Indians within the limits of the settlements. In view, however, of its great importance as a means of defence against the Iroquois, all legal objections were waived, and provision was made to maintain it. It also served as a stepping-stone for its subsequent owner to make other and greater westward strides in the cause of discovery. In 1674, LaSalle visited France to petition the king for the rank of nobility, and to negotiate with him for a grant in seignory of the new fort and adjacent lands. As a consideration for the lat ter, he agreed to reimburse him for what it had already cost to maintain in it an adequate garrison, and provide for the spiritual wants of the settlements that might gather about it. His petition was granted, and he returned to Canada the proprietor of one of the most valuable estates in the province. His relatives, pleased with his flattering prospects, advanced him large sums of money, which enabled him to comply with his agreement. Besides furnishing the stipulated military and clerical forces, and providing a chapel for the latter, he built four small decked vessels to carry freight to the head of the lake, whither he next expected to advance. A period of more than three years now succeeded, in which all Canada was rent with civil feuds. Altercations sprang up between rival traders; Jesuits and Recollets were embittered by dissensions, and the civil authorities became corrupt, and engaged in intrigues, attended with the greatest acrimony. It was impossible for a person of LaSalle's prominence to avoid becoming a mark for the shafts of those who differed with him in opinion and interest. As soon, however, as he could extricate himself from the jarring factions, he again visited France, to obtain the recognition and support of the government in his contemplated undertaking. His object being regarded with favor by the minister, he was authorized to proceed with his discoveries, and occupy the new found countries by the erection of forts, while, in lieu of other support, he was granted a monopoly in buffalo skins, which, it was believed, would be a source of great wealth. His relatives made additional advances of money, and in July, 1678, he sailed with 30 men and a large supply of implements for the construction and outfit of vessels. After a prosperous voyage he arrived at Quebec, and proceeded thence up the river and lake to his seignory.

Among the employes he had brought with him was an Italian, named Henri Tonti, who had lost one of his hands by the explosion of a grenade in the Sicilian wars. Notwithstanding the loss of his hand, and a constitution naturally feeble, his indomitable will made him superior to most men in physical endurance. Besides these qualities, so valuable in the pioneer, he possessed a fidelity which neither adversity nor the intrigues of enemies could swerve from the interests of his employer.* On his way through Quebec, he also obtained the services of M. Lamotte, a person of much energy and integity of character, but not so efficient an assistant as Tonti.

Among the missionaries who became associated with LaSalle in his future explorations, may be mentioned Louis Hennepin, Gabriel Ribourde and Zenobe Membre. All of them were Flemings, all

*His father had been governor of Gaeta, but fled to France to escape the political convulsions of his native country. He was an able financier, and won distinction as the inventor of Tontine Life Insurance.

Recollets, but in other respects different. Hennepin, in early life, read with unwearied delight the adventures of travelers, and felt a burning desire to visit strange lands. Yielding to his ruling passion, he set out on a roving mission through Holland, where he exposed himself in trenches and seiges for the salvation of the soldier. Finding, at length, his old inclination to travel returning, he obtained permission of his superior to visit America, where, in accordance with his wandering proclivity, he became connected with the adventures of LaSalle. In this capacity he won distinction as an explorer, but afterwards tarnished his reputation with false pretensions. Ribourde was a hale and cheerful old man of 64 years, and though possessing fewer salient points of character than Hennepin, he greatly excelled him in purity of life. He renounced station and ease for the privations of a missionary, and at last was stricken down by the parricidal hand of those he fain would have benefited. Membre, like Hennepin, is accused of vanity and falsehood. He must, however, have possessed redeeming traits, for he long remained the faithful companion of LaSalle, and finally perished in his service.

On arriving at the fort, LaSalle sent 15 men with merchandise to Lake Michigan, to trade for furs. After disposing of the goods, they were instructed to proceed with the bartered commodities to Illinois, and there await his arrival. The next step he hoped to make in his westward progress was the erection of a fort at the mouth of the river Niagara. He thought if he could control this key to the chain of lakes above, he could also control the Indian trade of the interior. For this purpose, LaMotte and Henepin, with 16 men, on the 18th of November, embarked in one of the small vessels which lay at the fort, and started for the mouth of the river. Retarded by adverse winds, it was not till the 6th of December that they reached their destination and effected a landing. Here they met with a band of Senecas from a neighboring village, who gazed upon them with curious eyes, and listened with great wonderment to a song which they sung in honor of their safe arrival. When, however, the erection of a fort was commenced, their surprise gave way to jealousy, and it became necessary to obtain the consent of the chiefs before the work could be completed. With this object in view, LaMotte and Hennepin, loaded with presents, set out to visit the principal town, situated near the site of Rochester, New York. Arriving thither after a journey of 5 days, they were received by a committee of 32 chiefs, to whom they made known their object. LaMotte distributed gifts among the chiefs with a lavish hand, and by means of his interpreter, used all the tact and eloquence of which he was master to gain their consent to the erection of the fort. They readily received the gifts, but answered the interpreter with evasive generalities, and the embassy was compelled to return without a definite reply. In the meantime LaSalle and Tonti, who had been detained in procuring supplies for the new settlement, arrived. They had also encountered unfavorable winds, and LaSalle, anxious to hasten forward, entrusted one of his vessels to the pilot, who, disregarding his instructions, suffered her to become wrecked. The crew escaped, but with the exception of the cables and anchors intended to be used in building a ship above the cataract, the cargo was lost. LaSalle, who was more than an ordinary mas

