History of Fillmore County, Including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota, Part 18

Author: Edward D. Neill
Publication date: 1882
Publisher:
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USA > Minnesota > Fillmore County > History of Fillmore County, Including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota > Part 18

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Arrival of J. N. Nicollet-Marriage of James Wells-Nicollet's letter from Falls- of St. Anthony -- Perils of Martin McLeod-Chippeway treachery -- Sioux Re venge-Rum River and Stillwater battles-Grog shops near the Fort.

On the second of July 1836, the steamboat Saint Peter landed supplies, and among its passengers was the distinguished French as- tronomer, Jean N. Nicollet (Nicolay). Major Taliaferro on the twelfth of July, wrote; " Mr. Nicollet, on a visit to the post for scientific research, and at present in my family, has shown me the late work of Henry R. Schoolcraft on the discovery of the source of the Mississippi ; which claim is ridiculous in the extreme." On the twenty-seventh, Nicollet ascended the Mississippi on a tour of observation.

James Wells, a trader, who afterwards was a member of the legislature, at the house of Oliver Cratte, near the fort, was married on the twelfth of September, by Agent Taliaferro, to Jane, a daughter of Duncan Graham. Wells was killed in 1862, by the Sioux, at the time of the massacre in the Minnesota Valley.

Nicollet in September returned from his trip to Leech Lake, and on the twenty-seventh wrote the following to Major Taliaferro the Indian Agent at the fort, which is supposed to be the earliest letter extant written from the site of the city of Minneapolis. As the principal hotel and one of the finest avenues of that city bears his name it is worthy of preservation. He spelled his name sometimes Nicoley, and the pronuncia- tion in English, would be Nicolay, the same as if written Nicollet in French. The letter shows that he had not mastered the English language : "ST. ANTHONY'S FALLS, 27th September, 1836,

DEAR FRIEND :- I arrived last evening about dark; all well, nothing lost, nothing broken, happy and a very successful journey. But I done exhausted, and nothing can relieve me, but the pleasure of meeting you again under your hospitable roof, and to see all the friends of the garrison who have been so kind to me.

" This letter is more particularly to give you a very extraordinary tide. Flat Mouth, the chief of Leech Lake and suite, ten in number are with me. The day before yesterday I met them again at Swan river where they detained me one day. I had to bear a new harangue and gave answer. All terminated by their own resolution that they ought to give you the hand, as well as to the Guinas of the Fort ( Colonel Davenport. ) I thought it my duty to acquaint you with it be- forehand. Peace or war are at stake of the visit they pay you. Please give them a good welcome until I have reported to you and Colonel Daven- port all that has taken place during my stay among the Pillagers. But be assured I have not trespassed and that I have behaved as would have done a good citizen of the U. S. As to Schoolcraft's statement alluding to you, you will have full and complete satisfaction from Flat Mouth himself. In haste, your friend, J. N. NICOLEY."

EVENTS OF A. D. 1837.

On the seventeenth of March, 1837, there ar- rived Martin McLeod, who became a prominent citizen of Minnesota, and the legislature has given his name to a county.

He left the Red River country on snow shoes, with two companions, one a Polander and the other an Irishman named Hays, and Pierre Bot- tineau as interpreter. Being lost in a violent snow storm the Pole and Irishman perished. IIe and his guide, Bottineau, lived for a time on the flesh of one of their dogs. After being twenty- six days without seeing any one, the survivors reached the trading post of Joseph R. Brown, at Lake Traverse, and from thence they came to the fort.

EVENTS OF A. D. 1838.

In the month of April, eleven Sioux were slain in a dastardly manner, by a party of Ojibways,

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INDIAN BATTLES AT RUM RIVER AND STILLWATER.

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under the noted and elder Hole-in-the-Day. The Chippeways feigned the warmest friendship, and at dark lay down in the tents by the side of the Sioux, and in the night silently arose and killed them. The occurrence took place at the Chippe- way River, about thirty miles from Lac qui Parle, and the next day the Rev. G. H. Pond, the Indian missionary, accompanied by a Sioux, v.ent out and buried the mutilated and scalpless bodies.

