130                                  APPENDIX.
spoke the same language as the Iroquois, who belonged to the same race but inhabited the south side of Lake Ontario, afterwards so-called, from what is now Buffalo to the present Albany.
" The Hurons came to Montreal and the Lower St. Lawrence through what is now termed French River, Lake Nipissing, River Matawan and the Ottawa. No doubt Champlain obtained from those people a good deal of information concering the west, and especially the Ottawa. He had already seen (in 1603) specimens of native copper taken, as stated by the Indians, from the vicinity of a large sea, which no doubt is Lake Superior.
" Now comes the expedition of Champlain from Quebec to Lake St. Peter, in 1610, marked by three important facts: a battle with the Iroquois, a large trade with the tribes of the Upper St. Lawrence and Upper Ottawa, and the departure of a young man who followed the Algonquins in their return home.—Who was this young man?   .    .    .    We will try to find out.
" Two-thirds of the men who had remained in Quebec the first autumn (1608) of the establishment of that post, died during the winter from the effects of a scorbutic disease. In the spring seven men only were living with Champlain himself. One of them was a young man named Etienne (Stephen, in English) Brule, a native of Champigny, a small place near Paris. I believe he was the first white individual who saw the Ottawa Valley; this is how I explain it:
"The object of enlisting Brule, Nicolet, Marsolet, Hertel, Mar-guerie and other grown-up boys for service in Canada from 1608 to 1620 was to educate them as interpreters. They all could read and write; some of them were even perfect scholars. In less than one year each of these young adventurers used to learn an Indian language, and sometimes they mastered two or three idioms after a very short period.    .    .    .
"During the summer of 1610, Iroquet attended the trade business at Lake St. Peter. Champlain asked him to take a man with him in order to visit his country and report about it. The offer was accepted, provided an Indian would be chosen to embark for France for the same purpose. Savignon, who belonged to the Huron tribes, was selected to make the trip to Paris. Champlain recites on this ocasion: ' I had a young man who had already spent two winters at Quebec and who desired to go with the Algonquins to learn their language. I thought^it well to send him in that direction because he could see the country, also the great lake (Huron), observe the rivers, the people, the mines and other rare things, so as to report truth about all this. He accepted the duty with pleasure.'