218 TRADITIONAL HISTORY OF

Entirely successful in his application for a grant to
work the mines, he left Europe in 1697 ; but just as he
came in sight of Newfoundland, the ship in which he
was sailing, was captured by the British, and the pas-
sengers carried as captives to Portsmouth. The next
year he was released, and returned to Paris. Receiving
a fresh patent, he started anew to explore the mines,
believed to be not many miles distant from the spot on
which we dwell. After he arrived in Canada, it was
impossible for him to execute his plans, and he returned
a third time to the mother country. ‘

The commencement of the year 1699, found a distin-
guished Canadian in the naval service of the French
Government. His name was Iberville, and with several
ships and a company of colonists, he went forth to estab-
lish a settlement on the Mississippi. They built a fort
eighty miles Northeast of New Orleans, and here in
1700 we find Le Sueur, who appears to have possessed
indomitable perséverance.

By the order of Iberville, Le Sueur, with a company
of ninety men, proceeded to explore the mines in the
Dakota country, of which he had given an account five
years before. On the first of September, 1700, he had
reached the mouth of the Wisconsin. Fourteen days
after this, he was at the entrance of the Chippewa, on a