ite the city of Ottawa, and
the _portage_ would be the Aylmer Road beyond the rapids above the
falls. Mr. Benjamin Sulte, the scholarly historian, thinks they went
by way of the Ottawa, not Lake Ontario, as the St. Lawrence route was
not used till 1702.

[7] _Jesuit Relations_, 1660.

[8] _Jesuit Relations_, 1660, and _Radisson's Journal_. These "people
of the fire," or Mascoutins, were in three regions, (1) Wisconsin, (2)
Nebraska, (3) on the Missouri. See Appendix E.

[9] Benjamin Sulte unequivocally states that the river was the
Mississippi. Of writers contemporaneous with Radisson, the Jesuits,
Marie de l'Incarnation, and Charlevoix corroborate Radisson's account.
In the face of this, what are we to think of modern writers with a
reputation to lose, who brush Radisson's exploits aside as a possible
fabrication? The only conclusion is that they have not read his
_Journal_.

[10] I refer to Radisson alone, because for half the time in 1659
Groseillers was ill at the lake, and we cannot be sure that he
accompanied Radisson in all the journeys south and west, though
Radisson generously always includes him as "we." Besides, Groseillers
seems to have attended to the trading, Radisson to the exploring.

[11] If any one cares to render Radisson's peculiar jumble of French,
English, Italian, and Indian idioms into more intelligent form, they
may try their hand at it. His meaning is quite clear; but the words
are a medley. The passage is to be found on pp. 150-151, of the
_Prince Society Reprint_. See also _Jesuit Relations_, 1660.

[12] It will be noted that what I claim for Radisson is the honor of
discovering the Great Northwest, and refrain from trying to identify
his movements with the modern place names of certain states. I have
done this intentionally--though it would have been easy to advance
opinions about Green Bay, Fox River, and the Wisconsin, and so become
involved in the childish quarrel that has split the western historical
societies and obscured the main issue of Radisson's feat. Needless to
say, the world does not care whether Radisson went by way of the
Menominee, or snow-shoed across country. The question is: Did he reach
the Mississippi Valley before Marquette and Jolliet and La Salle? That
question this chapter answers.

[13] I have refrained from quoting Radisson's names for the different
Indian tribes because it would only be "caviare to the general." If
Radisson's manuscript be c