[46] (p. [201]).—Grand Chibou: see vol. [iv.], note [46].
[47] (p. [201]).—The remainder of this paragraph is not found in the Lenox copy (H. 56); see [Bibliographical Data], ante, document xxi.
[48] (p. [203]).—An important variation in the text occurs at this point in the Lenox copy, for which see[ Bibliographical Data], ante, document xxi.
[49] (p. [203]).—Oliver the interpreter: Oliver Le Tardif, born at Honfleur, in 1601. He probably came over with Champlain, when a mere lad; his name first appears as one of the signers of a petition from the Quebec settlers to Louis XIII., dated Aug. 18, 1621, asking that the disputes between the rival commercial companies in Canada, and the disorders arising therefrom, might be settled by royal authority. This petition was sent to France by the Récollet Father George Le Baillif; it is given in full by Le Clercq (Shea's ed., vol. i., pp. 161-174). By Champlain we are told (Laverdière's ed., pp. 1042, 1113, 1228) that Le Tardif was serving as an interpreter in 1623; that he was proficient in the Montagnais, Algonkin, and Huron dialects; that he was, in 1626-29, a sub-agent for the Hundred Associates; and, at the capture of Quebec, he gave up the keys of the storehouse to Kirk. Returning at that time to France, he came back to Quebec with either De Caen or Champlain. Nov. 3, 1637, he married the eldest daughter of Guillaume Couillard, Louise, then less than thirteen years of age. Seven years later, his adopted daughter, Marie Manitouabewich, was married to Martin Prevost,—the first marriage in Canada of a Frenchman to an Indian woman. In 1642, he was general manager for the Hundred Associates; and, in 1650, the agent of a company (including Lauson Rosée, Cheffault, and others) to whom had been conceded the Isle of Orleans. Laverdière says that Le Tardif was at one time seignior over part of Beaupré. His death occurred Jan. 28, 1665.—Sulte's Can.-Français vols. ii. and iii.
[50] (p. [203]).—Assisted in their wars. Champlain here refers to his expeditions, with the Ottawas and other tribes of the St. Lawrence valley, against the Iroquois, in 1609, 1610, and 1615. In the last of these, during an attack made by the allies on an Iroquois fort (Oct. 11), Champlain was wounded by arrows, as were also two Ottawa chiefs, Ochateguin and Orani (Voyages, Laverdière's ed., pp. 528, 532, 533, 919). Laverdière reproduces Champlain's illustration of the battle, and thinks this fort was near the foot of Lake Canandaigua, in Ontario county, N. Y.; but Slafter identifies it with one, the remains of which were discovered years ago, on the shore of Nichols's Pond, in Fenner township, Madison county, N. Y.—Champlain (Prince Soc.), vol. i., pp. 130-132.
[51] (p. [219]).—Sorcerers: the Nipissiriniens, or Nipissings, around Lake Nipissing; Ferland says (Cours d'Histoire, vol. i., p. 92) that the term "Sorcerers" was given them "because more sorcerers [medicine men] were found among them than among other tribes." Charlevoix says of them (Journ. Hist., pp. 186, 187): "These are the true Algonquins, and they alone have retained the Algonquin Language without alteration."—See Hunter's account of their habitat, note [19], ante.
In regard to Ste. Croix, see vol. [ii.], note [66].
[52] (p. [219]).—Iroquet (also written Hiroquet, Hirocay, Iroquay, and Yroquet): the name of both the tribe and its chief, the latter being frequently mentioned by Champlain. He took part in two of the latter's expeditions against the Iroquois (1609 and 1615). In 1610, Champlain persuaded Iroquet to allow a French lad to spend the winter with his tribe, to learn their language and become acquainted with the country and its people; Laverdière thinks this boy was Étienne Brulé (see note [58], post). After the Iroquois expedition of 1615, Iroquet and his men, as well as the French, spent the winter in the Huron country; and quarrels which then arose between the Iroquets and their hosts compelled Champlain reluctantly to abandon a journey of exploration northward from Lake Nipissing, which he had long desired to undertake. He states that Iroquet lived about 80 leagues from the Grand Sault (Sault St. Louis); Ferland (Cours d'Histoire, vol. i., p. 91) says the tribe "occupied, southwest of the Ottawa, the interior of a triangular territory of which Vaudreuil, Kingston, and Ottawa form the angles." Their Huron name was Onontchataronons (Relation of 1646).
Charlevoix relates, in his Histoire de la Nouvelle France (Paris, 1744), vol. i., p. 228, that in August, 1642, two old men of the Iroquets told Maisonneuve, at Montreal, that "their tribe formerly lived on this island; that they were driven out by the Hurons; and that they took refuge, some with the Abenakis, some among the Iroquois, and some with the conquering Hurons." He also describes (Journ. Hist., pp. 110, 111) a sanguinary conflict which had occurred, in former times, between the Iroquets and the other Algonkin tribes, in which the former were almost exterminated. This battle took place near the mouth of the Becancourt River, a little below Three Rivers. So many dead bodies remained in the stream and on its banks, that it was called, even till Charlevoix's time, "la Rivière Puante" (stinking river).
Sulte (Can. Français, vol. i., pp. 76-83) thus epitomizes the successive changes in tribal locations on the St. Lawrence: "The Algonquins dwelt along the Ottawa; the Iroquois, on the St. Lawrence. About the year 1500, the Algonquins drove the Iroquois from the shores of their river, and there established themselves. The Iroquois settled between Lake Champlain and Lake Ontario. Between 1500 and 1530, the Hurons (or some other Iroquois tribe) retook Montreal from the Iroquets, an Algonquin tribe; and most of the Iroquets passed into the ranks of the Iroquois by this conquest [adopted by the conquerors, according to the custom prevalent among most of the aboriginal tribes].... In 1535, Jacques Cartier visited, at Montreal, the Huron-Iroquois.... Towards 1560, the Algonquins massacred nearly all the Iroquet warriors at the Rivière Puante, and the rest of this tribe returned to the Algonquins. Between 1560 and 1600, the Iroquois tribe of Agniers [Mohawks] was the one chiefly at war with the Algonquins. From 1560 to 1600, the Algonquins gained the ascendency in every direction. The Iroquois tribe that held Montreal retired westward; this was, apparently, the Huron tribe that Champlain found, in 1615, near Lake Simcoe. It was about 1600 that the league of the Five Nations seems to have commenced, and it swept the shores of the river.... The Algonquins, crushed by the Iroquois, fell back upon the Ottawa. In 1609, Champlain was accompanied, in his expedition against the Iroquois, by bands of Hurons, Algonquins, Iroquets, and Montagnais; and the French alliance again attracted Algonquins to the St. Lawrence, who settled chiefly at Three Rivers.... About 1630, the Iroquois gained ascendency over the Algonquins, thanks to the firearms sold them by the Dutch. In 1647, Piescaret, an Algonquin chief, was assassinated; and, after that, his tribe, as well as the Hurons, was destroyed. Until 1665, the Iroquois reigned supreme in the greater part of Canada." See also Perrot's Mémoire, chap, iv., and Tailhan's notes thereon, pp. 165, 166.