on the Hudson, but hostile to everybody, their hand being against every man. Thus it occurred that while the Jesuit missionaries, those indomitable pioneers of discovery, became familiar (through following the return of Indian bands from their trading expeditions,) with the great northern waterway of the Ottawa and French rivers on the one hand, and Lake Champlain, the Hudson and Richelieu rivers on the other, the now greater waterway of the Upper St. Lawrence, Lakes Ontario, Erie, &c., was for a long period entirely unknown. This is to be accounted for by the fact that these, forming as they did, the dividing line between those two hostile nations, were too dangerous to be used as a thoroughfare.

Some four or five of those Jesuit missionaries had for several years been laboring among the numerous Huron towns along the east coast of the Georgian bay, then known as the Great Fresh Sea, with very indifferent success, but with a zeal and courage under hardships and cruelties worse than death, and even in martyrdom itself, that won respect even from their tormentors. They were in the habit of sending home periodically to their superiors in France, reports, or "relations," as they are called, of all their transactions, giving the most circumstantial details of every event which came under their notice, even to the surrepetitious baptizing of an infant of an unfriendly savage. These Jesuit relations, many of which have been published, afford us the earliest glimpses of Canadian history. The missionaries to the Hurons, though accustomed to make excursions in various directions up and down through the northern country, do not seem to have penetrated nearer to the ground upon which we now stand than Lake Simcoe, that being the northern limit of the Huron lands, for lying to the south of the Huron and along the north shore of Lake Erie, between the Niagara and Detroit rivers, was a small tribe called by the French the Neuters. This tribe, though considered a small one, had forty populous towns and villages. Situated as they were however, between the greater nations of the Hurons on the one side, and the Iroquois on the other, and fearful of giving offence to either, they rejected most decidedly all recorded attempts of the Jesuits to penetrate their country.

The intrepid Champlain, too, had made an excursion up the Ottawa and along the shores of the Georgian Bay, and being persuaded to join the Hurons in a foray against the Iroquois passed with

the Indian army from Lake Simcoe through the chain of lakes in the vicinity of Lindsay along the Trent river to its mouth, through the Bay of Quinte, discovering Lake Ontario, and crossing the same in canoes to the Iroquois country, landing near Oswego, where they laid seige to an Indian town surrounded with a triple stockade, upon which there were mounted galleries for warriors, who fired arrows and stones and poured water upon fires built upon the outside, and defended their works generally with such courage that their assailants had to retire discomfited.

But some years later than the date above given, the Iroquois, becoming more formidable, burst across the Niagara river and Lake Ontario with a fierceness which nothing could withstand. They captured one Huron town after an other, slaughtering, torturing and sometimes eating their captives, till finally in 1649 a general massacre took place, ending in the destruction of the whole nation with the exception of two small bands, one of which went westward and became absorbed in the powerful tribes about Lake Superior, and the other followed the Jesuits to Quebec. At the present day, at the Indian village of Lorette, some few miles from Quebec, may be found the sole survivors of the once mighty Huron nation.

Some unpublished manuscripts, having reference to explorations in America, have lately been discovered in the Bibliotheque Nationale, in Paris, among which was a journal giving an account of an expedition in 1669 by De La Salle, whose name stands almost, if not quite, at the head of the intrepid explorers of this continent, and two Sulpician missionaries, who started from Montreal in canoes, passed up the St. Lawrence, along the south shore of Lake Ontario, and made a short stay on the shore of Burlington bay.

I shall beg leave to introduce to your attention this evening an extract from the journal in question as the basis of my present paper. The map annexed to the journal forms an interesting illustration of the knowledge acquired by the party of the form and size of the North American lakes during their long pioneer voyage from Montreal to Sault Ste. Marie. A copy of the original, which is in the possession of a gentlemen of Buffalo, measures 4 feet in length by 2 feet in breadth, and I am happy to say that I am in possession of a tracing of a small portion thereof, showing the localities of this vicinity exactly as they appear in the original. The map is covered with annotations in the French language.

The missionaries attached to the expedition were Francois Dollier de Casson, and Rene de Brehart de Gallinee, both attached to the order of St. Sulpice. The former had been a calvary officer under Marshall Turenne, and was at the date of the expedition superior of the seminary belonging to the order at Montreal. His strength was said to be so prodigious that he was said to be able to carry two men sitting one on each hand. Galinee, the historian of the enterprise, had no little reputation as a surveyor and astronomer. Both priests for the conversion of the heathen to the Roman faith, and long been waiting for some favorable opportunity to penetrate for that purpose the vast and unexplored regions of the west.

