New France.  But now, without neglecting any part of his duty, he seemed desirous of widening his sphere of action by the extension of French influence to the north, south, and west.  On October 10, 1670, he wrote to the king:  ’Since my arrival, I have sent resolute men to explore farther than has ever been done in Canada, some to the west and north-west, others to the south-west and south.  They will all on their return write accounts of their expeditions and frame their reports according to the instructions I have given them.  Everywhere they will take possession of the country, erect posts bearing the king’s arms, and draw up memoranda of these proceedings to serve as title-deeds.’

Of these explorers one of the most noted was Cavelier de la Salle.  He had been born in 1643.  After pursuing his studies in a Jesuit college he came to Canada in 1666 and obtained from the Sulpicians a grant of land near Montreal, named by him Saint-Sulpice, but ultimately known under the name of Lachine.  In 1669 Courcelle gave him letters patent for an exploring journey towards the Ohio and the Meschacebe, or Mississippi.  By way of these rivers he hoped to reach the Vermilion Sea, or Gulf of California, and thus open a new road to China via the Pacific ocean.  At the same time the Abbes Dollier and de Galinee, Sulpicians, had prepared for a remote mission to the Outaouais.  It was thought advisable to combine the two expeditions.  Thus it happened that La Salle and the Sulpicians left Montreal in 1669 and journeyed together as far as the western end of Lake Ontario.  There they parted.  The Sulpicians wintered on the shores of Lake Erie, and next spring passed the strait between Lakes Erie and Huron, reached the Sault Sainte-Marie, and then returned to Montreal by French river, Lake Nipissing, and the Ottawa river.  Their journey lasted from July 4, 1669, to June 18, 1670.  In the meantime La Salle had reached the Ohio and had followed it to the falls at Louisville.  He also returned in the summer of 1670.  The itinerary of his next expedition, undertaken in the same year, is not very well known.  According to an account of doubtful authority, he went through Lakes Erie and Huron, entered Lake Michigan, reached the Illinois river, and even the Mississippi.  But a careful study of contemporaneous documents and evidence leads to the conclusion that the Mississippi must be omitted from this itinerary.  In our opinion La Salle did not reach that river in 1671, as has been asserted; he probably went as far as the Illinois country.

Another of Talon’s resolute explorers was Simon Francois Daumont de Saint-Lusson.  Accompanied by Nicolas Perrot, the well-known interpreter, he left Quebec in September 1670, and wintered with an Outaouais tribe near Lake Superior.  Perrot sent word to the neighbouring nations that they should meet next spring at Sault Sainte-Marie a delegate of the great French Ononthio. [Footnote:  This was the name given by the Indians to the king of France;