Page:Joutel's journal of La Salle's last voyage, 1684-7 (IA joutelsjournalof00jout).pdf/216

 continued the rest of May and Part of June, till after the Feast of Whitsontide. The Natives of the Country about, till the Land and sow Indian Corn, Melons and Gourds, but they do not thrive so well as in the Country we came from. However they live on them, and besides they have Fish they catch in the Lake, for Flesh is very scarce among them.

On the 4th of June, there arriv'd four Canoes, commanded by Monsieur de Porneuf, coming from Montreal, and bringing News from the Marques d'Hennonville, and Orders to send to the Settlements which were towards the Lake des Puans and others higher up, towards the Source of the River Colbert, to know the Posture and Condition of Affairs. We prepar'd to be gone with the two Canoes. Monsieur Cavelier bought another, to carry our Baggage, and left Part of his Furs with a Merchant, who gave him a Note to receive Money at Montreal. I did the same with those few Furs I had, the rest of them having been left at Micilimaquinay.

We took Leave of the Jesuits, and set out in four Canoes, viz. two belonging to Monsieur de Porneuf, and two to Monsieur Cavelier, one of which had been brought from Fort Lewis, and the other bought, as I have just now said, we being twenty-nine of us in those four Canoes. We sail'd on till the 24th, when Monsieur de Porneuf left us to go to St. Mary's Fall, to carry the Orders given him. The 25th, we got out of the Lake of the Islinois, to enter that of the Hurons, on the Banks whereof stands the Village, call'd Tessalon, where Monsieur de Porneuf came again to us, the 27th, with a Canoe of the Natives, and with him we held on our Way.

French River.

We proceeded to Chebonany the 30th of June, and the 3d of July, enter'd the French River, where we were forc'd several Times to carry our Canoes to avoid the Falls and the rapid Streams, observing as we went a barren and dry Country, full of Rocks, on which there grow Cedars and Fir Trees, which take Root in the Clefts of those Rocks.