ter of Indian diplomacy, next visited the Senecas, and partially obtained his request. In lieu of the fort, he was permitted to erect a warehouse. This was completed, and used as a shelter for the men during the ensuing winter, and a depository for merchandise in his subsequent transactions on the lakes.

The Griffin.-A more vital consideration, and that which next engaged the attention of LaSalle, was the building of a vessel on the river. The point selected for this purpose was on the east side of the river, at the mouth of Cayuga creek, 6 miles above the cataract. The men struggled up the steep hights above Lewiston with the necessary equipments, and on the 22d of January, 1679, commenced the laborious task of carrying them to the point selected, some 12 miles distant. Arriving thither, Tonti immedi ately commenced the task of building the vessel, while LaSalle returned to Frontenac, to replace the stores which had been lost in the lake. Notwithstanding the attempt of the Senecas to burn the vessel as she grew on the stocks, in due time she was finished and ready to launch. The firing of cannon announced her completion, and as the men chanted a song in honor of their success, and the Indians stared at the novel sight, she gracefully glided out on the waters of the Niagara. During her construction, they were greatly amazed at the ribs of the huge monster, but now they looked with increased surprise at the grim muzzles of 5 caunon looking through her port holes, and a huge creature, part lion and part eagle, carved on the prow. The figure was a griffin, after which the vessel was named, in honor of the armorial bearings of Frontenac. She was taken further up the river, where the men supplied her with rigging, and Tonti anxiously awaited the arrival of LaSalle. This did not occur till August, he having, in the meantime, been detained by financial difficulties, growing out of the attempt of enemies to injure his credit. He brought with him Ribourde and Membre, to preach the faith among the tribes of the west, which he now proposed to visit.

To defer the enterprise longer, would be to defeat it, and on the 7th of August, 1679, the voyagers embarked. The extended sails of their little craft catching the breeze, bore her safely out on the bosom of Lake Erie. Never before had been pictured in its waters the image of fluttering canvas, and to the Griffin belongs the honor of first coursing the highway which is now whitened with the sails of such an extended commerce. After a prosperous Voyage up the lake, they entered the Detroit, and passed on each bank a pleasant succession of prairies and forests, alive with game. The men leaped ashore, and soon the decks of the Griffin were strewn with the dead bodies of deer, turkeys and bears, upon whose flesh the crew feasted with the greatest relish. Ascending Lake St. Clair and the rest of the strait, they entered Lake Huron, which appeared like a vast mirror set in a frame fantastic with rocks and verdure. So pure and transparent were the waters, the fish on the pebbled bottom below seemed the only inhabitants of earth, while their little bark floated like a cloud in mid-air above them. At first the voyage was prosperous, and islet after islet loomed up before them, which the strange mirage of the waters converted into huge Tritons stalking rapidly by, and disappearing in the distance behind. Soon, however, the breeze before which they moved freshened into a gale, and at last became an

angry tempest, causing the greatest alarm. All fell to praying except the pilot, who was incensed at the idea of ignobly perishing in the lake, after having breasted the storms and won the honors of the ocean. LaSalle and the friars evoked the aid of St. Anthony of Padua, whom they declared the patron of the expedition, and promised a chapel if he would deliver them from the devouring waves. The saint, it is said, answered their prayers; the billow-tossed bosom of the lake became still, and the Griffin rode into the straits of Mackinaw uninjured. A salute of cannon announced their arrival at the Jesuit mission, where they effected a landing, and immediately repaired to the chapel to offer thanks for their recent deliverance.

