the governor was called by them Ononthio, which means ‘great mountain,’ because that was the translation of Montmagny—­mons magnus in Latin—­the name of Champlain’s first successor.  From M. de Montmagny the name had passed to the other governors, and the king had become the ’great Ononthio.’] On June 14 representatives of fourteen nations were gathered at the Sault.  The Jesuit fathers Dablon, Dreuillettes, Allouez, and Andre were present.  A great council was held on a height.  Saint-Lusson had a cross erected with a post bearing the king’s arms.  The Vexilla Regis and the Exaudiat were sung.  The intendant’s delegates took possession of the country in the name of their monarch.  There was firing of guns and shouts of ’Vive le roi!’ Then Father Allouez and Saint-Lusson made speeches suitable to the occasion and the audience.  At night the blaze of an immense bonfire illuminated with its fitful light the dark trees and foaming rapids.  The singing of the Te Deum crowned that memorable day.

The intendant was pleased with the result of Saint-Lusson’s expedition.  He wrote to the king:  ’There is every reason to believe that from the point reached by this explorer to the Vermilion Sea is a distance of not more than three hundred leagues.  The Western Sea [the Pacific ocean] does not seem more distant.  According to calculation based on the Indians’ reports and on the charts, there should not be more than fifteen hundred leagues of navigation to reach Tartary, China, and Japan.’

Talon showed his high appreciation of Saint-Lusson’s services by immediately giving him another mission—­this time to Acadia, for the purpose of finding and reporting as to the best road to that colony.  In 1670 Grandfontaine had taken possession of Acadia, which had been restored to France by the treaty of Breda.  He had received from Sir Richard Walker the keys of Fort Pentagouet, at the mouth of the Penobscot river, and had sent Joybert de Soulanges to hoist the French flag over Jemsek and Port Royal.  It was therefore incumbent on the intendant to see to the opening of a road between Quebec and Pentagouet.  His letters and those of Colbert written in 1671 are full of this project.  A fund of thirty thousand livres was appropriated for the purpose.  The intendant’s plan was to erect about twenty houses well provided with stores along the proposed route at intervals of sixty leagues.  He also had in mind the establishment of settlements along the rivers Penobscot and Kennebec, to form a barrier between New France and New England.  With the object of establishing trade relations between Canada and Acadia, he sent to the French Bay (Bay of Fundy) a barge loaded with clothes and supplies, and was extremely pleased to receive in return a cargo of six thousand pounds of salt meat.  In 1671, for Colbert’s information, he drew up a census of Acadia. [Footnote:  The figures were—­Port Royal, 359; Poboncoup, 11; Cap Negre, 3; Pentagouet, 6 and 25 soldiers; Mouskadabouet, 13; Saint-Pierre, 7.  Total 399, or, including the soldiers, 424.  There were 429 cultivated acres, 866 head of cattle, 407 sheep and 36 goats.] But, as we shall see, the great intendant was not to remain in Canada long enough to bring his Acadian undertaking to full fruition.