ile and a half west of
Boughton Hill, but about two hundred years ago. Surely the religion of
Jesus has improved the condition of humanity.

La Salle and Galinee, unable to endure the spectacle, retired, in
anguish of spirit, to their cabin. "As I was praying to God," writes
Galinee, "and very sad, La Salle came and told me that from the
excitement he saw prevailing, he was apprehensive that the Indians
might insult us, and that we had better return to the canoes." Hastily
they retired.

But let us return from this digression. La Salle joined his companions
at the head of Niagara River, on the borders of Lake Erie, on the 29th
of January, 1679. The river, above the falls, was a sheet of ice,
resembling a plain paved with fine polished marble. While many of his
men had been employed building a vessel to be launched upon the lake,
others had boldly explored all the surrounding region, purchasing of
the Indians furs and skins. The winter was intensely cold, and the snow
was deep. There was a small cluster of Indian wigwams on the Niagara
River below the Falls.

The Indians, men, women and children, received La Salle and his party
even affectionately. They took the strangers into their warm cabins,
spread bear-skin couches for them, to sleep with their feet toward the
fire, and fed them with their daintiest bits of game. White-fish were
taken in great abundance at that place, and were deemed in flavor equal
to the golden brook-trout. The floating ice endangered their
brigantine. The Indians aided with infinite labor in dragging it to a
safe place upon the beach, just below those towering cliffs which
fringe so large a portion of this wild river. This spot was near the
present site of Queenstown, on the western side of the stream.

All the goods were to be transported through a trail of the forest,
encumbered with snow, around the falls, a distance of about twenty
miles, on the shoulders of men. The Indians, with fraternal kindness,
aided in these herculean labors, and were amply repaid for days of
toil, by a knife, a hatchet, or a few trinkets, as valuable to them as
are diamonds and pearls to a duchess. La Salle constructed a fortified
depot at this place, to serve as a base for future operations. Here he
could store such additional supplies as he might order from Fort
Frontenac. Strange as it may seem, it appears that he could leave
priceless treasure in a frail log-hut, thus far away in the wilderness,
under the pro