At Which This Chief Seemed Very Much Surprised In Demanding Who Had Told Him That.

My nephew said to him, "It is the savage called Bear's Grease;" which having heard, he made at the

Same time all his people range themselves in arms, speaking to one & to the other; in fine, obligeing the one who was accused to declare himself with the firmness of a man of courage, without which they could do nothing with him, but Bear's Grease could say nothing in reply. Jealousy, which prevails as much also among these nations as among Christians, had given place to this report, in which my nephew had placed belief because he knew that the conduct of the Governor towards them had given to them as much of discontent against us all as he had caused loss to the Company; the genius of these people being that one should never demand whatever is just, that is to say, that which one wishes to have for each thing that one trades for, & that when one retracts, he is not a man. That makes it clear that there are, properly, only the people who have knowledge of the manners & customs of these nations who are capable of trading with them, to whom firmness & resolution are also extremely necessary. I myself again attended on this occasion, to the end of appeasing this little difference between the savages, & I effected their reconciliation, which was the reason that their chief protested to me afresh in calling me "Porcupine's Head,", which is the name that they have given me among them, that he would always come to me to trade, & that whereas I had seen him but with a hundred of his young men, he would bring with him 13 different nations, & that he wanted nothing in his country, neither men nor beaver skins, for my service; after which they left us, & we dispersed ourselves to go and take possession of the house of my nephew in the manner that I had arranged with him for it.

With this in view I parted with the Governor, Captain Gazer, & our people to go by land as far as the place where we had left one of our canoes upon the river Hayes, whilst the other party went by sea with the shallop, "the Adventure," to round the point. We had the pleasure of contemplating at our ease the beauty of the country & of its shores, with which the Governor was charmed by the difference that there was in the places that he had seen upon Nelson's river.

We embarked ourselves then in the canoe just at the place where the French had built their new house, where we found those who were left much advanced in the work that I had ordered them to do, but, however, very inquiet on account of having no news from my nephew, their commandant, nor of me. They had carried all the beaver skins from the wood into the house & punctually executed all my other orders.

Having then seen myself master of all things without having been obliged to come to any extremity for it, the French being in the disposition of continueing their allegiance to me, I made them take an Inventory of all that was in the house, where I found 239 packages of beaver skins, to the number of 12,000 skins, and some merchandise for trading yet for 7 or 8,000 more, which gave me much satisfaction. Then I told my nephew to give a command in my name to these same Frenchmen to bring down the beaver skins as far as the place where they should be embarked to transport them to the ships, which was executed with so much diligence that in 6 days eight or ten men did (in spite of difficulties which hindered them that we could go in that place but by canoes because of the rapidity & want of water that they had in the river) what others would have had trouble in doing in 6 months, without any exaggeration.

My nephew had in my absence chosen this place where he built the new house that was, so to speak, inaccessible, to the end of guaranteeing himself from the attacks that they would be able to make against him; & it was that same thing which restrained the liberty of going & coming there freely & easily. The savages with whom we had made the trading, not having made so much diligence on their route as we, for returning themselves into their country, having found out that I was in our house, came to me there to demand some tobacco, because that I had not given them any of that which was in the ships, because that it was not good, making as an excuse that it was at the bottom of the cellar. I made them a present of some that my nephew had to spare, of which they were satisfied; but I was surprised on seeing upon the sands, in my walk around the house with the governor, rejected quantities of an other tobacco, which had been, according to appearances, thus thrown away through indignation. I turned over in my mind what could have possibly given occasion for this, when the great chief & captain of the savages came to tell me that some young men of the band, irritated by the recollection of that which the English had said to them, that my brother, des Groseilliers, was dead, that I was a prisoner, & that they were come to make all the other Frenchmen perish, as well as some reports of cannon that they had fired with ball in the wood the day that I was arrived, had thus thrown away this tobacco which had come from the English by mistake, not wishing to smoke any of it. He assured me also that the young men had wicked designs upon the English; that he had diverted them from it by hindering them from going out of the house.

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