ing been the first of the white man's race to
behold Niagara than this same Etienne Brule.

From his intimacy with Champlain, he must have known--what Champlain
knew and had recorded--of the existence of such a waterfall; indeed, it
is by no means improbable that many of the details of Champlain's maps
(especially those relating to regions which Champlain never saw, but
which Brule did visit) were drawn from the latter's descriptions.

From his intimacy with Iroquet--Brule spent the better part of eight
years in his Country and in that of his allies; being the territory
lying to the north of Lake Ontario--he must have known what Iroquet
knew of the location of such a waterfall (which was only about 150
miles from the center of his territory, and a journey of that distance
was of small moment to the Indians of those days); and when Iroquet
went to it as a "trading place," Brule doubtless accompanied him.

It must also be remembered that it was this same chief, Iroquet, who
later confirmed to Father Daillon the renown of "the great River of the
Neutrals"--that is the Niagara--as a Center of Trade; whose location he
knew well, but refused to divulge to the Priest.

Knowing of such a wonderful waterfall's existence, and its general
location; being a "trader," and Niagara being even then a well-known
Center of Trade, the probabilities are that Brule visited it at a very
early date.

A TRADING PLACE

But, while white men were no doubt at Niagara early in the 17th
Century--possibly as early as 1611--and while we know that Traders and
Priests were in its immediate vicinity at various times prior to 1669;
and while we have good reason to believe, that in that latter year
LaSalle himself explored the whole of the Niagara Frontier; yet it is
not until 1678 that we have any positive record of any visit, nor any
description of the Cataract by a man who claimed to have actually seen
it.

Father Hennepin's first work, "Louisiana," published in 1681, tells of
that first recorded visit, and gives the first description of Niagara
by an eye-witness.

At the time when that first unnamed white man saw the Cataract the
Indians had, and firmly believed in, at least one positive tradition
regarding it; one which had long been believed in by the tribes far and
near, and which had long been turned to good account in trade by former
generations of Indians who dwelt at Niagara; and which was believed in
and maintained for many a