On the second of August old Hole-in-the-Day, and some Ojibways, came to the fort. They stopped first at the cabin of Peter Quinn, whose wife was a half-breed Chippeway, about a mile from the fort.

The missionary, Samuel W. Pond, told the agent that the Sioux, of Lake Calhoun were aroused, and on their way to attack the Chippe- ways. The agent quieted them for a time, but two of the relatives of those slain at Lac qui Parle in April, hid themselves near Quinn's house, and as Hole-in-the-Day and his associates were pass- ing, they fired and killed one Chippeway and wounded another. Obequette, a Chippeway from Red Lake, succeded, however, in shooting a Sioux while he was in the act of scalping his comrade. The Chippeways were brought within the fort as soon as possible, and at nine o'clock a Sioux was confined in the guard-house as a hostage.

Notwithstanding the murdered Chippeway had been buried in the graveyard of the fort for safety, an attempt was made on the part of some of the Sioux, to dig it up. On the evening of the sixth, Major Plympton sent the Chippeways across the river to the east side, and ordered them to go home as soon as possible.

EVENTS OF A. D. 1839.

On the twentieth day of June the elder Hole- in-the-Day arrived from the Upper Mississippi with several hundred Chippeways. Upon their return homeward the Mississippi and Mille Lacs band encamped the first night at the Falls of Saint Anthony, and some of the Sioux visited them and smoked the pipe of peace.

On the second of July, about sunrise, a son-in- law of the chief of the Sioux band, at Lake Cal- houn, named Meekaw or Badger, was killed and scalped by two Chippeways of the Pillager band, relatives of him who lost his life near Patrick

Quinn's the year before. The excitement was intense among the Sioux, and immediately war parties started in pursuit. Hole-in-the-Day's band was not sought, but the Mille Lacs and Saint Croix Chippeways. The Lake Calhoun Sioux, with those from the villages on the Minnesota, assembled at the Falls of Saint Anthony, and on the morning of the fourth of July, came up with the Mille Lacs Chippeways on Rum River, before sunrise. Not long after the war whoop was raised and the Sioux attacked, killing and wounding ninety.

The Kaposia band of Sioux pursued the Saint Croix Chippeways, and on the third of July found them in the Penitentiary ravine at Stillwater, under the influence of whisky. Aitkin, the old trader, was with them. The sight of the Sioux tended to make them sober, but in the fight twenty-one were killed and twenty-nine were wounded.

Whisky, during the year 1839, was freely in- troduced, in the face of the law prohibiting it. The first boat of the season, the Ariel, came to the fort on the fourteenth of April, and brought twenty barrels of whisky for Joseph R. Brown, and on the twenty-first of May, the Glaucus brought six barrels of liquor for David Faribault. On the thirtieth of June, some soldiers went to Joseph R. Brown's groggery on the opposite side of the Mississippi, and that night forty - seven were in the guard-house for drunkenness. The demoralization then existing, led to a letter by Surgeon Emerson on duty at the fort, to the Sur- geon General of the United States army, in which he writes :

"The whisky is brought here by citizens who are pouring in upon us and settling themselves on the opposite shore of the Mississippi river, in defiance of our worthy commanding officer, Major J. Plympton, whose authority they set at naught. At this moment there is a citizen named Brown, once . a soldier in the Fifth Infantry, who was discharged at this post, while Colonel Snelling commanded, and who has been since employed by the Ameri- can Fur Company, actually building on the land marked out by the land officers as the reserve, and within gunshot distance of the fort, a very expensive whisky shop."

KLIENT COFJIND 10 ALISIEREN An-

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EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA.

CHAPTER XVIII.

INDIAN TRIBES IN MINNESOTA AT THE TIME OF ITS ORGANIZATION.

Sioux or Dahkotah people-Meaning of words Sioux and Dahkotah-Early villages -Residence of Sioux in 1849-The Winnebagoes-The Ojibways or Chippeways.

The three Indian nations who dwelt in this region after the organization of Minnesota, were the Sioux or Dahkotahs; the Ojibways or Chip- peways; and the Ho-tchun-graws or Winneba- goes.

