51 (p. 219).--_Sorcerers_: the Nipissiriniens, or Nipissings, around Lake Nipissing; Ferland says (_Cours d'Histoire_, vol. i., p. 92) that the term "Sorcerers" was given them "because more sorcerers [medicine men] were found among them than among other tribes." Charlevoix says of them (_Journ. Hist._, pp. 186, 187): "These are the true Algonquins, and they alone have retained the Algonquin Language without alteration."--See Hunter's account of their habitat, _note_ 19, _ante_. In regard to Ste. Croix, see vol. ii., _note_ 66. 52 (p. 219).--Iroquet (also written Hiroquet, Hirocay, Iroquay, and Yroquet): the name of both the tribe and its chief, the latter being frequently mentioned by Champlain. He took part in two of the latter's expeditions against the Iroquois (1609 and 1615). In 1610, Champlain persuaded Iroquet to allow a French lad to spend the winter with his tribe, to learn their language and become acquainted with the country and its people; Laverdière thinks this boy was Étienne Brulé (see _note_ 58, _post_). After the Iroquois expedition of 1615, Iroquet and his men, as well as the French, spent the winter in the Huron country; and quarrels which then arose between the Iroquets and their hosts compelled Champlain reluctantly to abandon a journey of exploration northward from Lake Nipissing, which he had long desired to undertake. He states that Iroquet lived about 80 leagues from the Grand Sault (Sault St. Louis); Ferland (_Cours d'Histoire_, vol. i., p. 91) says the tribe "occupied, southwest of the Ottawa, the interior of a triangular territory of which Vaudreuil, Kingston, and Ottawa form the angles." Their Huron name was Onontchataronons (_Relation_ of 1646). Charlevoix relates, in his _Histoire de la Nouvelle France_ (Paris, 1744), vol. i., p. 228, that in August, 1642, two old men of the Iroquets told Maisonneuve, at Montreal, that "their tribe formerly lived on this island; that they were driven out by the Hurons; and that they took refuge, some with the Abenakis, some among the Iroquois, and some with the conquering Hurons." He also describes (_Journ. Hist._, pp. 110, 111) a sanguinary conflict which had occurred, in former times, between the Iroquets and the other Algonkin tribes, in which the former were almost exterminated. This battle took place near the mouth of the Becancourt River, a little below Three Rivers. So many dead bodies remained in the stream and on its banks, that it was called, even till Charlevoix's time, "la Rivière Puante" (stinking river).