Heroes of the Middle West: The French

the St. Joseph portage a return route to Canada, and the Chicago portage an outbound one." But though La Salle was a careful observer and must have known that w

ds described in a letter to one of the

ountry we were to pass, as well as an Iroquois army which we knew was coming that way; though we must suffer all the time from hunger; sleep on the open ground, and often without food; watch by night and march by day, loaded with baggage, such as blanket, clothing, kettle, hatchet, gun, powder, lead, and skins to make mocc

hey had been around the lake and could learn nothing of her. He then directed them to Tonty, while he marched up the eastern shore. This Michigan region was debatable ground among the Indians, where they met to fight; and he left significant marks on the trees, to make prowlers think he had a large war

ild canoes when canoes were needed, La Salle did not reach Fort Nia

d by others who brought word that the deserters had destroyed his forts at the St. Joseph River and Niagara, and carried off all the goods. The Griffin was certainly lost. And before going back to the Illinois country he was

h all that he needed for a ship, having made new arrangements with his creditors;

it is easy to imagine a birch canoe just appearing around a bend, carrying La Salle or Tonty, and rowed by buckskin-clad voyageurs. On t

t town on the Illinois. La Salle glanced up at the rock he w

e, "and we have not passed a hunter. There-there is t

ooses had played, crows whirling in black clouds or sitting in rows on nak

his companions. They labored all day, until the sun set, among dreadful s

Salle lay awake all night, watching the sharp-pointed autumn stars march overh

them to hide with and guard it, and went on down the Illinois River. On one bank the retreat of the invaded tribe could be traced,

, the Mississippi. There he turned back, leaving a letter tied to a tree, on the chance of its sometime falling into the hands of Tonty. There was nothing to do but to take h

nters, and to draw their tribes towards forming a settlement around the rock he meant to fortify on the Illinois. Had he been able to attach turbulent voyageurs to him as he attached native tribes, his heroic

ouis Hennepin, and his two companions, sent by La Salle, explored the upper Mississipp

od-stocked stream afforded them plenty of game, wild turkeys, buffaloes, deer, and fish. The adventurers excused themselves from observing the Lenten season set apart by

when a war whoop, followed by continuous yelling, echoed from forest to forest, and a hundred and twenty naked Sioux or Dacotah Indians sprang out of boats to seize them. It was no use for Father Hennepin to show a peace-pipe or offer fine tobacco. The Frenchmen were prisoners. And when th

of the

ord of St. Francis, stood, with bare toes showing on his sandals, inclining his fat head with sympathy. He took out his

that these old wretches are dooming

oking them and howling by the hour. One night when the Frenchmen were forced to make their fire at the end of the camp, Aquipaguetin sent word that he meant to finish them without more delay. But they gave him some goods out of the store La Salle had sent with them, and he changed his mind and concluded to wait awhile. He carried the bones of one of his dead relation

ly smoked the peace-pipe with the Frenchmen; and now, fortunately without disagreement, portioned their white captives and distributed the goods. Father Hennepin was given to Aquipaguetin, who promptly adopted

th, where white men first entered the great river. The young Mississippi, clear as a mountain stream, gathered many small tributaries. St. Peter

e lagged lame-footed with exhaustion across the prairies, they set fire to grass behind him, obliging him to take to his heels with them or burn. By adoption into the family of Aquipaguetin he had a large relationship thrust upon him, for

as on an island in a sheet of water afterwards called Lake Buade. Hennepin was kindly received by his new family, who fed him as well as they were able, for the Sioux had little food when they were not hunting. Seeing him so feeble, they gave him a

embling those of the Illinois, the other a cone of

othed in vivid verdure. Honeysuckles and wild grapevines made the woods fragrant. The gentian, which jealously closes its blue-fringed cup from the human eye, grew close to the lakes. Captive though the Frenchmen were, they could not he

spirits," or white men, were heard of, coming from Lake Superior. These

's magnificence at Versailles was endured by him until he could gain some desired point from the colonial minister and hurry back. The government relied on him to keep lawless coureurs de bois within boun

plan of action. About the time that Tonty was obliged to abandon Fort Crèvec?ur, Hennepin and his companions set off eastward with Greysolon du Lhut's party. Hennepin sailed for France as soon as he could and wrote a book

e one dazzling expanse of snow, and as the party slid along on the broad, flat snowshoes to which their feet were strapped, some of them w

now-blindness he wondered whether Tonty was treading these white wastes, seeking him, or lying dead of Indian wounds under the snow crust. The talk of the other snow-blinded men, sitting about or stretched with t

