Page 191 - Transcriptions d'actes notariés - Tome 20 - 1682-1686

peninsula that Father Allouez stopped to say Mass, the first he was ahle
to eelebrate eince leaving tbe St. Lawrenee on August 8.('' It was the
spot where the first primt to come to Lake Superior, Father René Ménard,
had wintered in lf~5û-61.(~'
On October 1st the travellers reaehed Chequamegon Bay where the
new mission. ealled La Poiiiie de Saint-Es~rit. was to be established.
1 '
There were two large Indian villages on ihe shore of thifi bay, one
occupied by Hurons, the other by Ottawas and represeiitatives of other
Algonkian tribes. These Hurons belonged to the Tionnontate or Petiin
tribe,. part of which had been coiiverted to Christianity 1)y St. Charles
while they still lived on their home-lands southeast and east
of Nottawafiaea Bav iii southern Ontario. Thev had fled northwards
u
when the fierce lrtiquois attack of 164g had deitroyed a larve part of
their nation.(7) A iair number ol those whom Allouez met at cheqiiame-
eon Bav were therefore Christian9 at least in name. The Ottawas at
u
the bai were al50 fugitives before the Iroquois onsIaught ~owards the
Northwest. They had formely dwelt on Manitoulin and on other Islands
in Georgian Bay. Besidee ~he Indians, there were probably about a
dozen Frenehmen at Chequamegon Bay in 1665.(si The first eoureurs
de bois, Radisson and Des Groseilliers, hatl established a trading post
there, probably in 1660.(8) The rieh cargo of furs these iwo had brought
down to Montreal during the summer of 1660, had lnred to the west the
pioneers of tliat movement which was to effect such great changes in
the whole Northwest during the next two hundred years or so. But
Chequamegon Bay was the only eentre of the lur trade in the upper
country as yet.
Allouez built a small chapel of bark midway between the two lndian
villages.flu' This rude sanctuary in the wilderness was the first ehureh
erected west of Georgian Bay. As there was riothirip left of the old
Huronia missioris in 1665, it wae at the time the only chapel wet of the
Mont real area. Here the devoted missionary gathered his C1)rislians
topeiher, and undid, as best he conld, the ravages to faith and morality

14' This joum~y ii; described in "Jesuii Relaiions", Thwaitea edition, (Hereinaiier
JR), vol. L pp. 249-255.
(5) Faihrr hiénard had comc to Kcwcrnaw Bay on Ociober 15, 1660. Duriiig the
winirr he sprnr ~hprr hp made only six or sevrn convcrta, and iii tlie spring
pl 1661 hr wrnr on 10 Chrquame~on Ray. In Junr of tliat ycar he weni seek-
-.
inc oiii wmi: Indians in ilir forcsi. and becama lost in thn Wieconsin wooda.
HG dird ei~hrr of ;;iarvaiion or bu the liand 01 sorne pmwling savage.
(0) In. VDI L. p. 297
'7) JR. vol. LI. p. 306. See alsu ''The Downfall 01 tlie Huron Nation", by C. C.
Jamrs [Tran~. of ihe Royul Socie~) of Canada, 2iid series. XII, seciion ii,
pp. 311 346).
'ni N Lrs rourvur. di: bois aii Lar Supiri~ur vrrs 1660 D, pnr Benjaiiiin Sulrt
(Trons. 01 rhe Ryal Sori~ii. of Canada, 3rd srrics, V, eeclion i, pp. 249,266).
01
'8' Hadi*soa'~ A~.~uuni hir Third Jouriim. lb58-lbb0, pnb. in "Early Narra~ivcs
01 Ili? I~ortliwesr. 1633.1699". rd. hv huira P. );cllooe l NPW York. 1917).
p. 50. Srr alsu Grtlrr LPC NUIP, "CUSGBTS of i he ~fiYderness" (N~W ~ork;
1943), p. 60.
(10) JR, vol. L. pp. 297 and [OU.