La Salle and the discovery of the great West - North Central ...

: £:.: :*..:: : .;. introduction.•his habits, but remained, nevertheless, a zealousCatholic, and returned to civilization at lastbecausehe could not live without the sacraments. Strangestories were current among the Nipissings of a peoplewithout hair or beard, who came from the West totrade with a tribe beyond the Great Lakes. Whocould doubt that these strangers were Chinese orJapanese? Such tales may well have excitedNicollet's curiosity; and when, in 1635, or possiblyin 1638, he was sent asan ambassador to the tribein question, he would not have been surprised if onarriving he had found a party of mandarins amongthem. Perhaps it was with a view to such a contingencythat he provided himself, as a dress of ceremony,with a robe of Chinese damask embroideredwith birds and flowers. The tribe to which he wassent was that of the Winnebagoes, living near thehead of the Green Bay of Lake Michigan. Theyhad come to blows with the Hurons, allies of theFrench; and Nicollet was charged to negotiate apeace. When he approached the Winnebago town,he sent one of his Indian attendants to announce hiscoming, put on his robe ofdamask, and advanced tomeet the expectant crowd with a pistol in each hand.The squaws and children fled, screaming that it wasa manito, or spirit, armed with thunder and lightning; but the chiefs and warriors regaled him with30 bountiful a hospitality that a hundred and twentybeavers were devoured at a single feast. From theWinnebagoes, he passed westward, ascended Fox