He had
been sent by Talon to investigate the copper mines of Lake Superior. He
returned to Quebec in the autumn of 1669 by way of the lower lakes,
instead of taking the usual route by the French River and the Ottawa. At
the mouth of Kettle Creek he hid his canoe. Thence he portaged,
doubtless by the well-known trails to the Thames and Grand rivers, until
he reached Burlington Bay.[5]

[5] This is the most probable inference from the facts stated by
Galinee.

At the Seneca village of Tinaouatoua, midway between the Bay and the
Grand River, he met La Salle and the Sulpician priests, Dollier de
Casson and Galinee on their way to Lake Erie and the Ohio River. The
result of the meeting and of the information given by Joliet was that
the priests altered their purpose and decided to proceed to Sault Ste.
Marie and then to the Pottamatamies, where they would establish their
mission: whilst La Salle, who evidently was dissatisfied with his
companions, went back with Joliet and, it is now pretty generally
believed, discovered the Ohio by journeying overland from the Seneca
villages south of Lake Ontario during the winter or the following
spring. Joliet gave the missionaries a description of his route, from
which Galinee was able to make a map which was of great assistance in
the further progress of their expedition.[6] The priests descended the
Grand River to Lake Erie, and wintered at the forks of Patterson's
Creek, where Port Dover now stands. After a sojourn of five months and
eleven days, during which they were visited in their cabin by Iroquois
beaver hunters, they proceeded westward along the north shore of the
lake. Losing one of their canoes in a storm, they were obliged to divide
their party. Four men with the luggage proceeded in the two remaining
canoes. Five of the party, including apparently the two priests, made
the wearisome journey on foot from Long Point all the way to the mouth
of Kettle Creek, where on the tenth of April, 1670, they found Joliet's
canoe, and the party was reunited for the rest of the long journey to
the Sault. Upon leaving their winter abode however the whole party had
first proceeded to the lake shore, and there on the 23rd March 1670,
being Passion Sunday, planted a cross, as a memorial of their long
sojourn, and offered a prayer. The official record is as follows:

"We the undersigned certify that we have seen affixed on the lands
of the lake called Erie the arms of t