When spring came, they determined to push on to the Mississippi Indians, but before doing so, an event is to be chronicled in the history of discovery, from Montreal. On March 23d, on Passion Sunday, descending to the banks of Lake Erie, the explorers took possession of the country in the name of Louis XIV.
The following procès verbal, then drawn up and preserved in the marine archives of France, fully explains the picturesque ceremony:
"We, the undersigned, certify having affixed the arms of the king of France, on the lands of the lake named Erie, with this inscription:
"In the year of salvation 1669, Clement IX being seated on the chair of St. Peter, Louis XIV reigning in France, M. de Courcelles being governor of New France and M. Talon intendant there for the king, two missionaries of the Seminary of Montreal, arrived at this spot accompanied by seven other Frenchmen, who are the first Europeans to have wintered on this lake, the lands of which being unoccupied, they take possession of in the name of their king, by placing up his arms which they have affixed to this cross.
"In testimony of which we have signed the present certification.
François Dollier,
"Priest of the Diocese of Nantes, in Brittany;
"De Galinée,
"Deacon of the Diocese of Rennes, in Brittany."
On the 26th of March they proceeded further on their journey, but in Easter week, having halted by the side of Lake Erie, and drawn some of their canoes onto the land, leaving others on the sandy shore near the water's edge, wearied out with fatigue after a day's journey of twenty leagues, the party fell asleep. A great wind arose and heaped up the waters so that the awakened sleepers had difficulty in rescuing their canoes. One they utterly lost, as well as apparel and chapel accoutrements. A barrel of gunpowder floating on the waves was saved but the ammunition was lost. This disaster made them resolve to turn back to Montreal.
They chose for their return voyage the route passing by the mission of Sault Ste. Marie. On their way, after 100 leagues' navigation, they destroyed a rude Indian idol, and after entering Lake Huron arrived on May 25th at Sault Ste. Marie Fort, where they were joyously received by the Jesuits, Dablon and Marquette, with the little colony of twenty to twenty-five Frenchmen.