The sufferings endured by all the Frenchmen, except Nicolet, in traveling up the Ottawa, were very severe. The latter had been so many years among the Indians, was so inured to the toils of the wilderness, that he met every hardship with the courage, the fortitude, and the strength of the most robust savage.[25] Not so with the rest of the party. "Barefoot, lest their shoes should injure the frail vessel, each crouched in his canoe, toiling with unpracticed hands to propel it. Before him, week after week, he saw the same lank, unkempt hair, the same tawny shoulders, and long naked arms ceaselessly plying the paddle."[26] A scanty diet of Indian-corn gave them little strength to assist in carrying canoes and baggage across the numerous portages. They were generally ill-treated by the savages, and only reached the Huron villages after great peril. Nicolet remained for a time at Isle des Allumettes, where he parted with Brébeuf. To again meet "the Algonquins of the Isle" must have been a pleasure to Nicolet; but he could not tarry long with them. To the Huron villages, on the borders of Georgian bay, he was to go before entering upon his journey to unexplored countries. To them he must hasten, as to them he was first accredited by Champlain. He had a long distance to travel from the homes of that nation before reaching the Winnebagoes. There was need, therefore, for expedition. He must yet make his way up the Ottawa to the Mattawan, a tributary, and by means of the latter reach Lake Nipissing. Thence, he would float down French river to Georgian bay.[27] And, even after this body of water was reached, it would require a considerable canoe navigation, coasting along to the southward, before he could set foot upon Huron territory. So Nicolet departed from the Algonquins of the Isle, and arrived safely at the Huron towns.[28] Was he a stranger to this nation? Had he, during his long sojourn among the Nipissings, visited their villages? Certain it is he could speak their language. He must have had, while residing with the Algonquins, very frequent intercourse with Huron parties, who often visited Lake Nipissing and the Ottawa river for purposes of trade.[29] But why was Nicolet accredited by Champlain to the Hurons at all? Was not the St. Lawrence visited yearly by their traders? It could not have been, therefore, to establish a commerce, with them. Neither could it have been to explore their country; for the _voyageur_, the fur-trader, the missionary, even Champlain himself, as we have seen, had already been at their towns. Was the refusal, a year previous, of their trading-parties at Quebec to take the Jesuits to their homes the cause of Nicolet's being sent to smoke the pipe of peace with their chiefs? This could not have been the reason, else the missionaries would not have preceded him from the Isle des Allumettes. He certainly had to travel many miles out of his way in going from the Ottawa to the Winnebagoes by way of the Huron villages.