the eloquence of a Jesuit, lately returned from that most arduous mission, to convince her that the attempt would be as useless as rash. It was the 8th of May when Maisonneuve and his followers embarked at St. Michel; and as the boats, deepladen with men, arms, and stores, moved slowly on their way, the forest, with leaves just opening in the warmth of spring, lay on their right hand and on their left, in a flattering semblance of tranquillity and peace. But behind woody islets, in tangled thickets and damp ravines, and in the shade and stillness of the columned woods, lurked everywhere a danger and a terror. What shall we say of these adventurers of Montreal, - of these who bestowed their wealth, and, far more, of these who sacrificed their peace and risked their lives, on an enterprise at once so romantic and so devout? Surrounded as they were with illusions, false lights, and false shadows; breathing an atmosphere of miracle; compassed about with angels and devils; urged with stimulants most powerful, though unreal; their minds drugged, as it were, to preternatural excitement, — it is very difficult to judge of them. High merit, without doubt, there was in some of their number; but one may beg to be spared the attempt to measure or define it. To estimate a virtue involved in conditions so anomalous demands, perhaps, a judgment more than human. ing in the rays of heaven, which soothed with gentle influence the wildness of a barbarous age. On the 17th of May, 1642, Maisonneuve's little flotilla-a pinnace, a flat-bottomed craft moved by sails, and two row-boats - approached Montreal; and all on board raised in unison a hymn of praise. Montmagny was with them to deliver the island, on behalf of the Company of the Hundred Associates, to Maisonneuve, representative of the Associates of Montreal. And here, too, was Father Vimont, Superior of the missions; for the Jesuits had been prudently invited to accept the spiritual charge of the young colony. On the following day, they glided along the green and solitary shores now thronged with the life of a busy city, and landed on the spot which Champlain, thirtyone years before, had chosen as the fit site of a settlement. It was a tongue or triangle of land, formed by the junction of a rivulet with the St. Lawrence, and known afterwards as Point Callière. The rivulet was bordered by a meadow, and beyond rose the forest with its vanguard of scattered trees. Early spring flowers were blooming in the young grass, and birds of varied plumage flitted among the boughs. Maisonneuve sprang ashore, and fell on his knees. His followers imitated his example; and all joined their voices in enthusiastic songs of thanksgiving. Tents, baggage, arms, and stores were landed. An altar was raised on a pleasant spot near at hand; and Mademoiselle Mance, with Madame de la Peltrie, aided by her servant, Charlotte Barré, decorated it with a taste which was the admiration of the beholders. Now all the company gathered before the shrine. Here stood Vimont, in the rich vestments of his office. Here were the two ladies with their servant; Montmagny, no very willing spectator; and Maisonneuve, a warlike figure, erect and tall, his men clustering around him, The Roman Church, sunk in corruption and disease when the Reformation began, was roused by that fierce trumpet-blast to purge and brace herself anew. Unable to advance, she drew back to the fresher and comparatively purer life of the past; and the fervors of medieval Christianity were renewed in the sixteenth century. In many of its aspects, this enterprise of Montreal belonged to the time of the first Crusades. The spirit of Godfrey de Bouillon lived again in Chomedey de Maison-soldiers, sailors, artisans, and laborneuve; and in Marguerite Bourgeoys was realized that fair ideal of Christian womanhood, a flower of earth expand ers, all alike soldiers at need. They kneeled in reverent silence as the Host was raised aloft; and when the rite was over, the priest turned and addressed them: "You are a grain of mustard-seed that shall rise and grow till its branches overshadow the earth. You are few, but your work is the work of God. His smile is on you, and your children shall fill the land." The afternoon waned; the sun sank behind the western forest, and twilight came on. Fire-flies were twink ling over the darkened meadow. They caught them, tied them with threads into shining festoons, and hung them before the altar, where the Host remained exposed. Then they pitched their tents, lighted their bivouac fires, stationed their guards, and lay down to rest. Such was the birth-night of Montreal. Is this true history, or a romance of Christian chivalry? It is both. IN RUSSIAN AMERICA. N the summer of 1741, Vitus Behring, a descendant