1601-1700

Many Algonquin nations were located in the Ottawa Valley. In the North, we find the KOTAKOUTOUEMI, in the East the WESKARINI, in the South the KINOUCHEPIRINI and in the West the MATOUWESKARINI.

In the middle of the region, the Algonquins of Allumette Island or the Kichesipirini Nation (People from the Great River) had a trading post on the Island where they asked a price to the traveller to cross the region. The Algonquins who were on the Allumette Island and the Morrison Island, (also called one-eyed Island (Borgne) or Tessouat Island) which was the name of the Kichesipirinis Chief. These islands were known for their strategic position on the route that led to the trading post.

June 13, 1611

Étienne Brûlé came back from Québec with a group of Hurons. After living one year with them to learn their language, he then became the translator or intermediary, as they were called. At the age of twenty, Etienne Brulé, as Chaplain described him said, "he came dressed like a savage who was happy with the way the Savage treated him, he told me all that he saw during his winter that he spent with the native Indians". Étienne Brûlé was "the first European who rowed the Ottawa River".

Summer 1611 to spring 1612

Nicolas Vignau, at the request of Samuel de Champlain, travelled on the Algoummequins River (Algonquins). He spent a several months at a place called Portage du Fort. He spent the summer and the fall in 1611 and as well the winter and the spring of 1612 at the Allumette Islands with the Kichesipirinis natives to learn their langage.

June 6, 1613

Samuel de Champlain stayed at Portage (Portage-du-Fort). He then went to the Allumette Islands to meet the Algoummequins. May 27, he went from the Ste-Hélène Island, near what we call now Ville-Marie (Montréal) with an Indian guide and  four French companions, including Nicolas Vignau.

The following picture usually represents Champlain. We think it is more the portrait of Michel Particelli, a finance inspector of Louis XIV.

Samuel de Champlain drew this picture. He was like that during the first confrontation with the Iroquois.

1615-1616

Champlain rowed the Ottawa River, passed the Coulonge Lake, the Allumette Islands, then Mattawa until he came to Huronie.

1618-1620

Jean Nicolet, of the Marchands (Traders) de Rouen company and of St-Malo, lived with the Algonquins from Allumette Island to learn their language and to better know the territory.

1632

Champlain asked to engrave in France in 1632 a map of his travels realised in 1616, on which he indicates with numbers,  some towns that he visited, important rapids (Sault) and Indian camps.
 

Click on the map to enlarge

The position 80 shows the position of great rapids located South of Grand-Calumet Island. The position 81 shows the place of the Allumette Island, inhabited by the Algonquins.

The map of 1632 from Samuel de Champlain

The position 82 corresponds approximately to the place of Fort-Coulonge and shows an Algonquin camp. More North, we notice the mountains and tree symbols indicating the presence of forests with big pines.

Winter 1635-1636

François Marguerie de la Haye spent the winter with the Algonquins on Allumette Island. He is nicknamed DOUBLE MAN because "He is the white man who has most adapted to their costumes and idioms".

1645

The Company of Inhabitants encouraged the fur traders to go to the natives to get some furs. The road of the "Over There Land" Pays d'En-Haut (Great Lakes) crosses the Ottawa River.

1650

The Jesuit Paul Ragueneau, guided by Nicholas Perrot rowed the Ottawa River until Huronie. The Iroquois pursue the Hurons, the Neutres and the Algonquins. Father Ragueneau returns to Quebec, crosses the Algonquin Land and makes the following statements: "When I rowed the big River, just 13 years before, I saw it with a group of Algonquin language people, who didn't know God, and who among their infidelity were told that they were the God of the Earth, they saw that nothing was missing, there was a lot of fish, they hunted and they traded with the allied Indians, and they were also the terror for their enemies. Since [The Cross of the Lord] they fell prey to misery, torment and cruel death in one word, it was an erased population above the earth."

Relations with the Jesuits, vol. XXXV, 1649-1650 p. 204

After this date and until the end of the century, the South and the North of the Ottawa Valley became a hunting area for the Iroquois.

1654

Starting in the middle of the 17th century, the Ottawa Valley road called after the name of the Ottawa Indians or Outouaks who lived in the "Land over There", became the West Road and the Fur Traders Road.

1657

On the map relating to the travels of 1645 in Huronie, Father Francesco-Giuseppe Bressani shows the position of the rapids where you find the Rapids des Joachims Island.

From 1658

The war took place between the Iroquois and the French nation on the one hand and the Algonquins and the Hurons on the other hand. This made the roads toward the Ottawa Valley not very safe especially for the fur trade coming from the Great Lakes.

Spring 1686

The English establishments of the Hudson Bay were a threat for the New France (Nouvelle-France). The French were trading the fur with the natives in the region.  The governor and the lieutenant-general of Canada, Acadie, Nova-Scotia and the other countries of the northern France, the marquis Jacques-René de Brisay of Denonville authorises that hunting is allowed by a specific group at the Hudson Bay of the North Company and of the West in New-France. The Knight Pierre de Troyes commands the mission. Its group is constituted with about a hundred people. They proceed from Montreal, in March 1686. On May 1st, the group lands on the other side of the present village of Fort-Coulonge. The Knight of Troyes has kept a diary where he writes about the vigorous itinerary of his mission.  He waits until he reaches Allumette(presently Lamure Bay, near Petawawa, Ontario) Lake where he sets up camp.  At that time the roads in the Ottawa Valley were only a passage for the Loggers between the Great Lakes and the Hudson Bay.

Winter 1694-1695

Louis d'Ailleboust, Sir of Madeleine and of Coulonge, was a logger and fur trader, he owned a company of about 30 men, this fort was located at the mouth of the river now called COULONGE. They spent the winter of 1694-95, to hunt and trap. Some say that the Iroquois stopped them. At that time, the Iroquois were a weakened tribe because of the punishing expedition organised against them by the Canadians and other Americans. In the spring Louis d’Ailleboust company travelled towards Ville-Marie to sell what they have harvested.

Louis d'Ailleboust, Sir of Madeleine and of Coulonge (1656-1747) is the oldest son of Charles-Joseph de Musseaux and Catherine Le Gardeur de Repentigny. His father is the nephew of Louis d'Ailleboust de Coulonge and Argentenay governor general of New France from 1648 to 1651 but died in 1660 leaving no heirs. Therefore his nephew Louis, oldest son of his brother,  inherited the title of nobility. He is therefore the only to have the title Sir of Coulonge.

Louis is not really a hero like some of his brothers such as Pierre d'Ailleboust d'Argenteuil and Nicolas  d'Ailleboust de Menthand. Louis is an adventurer who is not very scrupulous in his logging deals. He has no interest in the fur trade company and continues to work alone despite the prohibition of the authorities.  We attribute with error the Fondation of Fort Coulonge to one of his brother, Nicolas, because he made many deserved achievements.

At this time the logging trade did have a good reputation. But they did play an important role in the history of the colonisation. They were for the local power, irreplaceable collaborators, guides, translators and often ambassadors and diplomats

(R. Harang-Tiercin).

Maurice Thibaudeau, 2000