Carver, Jonathan

Jonathan (1732-1780), an American explorer. He was a native of Stillwater, New York, and died in London. In 1756 he commanded a company of colonial rangers in the invasion of Canada. On the conclusion of peace he obtained a halfway commission to explore the vast territory lying west of the Great Lakes. In 1766 he set out from Boston. He traveled by way of Mackinaw and struck westward to the Mississippi at Prairie du Chien. He visited the Falls of St. Anthony, bargained with the natives, it is said, for a grant of land where St. Paul now stands, and explored the northern border of Lake Superior. In 1768 he returned to Boston and soon set sail for England to lay his charts and reports before the authorities, by whom he hoped to be recompensed for his outlay. In this he was disappointed. The lords commissioners required his charts, but gave him no money. In 1778, while earning a living as a clerk, he managed to bring out an edition at Boston of his Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America. It is an interesting account of the country and the manners, customs, ceremonies, dress, languages, and mode of living of of the Indians he had seen. Grave doubt has been thrown on the truthfulness of the writer. Some of the most interesting parts of his account were taken evidently from the narrative of an earlier French traveler. Carver's Cave, as it is called, may be seen in a sandstone cliff at St. Paul. John C. Fremont and other distinguished frontiersmen carved their initials on its walls. It was here that Carver witnessed the burial ceremony of a Sioux chieftain. His account of the address given by a warrior was made the basis of a poem by the German Schiller.