1680-1682.] LA SALLE. 59 



his voyage along Lake Michigan in birch canoes, 

 and after protracted suffering from famine and 

 exposure reached its southern extremity on the 

 eighteenth of October.^ 



He led his followers to the banks of the river 

 now called the St. Joseph. Here, again, he built 

 a fort ; and here, in after years, the Jesuits placed 

 a mission and the government a garrison. Thence 

 he pushed on into the unknown region of the Illi- 

 nois ; and now dangers and difficulties began to 

 thicken about him. Indians threatened hostility ; 

 his men lost heart, clamored, grew mutinous, and 

 repeatedly deserted ; and worse than all, nothing 

 was heard of the vessel which had been sent back 

 to Canada for necessary supplies. Weeks wore on, 

 and doubt ripened into certainty. She had foun- 

 dered among the storms of these wilderness oceans ; 

 and her loss seemed to involve the ruin of the 

 enterprise, since it was vain to proceed farther 

 without the expected supplies. In this disastrous 

 crisis, La Salle embraced a resolution character- 

 istic of his intrepid temper. Leaving his men in 

 charge of a subordinate at a fort w^hich he had 

 built on the river Illinois, he turned his face 

 again towards Canada. He traversed on foot more 

 than a thousand miles of frozen forest, crossing 

 rivers, toiling through snow-diifts, wading ice- 

 encumbered swamps, sustaining life by the fruits of 

 the chase, and threatened day and night by lurking 

 enemies. He gained his destination, but it was 

 only to encounter a fresh storm of calamities. His 

 enemies had been busy in his absence ; a malicious 



1 Hennepin, New Discovery, 98 (Lond. 1698.) 



