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 EMMA S. CLARK 

 /1GRIAL LIB 



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Chapter I 



NIAGARA DISCOVERED: THE FRENCH PERIOD 



1604 



CHAMPLAIN, SAMUEL DE. Des Savvages ov, Voyage de Samvel 1604 

 Champlain de Brovage, fait en la France Novvelle, Tan mil six cens trois: Champlain 

 contenant les moeurs, facon de viure, manages, guerres, & habitation 

 des sauuages de Canadas ... A Paris, Chez Clavde de Mon- 

 str'oeil. (1604) pp. 42, 45-46, 47. (CEuvres de Champlain, publiees 

 sous le patronage de l'Universite Laval par 1'abbe C.-H. Laverdiere. 

 Quebec: Imprime au Seminaire par G.-E. Desbarats. 1870. Vol. I, 

 pp. 106, 109-110, 111.) 



Champlain was the first to explore Lake Ontario carefully. It was 

 while doing this that he heard of Niagara Falls. In his capacity as 

 geographer to Henry IV, he kept " full notes of his voyages and travels." 

 His records are consequently invaluable. Unfortunately the original edition 

 of the " Voyages " is very rare and expensive. The Abbe C.-H. Laver- 

 diere's edition is an " accurate reproduction of the early texts " and alto- 

 gether the best French rendering. The Prince Society's English edition 

 is a " careful and readable translation." 



CHAMPLAIN, SAMUEL DE. Voyages. Translated from the French by 

 Charles Pomeroy Otis. With historical illustrations, and a memoir by the 

 Rev. Edmund Farwell Slafter. Boston: Prince Society. 1878—1882. 

 Vol. I, pp. 271, 274-276. 



Then they come to a lake some eighty leagues long, with a 

 great many islands; the water at its extremity being fresh and 

 the winter mild. At the end of this lake they pass a fall, some- 

 what high and with but little water flowing over. Here they 

 carry their canoes overland about a quarter of a league, in order 

 to pass the fall, afterwards entering another lake some sixty 

 leagues long, and containing very good water. Having reached 

 2 17 



