de. Of his visit to the Ottawas he says:

"We weare wellcomed & made of saying that we weare the Gods and devils
of the earth; that we should fournish them, & that they would bring us
to their enemy to destroy them. We tould them [we] were very well
content. We persuaded them first to come peaceably, not to distroy them
presently, and if they would not condescend then would wee throw away
the hatchett and make use of our thunders. We sent ambassadors to them
wth guifts. That nation called Pontonatemick[87] without more adoe
comes and meets us with the rest, and peace was concluded." "The
savages," he writes, "love knives better than we serve God, which should
make us blush for shame." In another place, "We went away free from any
burden whilst those poore miserable thought themselves happy to carry
our Equipage for the hope that they had that we should give them a
brasse ring, or an awle, or an needle."[88] We find them using this
influence in various places to make peace between hostile tribes, whom
they threatened with punishment. This early commerce was carried on
under the fiction of an exchange of presents. For example, Radisson
says: "We gave them severall gifts and received many. They bestowed upon
us above 300 robs of castors out of wch we brought not five to the
ffrench being far in the country."[89] Among the articles used by
Radisson in this trade were kettles, hatchets, knives, graters, awls,
needles, tin looking-glasses, little bells, ivory combs, vermilion,
sword blades, necklaces and bracelets. The sale of guns and blankets was
at this time exceptional, nor does it appear that Radisson carried
brandy in this voyage.[90]

More and more the young men of Canada continued to visit the savages at
their villages. By 1660 the _coureurs de bois_ formed a distinct
class,[91] who, despite the laws against it, pushed from
Michillimackinac into the wilderness. Wisconsin was a favorite resort of
these adventurers. By the time of the arrival of the Jesuits they had
made themselves entirely at home upon our lakes. They had preceded
Allouez at Chequamegon bay, and when he established his mission at Green
bay he came at the invitation of the Pottawattomies, who wished him to
"mollify some young Frenchmen who were among them for the purpose of
trading and who threatened and ill-treated them."[92] He found fur
traders before him on the Fox and the Wolf. Bancroft's assertion[93]
that "religious enthusiasm took possession of