Niagara

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3. First White Visitor



We do not know, and we never shall know, the name of the first white man who gazed upon the Cataract of Niagara; that marvelous spot, the scenic wonder of the World, that glory of Nature, which has been referred to as "The Emblem of God's Majesty on Earth,"--where, in the words of Father Hennepin, in 1697,--

"Betwixt the lakes Erie and Ontario, is a great and prodigious cadence of water, which falls down after a surprising and astonishing manner; insomuch that the Universe itself does not afford its parallel."

Which description, even to-day, two Centuries later, stands out as the most impressive, as well as the quaintest, brief mention of Niagara that was ever penned. And Father Hennepin also gave to the World, in the same volume, the first known picture of Niagara.

It was unquestionably a Frenchman who first, through pale-face eyes, saw the great Cataract; and it was later than 1608, the year when the ancient City of Quebec was founded, and white men first settled in the northern part of this Continent.

Possibly, though improbably, he may have been one of those holy men, Priests of the Catholic Church, who devoted their learning, their strength, and their years to the cause of their Maker; who daily risked their lives, as alone they braved the hardships and the sufferings of long journeys through pathless forests, and who encountered the fury of unknown savages, as they carried the Gospel to Tribes who dwelt along the shores of mighty waters, in a vast and an unexplored wilderness; and tried, though in vain, to lead those strange peoples to the Ways of God.

FIRST PICTURE OF NIAGARA, BY FATHER HENNEPIN--1697

It is more likely to have been one of those fearless and hardy men, one of the earliest members of what later became a distinct class--the Coureurs de Bois, or Woodsmen--a class founded by Champlain; on a correct principle for commercial intercourse and the extension of sovereignty, under conditions as they then and there existed (but probably without any full appreciation of the important and prominent part it was destined, later, to play in the development of New France); when, in 1610, he gave a young Frenchman, Etienne Brule, to the Algonquin chief Iroquet; who, in appreciation of Champlain's confidence, gave him a young savage named Savignon, as a pledge of future friendship.

Brule was the first Frenchman known to have joined the savages, to become one of them, and adopt their manner of life. He spent years amongst them, was a woodsman or trader, learnt their languages, was Champlain's personal interpreter among the various tribes, and was often sent as Ambassador from the French at Quebec to savage Nations.

Beloved and trusted by the Indians for years, traveling all over the Northwest, claiming to have discovered Lake Superior, and a copper mine on its shores (in proof of which he brought back samples of that metal to Quebec), he was finally tortured, put to death, and eaten by the Savages.

By reason of his acquaintance with many tribes, of his occupation, and of his travels, there is no one who is more likely to be entitled to the distinction of having been the first of the white man's race to behold Niagara than this same Etienne Brule.

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.