of the Danish Vikings, who roamed the seas in the search of strange lands to pillage or conquer, set sail from the Kamchatka coast on a similar mission in the service of the Russian Empire. Leaving Awatska Bay, the present site of Petropaulovski, he sailed to the southeast as far as the latitude of 46°' N., when, finding no land, he turned to the northeast. On the 18th of July he sighted a rocky range of coast, — behind which towered lofty mountains, their summits white with perpetual snows,—and thus caught the first glimpse of what is now known as Russian America. The point where Behring first saw land is supposed to have been lat. 58° N., and the lofty mountains were probably Mount Fairweather and its neighboring peaks. Sailing north, the coast was soon found to take a westerly direction, and Behring skirted it for miles without stopping to explore the shores. His ship was badly damaged during the long cruise, his crew sick and dispirited; so, instead of pushing through the passage that was eventually found, he sailed homewards, skirting the long chain of islands that lie like steppingstones between the two continents, and at last finding, with his fellow-sailors, a grave on one of the islands nearest the Kamchatka coast. He had accom plished his task of adding a new territory to the Russian Empire. In 1775, the Spanish Captain De la Bodega, cruising up the Pacific coast of America to add new lands to the American possessions of the Spanish crown, reached lat. 58° N., probably in the neighborhood of Sitka. In accordance with its policy in regard to American discoveries, the voyage of De la Bodega was kept secret by the Spanish government, and only became known when the title to the coast was disputed in after years. Three years later the adventurous British navigator, Captain Cook, having passed around the southernmost point of the American Continent, undertook to return to England by passing around its northern extremity, thus solving the question of a northwest passage by sailing to the northeast. Following the coast closely, he discovered a deep indentation, known now as Cook's Inlet, which he hoped might prove to be the long-sought passage. Having discovered his mistake, he sailed in the track of Behring along the Aliaska peninsula, passed through the island chain, and coasted up to Behring's Strait, through which he passed, and skirted the northern shore of the continent until, at 161° 46′ W., he was stopped by an impenetrable barrier of ice stretching northward from Icy Cape. This was on the 18th of of finding valuable hunting-grounds for the fur-bearing animals. In 1799 the Emperor Paul gave permission to these several companies to organize in one, under the name of the Russian American Fur Company, and granted the power to occupy and subject to Russia all territory north of 55° not already occupied or claimed by any other nation, with the exclusive privilege of hunting and trading in all such territory. In this way a chain of trading-posts and forts was formed, stretching from Dixon's Entrance to Norton Sound. The headquarters of the company were in time removed from Kodiak Island to the island of Sitka, seventeen degrees farther east, where a considerable settlement of Russians, Aleutians, and natives was formed. In 1826, Captain Beechey, sent out by the British government to meet Sir John Franklin, sailed through Behring's Strait, and reached Point Barrow, one hundred and twenty-six miles northeast of the farthest point reached by Cook, and there was stopped by ice. At the same time Sir John Franklin, travelling westward from the Mackenzie River, reached long. 148° 52′ W., or about seven and a half degrees from the point reached by Beechey from the westward. In 1837, Dease and Simpson, two servants of the Hudson's Bay Company, reached Point Barrow from the east, and thus completed the coast exploration of Russian America. Just after Dease and Simpson had turned back from Point Barrow an expedition sent out by the Russian American Fur Company reached the same point from the west, and found the natives assembling in great numbers to kill the English explorers, who, by turning back, had escaped the dangers of which they were ignorant. The Russians, being few in number, beat a hasty retreat; and thus Point Barrow remained the ultima Thule of exploration on the northern coast. From the first discovery of the coast the Russians were active in its exploration. The government encouraged expeditions in search of a northeast passage to the Atlantic, whilst mercantile adventurers examined the coast, and the numerous islands that masked it. In 1783 a commercial expedition followed the line of the Aleutian Islands and the coast down to the sixtieth parallel, finding the rocky shores swarming with the sea otter, and the land beyond full of foxes. A settlement was made on the island of Kodiak, and a fur-trade opened with the Asiatic continent. Other explorations were made north and south, with the same result The operations of the fur-traders were confined chiefly to the islands skirting the coast, and to the immediate shores of the main-land. A lofty range of mountains slopes down to the sea from Dixon's Entrance to Cape Spencer, and beyond this the Russians did not penetrate. The country behind was hunted by the Hudson's Bay Company, and it was an unsettled question how far the rights of each company extended. By the treaties of 1824 and 1825, the Russians were confirmed in possession of the whole northwestern peninsula west of 141° W., and a narrow strip of coast down to Observatory Inlet, with all the islands of the coast. A lease of the coast from Cape Spencer to the southern limit was granted to the Hudson's Bay Company for hunting and trading purposes. The successive exploring and commercial expeditions along the coast had made its general configuration and characteristics well known, even the lonely shores of Behring's Sea having become familiar to the Russian navigator and fur-trader. Of the interior of the great peninsula which formed the chief possession of Russia on the American main-land little or nothing was known. Vague rumors came to the traders at Kodiak, in the early days of the Fur Company, of a great river that rose in the Rocky Mountains, and, after flowing through a vast unknown territory, poured its waters into Behring's Sea. In 1819, the Russian government obtained a description of Bristol Bay, where a trading-post had been established at the mouth of the Nushagak River, and of Behring's Sea from the bay northward to Cape Romanzoff, and thus learned the existence of a large river, the Kuskokvim, which entered the sea midway between the head of Bristol Bay and Cape Romanzoff. In 1829 Lieutenant Nasilef explored the Kuskokvim a short distance, with the purpose of discovering what connection existed between that river and the Nushagak. The result of this exploration was the establishment of a trading-post, Fort Kolmakoff, on the Kuskokvim, about one hundred and fifty miles from its mouth. Between this post and Fort Alexander, on Bristol Bay, communication was kept up by a chain of rivers, lakes, and portages. In 1833, Governor Wrangel selected the island of St. Michael, on Norton Sound, as the site of a fort and tradingpost. Communication was opened with the natives of the main-land, and more definite information obtained of the existence of the large river Kvihpak, of which so many obscure reports had been received. It was a mighty river, of the source of which the natives knew nothing, except that it was far in the interior. It came from the east until within about a hundred miles of the coast, when it turned sharply southward, running about two hundred miles more, and then resumed its westward course, entering the sea by several mouths, below Norton Sound. It flowed somewhere through a heavily timbered country, for the shores below its mouths were always lined with driftwood, which supplied the natives of the coast with building materials and fuel. Several expeditions were sent down from Fort St. Michael to explore the mouths of the Kvihpak, but the shallowness of the water on the coast, and other difficulties, prevented the accomplishment of the object. Attempts were made at the same time to open communication by land routes between Fort St. Michael and the basins of the Kvihpak and Kuskokvim, and trading-posts were with much difficulty established at a few points, the natives of the interior, different in character from those on the coast, continuing to manifest a decided hostility to the white intruders. In 1841, the Russian government despatched Lieutenant Zagoyskin and six assistants, with instructions to spend two years in exploring the basins of the Kvihpak and Kuskokvim Rivers. In August of the following year they set out from St. Michael in seal-skin canoes, and coasted up Norton Sound to the north, about sixty miles, to the river Unalakleat, exploring the shores on the way. The season was so far advanced that no progress could be made into the interior by boat, and the adventurers returned to Fort St. Michael, where they busied themselves in preparing for a winter journey into the interior. On the 4th of December they again set out, with five sledges and twenty-seven dogs. After seven days' journeying through heavy snow-storms, they reached the village at the mouth of the Unalakleat, and ascended that river, with the purpose of crossing the mountains to the Kvihpak by the route usually taken by the natives. The continuance of heavy snow-storms frustrated their purpose, and they were compelled to turn back. The Unalakleat enters Norton Sound from the east. Its course is very crooked, but its length in a straight line is probably from sixty-five to seventy miles. mile and a half from its mouth begins a forest, extending back from the banks about two thousand feet on either side, of alder, poplar, and fir. For six or seven miles the coast range of mountains runs nearly parallel with the river, the cliffs on the right bank being much higher than those on the left. The width of the stream at its lower part varies from a hundred and forty to five hundred and twenty-five feet. A On the 29th of December, sufficient snow having fallen, the party again set out on snow-shoes and sledges, and succeeded in reaching the Kvihpak in about lat. 64° 20' N., about three hundred and fifty miles above its mouth. Here they found a river about a mile and a half wide, frozen over, on which they continued their course northeast to the native village of Nulato, in lat. 64° 42′ N., long. 157° 58' W., the highest point that had been reached by the Russian traders. From Nulato, after a month's rest, they started on the 25th of February, 1843, up the Nulato River, travelling northeast seven days, cutting off the frequent bends of the stream by crossing marshy plains, and in one instance traversing a forest. Reaching the point from which a native road ran to Kotzebue Sound, Lieutenant Zagoyskin endeavored to persuade the natives to guide him to that place, but without success. They excused themselves on the plea that the time had come for reindeer-hunting, and, unless they set out at once, the village would starve. The party set out alone, finding the route marked by sticks, but, after five days' travel, were compelled to turn back for want of provisions, when they had reached lat. 65° 36′ N. By this route, it was ascertained, an extensive trade was carried on between the natives of the coast and those on the Nulato and the higher Kvihpak. The latter brought their furs and received in exchange the iron, tobacco, beads, and other commodities obtained by the coast natives from the Russian traders, from speculative whalers who ran up above the Russian posts to do an illicit trade in furs, or from the Asiatic natives who kept up a commercial intercourse with their brethren across Behring's Straits. On the 3d of June, Lieutenant Zagoyskin with six men and a native interpreter, carrying provisions for three months, set out from Nulato in a large seal-skin canoe, with the intention of reaching the mountains which divided Russian from British America, and establishing the connection between the Kvihpak of the Pacific coast and the Yukon of British America, which had been erroneously described on the maps (and still is on most maps published in the United States) as flowing into the Icy Sea through the river Colville, between the Mackenzie River and Point Barrow. On leaving Nulato, the Kvihpak, for about twelve miles, was found to be about a mile and a half wide, filled with long, narrow islands connected by sand-bars, which at low water are dry. Above the junction with the Nulato, the course of the river lay for many miles through a level plain covered with small lakes abounding in fish. Numerous streams entered from either side, and the banks were well covered with willow, alder, aspen, birch, poplar, and large firs. The woods did not extend a great distance from the river, marshy plains stretching behind them to the foot of the hilly ranges that divided the affluents of the Kvihpak from those of rivers of smaller size on either side of it. Some of these hills reach heights varying from five hundred to fifteen hundred feet, and one range, which approaches close to the Kvihpak, terminates in a round volcano, called by the natives Natagash. Nearly two hundred miles above Nulato the expedition met with a serious obstacle to their further progress. A sand-bank stretched across the stream, over which the natives had been accustomed to carry their canoes, but which was now covered with water. The current was strong, and the party worked in vain with the oars to stem it. Not only the current, but the difficult nature of the channel, interposed obstacles that proved to be insurmountable. Too shallow in some places to be crossed, in others the deeper channels were filled with rocks and drift-wood. For hours they labored in vain to push or pull their canoe through the obstacles and against the rapid current, and then abandoned it in despair. To carry their canoe around the obstacle would have rendered necessary the cutting of a road three and a half miles long through an impenetrable forest,— a work which it was beyond the power of the expedition to accomplish. Reluc |