Here, under the shadow of the cross, the votaries of mammon had erected a bazaar for the fur trade, which they carried on with or without a license, as best suited their interests. All of them looked with jealous eyes upon LaSalle, but openly extended a welcome to him, that they might allay suspicions respecting their secret designs against his enterprise. With motives little better, the Indians saluted him with a volley of musketry, and soon swarmed in canoes around the Griffin, which they called a floating fort, and evidently regarded it with greater curiosity than good will. Not only the residents were secretly hostile, but it soon appeared that his own men had proved treacherous. Most of those he had sent up the lakes with merchandise had sold it and kept the proceeds, instead of going with them, as directed, to Illinois. LaSalle arrested four of them at Mackinaw, and sent Tonti to the Straits of St. Mary after two others, whom he also succeeded in capturing.

As soon as Tonti returned, LaSalle weighed anchor and sailed through the Straits into Lake Michigan, and landed at an island near the entrance of Green Bay. Here he was received with great hospitality by a Potawatamie chief, and met with a number of his traders, who, unlike the others, had faithfully disposed of his goods and collected a large quantity of furs. He at once resolved to send them, with others he had collected on the way to Niagara, for the benefit of his creditors. Such a transaction was not authorized by his license of discovery, yet his will was law, and despite the protest of his followers, the furs were carried aboard the Grif fin. The pilot, after disposing of the cargo, was instructed to return with her to the southern shore of the lake. Her cannons thundered forth a parting salute, and soon the little bark melted out of sight in the distance. LaSalle, with the remaining men, now embarked in canoes, laden with a forge, tools and arms, and started for the mouth of the St. Joseph. Unfortunately, they found the lake broken with constant storms, which frequently imperiled their own lives and made them tremble for the fate of the Griffin. After a long voyage, in which they suffered much from hardship and hunger, they arrived at their destination. Here they expected to meet with Tonti and twenty of the men who left Mackinaw simultaneously with the Griffin, expecting to make their way along the eastern shore of the lake. After waiting some time in vain for their arrival, those who had come with LaSalle urged upon him the necessity of pushing forward to obtain corn from the Illinois before they departed for their winter hunting grounds. He decided it unwise to grant their request, and, to

divert their minds from the subject, commenced the erection of a fort. After laboring some twenty days, and the structure was far advanced, Tonti and ten of his companions arrived. At the instance of LaSalle he immediately went back with two men to hasten forward the others, who were without provisions, and hunting as a means of support. On their way a violent storm overset their canoes and destroyed their provisions, and they were compelled to return. Shortly after, of their own accord, the absent men made their way to the fort, and the entire party was again united. The only care which now oppressed LaSalle was the absence of the Griffin. Ample time had elapsed for her return, but nowhere on the wild solitude of waters was he cheered with the sight of a sail. Rueful forebodings saddened his breast when he thought of her fate, and two men were sent down the lake, with instructions to conduct her to the mouth of the St. Joseph, in case they were able to find her. The fort was finished and named Miami, after a neighboring tribe of Indians.

Without further delay, on the 3d of December, 1679, the party, numbering 33 persons, commenced ascending the St. Joseph. Already the margins of the stream were glassed with sheets of ice and the adjacent forests were gray and bare. Four days brought them to the site of South Bend, to look for the path leading across the portage to the Kankakee. A Mohegan hunter, who accompanied the expedition, and who was now expected to act as a guide, was absent in quest of game, and LaSalle sallied forth to find the way. In the blinding snow and tangled woods he soon became lost, and the day wore away without his return. Tonti, becoming alarmed for his safety, sent men to scour the forest and fire gus to direct his course to the camp. It was not, however, till the next afternoon that he made his appearance. Two opossums dangled in his girdle, which he had killed with a club, while suspended by their tails from overhanging boughs. After missing his way, he was compelled to make the circuit of a large swamp, and it was late at night before he got back to the river. Here he fired his gun as a signal, and soon after, discovering a light, made up to it, supposing it came from the camp of his men. To his surprise it proved to be the lonely bivouac of some Indian, who had fled at the report of his gun. He called aloud in several Indian tongues, but only the reverberations of his voice in the surrounding solitude met his ear. Looking around, he discovered under the trunk of a huge tree a couch made of dried grass, still warm and impressed with the form of its recent occupant. He took possession and slept unmolested till morning, when, without further difficulty, he found his way to camp. Meanwhile, the Mohegan hunter had arrived, and soon the whole party stood on the banks of the Kankakee, coursing its way in zig-zags among tufts of tall grass and clumps of alder. Into its current, which a tall man might easily bestride, they set their canoes, and slowly moved down its singgish, slimy waters. So full was its channel that the voyagers seemed sailing on the surface of the ground, while their evening shadows, unobstructed by banks, fell far beyond their canoes, and trooped like huge phantoms along by their side. By and by it grew to a considerable stream, from the drainage of miry barrens and reedy marshes skirting its banks. Still farther on succeeded prairies and woodlands, recently scorched by the fires of Indian