the winter having been less severe than usual, the river had not frozen
once. The leaves were beginning to appear on the trees, and the fields
were already decked with flowers.

On the 13th of the month Champlain left for the Falls of St. Louis,
which he reached eight days afterwards. Here he met a number of the
Algonquins, who informed him that the bad treatment which they had
experienced during the previous year had discouraged them from coming to
trade, and that his long absence from the country had left the whole
tribe under the impression that he did not intend to return. On hearing
this, Champlain recognized that it would be advisable to visit the
Algonquins at once, in order to continue his discoveries, and to
preserve friendly relations with them.

During his residence in France, Champlain had met a young Frenchman
named Nicholas du Vignau, who claimed to have seen the Northern Sea,
and said that the Algonquin River flowed from a lake which emptied into
it. He also stated that the journey from Sault St. Louis to this sea and
return could be accomplished in seventeen days, and that he had seen
there the wreck and débris of an English ship, on board of which were
eighty men. This intelligence seemed the more probable as the English
were supposed to have visited the Labrador coast in 1612, where they had
discovered a strait.

Champlain requested a merchant of La Rochelle, named Georges, to give du
Vignau a passage on his ship, which he did willingly, and he also made
an affidavit before a notary concerning du Vignau's Relation. Du Vignau
came to Canada, and accompanied Champlain on his visit to the
Algonquins. The party, consisting of four Frenchmen and one savage, set
out from Ste. Helen's Island on May 27th, 1613.