Page 196 - Transcriptions d'actes notariés - Tome 20 - 1682-1686

of wild grapea. It is unlikely, moreover, lhat Aliouez would umit men-
timing so important an event as the eelebration of Mass at a stopover,
sincc he notes in hi5 journal matters of so much lees significance. We
have soen that the Mase he said at the Keweenaw portage in inid-Septein-
ber, 166.5, is prominently featured in his description of the trip [rom
the St. Lawrenw to Chquamegon Bay. And that waa the first hiass he
had said since leaving Montrcal a month and a haIf before.
L'nfortunately, the exact site of tbis hiptoric event, the first Mass
said anywhere in Canada weet 01 Sault Ste. Marie, cannot be loeated with
any degree of certainty. It may be asserted, however, that ihis Whit-
sunday Mass of May 29, 1a7, was very probably said in the ncar
vicinity of Virgin Falla where the Nipigon Rivcr begins to BOW suuth-
wards. This is sliown by a careful consideration of a cross on a rnap
and a few words in Alloucz' journal.
The map to whieh we reler ie an earIY one of Lkes Huron, Superior,
Michigan, and the upper Mississippi valle).. On thia rnap crosses mark
the sitcs of early Jcsuit misaions as well as plaees the missionaries visited
for apostolic purpows. The original of this rnap js in the Bibliothèque
de la Marine, Paris, but it has been reproduced in various publications.[291
The rnap is undated aud its author unknown, but cartographers agree
that jt was drawn not later than 1680.'") Now one of the crows on
thie rnap is placeà near the south-eastern shorc of Lake Nipigon. Thi:
general shape and contciurs of the lake are, unfortunatety, too badly
drawn to idcntify the exact spot which the cross indicatcs. All we can
Say is that it points to a place somewbme in Kilkenny, Li~to, or Eva
towiiships. But thcrc can he no doubt about its indicating thc site of the
Nipissing village Alloucz visited iii 1667. For it is quite certain that iio
other missioiiary ever went to Lake Nipigon before 1726, and it ie inost
improbable that any priest was ever there apaiii till 1852. There is no
record of Allouez' or any other Jesuit's ever goiiig back, and there was
no need of their doinR so. For no1 long after the vipj t of 1667 the Nipie-
singa, and their ncigbbours the Amikouets, returned to their old homes
north and cast of Gcorgian Ba y. They werc there attended by ~he Jesuits
stationed at Sault Ste. hiane.("' We may take it then that the crosa on
the 16W) rnap iudicates thc site of the Nipissing village which Allouez
reached on lune 3, 1667, and is in commernoration of that visit. But how
does that bclp us to locate hi3 celebration of Mass on May 2%h? It waa
certainIy nrit said in the Nipissinp village.
Thc following linea irom Allouez' journal, where he telle us what
happened between May 2-h and June 3rd, iiext comcs to our asaistancc:

(2E) V.g. opporite page lm in "The French Régime in Wiecnnsin and the North.
went", by Louisa P. Kellogg (Collections oi the Srate Historical Society (if
Wiaconsiu, Madison, 1925). A much beittr reprodueiion in Carie No. 17 in
A. L. Pinart's "Recueil de Caries, Plana, el Vuei relatj[a aux Etats-Unin et
an Canada, etc., 1651-1731" (Paris, 1893).
rtai See Pinart, op. cil., Introductory remarks on Cdc Nu. 17.
iQi1 JR, vol. LV, pp. 147.155; vol. LVI, pp. 93 and folL; vol. LVLI, pp. 239 and
lolL