SIOUX OR DAHKOTAHS.

They are an entirely different group from the Algonquin and Iroquois, who were found by the early settlers of the Atlantic States, on the banks of the Connecticut, Mohawk, and Susquehanna Rivers.

When the Dahkotahs were first noticed by the European adventurers, large numbers were occu- pying the Mille Lacs region of country, and appro- priately called by the voyageur, "People of the Lake," "Gens du Lac." And tradition asserts that here was the ancient centre of this tribe. Though we have traces of their warring and hunting on the shores of Lake Superior, there is no satisfactory evidence of their residence, east of the Mille Lacs region, as they have no name for Lake Superior.

The word Dahkotah, by which they love to be designated, signifies allied or joined together in friendly compact, and is equivalent to " E pluri- bus unum," the motto on the seal of the United States.

In the history of the mission at La Pointe, Wisconsin, published nearly two centuries ago, a a writer, referring to the Dahkotahs, remarks :

"For sixty leagues from the extremity of the Upper Lake, toward sunset; and, as it were in the centre of the western nations. they have all united their force by a general league."

The Dahkotahs in the earliest documents, and even until the present day, are called Sioux, Scioux, or Soos. The name originated with the early voy- ageurs. For centuries the Ojibways of Lake Superior waged war against the Dahkotahs; and,

whenever they spoke of them, called them Nado- . waysioux, which signifies enemies.

The French traders, to avoid exciting the atten- tion of Indians, while conversing in their pres- ence, were accustomed to designate them by names, which would not be recognized.

The Dahkotahs were nicknamed Sioux, a word composed of the two last syllables of the Ojibway word for foes

Under the influence of the French traders, the eastern Sioux began to wander from the Mille Lacs region. A trading post at O-ton-we-kpa- dan, or Rice Creek, above the Falls of Saint Anthony, induced some to erect their summer dwellings and plant corn there, which took the place of wild rice. Those who dwelt here were called Wa-kpa-a-ton-we-dan Those who dwell on the creek. Another division was known as the Ma-tan-ton-wan.

Less than a hundred years ago, it is said that the eastern Sioux, pressed by the Chippeways, and influenced by traders, moved seven miles above Fort Snelling on the Minnesota River.

MED-DAY-WAH-KAWN-TWAWNS.

In 1849 there were seven villages of Med-day- wah-kawn-twawn Sioux. (1) Below Lake Pepin, where the city of Winona is, was the village of Wapashaw. This band was called Kee-yu-ksa, because with them blood relations intermarried. Bounding or Whipping Wind was the chief. (2) At the head of Lake Pepin, under a lofty bluff, was the Red Wing village, called Ghay-mni-chan Hill, wood and water. Shooter was the name of the chief. (3) Opposite, and a little below the l'ig's Eye Marsh, was the Kaposia band. The word, Kapoja means light, given because these people are quick travelers. His Scarlet People, better known as Little Crow, was the chief, and is notorious as the leader in the massacre of 1862. On the Minnesota River. on the south side,

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NOTICE OF THE HOTCHUNGRAW'S, OR WINNEBAGOES.

a few miles above Fort Snelling, was Black Dog village. The inhabitants were called, Ma-ga-yu- tay-shnee. People who do not a geese, be- cause they found it profitable to sell game at Fort Snelling. Grey Iron was the chief, also known as Pa-ma-ya-yaw, My head aches.

At Oak Grove, on the north side of the river, eight miles above the fort, was (5) Hay-ya-ta-o- ton-wan, or Inland Village, so called because they formerly lived at Lake Calkoun. Contigu- ous was (6) O-ya-tay-shee-ka, or Bad People, Known as Good Roads Band and (7) the largest village was Tin-ta-ton-wan, Prairie Village ; Shokpay, or Six, was the chief, and is now the site of the town of Shakopee.

West of this division of the Sioux were-

WAR-PAY-KU-TAY.

The War-pay-ku-tay, or leaf shooters, who occupied the country south of the Minnesota around the sources of the Cannon and Blue Earth Rivers.

