Note 81 — Chapter III
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"The twenty-fourth day of June [1640], there arrived an Englishman, with a servant, brought in boats by twenty Abnaquiois savages. He set out from the lake or river Quinibequi in Acadia, where the English have a settlement, in order to search for a passage through these countries to the North sea.... M. de Montmagny had him brought to Tadoussac, in order that he might return to England by way of France.
"He told us wonderful things of New Mexico. 'I learned,' said he, 'that one can sail to that country by means of the seas which lie to the north of it. Two years ago, I explored all the southern coast from Virginia to Quinebiqui to try whether I could not find some large river or some large lake which should bring me to tribes having knowledge of this sea, which is northward from Mexico. Not having found any such in these countries, I entered into the Saguené region, to penetrate, if I could, with the savages of the locality, as far as to the northern sea.'
"In passing, I will say that we have strong indications that one can descend through the second lake of the Hurons [Lake Michigan and Green bay] and through the country of the nations we have named [as having been visited by Nicolet] into this sea which he [the Englishman] was trying to find."—Vimont, Relation, 1640, p. 35.