Note 8 — Group I. THREE RIVAL CIVILIZATIONS.

Jean Nicolet has become the subject of much discussion. The evidence fixing his visit in 1634 is wholly circumstantial, therefore unsatisfactory. But it is by no means improbable. I was first inclined to doubt the whole story as told by Father Vimont, thinking he might have been imposed upon, but it bears the stamp of genuineness. The Father wrote in 1640, hence Nicolet must have gone to Green Bay earlier. No one disputes his claim to be the first white who visited that region. See Jesuit Relations of 1640.