Lac les Puans (Stinking Lake) was a name used by the French for Green Bay. The origin of this term was long supposed to be either in the ill-smelling shores or the filthy character of the native Puants (_i. e._, Winnebagoes). In _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, xvi, p. 360, however, an early writer testifies to the cleanliness of the Puants. It appears that the original Algonquian name for these people, who are an offshoot from the Sioux, was Ouinepeg, a word which has come down to us in two forms—Winnipeg and Winnebago. The meaning of _Ouinepeg_ was, “men of (or from) the fetid (or bad-smelling) water.” It is probable that these people may at one time have lived near a sulphur spring or on the shore of a salt lake. The earliest French inferred that the allusion was to the ocean; hence Nicolet’s appearance among the Winnebagoes on Green Bay (1634) attired as a mandarin, under the apprehension that these “Men of the Sea”—as they were called in some of the earlier French accounts—were Chinamen. Herein we have an illustration of the tenacity of the old theory that America was but an outlying portion of Asia. La Salle’s post at La Chine, near Montreal, which was so nicknamed because some thought it to be on the road to China, is another case in point. When the “Men of the Sea” were discovered to be ordinary Indians, their Algonquian appellation _Ouinepeg_ was translated by the French into a less complimentary term, “Puants” (Stinkards). Given the name, the reputation of uncleanliness soon followed. The _Jesuit Relations_ frequently mentioned the matter; but by the time of the missionaries the old term of “Men of the Sea” appears to have been forgotten. See _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, xvi, p. 3, _note_, for citations; also Thwaites, _Stories of the Badger State_ (New York, 1900), p. 30, for brief recital of the case—ED. Footnote 96: The Foxes had been largely won to the American interest by the efforts of Godefroy Linctot, Sr., their trader at Prairie du Chien, and the emissaries of George Rogers Clark from the Illinois country. Wabasha was a famous Sioux chief, first mentioned by the French commandant in 1740. Being devoted to the British side, he was dignified with the title of “general,” and was received with honors of war at Mackinac. He also visited Quebec several times, and was decorated by the British officials. His village was near the present site of Winona, Minnesota. A son of the same name participated in the War of 1812–15. The French called both these chiefs, “La Feuille.”—ED. Footnote 97: On the origin of this term for Americans (Great Knives, Long Knives, or Big Knives, indifferently) see Thwaites, _Daniel Boone_ (New York, 1902), p. 111, _note_.—ED. Footnote 98: