e contributions to the geography of Canada. He was the first
Frenchman to ascend the River of the Iroquois, now the Richelieu, and to
see the beautiful lake which still bears his name. In 1615 he found his
way to Georgian Bay by the route of the Ottawa and Mattawa Rivers, Lake
Nipissing and French River. Here he visited the Huron villages which
were situated in the district now known as Simcoe county in the province
of Ontario. Father le Caron, a Recollet, had preceded the French
explorer, and was performing missionary duties among the Indians, who
probably numbered 20,000 in all. This brave priest was the pioneer of an
army of faithful missionaries--mostly of a different order--who lived
for years among the Indians, suffered torture and death, and connected
their names not only with the martyrs of their faith but also with the
explorers of this continent. From this time forward we find the trader
and the priest advancing in the wilderness; sometimes one is first,
sometimes the other.

Champlain accompanied his Indian allies on an expedition against the
Onondagas, one of the five nations who occupied the country immediately
to the south of the upper St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario. The party
reached Lake Ontario by the system of inland navigation which stretches
from Lake Simcoe to the Bay of Quinte. The Onondagas repulsed the
Canadian allies who returned to their settlements, where Champlain
remained during the winter of 1616. It was during this expedition, which
did much to weaken Champlain's prestige among the Indians, that Etienne
Brule an interpreter, was sent to the Andastes, who were then living
about the headwaters of the Susquehanna, with the hope of bringing them
to the support of the Canadian savages. He was not seen again until
1618, when he returned to Canada with a story, doubtless correct, of
having found himself on the shores of a great lake where there were
mines of copper, probably Lake Superior.

With the new era of peace that followed the coming of the Viceroy Tracy
in 1665, and the establishment of a royal government, a fresh impulse
was given to exploration and mission work in the west. Priests,
fur-traders, gentlemen-adventurers, _coureurs de bois_, now appeared
frequently on the lakes and rivers of the west, and gave in the course
of years a vast region to the dominion of France. As early as 1665
Father Allouez established a mission at La Pointe, the modern Ashland,
on the shores of Lake Superior.