The Jesuit Dablon, who was near the western
end of Lake Superior, gathered all the information he could from the
Indians of the way to the Sea of the North. Father Marquette learned
of the Mississippi from the Indians. 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 Pere
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.[12] On the
Saguenay was a Jesuit, Charles Albanel, loyal to the French and of
English birth, whose devotion to the Indians during the small-pox
scourge of 1670 had given him unbounded influence. Talon, the
intendant of New France, was keen to retrieve in the North what
D'Argenson's injustice had lost. Who could be better qualified to go
overland to Hudson Bay than the old missionary, loyal to France, of
English birth, and beloved by the Indians? Albanel was summoned to
Quebec and gladly accepted the commission. He chose for companions
Saint-Simon and young Couture, the son of the famous guide to the
Jesuits. The company left Quebec on August 6, 1671, and secured a
guide at Tadoussac. Embarking in canoes, they ascended the shadowy
canon of the Saguenay to Lake St. John. On the 7th of September they
left the forest of Lake St. John and mounted the current of a winding
river, full of cataracts and rapids, toward Mistassini.
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