assed through the
straits of Mackinac or Michillimackinac, though he did not realise the
importance of its situation in relation to the lakes of the western
country. It is told of him that he made his appearance among the
Winnebagos in a robe of brilliant China damask, decorated with flowers
and birds of varied colours, and holding a pistol in each hand. This
theatrical display in the western forest is adduced as evidence of his
belief in the story that he had heard among the Nipissings, at the
head-waters of the Ottawa, that there were tribes in the west, without
hair and beards, like the Chinese. No doubt, he thought he was coming
to a country where, at last, he would find that short route to the
Chinese seas which had been the dream of many Frenchmen since the days
of Cartier. We have no answer to give to the question that naturally
suggests itself, whether Champlain ever saw Nicolet on his return, and
heard from him the interesting story of his adventures. It was not
until 1641, or five years after Champlain's death, that Father Vimont
gave to the world an account of Nicolet's journey, which, no doubt,
stimulated the interest that was felt in the mysterious region of the
west. From year to year the Jesuit and the trader added something to
the geographical knowledge of the western lakes, where the secret was
soon to be {170} unlocked by means of the rivers which fed those
remarkable reservoirs of the continent. In 1641 Fathers Raymbault and
Jogues preached their Faith to a large concourse of Indians at the
Sault between Huron and Superior, where, for the first time, they heard
of the Sioux or Dacotah, those vagrants of the northwest, and where the
former died without realising the hope he had cherished, of reaching
China across the western wilderness. Then came those years of terror,
when trade and enterprise were paralysed by those raids of the
Iroquois, which culminated in the dispersion of the Hurons. For years
the Ottawa valley was almost deserted, and very few traders or
_coureurs de bois_ ventured into the country around the western lakes.
An enterprising trader of Three Rivers, Medard Chouart, Sieur de
Grosseilliers, is believed to have reached the shores of Lake Superior
in 1658, and also to have visited La Pointe, now Ashland, at its
western extremity, in the summer of 1659, in company with Pierre
d'Esprit, Sieur Radisson, whose sister he had married. Some critical
historians do not altogether discr