," said La Salle. "Did yo

some, m

on as you can for

task with a snow-filled kettle, "that I found also a party of Fox

e face of his master and saw t

bound to Monsieur de

the winter at Green Bay. Father Hennepin has also

w-blindness passed away with a thaw; and, overtaking his other men, he soon met the retur

the large bone and sinew of Normandy, which his Indian allies always admired. And he well knew where to impress his talk with coats, shirts, guns, and hunting-knives. As his holdings of land in Canada were made

ming together with outstretched arms and embracing. Tonty's black eyes were full

, "would abandon the enterprise, but Monsieur de

rde?" La Salle inquired, m

, after being driven up river in a leaky boat by the Iroquois; how they had waited and searc

ge, and tramped along the west shore of Lake Mich

a warm fire in one of the wigwams. On the way the bay froze. We camped to make moccasins out of Father Membré's cloak. I was angry at étienne Renault for not finishing his; but he excused himself on account of illness, having a great oppression of the stomach, caused by eating a piece of an Indian rawhide shield which he could not digest. His delay proved our salvation, for the next

addled the thousand miles to Fort Frontenac

ces and thoughts in letters which have been kept; so we know at this day what was in t

splaines River. Entering by this branch the frozen Illinois, they dragged their canoes on sledges past the site of the town and reached open

ongside until the waters mingled. They met and overawed the Indians on both shores, building several stockades. The broad river seemed to fill a valley, doubling and winding upon itsel

swamp, they had been told, might be found the Arkansas tribe's great town. La Salle sent Tonty and Fa

were the chief's house and the temple. Doors were the only openings. Tonty and the friar were taken in where the chief sat on a bedstead with his sq

ng the place with smoke, and irritating the eyes of two old Indians who tended it in half darkness. The Frenchmen were not allowed to look into a secret place where the temple treasure was kept. But, hearing it consisted of pearls and trinkets, Tonty conjectured the Indians had g

sh alligator woke from the ooze and poked up his snout at the canoes. "He is," says a quaint old writer who made that journey afterwards, "the most frightful master-fish that can be seen. I s

he Mouth of t

Tonty and another lieutenant the middle and the east. At the Gulf of Mexico they came together again, and with solemn ceremonies claimed for France all the country along the great river's entire length, and f

ery of the Mississippi's mouth that he realized his plan of fortifying the rock on the Illinois River. He and Tonty delighted in it, calling it Fort St. Louis of the Illinois. Storehouses and quar

it of the Rock. Years afterwards the French still spoke of this fortress as Le Rocher. A little principality of twenty thousand inhabitants, strong enough to repel any attack of the Iroquois, thus helped to guard it. La Salle meant to supply his people with goods and give them a market for their f

., King o

hering Indian nations, and laid his actual achievements before the king, asking for help. This was made necessary by th

ed in a poor street, carrying with him the very breath of the wilderness. La Salle asked for two shi

sissippi from seaward. His unfamiliarity with the coast, or night, or fog cheated him of his destination, and the colony was landed four hundred miles west of it, in a place called Matagorda Bay, in Texas, which then belonged

Norman grappled with his troubles in the usual way. One of his vessels had been captured by the Spanish. Another had been wrecked in the bay by seamen who were willing to injure him. These contained supplies most n

openly attack, skulked near and set the prairie on fire; and that was a sight of magnificence, the earth seeming to burn like a furnace, or, far as

's Map o

arpenters proved good for nothing. La Salle himself planned buildings and marked out mortises on the logs. First a large house roofed with hides, and divided into apartments, was finished to shelter all. Separate houses were afterwards built for the women and girls, and barracks or rougher cells for the men. A little chapel was finally added. A

ey were homesick, always watching for sails. Yet they had no lack of food. Oysters were so plentiful in the bay that they could not wade without cutting their feet with the shells. Though the alligator pushed his ugly snout and ridgy back out of lagoons, and horned frogs frightened the children, and the rattlesnake was to be avoided where it lay coiled in the grass, game of all

ay on its cord, one of the men shot a buffalo and it dropped. The buffaloes rarely fell at onc

ather!" shout

ouched it gentl

, run!" crie

I will rest my gun across its carcass t

est his gun a

up, and, spreading his capote in both hands, danced in front of the buffalo to head it off from escaping. At that, with a bellow, the shaggy c

finding it impossible to keep from laughing as he sat up, wi

ind that this ox-savage is no fit beast for the plow. Nor will I longer counsel our women to coax the wild cows to a milking. It is well to a

n the fort were busied on the outfit necessary for the party. Clothes were made of sails recovered from one of the wrecked vessels. Eighteen men were to follow La Salle, among them his elder brot

ones foresaw worse than peril from forests and waters and savages, for La Salle could not leave behind all the villains with whom he was obliged to serve himself. He alone showed the composure of a man who never despairs. If he had positively known that he was setting out upon a fatal journey,-that he was undertaking his last march through the wilderness,-the mass lights would still have shown the firm face of a man who did not turn back from a