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Jean Nicolet as early as 1640, Radisson and Grosseilliers in 1660, were canoeing down the Wisconsin River toward the Mississippi; and in 1671, the year before Count Frontenac landed at Quebec to begin the regeneration of Canada, Saint-Lusson, with impressive ceremony in the presence of fourteen native tribes at Sault Ste.
In our opinion La Salle did not reach that river in 1671, as has been asserted; he probably went as far as the Illinois country. Another of Talon's resolute explorers was Simon Francois Daumont de Saint-Lusson. Accompanied by Nicolas Perrot, the well-known interpreter, he left Quebec in September 1670, and wintered with an Outaouais tribe near Lake Superior.
The Jesuit fathers Dablon, Dreuillettes, Allouez, and Andre were present. A great council was held on a height. Saint-Lusson had a cross erected with a post bearing the king's arms. The Vexilla Regis and the Exaudiat were sung. The intendant's delegates took possession of the country in the name of their monarch.
There, with impressive ceremony, Saint-Lusson, an officer from Canada, had set up a cedar post on which was a plate engraved with the royal arms, and proclaimed Louis XIV lord of all the Indian tribes and of all the lands, rivers, and lakes, discovered and to be discovered in the region stretching from the Atlantic to that other mysterious sea beyond the spreading lands of the West.
The Western tribes had been summoned to the Sault, where Sieur de Saint-Lusson met them in treaty for the French; and the French flag was raised in the presence of Père Claude Allouez, who blessed the ceremony. M. Colbert sent instructions to M. Talon, the intendant of New France, to grant titles of nobility to Groseillers' nephew in order to keep him in the country.
There was firing of guns and shouts of 'Vive le roi! Then Father Allouez and Saint-Lusson made speeches suitable to the occasion and the audience. At night the blaze of an immense bonfire illuminated with its fitful light the dark trees and foaming rapids. The singing of the Te Deum crowned that memorable day. The intendant was pleased with the result of Saint-Lusson's expedition.
Henceforth at their peril would the natives disobey the French King, or other states encroach upon these his lands. A Jesuit priest followed Saint-Lusson with a description to the savages of their new lord, the King of France. He was master of all the other rulers of the world. At his word the earth trembled. He could set earth and sea on fire by the blaze of his cannon.
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