DISCOVERIES  IN  THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY.
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the Ozage the water is hardly drinkable. The Indians assure us that this river is formed by many others, and that they ascend it for ten or twelve days to a mountain where it rises ; that beyond this mountain is the sea where they see great ships ; that on the river are a great number of large villages, of many different nations ; that there are arable and prairie-lands, and abundance of cattle and beaver. Although this river is very large, the Colbert does not seem augmented by it; but it pours in so much mud, that from its mouth the water of the great river, whose bed is also slimy, is more like clear mud than river water, without changing at all till it reaches the sea, a distance of more than three hundred leagues, although it receives seven large rivers, the water of which is very beautiful, and which are almost as large as the Mississippi.
On the 14th, six leagues further, we found on the east the village of the Tamaroas,* who had gone to the chase ; we left there marks of our peaceful coming, and signs of our route, according to practice, in such voyages. We went slowly, because we were obliged to hunt and fish almost daily, not having been able to bring any provisions but Indian corn.
Forty leagues from Tamaroa is the river Oiiabache (Ohio), where we stopped. From the mouth of this river you must advance forty-two leagues without stopping, because the banks are low and marshy, and full of thick foam, rushes and walnut trees.
On the 24th, those whom we sent to hunt all returned but Peter Prudhomme ; the rest reported that they had seen an
* The Tamaroas or Maroas were an Illinois tribe, who long had their village in this quarter. After their conversion to Christianity, they and the Cahokias were under the spiritual guidance of the priests of the Seminary of Foreign Missions.    At this period no missionary had reached them.