From his intimacy with Champlain, he must have known--what Champlain knew and had recorded--of the existence of such a waterfall; indeed, it is by no means improbable that many of the details of Champlain's maps (especially those relating to regions which Champlain never saw, but which Brule did visit) were drawn from the latter's descriptions. From his intimacy with Iroquet--Brule spent the better part of eight years in his Country and in that of his allies; being the territory lying to the north of Lake Ontario--he must have known what Iroquet knew of the location of such a waterfall (which was only about 150 miles from the center of his territory, and a journey of that distance was of small moment to the Indians of those days); and when Iroquet went to it as a "trading place," Brule doubtless accompanied him. It must also be remembered that it was this same chief, Iroquet, who later confirmed to Father Daillon the renown of "the great River of the Neutrals"--that is the Niagara--as a Center of Trade; whose location he knew well, but refused to divulge to the Priest. Knowing of such a wonderful waterfall's existence, and its general location; being a "trader," and Niagara being even then a well-known Center of Trade, the probabilities are that Brule visited it at a very early date. A TRADING PLACE But, while white men were no doubt at Niagara early in the 17th Century--possibly as early as 1611--and while we know that Traders and Priests were in its immediate vicinity at various times prior to 1669; and while we have good reason to believe, that in that latter year LaSalle himself explored the whole of the Niagara Frontier; yet it is not until 1678 that we have any positive record of any visit, nor any description of the Cataract by a man who claimed to have actually seen it. Father Hennepin's first work, "Louisiana," published in 1681, tells of that first recorded visit, and gives the first description of Niagara by an eye-witness. At the time when that first unnamed white man saw the Cataract the Indians had, and firmly believed in, at least one positive tradition regarding it; one which had long been believed in by the tribes far and near, and which had long been turned to good account in trade by former generations of Indians who dwelt at Niagara; and which was believed in and maintained for many a year afterwards. It was a tradition which had long caused the vicinity of the Cataract to be known far and wide as, and to be, a great Center of Trade; because it related to a highly-prized commodity which was found and primarily procurable only at this spot. The first printed direct mention of Niagara referred to its famous Portage. The two next references to it were indirect and poetic, and, in so far as geographical location, certainly exemplified a poet's license. The second printed allusion to it,--an indirect one, as noted later,--was in regard to trade.