WAR-PAY-TWAWNS.

North and west of the last were the War-pay- twawns, or People of the Leaf, and their princi- pal village was Lac qui Parle. They numbered about fifteen hundred.

SE-SEE-TWAWNS.

To the west and southwest of these bands of Sioux were the Se-see-twawns (Sissetoans), or Swamp Dwellers. This band claimed the land west of the Blue Earth to the James River, and the guardianship of the Sacred Red Pipestone Quarry. Their principal village was at Traverse, and the number of the band was estimated at thirty-eight hundred.

HO-TCHUN-GRAWS, OR WINNEBAGOES.

The Ho-tchun-graws, or Winnebagoes, belong to the Dahkotah family of aborigines. Cham- plain, although he never visited them, mentions them. Nicollet, who had been in his employ, visited Green Bay about the year 1635, and an early Relation mentions that he saw the Quini- pegous, a people called so, because they came from a distant sea, which some French erron- eously called Puants. Another writer speak-

ing of these people says : "This people are called ' Les Puants ' not because of any bad odor peculiar to them, but because they claim to have come from the shores of a far distant lake, towards the north, whose waters are salt. They call themselves the people 'de l'eau puants,' of the putrid or bad water."

By the treaty of 1837 they were removed to Iowa, and by another treaty in October, 1846, they came to Minnesota in the spring of 1848, to the country between the Long Prairie, and Crow Wing Rivers. The agency was located on Long Prairie River, forty miles from the Mississippi, and in 1849 the tribe numbered about twenty-five hundred souls.

In February 1855, another treaty was made with them, and that spring they removed to lands on the Blue Earth River. Owing to the panic caused by the outbreak of the Sioux in 1862, Con- gress, by a special act, without consulting them, in 1863, removed them from their fields in Min- nesota to the Missouri River, and in the words of a missionary, "they were, like the Sioux, dumped in the desert, one hundred miles above Fort Randall"

OJIBWAY OR CHIPPEWAY NATION.

The Ojibways or Leapers, when the French came to Lake Superior, had their chief settlement at Sault St. Marie, and were called by the French Saulteurs, and by the Sioux, Hah-ha-tonwan, Dwellers at the Falls or Leaping Waters.

When Du Luth erected his trading post at the western extremity of Lake Superior, they had not obtained any foothold in Minnesota, and were constantly at war with their hereditary enemes, the Nadouaysioux. By the middle of the eighteenth century, they had pushed in and occu- pied Sandy, Leech, Mille Lacs and other points between Lake Superior and the Mississippi, which had been dwelling places of the Sioux. In 1820 the principal villages of Ojibways in Minnesota were at Fond du Lac, Leech Lake and Sandy Lake. In 1837 they ceded most of their lands. Since then, other treaties have been made, until in the year 1881, they are confined to a few res- ervations, in northern Minnesota and vicinity.

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EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA.

CHAPTER XIX.

EARLY MISSIONS AMONG THE OJIBWAYS AND DAHKOTAHS OF MINNESOTA.

Jesuit Missions not permanent-Presbyterian Mission at Mackinaw-Visit of Rev. A. Coe and J D. Stevens to Fort Snelling-Notice of Ayers, Hall, and Boutwell -Formation of the word Itasca-The Brothers Pond-Arrival of Dr. William- son -Presbyterian Church at Fort Snelling-Mission at Lake Harriet-Mourn- ing for the Dead-Church at Lac-qui parle-Father Ravoux-Mission at lake Pokeguma-Attack by the Sioux-Chippeway attack at Pig's Eye-Death of Rev. Sherman Hall-Methodist Missions Rev. S. W. Pond prepares a Sioux Grammar and Dictionary Swiss Presbyterian Mission.

Bancroft the distinguished historian, catching the enthusiasm of the narratives of the early Jesuits, depicts, in language which glows, their missions to the Northwest; yet it is erroneous to suppose that the Jesuits exercised any perma- nent influence on the Aborigines.

