Among "the People of the Falls,"[40] at their principal village, on the south side of the strait, at the foot of the rapids,[41] in what is now the State of Michigan,[42] Nicolet and his seven Hurons rested from the fatigues of their weary voyage.[43] They were still with Algonquins. From Lake Huron they had entered upon one of the channels of the magnificent water-way leading out from Lake Superior, and threaded their way, now through narrow rapids, now across (as it were) little lakes, now around beautiful islands, to within fifteen miles of the largest expanse of fresh water on the globe--stretching away in its grandeur to the westward, a distance of full four hundred miles.[44] Nicolet saw beyond him the falls; around him clusters of wigwams, which two centuries and a half have changed into public buildings and private residences, into churches and warehouses, into offices and stores--in short, into a pleasantly-situated American village,[45] frequently visited by steamboats carrying valuable freight and crowded with parties of pleasure. The portage around the falls, where, in early times, the Indian carried his birch-bark canoe, has given place to an excellent canal. Such are the changes which "the course of empire" continually brings to view in "the vast, illimitable, changing west." Nicolet tarried among "the People of the Falls," probably, but a brief period. His voyage, after leaving them, must have been to him one of great interest. He returned down the strait, passing, it is thought, through the western "detour" to Mackinaw.[46] Not very many miles brought him to "the second fresh-water sea," Lake Michigan.[47] He is fairly entitled to the honor of its discovery; for no white man had ever before looked out upon its broad expanse. Nicolet was soon gliding along upon the clear waters of this out-of-the-way link in the great chain of lakes. The bold Frenchman fearlessly threaded his way along its northern shore, frequently stopping upon what is now known as "the upper peninsula" of Michigan, until the bay of Noquet[48] was reached, which is, in reality, a northern arm of Green bay.[49] Here, upon its northern border, he visited another Algonquin tribe;[50] also one living to the northward of this "small lake."[51] These tribes never navigated those waters any great distance, but lived upon the fruits of the earth.[52] Making his way up Green bay, he finally reached the Menomonee river, its principal northern affluent.[53]