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and, before his return, obtained his presence
in their morasses.
From the unexplored recesses of
Lake Michigan came the Potawatomies; and these worshippers of the sun invited him to their homes.
The Sacs and Foxes travelled on foot from their country, which abounded in deer, and beaver, and buffalo.
The
Illinois, also,—a hospitable race, unaccustomed to canoes, having no weapon but the bow and arrow,— came to rehearse their sorrows.
Their ancient glory and their numbers had been diminished by the
Sioux, on the one side, and the
Iroquois, armed with muskets, on the other.
Curiosity was roused by their talc of the noble river on which they dwelt, and which
Relation 1666, 7, 105, 6. |
flowed towards the south.
‘They had no forests, but, instead of them, vast prairies, where herds of deer and buffalo, and other animals, grazed on the tall grasses.’
They explained, also, the wonders of their peace-pipe,
and declared it their custom to welcome the friendly stranger with shouts of joy. ‘Their country,’ said
Allouez, ‘is the best field for the gospel.
Had I had leisure, I would have gone to their dwellings, to see with my own eyes all the good that was told me of
them.’
Then, too, at the very extremity of the lake, the missionary met the wild, impassive warriors of the Sioux, who dwelt to the west of Lake Superior, in a land of prairies, with wild rice for food, and skins of beasts, instead of bark, for roofs to their cabins, on the banks of the Great River, of which Allouez reported
the name to be ‘Messipi.’
After residing for nearly two years chiefly on the southern margin of Lake Superior, and connecting his name imperishably with the progress of discovery in
the west,
Allouez returned to
Quebec to urge the
