large island full of copper, had been discovered in the western extremity of Lake Superior. He also wrote: "There are other places, in that neighborhood, where there are similar mines, as I have learned from four or five Frenchmen, lately returned from there, who went with a Jesuit Father [Menard, who died in the summer of 1661, toward the sources of the Black River of Wisconsin]. They were gone three years, before they could find an opportunity to return. They told me they had seen a nugget of copper, at the end of a hill, which weighed more than eight hundred pounds. They said that the Indians, as they pass it, make fires on top of it, and then hew pieces out of it with their axes."
FATHER ALLOUEZ ACCOMPANIES TRADERS.
In 1665, some of the French traders, with Indians of the Upper Lakes, came to Quebec, to trade, and Father Allouez was invited to return with them. In his journal[1] he writes: "The eighth day of August of the year 1665, I embarked at 'Three Rivers,' with six Frenchmen, in company with more than four hundred savages of divers nations, who were returning to their homes, after having finished their traffic." The month of September was passed in coasting along the southern shore of Lake Superior, or Tracy, as it was then called. On the 1st day of October, the party reached Chagouamigon. Allouez describes it, as "a beautiful Bay, at the bottom of which is situated the great village of the savages, who, there, plant their fields of Indian corn, and lead a stationary life. They are there, to the number of eight hundred men bearing arms, but collected from seven different nations, who dwell in peace with each other." In another place, Allouez writes: "This quarter of the lake where we have stopped, is between two large
- ↑ Relation of 1666–67.
