Nicolet's discoveries, although not immediately followed up because of the hostility of the Iroquois and the lack of the spirit of adventure in Champlain's successor, caused, finally, great results. He had unlocked the door to the Far West, where, afterward, were seen the fur-trader, the voyageur, the Jesuit missionary, and the government agent. New France was extended to the Mississippi and beyond; yet Nicolet did not live to witness the progress of French trade and conquest in the countries he had discovered.
The name of the family of Nicolet appears to have been extinguished in Canada, with the departure of M. Gilles Nicolet, priest, already mentioned; but the respect which the worthy interpreter had deserved induced the people of Three Rivers to perpetuate his memory. The example had been given before his death. We read in the Relation of 1637 that the river St. John, near Montreal (now the river Jésus), took its name from John Nicolet. To-day Canada has the river, the lake, the falls, the village, the city, the college, and the county of Nicolet.[116] From the United States—especially from the Northwest—equal honor is due.
"History can not refrain from saluting Nicolet as a disinterested traveler, who, by his explorations in the interior of America, has given clear proofs of his energetic character, and whose merits have not been disputed, although subsequently they were temporarily forgotten." The first fruits of his daring were gathered by the Jesuit fathers even before his death; for, in the autumn of 1641, those of them who were among the Hurons received a deputation of Indians occupying "the country around a rapid, in the midst of the channel by which Lake Superior empties into Lake Huron," inviting them to visit their tribe. These "missionaries were not displeased with the opportunity thus presented of knowing the countries lying beyond Lake Huron, which no one of them had yet traversed;" so Isaac Jogues and Charles Raymbault were detached to accompany the Chippewa deputies, and view the field simply, not to establish a mission. They passed along the shore of Lake Huron, northward, and pushed as far up St. Mary's strait as the "Sault," which they reached after seventeen days' sail from their place of starting. There they—the first white men to visit the Northwest after Nicolet—harangued two thousand of that nation, and other Algonquins. Upon their return to the St. Lawrence, Jogues was captured by the Iroquois, and Raymbault died on the twenty-second of October, 1642—a few days before the death of Nicolet.
APPENDIX.
[I.]—EXTRACTS (LITERAL) FROM THE PARISH CHURCH REGISTER, OF THREE RIVERS, CANADA, CONCERNING NICOLET.
I.
"Le 27 du mois de décembre 1635, fut baptisée par le Père Jacques Buteux[117] une petite fille âgée d'environ deux ans, fille du capitaine des Montagnetz Capitainal.[118] Elle fut nommée Marie par M. de Maupertuis et M. Nicollet ses parrains. Elle s'appelait en sauvage 8minag8m8c8c8."[119]
II.
"Le 30 du mois de Mai 1636, une jeune Sauvagesse Algonquine instruite par le Père Jacques Buteux, fut baptisée par le Père Claude Quentin et nommée Françoise par M. Nicollet son parrain." [1637, 7th October. At Quebec. Marriage of Nicolet with Marguerite Couillard.]