buyer
could cut from them gorgets and other ornaments of the shape and size
that suited his fancy), thus proving, that for some years, no one can
pretend to say how many, perhaps centuries before Docteur Gendron wrote
the second known reference to Niagara, the fame of the Cataract was
widely known among the Indians of North America; even beyond the
far-off, sunny lands, inhabited by the Arkansaws; clear to the mouths
of the Mississippi, "The Father of Waters," and along the shores of the
Gulf of Mexico.

So it was a Physician, in a letter written from an unnamed place in the
wilds of Canada, to a friend, of whose name we are ignorant, in
France,--the contents of which letter were, in a few years, to be
published to the World,--that was, in date the second, though in print
the fourth, man ever to refer directly to Niagara Falls.

Yet, it is not surprising that it should have been so, for almost every
instance in History tells us that, so far as newly discovered lands are
concerned, it is the Explorer, or Empire-Builder, who first penetrates
them, and the Priest soon follows the explorer, and the Physician soon
follows the Priest. And that was exactly the order which was followed
in the explorations of the Great-Lakes-Region of North America.

The Quartette--the third was an Italian, the other three were
Frenchmen--who first referred directly to Niagara in print,
stands--Champlain, Ragueneau, Bressani, Gendron, and in that order:--A
Soldier of the Sword; two Soldiers of the Cross; and a Soldier of
Medicine--though, so far as the dates when the letters of those four
were written, and the information thus put in form which made its
publication possible, are concerned, the Physician, Gendron, should
occupy the second--instead of the fourth place. And, by-the-way, this
Sieur Gendron was the first white Physician who is known to have lived
anywhere in the western portion of this Country; the first white
Physician in the limits of the present province of Ontario in Canada;
and the first white Physician among the Indians of North America.

In the case of the good Docteur Gendron--who, next to Champlain, was
the earliest to mention Niagara,--it was not the scenic beauty of the
Falls (he does not say that he ever saw them), but it was something in
the direct line of his profession which caused him to refer to them. It
was because, at their base, and created, as he was told, by their
waters, there was found--and there only--a