Shea, a devoted member of the Roman Catho- lic Church, in his History of American Catholic Missions writes : " In 1680 Father Engalran was apparently alone at Green Bay, and Pierson at Mackinaw. Of the other missions neither Le- Clerq nor Hennepin, the Recollect writers of the West at this time, make any mention, or in any way allude to their existence." He also says that "Father Menard had projected a Sioux mission ; Marquette, Allouez, Druilletes, all en- tertained hopes of realizing it, and had some intercourse with that nation, but none of them ever succeeded in establishing a mission."

Father Hennepin wrote: "Can it be possible, that, that pretended prodigious amount of savage converts could escape the sight of a multitude of French Canadians who travel every year ? * * How comes it to pass that these * * churches so devout and so numerous, should be invisible, when I passed through so many countries and nations ?"

After the American Fur Company was formed, the island of Mackinaw became the residence of the principal agent for the Northwest, Robert Stuart a Scotchman, and devoted Presbyterian.

In the month of June, 1820, the Rev. Dr. Morse, father of the distinguished inventor of the telegraph, visited and preached at Mackinaw, and in consequence of statements published by

him, upon his return, a Presbyterian Missionary Society in the state of New York sent a graduate of Union College, the Rev. W. M. Ferry, father of the present United States Senator from Michi- gan, to explore the field. In 1823 he had estab- lished a large boarding school composed of children of various tribes, and here some were educated who became wives of men of intelli- gence and influence at the capital of Minnesota. After a few years, it was determined by the Mission Board to modify its plans, and in the place of a great central station, to send mission- aries among the several tribes to teach and to preach.

In pursuance of this policy, the Rev. Alvan Coe, and J. D. Stevens, then a licentiate who had been engaged in the Mackinaw Mission, made a tour of exploration, and arrived on September 1, 1829, at Fort Snelling. In the journal of Major Lawrence Taliaferro, which is in possession of the Minnesota Historical Society, is the following entry : "The Rev. Mr. Coe and Stevens reported to be on their way to this post, members of the Presbyterian church looking out for suitable places to make mission- ary establishment for the Sioux and Chippeways, found schools, and instruct in the arts and agri- culture."

The agent, although not at that time a commu- nicant of the Church, welcomed these visitors, and afforded them every facility in visiting the Indians. On Sunday, the 6th of September, the Rev. Mr. Coe preached twice in the fort, and the next night held a prayer meeting at the quarters of the commanding officer. On the next Sunday he preached again, and on the 14th, with Mr. Stevens and a hired guide, returned to Mackinaw by way of the St. Croix river. During this visit the agent offered for a Presbyterian mission the mill which then stood on the site of Minneapolis, and had been erected by the government, as well as

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FORMATION OF THE WORD ITASKA.

the farm at Lake Calhoun, which was begun to teach the Sioux agriculture.

CHIPPEWAY MISSIONS.

In 1830, F. Ayer, one of the teachers at Mack- inaw, made an exploration as far as La Pointe, and returned.

Upon the 30th day of August, 1831, a Macki- naw boat about forty feet long arrived at La Pointe, bringing from Mackinaw the principal trader, Mr. Warren, Rev. Sherman Hall and wife, and Mr. Frederick Ayer, a catechist and teacher.

Mrs. Hall attracted great attention, as she was the first white woman who had visited that region. Sherman IIall was born on April 30, 1801, at Wethersfield, Vermont, and in 1828 graduated at Dartmouth College, and completed his theological studies at Andover, Massachu- setts, a few weeks before he journeyed to the Indian country.

His classmate at Dartmouth and Andover, the Rev W. T. Boutwell still living near Stillwater, became his yoke-fellow, but remained for a time at Mackinaw, which they reached about the mid- dle of July. . In June, 1832, Henry R. School- craft, the head of an exploring expedition, invited Mr. Boutwell to accompany him to the sources of the Mississippi.

When the expedition reached Lac la Biche or Elk Lake, on July 13, 1832, Mr. Schoolcraft, who was not a Latin scholar, asked the Latin word for truth, and was told "veritas." He then wanted the word which signified head, and was told "caput." To the astonishment of many, School- craft struck off the first sylable, of the word ver-i-tas and the last sylable of ca-put, and thus coined the word Itasca, which he gave to the lake, and which some modern writers, with all gravity, tell us was the name of a maiden who once dwelt on its banks. Upon Mr. Boutwell's return from this expedition he was at first asso- ciated with Mr. Hall in the mission at La Pointe.

