settlement. He and all his companions were very well, and had not suffered
any sickness. Game, both large and small, had been abundant during the
entire winter, as they told me. I found there the Indian captain, named
_Batiscan_, and some Algonquins, who said they were waiting for me, being
unwilling to return to Tadoussac without seeing me. I proposed to them to
take one of our company to the _Trois Rivieres_ to explore the place, but
being unable to obtain anything from them this year I put it off until the
next. Still I did not fail to inform myself particularly regarding the
origin of the people living there, of which they told me with exactness. I
asked them for one of their canoes, which they were unwilling to part with
on any terms, because of their own need of it. For I had planned to send
two or three men to explore the neighborhood of the Trois Rivieres, and
ascertain what there was there. This, to my great regret, I was unable to
accomplish, and postponed the project to the first opportunity that might
present itself.

Meanwhile I urged on the repairs to our barque. When it was ready, a young
man from La Rochelle, named Tresart, asked me to permit him to accompany me
to the above-mentioned fall. This I refused, replying that I had special
plans of my own, and that I did not wish to conduct any one to my
prejudice, adding that there were other companies than mine there, and that
I did not care to open up a way and serve as guide, and that he could make
the voyage well enough alone and without my help.

The same day I set out from Quebec, and arrived at the great fall on the
twenty-eighth of May. But I found none of the savages who had promised me
to be there on this day. I entered at once a poor canoe, together with the
savage I had taken to France and one of my own men. After examining the two
shores, both in the woods and on the river bank, in order to find a spot
favorable for the location of a settlement, and to get a place ready for