[72] The distance by days up the Fox river of Green bay from the Winnebagoes to the Mascoutins, is given in accordance with the earliest accounts of canoe navigation upon that stream. The first white persons to pass up the river after Nicolet were Allouez and his attendants, in April, 1670. That missionary (Relation, 1670, pp. 96, 97, 99), says:
"The 16th of April [1670], I embarked to go and commence the mission of the Outagamis [Fox Indians], a people well known in all these parts. We were lying at the head of the bay [Green bay], at the entrance of the River of the Puants [Fox river], which we have named 'St. Francis;' in passing, we saw clouds of swans, bustards, and ducks; the savages take them in nets at the head of the bay, where they catch as many as fifty in a night; this game, in the autumn, seek the wild rice that the wind has shaken off in the month of September.
"The 17th [of April of the same year], we went up the River St. Francis [the Fox]—two and sometimes three arpens wide. After having advanced four leagues, we found the village of the savages named Saky [Sacs, Saukis, or Sauks], who began a work that merits well here to have its place. From one side of the river to the other, they made a barricade, planting great stakes, two fathoms from the water, in such a manner that there is, as it were, a bridge above for the fishers, who, by the aid of a little bow-net, easily take sturgeons and all other kinds of fish which this pier stops, although the water does not cease to flow between the stakes. They call this device Mitihikan ["Mitchiganen" or "Machihiganing," now "Michigan">[; they make use of it in the spring and a part of the summer.
"The 18th [of the same month], we made the portage which they call Kekaling [afterwards variously spelled, and pronounced "Cock-o-lin;" meaning, it is said, the place of the fish. In the fall of 1851, a village was laid out there, which is known as Kaukauna]; our sailors drew the canoe through the rapids; I walked on the bank of the river, where I found apple-trees and vine stocks [grape vines] in abundance.
"The 19th [April], our sailors ascended the rapids, by using poles, for two leagues. I went by land as far as the other portage, which they call Oukocitiming; that is to say, the highway. We observed this same day the eclipse of the sun, predicted by the astrologers, which lasted from mid-day until two o'clock. The third, or near it, of the body of the sun appeared eclipsed; the other two-thirds formed a crescent. We arrived, in the evening, at the entrance of the Lake of the Puants [Winnebago lake], which we have called Lake St. Francis; it is about twelve leagues long and four wide; it is situated from north-northeast to south-southwest; it abounds in fish, but uninhabited, on account of the Nardoüecis [Sioux], who are here dreaded.
"The 20th [of April, 1670], which was on Sunday, I said mass, after having navigated five or six leagues in the lake; after which, we arrived in a river [the Fox, at what is now Oshkosh], that comes from a lake of wild rice [Big Butte Des Morts lake], which we came into; at the foot [head] of which we found the river [the Wolf] which leads to the Outagamis [Fox Indians] on one side, and that [the Fox] which leads to the Machkoutenck [Mascoutins] on the other. We entered into the former [the Wolf]....
"The 29th [of April of the same year, having returned from the Fox Indians living up the Wolf river], we entered into the [Fox] river, which leads to the Machkoutench [Mascoutins], called Assista Ectaeronnons, Fire Nation ["Gens de Feu">[, by the Hurons. This [Fox] river is very beautiful, without rapids or portages [above the mouth of the Wolf]; it flows to [from] the southwest.
"The 30th [of April, 1670], having disembarked opposite the village [of the Mascoutins], and left our canoe at the water's edge, after a walk of a league, over beautiful prairies, we perceived the fort [of the Mascoutins]."
[73] Champlain's "Les Voyages de la Novvelle France," I., p. 262 [272], previously cited. Upon Champlain's Map of 1632, they are located beyond and to the south of Lake Huron, he having no knowledge of Lake Michigan. In his "Voyages," his words are: "Ils [the Cheveux Relevés—Ottawas] sont la guerre, à vne autre nation de Sauuages, qui s'appellent Assistagueronon, qui veut dire gens de feu, esloignez d'eux de dix iournées." Sagard, in 1636 ("Histoire du Canada," p. 201), is equally indefinite as to locality, though placing them westward of the south end of the Georgian bay of Lake Huron, "nine or ten days' journey by canoe, which makes about two hundred leagues, or more." He says: "Tous essemble [the different bands of the Ottawas] sont la guerre a une autre nation nommée Assistagueronon, qui veut dire gens feu: car en langue Huronne Assista signifie de feu and Eronon signifie Nation. Ils sont esloignez d'eux à ce qu'on tient, de neuf ou dix iournées de Canots, qui sont enuiron deux cens lieuës et plus de chemin."
[74] Allouez (Relation, 1670, p. 99, before cited) is the first to give their position with any degree of certainty. Unless, under the name of "Rasaoua koueton," the Mascoutins were not mentioned by Nicolet, in the list given to Vimont (Relation, 1640, p. 35). The "R" should, probably, have been "M," thus: "Masaoua koueton."