wisconsin and the Northwest (Madison, 1925), 277-78, probably the only historical use made of the Kellogg-Dudley narrative. The manuscript is herein set forth from the original with complete background as a more perfect version of Kellogg's account of his expedition. Dudley's manuscript is transcribed with no alterations except in punctuation. A few words of explanation are inserted in brackets.
24 Marginal note: "Correction." Senex had called Superior the "Upper Lake."
26 Father Louis Hennepin, in his Description de la Louisiane . . . (Paris, 1683) 62ff., describes large fish caught at Michillimackinac in 1678. Later he mentions them again; see R. G. Thwaites (ed.), A New Discovery of a Vast Country in America by Father Louis Hennepin (Chicago, 1903), I, 63-64, 311; II, 558.
27 Marginal note: "Correction."
28 Marginal note: "Large Savannahs."
31 Marginal note: "Swans &c. Wild Oats."
32 Father Marquette, in the journal of his voyage with Joliet in 1673, gave a description of the harvest and use of the wild "oats" or rice. See Louise P. Kellogg (ed.), Early Narratives of the Northwest 1634-1699 (Original Narratives of Early American History, New York, 1917), 230-31.
33 Marginal note: "Correction."
34 Various early travellers to the Illinois Country note the presence of parrots. See Father Marquette's account in Kellogg, Early Narratives, 252; Hennepin, Description de la Louisiane, 131; Thwaites, A New Discovery . . ., I, 151, 211; II, 635, 666; "Memoir on the Indians between Lake Erie and the Mississippi" (1718) in O'Callaghan, N. Y. Col. Docs., IX, 890.
35 Marginal note: "Missouris River."
36 Marginal note: "Meschgamue."
37 Marginal note: "French Settlmt."
38 Marginal note: "Wine & Wheat."
39 Marginal note: "Salt Springs."
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