Étienne Brûlé
Étienne Brûlé (French pronunciation: [etjɛn bʁyle]; c. 1592 – c. June 1633)[1][2][3] was the first European explorer to journey beyond the St. Lawrence River into what is now known as Canada.
Champlain instructed Brûlé to learn the Wendat (Huron) language, explore the country, establish good relations with the First Nations, and report back in one year's time.
He reported that they had traveled along the north shore of what they called la mer douce (the freshwater sea), now known as Lake Huron, and went as far as the great rapids of Sault Ste.
Champlain ordered the party to travel west of the Seneca country because they needed to arrive there quickly and the only way to do so was by crossing over enemy territory.
From Lake Ontario Brûlé was able to travel in Upstate New York and explore Pennsylvania and cross down the Susquehanna River to Chesapeake Bay.
[8] He had spent months visiting indigenous peoples that lived along Lake Erie between the Niagara and Detroit Rivers, but because he left no writings of his own, almost nothing identifiable is known about the tribes he visited, many of which would be obliterated a few decades later in the Beaver Wars (in contrast, Joseph de La Roche Daillon, who conducted a missionary journey among the tribes of Western New York in 1627, kept meticulous notes of his journeys; it is de La Roche's writings that serve as the primary history of pre-Beaver Wars native occupation of Western New York).
Champlain and the Jesuits often spoke out against Brûlé's adoption of Wendat customs, as well as his association with the fur traders, who were beyond the control of the colonial government.
[9] In his last accounts, Samuel Champlain "accused Brûlé of treason because the latter agreed to do business with the Kirke brothers when they took Quebec for England in 1629.
The rumours of his death first reached Quebec through second and third party accounts largely by the Algonquins, who at the time, were believed to be in a trading dispute with the Wendat.
[11] Additionally, Jean de Brébeuf, who arrived in the region shortly after Brûlé's death, described his murder as treacherous, but made no mention of cannibalism.
In the immediate aftermath of his death, Toanché was abandoned and subsequently Wenrio and Ihonatiria were founded—suggesting a schism formed in the clan between those who supported Brûlé's murder and those that didn't.
[12] To further complicate the matter, Father Le Jeune wrote in his 1633 journal in Jesuit Relations that on the last day of June, 1633 he met a French Interpreter among an envoy of Wendat who had lived with them for many years.
