I replied that I was sorry to have them show themselves to so slight an extent my friends, and that I should never have believed it; that I had a young man, showing them my impostor, who had been in their country, and had not found all these difficulties which they represented, nor the people in question so bad as they asserted. Then they began to look at him, in particular Tessoüat the old captain, with whom he had passed the winter, and calling him by name he said to him in his language: Nicholas, is it true that you said you were among the Nebicerini? It was long before he spoke, when he said to them in their language, which he spoke to a certain extent: Yes, I was there. They immediately looked at him awry, and throwing themselves upon him, as if they would eat him up or tear him in pieces, raised loud cries, when Tessoüat said to him: You are a downright liar, you know well that you slept at my side every night with my children, where you arose every morning; if you were among the people mentioned, it was while sleeping. How could you have been so bold as to lead your chief to believe lies, and so wicked as to be willing to expose his life to so many dangers? You are a worthless fellow, and he ought to put you to death more cruelly than we do our enemies. I am not astonished that he should so importune us on the assurance of your words.
I at once told him that he must reply to these people; and since he had been in the regions indicated, that he must give me proofs of it, and free me from the suspense in which he had placed me. But he remained silent and greatly terrified.
I immediately withdrew him from the savages, and conjured him to declare the truth of the matter, telling him that, if he had seen the sea in question, I would give him the reward which I had promised him, and that, if he had not seen it, he must tell me so without causing me farther trouble. Again he affirmed with oaths all he had before said, and that he would demonstrate to me the truth of it, if the savages would give us canoes.
Upon this, Thomas came and informed me, that the savages of the island had secretly sent a canoe to the Nebicerini, to notify them of my arrival. Thereupon, in order to profit by the opportunity, I went to the savages to tell them, that I had dreamed the past night that they purposed to send a canoe to the Nebicerini without notifying me of it, at which I was greatly surprised, since they knew that I was desirous of going there. Upon which they replied that I did them a great wrong in trusting a liar, who wanted to cause my death, more than so many brave chiefs, who were my friends and who held my life dear. I replied that my man, meaning our impostor, had been in the aforesaid country with one of the relatives of Tessoüat and had seen the sea, the wreck and ruins of an English vessel, together with eighty scalps which the savages had in their possession, and a young English boy whom they held as prisoner, and whom they wished to give me as a present.
When they heard me speak of the sea, vessels, scalps of the English, and the young prisoner, they cried out more than before that he was a liar, and thus they afterwards called him, as if it were the greatest insult they could have done him, and they all united in saying that he ought to be put to death, or else that he should tell with whom he had gone to the place indicated, and state the lakes, rivers, and roads, by which he had gone. To this he replied with assurance, that he had forgotten the name of the savage, although he had stated to me his name more than twenty times, and even on the previous day. In respect to the peculiarities of the country, he had described them in a paper which he had handed me. Then I brought forward the map and had it explained to the savages, who questioned him in regard to it. To this he made no reply, but rather manifested by his sullen silence his perverse nature.
As my mind was wavering in uncertainty, I withdrew by myself, and reflected upon the above-mentioned particulars of the voyage of the English, and how the reports of our liar were quite in conformity with it, also that there was little probability of this young man's having invented all that, in which case he would not have been willing to undertake the journey, but that it was more probable that he had seen these things, and that his ignorance did not permit him to reply to the questions of the savages. To the above is to be added the fact that, if the report of the English be true, the North Sea cannot be farther distant from this region than a hundred leagues in latitude, for I was in latitude 47° and in longitude 296°.[71] But it may be that the difficulties attending the passage of the falls, the roughness of the mountains covered with shows, is the reason why this people have no knowledge of the sea in question; indeed they have always said that from the country of the Ochateguins it is a journey of thirty-five or forty days to the sea, which they see in three places, a thing which they have again assured me of this year. But no one has spoken to me of this sea on the north, except this liar, who had given me thereby great pleasure in view of the shortness of the journey.
Now, when this canoe was ready, I had him summoned into the presence of his companions; and after laying before him all that had transpired, I told him that any further dissimulation was out of the question, and that he must say whether he had seen these things or not; that I was desirous of improving the opportunity that presented itself; that I had forgotten the past; but that, if I went farther, I would have him hung and strangled, which should be his sole reward. After meditating by himself, he fell on his knees and asked my pardon, declaring that all he had said, both in France and this country, in respect to the sea in question was false; that he had never seen it, and that he had never gone farther than the village of Tessoüat; that he had said these things in order to return to Canada. Overcome with wrath at this, I had him removed, being unable to endure him any longer in my presence, and giving orders to Thomas to inquire into the whole matter in detail; to whom he stated, that he did not believe that I would undertake the journey on account of the dangers, thinking that some difficulty would present itself to prevent me from going on, as in the case of these savages, who were not disposed to lend me canoes; and accordingly that the journey would be put off until another year, when he being in France would be rewarded for his discovery; but that, if I would leave him in this country, he would go until he found the sea in question, even if he should die in the attempt. These were his words as reported to me by Thomas, but they did not give me much satisfaction, astounded as I was at the effrontery and maliciousness of this liar: and I cannot imagine how he could have devised this imposition, unless that he had heard of the above-mentioned voyage of the English, and in the hope of some reward, as he said, had the temerity to venture on it.
Shortly after I proceeded to notify the savages, to my great regret, of the malignity of this liar, stating that he had confessed the truth; at which they were delighted, reproaching me with the little confidence I put in them, who were chiefs and my friends, and who always spoke the truth; and who said that this liar ought to be put to death, being extremely malicious; and they added, Do you not see that he meant to cause your death. Give him to us, and we promise you that he shall not lie any more. And as they all went after him shouting, their children also shouting still more, I forbade them to do him any harm, directing them to keep their children also from doing so, inasmuch as I wished to take him to the Falls to show him to the gentlemen there, to whom he was to bring some salt water; and I said that, when I arrived there, I would consult as to what should be done with him.
My journey having been in this manner terminated, and without any hope of seeing the sea in this direction, except in imagination, I felt a regret that I should not have employed my time better, and that I should have had to endure the difficulties and hardships, which however I was obliged patiently to submit to. If I had gone in another direction, according to the report of the savages, I should have made a beginning in a thing which must be postponed to another time. At present my only wish being to return, I desired the savages to go to the Falls of St. Louis, where there were four vessels loaded with all kinds of merchandise, and where they would be well treated. This they communicated to all their neighbors. Before setting out, I made a cross of white cedar, which I planted in a prominent place on the border of the lake, with the arms of France, and I begged the savages to have the kindness to preserve it, as also those which they would find along the ways we had passed; telling them that, if they broke them, misfortune would befall them, but that, if they preserved them, they would not be assaulted by their enemies. They promised to do so, and said that I should find them when I came to visit them again.