It will be remembered that an ulterior purpose of the French, in making a settlement in North America, was to enable them better to explore the interior and discover an avenue by water to the Pacific Ocean. This shorter passage to Cathay, or the land of spicery, had been the day-dream of all the great navigators in this direction for more than a hundred years. Whoever should discover it would confer a boon of untold commercial value upon his country, and crown himself with imperishable honor. Champlain had been inspired by this dream from the first day that he set his foot upon the soil of New France. Every indication that pointed in this direction he watched with care and seized upon with avidity. In 1611, a young man in the colony, Nicholas de Vignan, had been allowed, after the trading season had closed, to accompany the Algonquins to their distant homes, and pass the winter with them. This was one of the methods which had before been successfully resorted to for obtaining important information. De Vignan returned to Quebec in the spring of 1612, and the same year to France. Having heard apparently something of Hudson's discovery and its accompanying disaster, he made it the basis of a story drawn wholly from his own imagination, but which he well knew must make a strong impression upon Champlain and all others interested in new discoveries. He stated that, during his abode with the Indians, he had made an excursion into the forests of the north, and that he had actually discovered a sea of salt water; that the river Ottawa had its source in a lake from which another river flowed into the sea in question; that he had seen on its shores the wreck of an English ship, from which eighty men had been taken and slain by the savages; and that they had among them an English boy, whom they were keeping to present to him. As was expected, this story made a strong impression upon the mind of Champlain. The priceless object for which he had been in search so many years seemed now within his grasp. The simplicity and directness of the narrative, and the want of any apparent motive for deception, were a strong guaranty of its truth. But, to make assurance doubly sure, Vignan was cross-examined and tested in various ways, and finally, before leaving France, was made to certify to the truth of his statement in the presence of two notaries at Rochelle. Champlain laid the story before the Chancellor de Sillery, the President Jeannin, the old Marshal de Brissac, and others, who assured him that it was a question of so great importance, that he ought at once to test the truth of the narrative by a personal exploration. He resolved, therefore, to make this one of the objects of his summer's excursion.