hat there was not a word of truth in the story
which Nicholas de Vignau had told him {80} of a journey to a northern
sea, but that it was the invention of "the most impudent liar whom I
have seen for a long time." Champlain did not punish him, though the
Indians urged him to put him to death.

Champlain remained a few days among the Indians, making arrangements
for future explorations, and studying the customs of the people. He
was especially struck with their method of burial. Posts supported a
tablet or slab of wood on which was a rude carving supposed to
represent the features of the dead. A plume decorated the head of a
chief; his weapons meant a warrior; a small bow and one arrow, a boy; a
kettle, a wooden spoon, an iron pot, and a paddle, a woman or girl.
These figures were painted in red or yellow. The dead slept below,
wrapped in furs and surrounded by hatchets, knives, or other treasures
which they might like to have in the far-off country to which they had
gone; for, as Champlain says, "they believe in the immortality of the
soul."

Champlain made no attempt to proceed further up the river. Before
leaving the Upper Ottawa, he made a cedar cross, showing the arms of
France--a custom of the French explorers, as Cartier's narrative tells
us--and fixed it on an elevation by the side of the lake. He also
promised Tessouat to return in the following year and assist him
against the Iroquois.

The next event of moment in the history of the colony was the arrival
in 1615 of Fathers Denis Jamay, Jean d'Olbeau, and Joseph Le Caron, and
{81} the lay brother Pacifique du Plessis, who belonged to the
mendicant order of the Recollets, or reformed branch of the
Franciscans, so named from their founder, St. Francis d'Assisi. They
built near the French post at Quebec a little chapel which was placed
in charge of Father Jamay and Brother Du Plessis, while Jean d'Olbeau
went to live among the Montagnais and Joseph Le Caron among the Hurons
of the West.

During the summer of 1615 Champlain fulfilled his pledge to accompany
the allied tribes on an expedition into the country of the Iroquois.
This was the most important undertaking of Champlain's life in Canada,
not only on account of the length of the journey, and the knowledge he
obtained of the lake region, but of the loss of prestige he must have
sustained among both Iroquois and Canadian Indians who had previously
thought the Frenchman invincible. The enemy were r