FRENCH IN NORTH AMERICA. 399 



able to discovery. In 1629 the English took Quebec, and held the 

 colony for some years — no great feat of valour certainly, as there 

 were no settlements except at Quebec and Tadousac, and a mission- 

 ary station at Three Rivers ; and in 1622, according to Charlevoix, 

 there were only fifty souls at Quebec, including women and children. 

 Almost immediately after Canada had been restored to France, the 

 Iroquois wars commenced, which for many years confined the French 

 to the lower St. Lawrence, and ended in the almost entire extermi- 

 nation of their Indian allies. The missionaries, it is true, adhered 

 nobly to their converts, and in many instances perished with them ; 

 and when the remnants retired into the Far "West and the Far 

 North, they accompanied them, and so gained some acquaintance 

 with more remote regions ; but no discovery of importance is re- 

 corded. It was not till a temporary peace was made in 1669 that 

 the adventurous spirit of the French settlers had room to display 

 itself, and that they penetrated into the country occupied by the 

 Iroquois. 



The second map, in point of time, belongs to this period. It 

 bears date 1670, and records the journey of two missionaries, Dolier 

 and Galline, who appear to have been the first, or amongst the first, 

 who reached Lake Huron by the route of Lakes Ontario and Erie. 

 I have found no other account of their travels, nor are their names 

 mentioned by Charlevoix, any more than that of M. Perray, who 

 appears to have made a portage from somewhere near Toronto to 

 Lake Simcoe, unless he be the M. Perrot who, about the same 

 time, was employed in negotiating with the western tribes. A 

 letter of the Intendant, Talon, is referred to, which may probably 

 be amongst our MS collection — detained at Quebec upon the some- 

 what far-fetched excuse, that it may be wanted to elucidate some 

 knotty point connected with the Seignorial Tenure. The mission- 

 aries appear to have been very conscientious observers, distinguish- 

 ing between what they have seen themselves and what they know 

 only by report, and for gentlemen of their sacred calling, they take 

 an unusual interest in all that pertains to the chase. There are two 

 noticeable features about this map. The indefinite extension of 

 Lake Erie westward, to be found in all the maps of this 

 period, where Hennepin, nearly twenty years later, says no one had 

 yet penetrated, for which this sufficient reason may be given, that 

 no such extension exists in nature ; and the singular delineation of 

 Lake Huron, where the eastern shores are not very incorrectly given, 

 nor the western shores of Lake Michigan, but there is an entire 

 ignoring of the great peninsula of Michigan. This is the more sur- 