In 1833 the mission band which had centered at La Pointe diffused their influence. In Octo- ber Rev. Mr. Boutwell went to Leech Lake, Mr. Ayer opened a school at Yellow Lake, Wiscon- sin, and Mr. E. F. Ely, now in California, became a teacher at Aitkin's trading post at Sandy Lake.

SIOUX MISSIONARIES.

Mr. Boutwell, of Leech Lake Station, on the

sixth of May, 1834, happened to be on a visit to Fort Snelling. While there a steamboat arrived, and among the passengers were two young men, brothers, natives of Washington, Connecticut, Samuel W. and Gideon H. Pond, who had come, constrained by the love of Christ, and without con- ferring with flesh and blood, to try to improve the Sioux.

Samuel, the older brother, the year before, had talked with a liquor seller in Galena, Illinois, who had come from the Red River country, and the desire was awakened to help the Sioux ; and he wrote to his brother to go with him.

The Rev. Samuel W. Pond still lives at Shako- pee, in the old mission house, the first building of sawed lumber erected in the valley of the Minne- sota, above Fort Snelling.

MISSIONS AMONG THE SIOUX A. D. 1835.

About this period, a native of South Carolina, a graduate of Jefferson College, Pennsylvania, the Rev. T. S. Williamson, M. D., who previous to his ordination had been a respectable physi- cian in Ohio, was appointed by the American Board of Foreign Missions to visit the Dahkotahs with the view of ascertaining what could be done to introduce Christian instruction. IIaving made inquiries at Prairie du Chien and Fort Snelling, he reported the field was favorable.

The Presbyterian and Congregational Churches, through their joint Missionary Society, appointed the following persons to labor in Minnesota : Rev. Thomas S. Williamson, M. D., missionary and physician ; Rev. J. D. Stevens, missionary ; Alexander Huggins, farmer ; and their wives ; Miss Sarah Poage, and Lucy Stevens, teachers ; who were prevented during the year 1834, by the state of navigation, from entering upon their work.

During the winter of 1834-35, a pious officer of the army exercised a good influence on his fellow officers and soldiers under his command. In the absence of a chaplain of ordained minis- ter, he, like General Havelock, of the British army in India, was accustomed not only to drill the soldiers, but to meet them in bis own quar- ters, and reason with them "of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come."

In the month of May, 1835, Dr. Williamson and mission band arrived at Fort Snelling, and

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EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA.

were hospitably received by the officers of the garrison, the Indian Agent, and Mr. Sibley, Agent of the Company at Mendota, who had been in the country a few months.

On the twenty-seventh of this month the Rev. Dr. Williamson united in marriage at the Fort Lieutenant Edward A. Ogden to Eliza Edna, the daughter of Captain G. A. Loomis, the first marriage service in which a clergyman officiated in the present State of Minnesota.

On the eleventh of June a meeting was held at the Fort to organize a Presbyterian Church, sixteen persons who had been communicants, and six who made a profession of faith, one of whom was Lieutenant Ogden, were enrolled as members.

Four elders were elected, among whom were Capt. Gustavus Loomis and Samuel W. Pond. The next day a lecture preparatory to administer- ing the communion, was delivered, and on Sun- day, the 14th, the first organized church in the Valley of the Upper Mississippi assembled for the first time in one of the Company rooms of the Fort. The services in the morning were conducted by Dr. Williamson. The afternoon service com- menced at 2 o'clock. The sermon of Mr. Stevens was upon a most appropriate text, 1st Peter, ii:25; "For ye were as sheep going astray, but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls." After the discourse, the sacrament of the Lord's supper was administered.

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History of Fillmore County, Including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota, Part 18

Author: Edward D. Neill Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Number of Pages:

Author: Edward D. Neill
Publication date: 1882
Publisher:
Number of Pages: