du Loup and St. Francis to the St. John.

"Our guides," the bishop says, "in order to take the shortest road,
conducted us by a route not usually traveled, in which it was
necessary sometimes to proceed by canoe and sometimes on foot and this
in a region where winter still reigned; we had sometimes to break the
ice in the rivers to make a passage for the canoes and sometimes to
leave the canoes and tramp amid snow and water over those places that
are called portages (or carrying places) because it is necessary for
the men to carry the canoes upon their shoulders. In order the better
to mark our route we gave names to all these portages as well as to
the lakes and rivers we had to traverse.

"The St. Francis is rather a torrent than a river; it is formed by
several streams which descend from two ranges of mountains by which
the river is bordered on the right and left; it is only navigable from
the tenth or twelfth of May until about the end of June; it is then so
rapid that one could make without difficulty twenty to twenty-five
leagues in a day if it were not crossed in three or four places by
fallen trees, which in each instance occupy about fifteen feet of
space, and if they were cut out, as could be done with very little
expense, the passage would be free; one would not suppose that it
would cost 200 pistoles to clear the channel of these obstacles which
much delay the traveler.

"The River St. John is of much greater extent and beauty than that
just named, its course is everywhere smooth and the lands along its
banks appear good; there are several very fine islands, and numerous
tributary rivers abounding in fish enter its channel on both sides. It
seemed to us that some fine settlements might be made between Medogtok
and Gemesech, especially at a certain place which we have named
Sainte Marie, where the river enlarges and the waters are divided by a
large number of islands that apparently would be very fertile if
cultivated. A mission for the savages would be well placed there: the
land has not as yet any owner in particular, neither the king nor the
governor having made a grant to any person."

The place here referred to by St. Vallier afterwards became the
mission of Ekouipahag or Aukpaque. A mission for the Indians has been
maintained in that vicinity, with some interruptions, to the present
day. The islands which the bishop mentions are the well known and
beautiful islands below the mouth of the Keswick st