Page 195 - Transcriptions d'actes notariés - Tome 20 - 1682-1686

lariher; i2'l and learning ihat Lake Alimibegong was stiU Irozen over,lall
~hey gladly look the two days' Tesi imposed upon them by necessity.
"As we drew nsar Our joarnq's pnd. we owarrioiially met Nipissi-
rin;en Savages, wandering from their homes ta eetrk a livelihmd iii tlie
woods. Gstliering 1ogi?thtr a considerable iiiiiiiher of them for ihe cele-
braiion 01 Whirsantide,r2* 1 pr~pared ~heni by a loog instruction for the
hearjng DI ~he holy sacrifice 01 ihc Mass, wliicli 1 celebraied in a Chape1
of Foliage. They li~iened with as mach piely and derorum as do Our
Savaara of Qaeberi in our ChaFel at Sillery; and to me ii was ihe RWPR~-
eat rr+hment 1 had during the Joumey, tntirely remwing al1 past
fotjgue.
We have here the firrt reco~d of a Mass hnving been said in the
presetit-day Djocese of Fart William. That it waa not only the first one
recordecl, but actually the 6rst Mass said north of Lake Superior inust be
reckoned sa very probabIe. For under the rude and primitive conditiom
of eanoe iravel in i.he wilderness ot those dap it was not usual, nor indeed
elways ossible, for a priest to ctlebrete at every stopover on their journ-
~ portable altar, it waa
eys. &ough the rniaaionary carried some S O of
not easy to erect a table for Mass. None could he carried of course in
their light cenoes. Sorneiimes rough makeshift uiiderpinnings were
driveri irito the grouiid, and paddles were uried lor the surface of the
nl~ar-tat11e.c'~' Thev had no boards. for there were no saw-mills. But
...
.
-,
even such Aimsy altars set up by lake 01 eiream took lime to erect, and
from his eccount we see that Allouez and his companions made stopovera
only at sunset, and they were on their way again at eunrise. They had
no time or euerg? to ereet altars. Quite apari from tbat, wine for Maw
had very probabl~ to be spared for the important occasions when a
sufiejent nurnber of Christians were galhered togelher. Allouez could
hardly have had much wine left in the summer of 1667, for his only
supply was what was left of that brought up from Threc Rivers in 1665.
We read in the anuals of earIy misaionary travels of tbere being no wine
left for Mass, and of attempts being made to ferment some from the juice

(21) R'e conclride that ihis was the Kipigon Rive1 for ihe foiiowiag reamnP:
i) Allourx cali~ hie two Indian ftllow-iraiellcrs "guide$': piesuniably ihcre-
fore ihey kncs that the mosr direct rouir to iheir destination from Mo
Superior was up ~hr Nipigon River.
ii) 0ii the la0 map nI mission siles, to which relerence will he made in
ihe irxt shortly, the on+ river counecliiig Lake Nipigon with Lake
Superior is Lhc Nipigon. The Blmk Sturgeoo and oth~r arreams hy
which hmre or lees loug poriage4 could be made, are moi niarked DU
this niup nt all.
iii) The Kipigon is "ia\l of rapids and fali5". lu iie relatively short 1eagth
01 foriy-~hree mile: there are fifteen waterfnil..
(22) Lake Nipigon was called during the Frencli regime "Aleniibegong", "Alemi-
pigon", "Nemipigon", "Alirnb~~", etc. Laler it wap deo called Lske Sic.
Anne; on Fath~r Hennepin's maps of 1682 and 1697 ii ia named Lake St.
Josrpk See Eniest Voorhis. "Hietoric Foril; and Trading Poets of i hr French
Regirnr and of ihe Eng::kh Fur Trading COmpanie8", Otlawa, 1930, p. 128.
(23, Penleco,t Çunday fell on May 29th in ihe year 1667.
(241 We read of this use of jiaddlts in thp document, "Ce qui s'est pwé de plu
reniar usble liane le wyage de MM. D'Olier pt Galinée". published with
~nglia translation by J. H. Coyne in Ontario Hislorieal Soeiely, Papers and
Recorde., IV. Part 1, p. M.
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