So Champlain, with his strong desire to explore and to prove a great benefit to mankind, arranged to command an expedition into the far northern wilds and make his young friend’s boasted discovery of actual use to Old and New France. With the young explorer and an Indian guide, the Governor and a company of men reached the lake and island belonging to the tribe with which the young Frenchman had stayed. In talking with those Indians about the great discovery, Champlain spoke with pride of his young friend’s energy and success. They laughed and told him he had been fooled, for that young man had never gone farther north than the island on which they were standing!
This was a bitter experience for the good “White Governor.”
The Indians, who had told him before that there was no salt sea anywhere near that region, taunted Champlain with,
“Now who were your friends? Don’t you see that he wanted to cause your death? Give him to us and we promise you he shall never lie again.”
Champlain knew too well that with the savages’ hatred of a liar and their cruel modes of punishment they would have tortured that young Frenchman to death. Of course, the kind-hearted governor could not permit this. But he did make the fellow stand before all the Frenchmen at Montreal and confess that he had been guilty of lying and committing
