Voyages of Samuel De Champlain — Volume 03

by Samuel de Champlain

40. Champlain is here speaking of the river St. Lawrence, which flows into Lake St. Louis slightly south of west.

41. Rivière de Loup, now known as the Chateauguay.

42. The River Ottawa or a branch of it flows into Lake St. Louis from the north, although its course is rather from the west. It was often called the River of the Algonquins. It approaches comparatively near to Lake Nipissing, the home of the Nipissirini. The sources of the Ottawa are northeast of Lake Nipissing, a distance of from one to three hundred miles. The distances here given by Champlain are only general estimates gathered from the Indians, and are necessarily inaccurate.

43. Rapide de Brussi, by which the river flows from the Lake of
Two Mountains into Lake St Louis.

44. Lac de Soissons, now called Lake of Two Mountains Vide Vol. I.
p. 294.

45. This is the first of a series of falls now known as the Long Fall.

46. Quenongebin. Laverdière makes, this the same as the Kinounchepiríni of Vimont. It was an Algonquin nation situated south of Allumette Island. Vide Jesuite Relations, Quebec ed, 1640, p. 34.

47. Ouescharini. These people, called Ouaouechkairini by Vimont, appear to have dwelt on the stream now known as the Rivière de Petite Nation, rising in a system of lakes, among which are Lake Simon, Whitefish Lake, Long Lake, and Lake Des Isles. Vide Jesuite Relations, 1640, p. 34. The tribe here mentioned was subsequently called the Little Nation of the Algonquins hence the name of the river. Laverdière.

48. This passage is exceedingly obscure. Laverdière supposes that part of a sentence was left out by the printer. If so it is remarkable that Champlain did not correct it in his edition of 1632. Laverdière thinks the river here spoken of is the Gatineau, and that the savages following up this stream went by a portage to the St. Maurice, and passing down reached the St. Lawrence thirty leagues, and not three, below the Falls of Saint Louis. The three rivers thus named inclose or form an island of about the extent described in the text. This explanation is plausible. The passage amended would read, "This river extends near another which falls into the great river St. Lawrence thirty leagues below the falls of St. Louis." We know of no other way in which the passage can be rationally explained.

49. Rideau, at the mouth of which is Green Island, referred to in the text below.