eached not by the
usual route of the Richelieu and Lake Champlain, considered too
dangerous from their neighbourhood to the Iroquois, but by a long
detour by way of the Ottawa valley, Georgian Bay, Lake Simcoe, and the
portages, rivers, and lakes that lead into the River Trent, which falls
into the pretty bay of Quinte, at the eastern end of Lake Ontario,
whence they could pass rapidly into the country of the Five Nations.

Accompanied by Stephen Brule, a noted Indian interpreter, a servant,
and eight Indians, Champlain left Montreal about the middle of July,
ascended the Ottawa, and paddled down the Mattawa to the lake of the
Nipissings, where he had interviews with {82} the Indians who were
dreaded by other tribes as sorcerers.

The canoes of the adventurous Frenchmen went down French River, and at
last reached the waters of the great Fresh Water Sea, the _Mer Douce_
of Champlain's maps, and now named Lake Huron in memory of the hapless
race that once made their home in that wild region. Passing by the
western shore of the picturesque district of Muskoka, the party landed
at the foot of the bay and found themselves before long among the
villages of the Hurons, whose country lay then between Nottawasaga Bay
and Lake Simcoe. Here Champlain saw the triple palisades, long houses,
containing several households, and other distinctive features of those
Indian villages, one of which Cartier found at the foot of Mont Royal.

In the village of Carhagouaha, where the palisades were as high as
thirty-five feet, Champlain met Father Le Caron, the pioneer of these
intrepid missionaries who led the way to the head-waters and
tributaries of the great lakes. For the first time in that western
region the great Roman Catholic ceremony of the Mass was celebrated in
the presence of Champlain and wondering Indian warriors. At the town
of Cahiague, the Indian capital, comprising two hundred cabins, and
situated within the modern township of Orillia, he was received with
great rejoicings, and preparations immediately made for the expedition
against the Iroquois. Stephen Brule undertook the dangerous mission of
communicating with the Andastes, a friendly nation near the {83}
headwaters of the Susquehanna, who had promised to bring five hundred
warriors to the assistance of the Canadian allied forces.

[Illustration: Onondaga fort in the Iroquois country; from Champlain's
sketch.]

The expedition reached the eastern end of Lake Ontar