reception from about two thousand Indians, assembled there. As they advanced on their journey, the boundaries of the American Continent seemed to recede from them, and they learnt the names of numerous Indian tribes, who, it was said, inhabited the South and West, and amongst others, the "Sioux," whose hunting grounds were situated at a distance of several leagues from Lake Superior. They heard also, of several tribes of warriors, who lived by the products of the soil, but whose race and languages were unknown to them.-"Thus," observes an American author, "from the religious zeal of the French, a cross was erected on the borders of Sault Ste Marie, and on the confines of Lake Superior, from whence they saw the lands of the Sioux, in the valley of the Mississippi, five years, before Elliott of New England had addressed even a single word to the Indians, who were but six miles from the harbor of Boston."

"

It may be said, that at this period (1646), the safety of the French possessions in America, depended chiefly on the efforts of the missionaries to preserve peace, which they succeeded in doing with all the neighboring Indian tribes, with the exception of the Iroquois. The small French Colony, on the banks of the Saint Lawrence, situated at such an immense distance from the

mother country, with limited resources, and scarcely food to eat would have been annihilated, had it not have been for the friendly alliance, which these missionaries had been able to contract with the native tribes. The Five Nations had already boasted, that they would soon drive Montmagny* and the French to the sea, from whence they came. But the bravery and the courage of these men, who, with the breviary hanging around their necks, and the Cross in their hands, penetrated the innermost recesses of the forest, gave these people a lofty idea of the power and the resources of the nation, to which they belonged. There they were, from the shores of Hudson's Bay, to the gulf of Saint Lawrence and the forests of Michigan, engaged day and night, in the accomplishment of their high and lofty purposes, animating, encouraging and rewarding those, who were disposed to be friendly with them, and intimidating those, whose hostility they were menaced with. Brought up to a life of strict austerity, accustomed to that self-denial, which was enjoined by the sect, to which they belonged, the terrors of a violent death, at the hands of ruthless savages could not deter them from fulfilling the solemn trust, which had devolved upon them, and that

* Governor of New France or Canada.

very confidence which they had in the holiness of their cause, enabled them the more readily to accomplish their duty. Providence smiled benignantly on their efforts, for had it not been that the tribes, whose alliance was courted by the French, feared the hostility of the Iroquois, in all probability they would have rejected the overtures of the missionaries and preferred war to peace.

In the year 1659, (as is related in the narrative of the Missionaries), two young voyageurs, or travellers, led by curiosity and the spirit of adventure, joined an Algonquin tribe, and spent the winter on the shores of Lake Superior. With their eyes fixed on the immense solitudes of the West, and wondering what people inhabited those forests, they heard with avidity the glowing accounts, by the Huron tribe, of those "Sioux", warriors and they resolved to visit them. They met on their route with scattered tribes, who had been dispersed by the Iroquois, and they at length arrived in the country of the "Sioux," who, to their surprise, tendered to them the hand of fellowship. They were a numerous tribe, being divided into forty companies, and their manners, whilst they were unlike those of the Algonquins and Hurons, were calculated to impress the minds of the travellers with a favorable opinion of them. The Historian of New France, states, "that they had an

excellent disposition, treated their prisoners with less cruelty than other nations, and had some knowledge of the existence of a Divinity." These two intrepid adventurers returned to Quebec, in 1660, escorted by sixty Algonquin canoes and Canadian boats, laden with furs and peltries. They confirmed the accounts which two other Frenchmen, who had gone four years before, as far as Lake Michigan, brought back with them, of the numerous tribes, who wandered in those parts, and of the Kristinos, "whose cabins were raised high enough to enable them to see the Great Lakes."

In the year 1660, Father Mesnard went with the Algonquins to preach the Gospel to the Ottawas and other tribes, on the shores of Lake Superior. He remained about eight months, in a bay which he called Sainte Theresa, probably the bay of Kiwina, on the south side of the Lake, where he subsisted for some time, on acorns and the fruit of wild plants. Invited hence by the Hurons, he took his departure for the bay of Cha-gouiamigong or Saint Esprit, on the western side of the Lake, whither the Iroquois did not resort, on account of the distance and the scarcity of provisions. Whilst Mesnard's compagnon de voyage, (fellow-traveller,) was occupied in repairing the canoe, he went into the woods and never re-appeared. This Priest had a great reputa

tion amongst the savages, for the sanctity of his clerical office, and a few years afterwards, his soutane (a garment worn by Priests,) and his breviary were found amongst the "Sioux," who preserved them as relics, and held them in great veneration. The Indians generally were remarkable for their carefulness in preserving whatever belonged to these faithful missionaries, for four or five years after the death of the Fathers Breboeuf and Garnier, whom the Iroquois assassinated, a missionary found in the possession of those barbarians a testament and a prayer-book, which had belonged to them. The old chroniclers, such as Charlevoix, Champlain and others, do not mention, that they preserved any other articles, belonging to the persons they murdered, but the books they had with them. These untutored savages regarded these books in the light of their better spirits, by whose directions these missionaries had been led onwards, in the paths of usefulness they were following.

We have thus far traced the early discoveries in the West, which did not at the period we mentioned (1660) extend beyond the hunting grounds of the "Sioux." But vague suspicions were then entertained of the extent of the country, or the existence of a great River to the West, and the accounts which they received from the Sioux were so uncertain, that there was little in