MOST REV. DEAR SIR-Yours of the date of the 26th, was duly received-and I am glad you are about to settle the "questio vexata" by a direct appeal to the fountain head. I presume Monseigneur, the Archbishop of Quebec, can, from the archives of his Diocese, throw some light on it. There are certainly strong reasons for believing that NOISEUX "Pretre et Grand Vicaire du Diocese de Quebec," (as you say,) "would not fabricate history, assign dates, and insert the names of missionaries, to fill up gaps, and give a coloring of truth to mis-statements." He must have got his names and dates from some authentic source, and most probably from the archives of the Diocese of Quebec, the same source from which our venerable friend, the late Bishop BRUTE, obtained the same names and dates. In relation to the truth, or falsehood, of these statements I have no defence to make. I but merely reported, what others presumed to know, the facts, had already averred to be true, and which, without intending to do the slightest injustice to Pere MARQUETTE, as a discoverer, I still believe to be true. It abates not a tithe from the well earned fame of Father MARQUETTE, that Jesuit missions had been established at Kaskaskia and Cahokia anterior to

his exploration of the "Father of Waters." He, and he alone, was the first geographical discoverer of that stream, the first white man, that navigated its waters; and until I am further informed, convinced of our errors, I feel disposed to say to Mr. SHEA, as Mr. SAULNIER remarked to him, "Mr. NOISEUX may be very good authority in spite of Mr. SHEA." I shall therefore await patiently the denouement of the investigations at Quebec, and trust you will be kind enough to furnish me the result.

Your friend and obedient servant,

EVANSVILLE, March 30th, 1855.

JOHN LAW.

MOST REV. ARCHBISHOP PURCELL, Cincinnati, Ohio.

MOST REV. DEAR SIR:-The name of the venerable M. NOISEUX has always been highly respected in the Diocese of Quebec, although the same cannot be said of the manuscript work he has left, and which contains numerous inaccuracies and errors. The reverend gentleman was in the habit of consecrating his leisure hours to the collection of historical documents from which he made extracts. But he wanted critical acumen, and he was not sufficiently versed in deciphering the writing of the ancient missionaries, which frequently illegible to the uninitiated. Hence, many and egregious errors and contradictions are to be found in his “Liste Chronologique," etc.

So conscious of these defects in his work was M. NOISEUX, that during his life he never would consent to communicate it but to two or three intimate friends in the clergy. At his death, he left it in the hands of the late Archbishop SIGNAY, with the strictest injunctions of never allowing a copy of it to be made, at least till it had been carefully corrected, By some means, however, a couple of copies found their way out of the archives, and one has even gone as far as St. Louis, if I am well informed. Its character being there unknown has caused several historical heresies amongst those who give it an authority it was far from possessing in the estimation of the compiler himself.

DROCOUX is not to be found; the Relations and the Journal des Jesuites, which contain the names of the missionaries arriving at Quebec, do not mention this name, neither is it to be found in the register of N. D. de Quebec, begun in 1621, nor of Three Rivers, commenced in 1634. I rather suspect the name of ALLOUEZ may, by a bad reader, have been translated as DROCOUX. Father ALLOUEZ, who had been at Three Rivers, was one of the first missionaries who penetrated into the far West. As for the name of DEGUERRE, or DEQUERRE, it is most probably made to represent the name of Father DE

QUEN. The river Mississippi had not been seen by those Fathers.

Documents preserved at Quebec show that, in 1673, Louis JOLLIET, born at Quebec of French parents, was commissioned by M. DE FRONTENAC to discover the great river, some affluents of which had been visited by missionaries and traders. JOLLIET chose for his companion Father MARQUETTE, whose name was thus connected with the discovery of the Mississippi.

The best authorities we have for the earlier portion of the history of Canada, are, besides CHAMPLAIN, DUCREUX, the Relations des Jesuites, Journal des Jesuites, and the valuable letters of La Mere de l'Incarnation. I am happy to be able to inform your Grace, that the Provincial Legislature has determined to have a part of these interesting works reprinted.

I am really sorry, my dear Lord, not to have it in my power to give a more favorable opinion of M. NOISEUX's work; however, his character should not suffer, because, in opposition to his better judgment and to his wishes, this work has been. thrust before the public. *

*

Your Grace's most obedient humble servant,

† C. F. EVEQUE DE TLOA.

THE INDIAN TRIBES OF WISCONSIN.

BY JOHN GILMARY SHEA, OF NEW YORK.

All that relates to the Indian tribes of Wisconsin, their antiquities, their ethnology, their history, is deeply interesting, from the fact that it is the area of the first meeting of the Algic and Dakota tribes. Here clans of both these widespread families, met and mingled at a very early period; here they first met in battle, and mutually checked each other's advance. The Algonquin race covered all the territory now embraced in Canada, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, as well as the Eastern, Middle and Western States of our own Confederacy, encircling the tribes of the Huron-Iroquois, who lay in the line from Lake Huron to Albermarle Sound. Every tribe in this vast limit, spoke dialects either of the Algonquin or of the Huron.

The French, on the settlement of Canada, turned their attention to the Indian tribes, and discovered the fact of the existence of these two great families; their missionaries and traders soon learned enough of these two, to pass from tribe to tribe, or acquire from one, accounts, more or less accurate, of the nations whose distance prevented a personal visit.

In five years after the founding of Quebec, the French gazed upon the waters of Lake Huron; and, as early as 1618, CHAMPLAIN and SAGARD were able to record the fact, that on the shores of a Lake connecting with Lake Huron, lay a people from the distant sea-coast, the representatives of a third great family of tribes, distinct from the Huron and Algonquin. Thus early was this great ethnological point established by

the French. Nor was this knowledge vague. By 1639, the names and localities, as well as the race and language, of the Wisconsin tribes, were known by actual observation, and the succeeding century but developed this knowledge, and gave the annals of the State, for in no part did the tribes undergo less alteration or loss.

In the present paper, it is not proposed to give a history of the Wisconsin tribes and of their relations to the whites, but simply to give the origin, names and early history of each tribe as emigrating to or from the territory, so far as we can trace it from authentic tradition, or from the French statements, from the visit of NICOLET to Green Bay, in 1639, to the conquest of Canada by the English.

List of tribes mentioned as at any time residing in Wisconsin:

AINOVES. This tribe is mentioned by the Recollet Father MEMBRE, as lying on the western side of Lake Dauphin (Michigan), having two villages.* It is not improbable that this is a misprint for Aiosais, the old French spelling to express the sound Iowa. MEMBRE wrote from report, and might

LE CLERCQ. Etablissement de la Foi, ii; SHEA's Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi, p. 150.