The quotations I have chosen cover nearly four weeks of Champlain's dwelling at his new post. I have let him speak himself. The picture he draws enables us to construct in our imagination the picturesque situation of our city at this time. GRAND SAULT, 1613 In 1613 Champlain tells us in his journal published in 1632, that having left Quebec on March 13th he arrived at the Sault on the 21st. He does not mention stopping at his trading post at Place Royale; he must have visited it and done some trading and put his boats up; but he set out on May 27th in his canoes "from the Isle of St. Hélène" with four Frenchmen and a savage. His object was at present to discover the Mer du Nord, lately discovered by Hudson and of which a map had appeared in Paris in 1612. One of the four Frenchmen with him in his canoes was named Nicholas de Vignau. This man had been sent in preceding years to make discoveries for Champlain and in 1612, while in Paris, this man reported to Champlain that he had seen this same "Mer du Nord." Champlain consequently took him with him to lead the way, with the result that can be judged from his own description of de Vignau, as "the boldest liar that had been seen for a long time." It was on this fruitless exploration that on the Portage route by way of Muskrat and Mudlakes, Champlain lost his astrolabe, the instrument then used for astronomical observation. Near this place he ceases giving the correct latitudes as he had been doing. Two hundred and fifty-four years later, a farmer on an August day unearthed an old brass astrolabe of Paris make, dated 1603. We may safely conclude it was Champlain's. On the voyage up the Ottawa he described the visit to Allumette Island, 45° 47'. "After having observed the poorness of the soil, I asked them how they enjoyed cultivating so poor a country, in view of the fact that there was some much better, than that they left deserted and abandoned at the Rapids of St. Louis. They answered me that they were obliged to do so to keep themselves secure and that the roughness of the place served them as a bulwark against their enemies. But they said that if I would make a settlement a Frenchman at the Rapids of St. Louis, as I had promised to do, they would leave their dwelling place to come and settle near us, being assured that their enemies would not do them harm while we were with them. I told them that this year we should make preparations with wood and stones to make a fort next year and cultivate the land. When they heard this they gave a great shout, as a sign of applause. After this the conference finished."