The Entouhonorons, Quentouoronons, Tsonnontouans, or Senecas constituted the most western and most numerous canton of the Five Nations. Vide Continuation of the New Discovery, by Louis Hennepin, 1699, p. 95; also Origin of the name Seneca in Mr. O. H. Marshall's brochure on De la Salle among the Senecas, pp. 43-45.
220. Vide antea, p. 124.
221. The River Susquehanna.
222. He appears to have gone as far south at least as the upper waters of
Chesapeake Bay.
223. The Dutch fur-traders. Vide History of the State of New York by John
Romeyn Brodhead, Vol. I. p. 44 et passim.
224. Attigonantans or Attignaouantans the principal tribe of the Hurons,
sometimes called Les bons Iroquis, as they and the Iroquois were of
the same original stock. Vide Vol. I. p. 276, note 212.
225. Lake Huron. For the different names which have been attached to this
lake, vide Local Names of Niagara Frontier, by Orsamus H. Marshall,
1881, P. 37.
226. Brûlé was despatched on his mission Sept 8, 1615. Vide antea, p. 124.
As we have already stated in a previous note, it was the policy of Champlain to place competent young men with the different tribes of savages to obtain that kind of information which could only come from an actual and prolonged residence with them. This enabled him to secure not only the most accurate knowledge of their domestic habits and customs, the character and spirit of their life, but these young men by their long residence with the savages acquired a good knowledge of their language, and were able to act as interpreters. This was a matter of very great importance, as it was often necessary for Champlain to communicate with the different tribes in making treaties of friendship, in discussing questions of war with their enemies, in settling disagreements among themselves, and in making arrangements with them for the yearly purchase of their peltry. It was not easy to obtain suitable persons for this important office. Those who had the intellectual qualifications, and who had any high aspirations, would not naturally incline to pass years in the stupid and degrading associations, to say nothing of the hardships and deprivations, of savage life. They were generally therefore adventurers, whose honesty and fidelity had no better foundation than their selfish interests. Of this sort was this Étienne Brûlé, as well as Nicholas Marsolet and Pierre Raye, all of whom turned traitors, selling themselves to the English when Quebec was taken in 1629. Of Brûlé, Champlain uses the following emphatic language: "Lé truchement Bruslé à qui l'on donnoit cent pistolles par an, pour inciter les sauuages à venir à la traitte, ce qui estoit de tres-mauuais exemple, d'enuoyer ainsi des personnes si maluiuans, que l'on eust deub chastier seuerement, car l'on recognoissoit cet homme pour estre fort vicieux, & adonné aux femmes; mais que ne fait faire l'esperance du gain, qui passe par dessus toutes considerations." Vide issue of 1632, Quebec ed., pp. 1065, 1229.
But among Champlain's interpreters there were doubtless some who bore a very different character. Jean Nicolet was certainly a marked exception. Although Champlain does not mention him by name, he appears to have been in New France as early as 1618, where he spent many years among the Algonquins, and was the first Frenchman who penetrated the distant Northwest. He married into one of the most respectable families of Quebec, and is often mentioned in the Relations des Jésuites. Vide a brief notice of him in Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley, by John Gilmary Shea, 1852, p. xx. A full account of his career has recently been published, entitled History of the Discovery of the Northwest by John Nicolet in 1634, with a Sketch of his Life. By C. W. Butterfield. Cincinnati, 1881. Vide also Détails fur la Vie de Jean Nicollet, an extract from Relation des Jésuites, 1643, in Découveries, etc, par Pierre Margry, p. 49.