I set out accordingly from the fall of the Iroquois River on the 2d of
July. All the savages set to carrying their canoes, arms, and baggage
overland, some half a league, in order to pass by the violence and
strength of the fall, which was speedily accomplished....

We set out the next day, continuing our course in the river as far as
the entrance of the lake.[3] There are many pretty islands here, low,
and containing very fine woods and meadows, with abundance of fowl and
such animals of the chase as stags, fallow-deer, fawns, roe-bucks,
bears, and others, which go from the main land to these islands. We
captured a large number of these animals. There are also many beavers,
not only in this river, but also in numerous other little ones that
flow into it. These regions, altho they are pleasant, are not
inhabited by any savages, on account of their wars; but they withdraw
as far as possible from the rivers into the interior, in order not to
be suddenly surprised.

The next day we entered the lake, which is of great extent, say eighty
or a hundred leagues long, where I saw four fine islands, ten, twelve,
and fifteen leagues long, which were formerly inhabited by the
savages, like the River of the Iroquois; but they have been abandoned
since the wars of the savages with one another prevail. There are also
many rivers falling into the lake, bordered by many fine trees of the
same kinds as those we have in France, with many vines finer than any
I have seen in any other place; also many chestnut-trees on the border
of this lake, which I had not seen before....

Continuing our course over this lake on the western side, I noticed,
while observing the country, some very high mountains on the eastern