Original - North Central Michigan College Library

Above the islands the river is six miles inwidth, and is called Lake des Chats. The lake,so called, is thirty miles long. The landsabout the lake are like those of Lake desChaudieres; but higher up they are both highand rocky, and covered with no other woodthan spruce and stunted pine.While paddling against the gentle current ofLake des Chats we met several canoes ofIndians returning from their winter's hunt totheir village at the Lake des Deux Montagnes.I purchased some of their maple sugarand beaver skins in exchange for provisions.They wished for rum, which I declined to sellthem; but they behaved civilly, and we partedas we had met, in a friendly manner. Beforethey left us they inquired of my men whetheror not I was an Englishman, and being toldthat I was, they observed that the Englishwere mad in their pursuit of beaver, since theycould thus expose their lives for it; "for," addedthey, "the Upper Indians will certainly killhim," meaning myself. These Indians hadleft their village before the surrender of Montrealand I was the first Englishman they hadseen.In conversation with my men I learned thatthe Algonquins of the Lake des Deux Montagnes,of which description were the partythat I had now met, claim all the lands on theOutaouais as far as Lake Nipisingue; and thatthese lands are subdivided between their24