Before returning to France he commissioned others to carry on, including Jean Nicolet (who crossed Lake Huron and Lake Wisconsin) and Etienne Brulé, who sailed the Susquehanna River down to Chesapeake Bay. Today it is difficult to appreciate the fact that these 17th century explorers were envisioning a link through these rivers of New France to China. While it may seem comical to us nearly 400 years later, Peter Whitfield reminds us of the story of Nicolet, who so expected to be greeted by people of Asia, that he ‘donned Chinese robes when he landed on the western shore of Lake Michigan.’

Atlantic Ocean Guillaume Levasseur, 1601 Parchment, 74.4 x 99 cm Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris