256 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. pWou. Tit 
noticed, was carried on with the tribes of the Far West. For many years 
the determined hostility of the Six Nations had hindered the French 
from the free navigation of the great lakes, but they then had several 
small ships of war on each of the lower lakes and an unarmed schooner 
upon Lake Superior. All of these vessels were frequently employed in 
transporting goods between the principal posts. 
Ample justice has been done to the great skill manifested by so many 
Frenchmen in the management of primitive people. “No other 
Europeans” says Merivale, “have ever displayed equal talents for 
conciliating savages or it must be added for approximating to their 
usages and modes of life.” But truly remarkable as was the ascendancy 
acquired by Gautier, Langlade, La Corne and others, it is doubtful whether 
they ever possessed as great and permanent an influence among the 
Indians as Johnson, Butler, McKee, Elliott, or Dickson. 
It is probable that few of the water-ways, portages, and paths used by 
the Indians remained unknown to the hardy and adventurous Cowreurs 
des Bots. But their knowledge was jealously kept secret and much of it 
perished with them. Consequently after the conquest, land and water- 
routes formerly well known to the French, had to be re-discovered or at 
least re-explored by their successors. During the war too, many of the 
less important trading-stations had been abandoned or destroyed. 
The old and favorite canoe-route from Montreal to Lake Huron by way 
of the Ottawa, Lake Nipissing, and French River although interrupted by 
no less than forty-two fortages and decharges had never fallen into disuse, 
but four trading-houses upon the Ottawa alone had been recently 
abandoned and were already crumbling to ruin. One of these was 14 
leagues above the Longue Sault, one three leagues higher at the mouth 
of Hare River, another at Isle des Allumettes, the fourth at the Riviere 
du Moine. A short portage connected a branch of the Ottawa with the 
Cataraqui and Lake Ontario. 
Missionary, soldier, and trader had traversed in succession the route 
from the Bay of Quinte by way of Balsam Lake and Lake Simcoe to 
the once populous country of the Hurons. The more direct route from 
Toronto to Lake Simcoe was also frequently used in the latter days of 
the French occupation. 
From Burlington Bay the Indians used a fortage into the Upper 
Thames and another from the forks of that river into Lake Erie at Point 
aux Pins. Three well defined trails led from different points on the 
Grand River to Lake Ontario, and there was also a portage less than five 
miles in length from that stream into the Chippawa. The carrying- 
