172 An Hijîorlcal Journal of 



the Lakes are full of Fifh ; the Air pure, and the Climate tern- 



preate, and very healthy. 



Before we arrive at the iirll Fort, which is on the left Hand, 

 Of the Sa'va s ^ League below the [lie of St. Claire, there 

 / 'vages ^j.^ fame Side two pretty populous 



fettled near the xr-n i. 



p^^^ Villages, and which are very near each o- 



^ * ther. The firll is inhabited by fome Tion^ 



nontatex Hurons, the fame, who, after having a long Time wan- 

 dered from Place to Place, fixed themfelves firft at the Fall of 

 St. Mary, and afterwards at Michillimahnac. I'he fécond is in- 

 habited by fome Pouteouatamis. On the Right, a little higher, 

 there is a third Village of Outaouais, the infeparable Companions 

 of the Hurom, fi nee the Iroquois obliged them both to abandon 

 their Country. There are no Chrijîïans among them, and if there 

 are any among the Pouteouatamis, they are few in Number. The 

 Hurons are all Chrijiians, but they have no Miffionaries : They 

 fay that they chufe to have none ; but this is only the Choice of 

 fome of the Chiefs, who have not much Religion, and who 

 hinder the others from being heard, who have a long Time delired 

 to have one. (a) 



It is a long Time fmce the Situation, Hill more than the Beauty 

 of the Strait, has made us wifh for a confiderable Settlement 

 here : It was pretty well begun fifteen Years ago, but fome 

 Reafons, which are kept fecret, have reduced it very low. 

 Thofe who did not favour it faid, firft, that it brought the 

 Peltry of the North too near the Englijh, who felling their Mer- 

 chandizes to the Savages cheaper than our's, would draw- all the 

 Trade to Ne^-w York, Second, that the Lands of the Strait are not 

 good, that the Surface to the Depth of nine or ten Inches is 

 only Sand, and under this Sand there is aClayfo HiiF, that Water 

 cannot penetrate it; whence it happens that the Plains and the 

 inner Parts of the Woods, are always covered with Water, and 

 that you fee in them only little Oaks badly grown, and hard 

 Walnut-Trees; and that the Trees Handing always in the Wa- 

 ter, their Fruit ripens very late. But to thefe Reafons they re- 

 ply, it is true, that in the Environs of Fort Pontchartrain the 

 Lands are mixed with Sand, and that in the neighbouring Forells 

 there are fome Bottoms that are almoil always full of Water. 

 Neverthelefs, thefe very Lands have yielded Wheat eighteen 

 Years together without being manured, and one need not go 

 far to find fome that are excellent. As for the Woods, with- 

 out going far from the Fort, I have feen fome in my Walksj, 

 which are no v/ays inferior to our fineft Forells, 



( a) They have at length given them one for fome Years pad. 



As 



