HISTORY. 79 



which they represented as larger than Superior. Charlevoix 

 speaks of this lake, as well as other writers of that time. 

 *' The country of the Assinipoils," he says, " is in the neigh- 

 borhood of a lake which bears their name, with which we 

 are but little acquainted. A Frenchman, whom I saw at 

 Montreal, assured me he had been there, but had seen it only 

 in a transient manner, as one sees the sea in a harbor. It is 

 the common opinion that this lake is 600 leagues in circum- 

 ference ; that its l)unks arc. delightful ; tliat the cUmatc is 

 very temperate, though it lies to the northwest of Lake Supe- 

 rior, and it contains so great a number of islands, that it is 

 called in that country the Lake of Islands. Some Indians 

 call it Mitchinipi (Great Water) ; and it seems, in effect, to be 

 the reservoir or source of the greatest rivers and all the great 

 lakes of North America. All the following rivers are said to 

 liave their rise from it : the Bourbon, which runs into 

 Hudson's Bay (Red River) ; the St. Lawrence, which car- 

 ries its waters to the ocean ; the Missisippi, which falls into 

 the Gulf of Mexico ; the Missouri, which mixes with the 

 last ; and a fifth, which they say runs westward, and conse- 

 quently discharges its waters into the South Sea. I do not, 

 however, warrant all these facts, which are supported only 

 by the accounts of travellers ; and, much less, what the 

 Indians have related, that in tiic neighborhood of the lake arc 

 men resembling the Europeans, who are settled in a country 

 where gold and silver are so common that they arc employed 

 in the meanest uses." 



The face of the country, and the peculiar physical charac- 

 teristic which it at present has, being diversified witii a clus- 

 ter of numerous lakes, which, with the addition of a body of 

 water not very great, would make a Lake of Islands as 

 extensive as that named, favor the story. A branch of Red 

 River, rising in the country of the supposed lake, now bears 



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