y come down to Montreal, but usually they do not do so
in very great numbers because they are too far distant, are not expert
at managing canoes, and because the other Indians intimidate them, in
order to be the carriers of their merchandise and to profit
thereby."[83]

It was the aim of the authorities to attract the Indians to Montreal, or
to develop the inter-tribal communication, and thus to centralize the
trade and prevent the dissipation of the energies of the colony; but the
temptations of the free forest traffic were too strong. In a memoir of
1697, Aubert de la Chesnaye says:

"At first, the French went only among the Hurons, and since then to
Missilimakinak, where they sold their goods to the savages of the
places, who in turn went to exchange them with other savages in the
depths of the woods, lands and rivers. But at present the French, having
licenses, in order to secure greater profit surreptitiously, pass all
the 'Ottawas and savages of Missilimakinak in order to go themselves to
seek the most distant tribes, which is very displeasing to the former.
_It is they, also, who have made excellent discoveries;_ and four or
five hundred young men, the best men of Canada, are engaged in this
business.... They have given us knowledge of many names of savages that
we did not know; and four or five hundred leagues more remote are others
who are unknown to us."[84]

Two of the most noteworthy of these _coureurs de bois_, or wood-rangers,
were Radisson and Groseilliers.[85] In 1660 they returned to Montreal
with 300 Algonquins and sixty canoes laden with furs, after a voyage in
which they visited, among other tribes, the Pottawattomies, Mascoutins,
Sioux, and Hurons, in Wisconsin. From the Hurons they learned of the
Mississippi, and probably visited the river. They soon returned from
Montreal to the northern Wisconsin region. In the course of their
wanderings they had a post at Chequamegon bay, and they ascended the
Pigeon river, thus opening the Grand Portage route to the heart of
Canada. Among their exploits they induced England to enter the Hudson
Bay trade, and gave the impetus that led to the organization of the
Hudson Bay Company. The reports which these traders brought back had a
most important effect in fostering exploration in the Northwest, and led
to the visit of Menard, who was succeeded by Allouez, the pioneers of
the Jesuits in Wisconsin.[86] Radisson gives us a good account of the
early Wisconsin tra