La Salle, then 26 years of age, had resided in Canada three years, and had not acquired the renown which his subsequent adventures and explorations affixed to his name, but the opportunities which he had enjoyed for intercourse with the Iroquois and other western tribes, who were accustomed to visit Montreal for the purpose of trade, had not been neglected. From them he had heard of the Ohio, the Mississippi and the the boundless forests and prairies through which they flowed. They told him of the vast lakes as yet unnavigated save by their frail canoes, on the borders of which were inexhaustible mines yielding the richest ores of iron and copper. His imagination kindled at the recital, and so great was his ambition to accomplish his favorite object, that he sold the possessions he had acquired in Canada to realize the means of defraying the expenses of an expedition to test the truth of the Indian narrations. He resolved to ascend the St. Lawrence, and passing through the chain of western lakes, to seek for the great river, that having its source in the Iroquois country flowed, according to Indian authority, into a far distant sea, and which Champlain and L'Escarbot had confidently hoped might be the western road to China and Japan.

In the summer of 1669 La Salle organized, with two Sulpicians, a joint expedition to accomplish their several purposes the former to prosecute his discoveries in the west, and the missionaries to baptise the Neophytes they should secure among the tribes found in the valleys of the Ohio, the Mississippi and the lakes. When everything was ready for a speedy departure, the unfortunate assassination of an Iroquois chief by three French soldiers at Montreal, detained them fifteen days, and threatened a renewal of the war between the

Iroquois and French, which had just then happily terminated. The execution of the guilty soldiers propitiated the offended Iroquois. All fear of reprisals being allayed, the party started on the 6th day of July-La Salle with fifteen men in four canoes, and de Casson and Galinee with seven men in three canoes. They ascended the St. Lawrence, threading the intricate channels of the Thousand Islands, carrying their canoes and effects around the numerous and difficult portages they met by the way, and at length after twentyseven days of incessant toil, in which they suffered severely from sickness and exposure, they reached the broad expanse of Lake Ontario. Coasting along its southern shore they landed on the 10th of August at the mouth of Irondequoit bay, four miles east of Genesee river, their intention being to procure a guide from the Indian town of Gannagaro, on what is now known as Broughton Hill, just south of Victor station, on the New York Central railway, and midway between Rochester and Canandaigua.

In the translation of the journal of Galinee, which follows, the original has been adhered to as closely as the obscure and antiquated French in which it is written would admit.

EXTRACT FROM THE JOURNAL OF GALINEE.

"After 35 days of very difficult navigation we arrived at a small river called by the Indians Karontagonat (the Iroquois name for Irondequoit Bay), which is the nearest point on the lake to Sonantouan, and about one hundred leagues southwest of Montreal. I took the latitude of this place on the 26th of August, 1669, with my jacobstaff. As I had a very fine horizon on the north, no land but the open lake being visible in that direction, I took the altitude on that side as being the least liable to error.

"We had no sooner arrived at this place than we were visited by a number of Indians, who came to make us small presents of Indian corn, pumpkins, blackberries and whortleberries, fruits of which they had abundance. We made presents in return of knives, awls, needles, glass beads, and other articles which they prize, and with which we were well provided.

"Our guides urged us to remain in this place till the next day, as the chiefs would not fail to come in the evening with provisions to escort us to the village. In fact, night had no sooner came than a

large troop of Indians, with a number of women loaded with provisions, arrived and encamped near by, and made for us bread of Indian corn and fruit. They did not desire to speak to us in regular council, but told us that we were expected in the village, to every cabin of which word had been sent, to gather all the old men at the council, which would be held for the purpose of ascertaining the object of our visit.

"M. Dollier de Casson, M. de La Salle and myself consulted together in order to determine in what manner we should act, what we should offer for presents, and how we should give them. It was agreed that I should go to the village with M. de La Salle, for the purpose of obtaining a captive taken from the nation which we desired to visit who could conduct us thither, and that we should take with us eight of our Frenchmen, the rest to remain with M. Dollier de Casson in charge of the canoes. This plan was carried out, and the next day, August 12, had no sooner dawned, than we were notified by the Indians that it was time to set out. We started with ten Frenchmen and forty or fifty Indians, who compelled us to rest every league, fearing we should be too much fatigued. About half way we found another company of Indians who had come to meet us. They made us presents of provisions and accompanied us to the village, When we were within about a league of the latter the halts were more frequent, and our company increased more and more, until we finally came in sight of the great village, which is in a large plain, about two leagues in circumference. In order to reach it we had to ascend a small hill (now Broughton Hill) on the edge of which the village is situated.

"As soon as we had mounted the hill we saw a large company of old men seated on the grass, waiting for us. They had left a convenient place in front, in which they invited us to sit down.

"This we did, and at the same time an old man, nearly blind, and so infirm that he could hardly support himself, arose, and in a very animated tone, delivered a speech, in which he declared his joy at our arrival; that we must consider them as our brothers; that they would regard us as their's; and in that relation they invited us to enter their village, where they had prepared a cabin for us until we were ready to disclose our purpose.

"We thanked them for their civilities, and told them through our interpreter that we would on the next day declare to them the object