18 INTEODUCTIOX. 



late in the autumn of tlie following year, and finally descends the 

 Illinois, to its junction "with the Mississippi, and thence to the 

 embouchure of the latter in the Gulf of Mexico, where he arrives 

 on the 7th of April, 1683, and calculates the latitude between 23° 

 and 24° north. 



The S]3aniards had previously sought in vain for the mouth of 

 this stream, and bestowed upon it, in anticipation, the name of 

 Del Rio Ascondido, La Salle now returns to Quebec, by way of 

 the Lakes, and from thence to France, where he is well received 

 by the king, who grants him an outfit of four ships, and two 

 hundred men, to enable him to continue his discoveries, and found 

 a colony in the newly discovered territories. He leaves Eochelle 

 in July, 1684, reaches the Bay of St. Louis, which is fifty leagues 

 south of the Mississippi, in the Gulf of Mexico, in February follow- 

 ing, where he builds a fort, founds a settlement, and is finally 

 assassinated by one of his own party. The exertions of this en- 

 terprising individual, and the account which was published of his 

 discoveries by the Chevalier Tonti, who had accompanied him in 

 all his perilous expeditions, had a greater effect, in the French 

 capital, in producing a correct estimate of the extent, productions, 

 and importance of the Canadas, than all that had been done by 

 preceding tourists ; and this may be considered as the true era, 

 when the eyes of politicians and divines, merchants and specula- 

 tors, ■>;' ,^'e'"first stiongly turned towards the boundless forests, the 

 5^-.biime rivers and lakes, the populous Indian tribes, and the pro- 

 fitable commerce of New^ France. 



Father Louis Hennepin was a missionary of the Francisan order 

 of Catholics, who accompanied La Salle on his first voyage from 

 France ; and after the building of Fort Crevecoeur, on the Illinois, 

 was dispatched in company with three French voyageurs to ex- 

 plore the Mississippi River. 



They departed from Fort Crevecceur on the 29th of February,. 

 l'B80, and dropping down the Illinois to its junction with the 

 M3:ssissippi, followed the latter an indeterminate distance towards 

 tfeW^julf, not believed to be great, where they left some memorial 

 of their visit, and immediately commenced their return. When 

 thJy'' had proceeded up the Mississippi a hundred and fifty 

 lekc/u6s above the confluence of the Illinois, they were taken 

 pri^dhers by some Indian tribes, and carried towards its sources 



