166. The author here refers to the chief D'Arontal, whose guest he was. Vide antea, 137. Cf. also Quebec ed. 1632, p. 928.
167. Trainees de bois, a kind of sledge. The Indian's sledge was made of two pieces of board, which, with his stone axe and perhaps with the aid of fire, he patiently manufactured from the trunks of trees. The boards were each about six inches wide and six or seven feet long, curved upward at the forward end and bound together by cross pieces. The sides were bordered with strips of wood, which served as brackets, to which was fastened the strap that bound the baggage upon the sledge. The load was dragged by a rope or strap of leather passing round the breast of the savage and attached to the end of the sledge. The sledge was so narrow that it could be drawn easily and without impediment wherever the savage could thread his way through the pathless forests.
The journey from their encampment northeast of Kingston on Lake Ontario to the capital of the Hurons was not less in a straight line than a hundred and sixty miles. Without a pathway, in the heart of winter, through water and melting snow, with their heavy burdens, the hardship and exhaustion can hardly be exaggerated.
168. Namely at Cahiagué. In the issue of 1632, Champlain says they arrived on the 23d day of the month. Vide Quebec ed, p. 929. Leaving on the 4th and travelling nineteen days, as stated above, they would arrive on the 23d December.
169. Probably the 4th of January.
170. Father Joseph Le Caron had remained at Carhagouha, during the absence
of the war party in their attack upon the Iroquois, where Champlain
probably arrived on the 5th of January.
171. In the issue of 1632, the arrival of Champlain and Le Caron is stated
to have occurred on the 17th of January. This harmonizes with the
correction of dates in notes 169, 170.
The Huron name of the Petuns was Tionnontateronons, or Khionontateronons, or Quieunontateronons. Of them Vimont says, "Les Khionontateronons, qu'on appelle la nation du Petun, pour l'abondance qu'il y a de cette herbe, sont eloignez du pays des Hurons, dont ils parlent la langue, enuiron douze ou quinze lieues tirant à l'Occident." Vide Relation des Jésuites, 1640, p. 95; His. Du Canada, Vol. I. p. 209. Sagard.
For some account of the subsequent history of the Nation de Petun, vide Indian Migration in Ohio, by C. C. Baldwin, 1879, p. 2.
172. It was of great importance to the Indians to select a site for their villages where suitable wood was accessible, both for fortifying them with palisades and for fuel in the winter. It could not be brought a great distance for either of these purposes. Hence when the wood in the vicinity became exhausted they were compelled to remove and build anew.