166 QUEBEC AND ITS TENANTS. [1636-46. 



Marsolet.^ Doubtless, when they returned from 

 their rovings, they often had pressing need of 

 penance and absolution; yet, for the most part, 

 they were good Catholics, and some of them were 

 zealous for the missions. Nicollet and others were 

 at times settled as interpreters at Three E-ivers and 

 Quebec. Several of them were men of great intelli- 

 gence and an invincible courage. From hatred of 

 restraint, and love of a wild and adventurous inde- 

 pendence, they encountered privations and dangers 

 scarcely less than those to which the Jesuit exposed 

 himself from motives widely different, — he from 

 religious zeal, charity, and the hope of Paradise ; 

 they simply because they liked it. Some of the 

 best families of Canada claim descent from this 

 vigorous and hardy stock. 



1 See Ferland, Notes sur les Registres de N. D. de Quebec, 30. 



Nicollet, especially, was a remarkable man. As early as 1639, he 

 ascended the Green Bay of Lake Michigan, and crossed to the waters of 

 the Mississippi. This was first shown by the researches of Mr. Shea. 

 See his Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley, XX. 



