Father Louis Hennepin's Exploration in 1680

Father Louis Hennepin's Exploration in 1680. . Father Louis Hennepin, Belgian Recollect missionary accompanying Sieur de la Salle's expedition to the Mississippi River region, left Fort Crevecoeur, Illinois, on February 29, 1680, for an exploration of the upper Mississippi River. On April 11, he and his two French companions were captured by a Dakota (Sioux) war party. Leaving the river near present-day St. Paul, the Indians took their captives on a gruelling five-day march to their encampment on the shores of Mille Lacs Lake., In early July Father Hennepin accompanied a Dakota hunting party down the St. Francis (Rum) River. On the fourth day the group camped on the west bank of the Mississippi just opposite the mouth of the Rum River in present-day Champlin. A day or so later Father Hennepin viewed the falls to which he gave the name St. Anthony of Padua., On July 25, some miles below Lake Pepin, Father Hennepin and his two companions were rescued by five Frenchmen led by Daniel Greysolon, Sieur Du Luth, who had come from Lake Superior by way of the Brule and St. Croix rivers. The Indians and Frenchmen now returned to Mille Lacs Lake., Late in September Father Hennepin and Sieur Du Luth set out on their homeward voyage. They wintered at Mackinac and reached Quebec in the spring of 1681. Father Hennepin returned to France, where, in 1683, he published his widely-read Description of Louisiana.