recommended him to their notice.

Thus furnished with ample directions, and with a letter to the governor
of the French possessions in Canada, M. Verdier set out upon his travels
in May 1697. The Society liberally afforded him the means of
conciliating the Savages, furnishing him with abundance of those
articles which they were supposed to covet, such as beads, knives, &c.
The ship in which he sailed had a very short passage, at least for a
period when the arts of ship-building and navigation were so little
understood, and landed him safely at Quebec some days before the
setting-in of winter. The dignity of our traveller's mission, the high
reputation of the Society under whose auspices he acted, together with
his own merit, attested by strong letters of introduction, operated to
procure him a most cordial and gratifying reception. All ranks joined in
evincing unbounded respect both for him and his object, and in placing
all possible helps within his reach. One admitted him to his museum of
Indian curiosities, another presented him with a bundle of Indian
manuscripts, a third took measures with the Indian chiefs for his
unmolested passage through their country, a fourth instructed him in the
Indian language, and taught him the peculiarities of their hundred
dialects. Nor were the women behind the other sex in kindness to our
traveller. He was invited to take up his abode altogether with the
Ursuline nuns, with whom he rose to such high favour, that they would
confess to no other during his stay in the city. The married ladies were
quite as courteous as those who were vowed to a single life, and feasted
and caressed him beyond our ability or wish to describe.

He did not leave Quebec until the return of spring, when, in the
prosecution of his object, he bade adieu to his pleasant quarters, and
travelled into the country of the Iroquois or Five Nations. His friend,
the Governor, persuaded him much to take an interpreter with him, and
nominated good old father Luke Bisset for that purpose. But M. Verdier
declined, trusting that the "coincidences of sound and signification,"
(suggested in query 2, paper B,) would free him from all difficulties on
that score. He hired an Indian, who had come to Quebec to dispose of his
furs, to act as his guide, and a French boy to carry his change of linen
and his presents, the last named being a labour to which no Indian will
submit, unless he has become an outcast from his tribe, or other