Page 198 - Transcriptions d'actes notariés - Tome 20 - 1682-1686

"We spent B~K dny8 in pnddling from Island to Island seeking some out-
let; and finally, afier niany detours we reaclied the Nipissirinicns on the
third of lune."("j The oint under consideration is the lace froin which
the parti set out on this six days' journey. For thit was the place
wliere they were on May 29th, the day on whieh the first Mass was cele-
btated. Now this eould onlv have been somewhere on or near that hall-
mile southern shore of the nirrow inlet where the waters of Lake Nipigon
enter the river. The bay just north 01 this inlet is studded with islands,
and there are several others just north and east of it in the lake. These
are certainlu the jelands to which Father Allouez refers. It is important
to coneider that the six daYs were not consumed wandering indefinitely
around Lake Nipigon lookine, for the Nipissine, village. For the Indians
who had attended Maas on Pentecoat were Nipisainga, and Allouez would
most surely have Lund out from them, if hiri own guidea did not know
it, tliat it was in a general nodi-easterly direction that he niust go to
find the village. It was ~iot therefore jp-iorance of where to find their
destination on the lake, nor its great distance froin wliere tliey were,
whicb eauçed the six days' delau in reaching the Nipisainge. The diffi-
culty was rather ~hat of 6nding a passsge for their frai1 canoe through
the floating and half-melted ice which choked the hay and the lower part
of the lake between the various idands. This can be the only meaning
of tlie "outlet" they were seeking, and the "i~iany detours" they were
obliged to make. We must rememher that when the party was at the
mouth of the Nipigon River on May 2jth, news reached them that Lake
Nipigon was siill Irozen over. No doubt the iee waa breaking np a few
days later. On the basis of this argument we niay eonclude with soine
sernblance of prcibability that the Mass of May 29th Wa6 celebrated at
or near the opening of the Nipigon River on the inlet near what is now
called Virgin Falls.
We inay nuw return to die narrative in which Father Allouez writes
of hia sojourn in the vilIage of the Nipissings:
"It li.e. ihe village1 is composed 01 Savages. mostly idoletom, wiih
some Christians of long standing. Among tbem 1 fonnd iwentr who
made public profession 01 Christianity. 1 did no1 lack occupatiou 4th
both classes during the iwo weeke' sojourn in their country, and 1 worked
as diligcnily my healtli, bmkcn by the fatigues of ihe journey, nllowed.
1 iound more resistance here ihnn anywlirm to iufant bapiism;l2B) but
ihe more ihe devil oppows us, ihe more must we strive to conlound him.
He is hardly pleased, 1 think, to see me inake this lalesi journey, which
ia nearly five lmndred l~agurs in lenglh going and comiug, inclnding ibe
detours we were obliged 10 m~ke."(~O)

(28) Thme worda of Allonez are the immediaic rxintinuation of hi9 narrative aittr
whet we bave cited above. JR, vol. LI, pp. 55, 56.
(2Q) One of the superstilions of ihe lndinne was the Lem ihat Baptism would
cause the death of their children. Tliis was the chirf reusou for the Ottawas
opposing the trip or Allouez wiih iliem to rhc upper country in 1665. Ji is
cleer oi course lhal it was infants in dunger of dealh who were bapiized in
preference LO dl otberi. and the Indians lahely concluded ibat ii waa iht
Baptiein lhat caused dealh
(90) JR, voL LI, p. 69.