on their way, and store them at Mackinac. These furs,
upon his arrival, La Salle would transfer to the Griffin and send them
back to Fort Frontenac, to be thence transported to Europe. But these
men had bitterly disappointed him. Some of them had run away and joined
the Indians, attracted by the apparently careless, easy life which the
wigwam presented. Others had been bribed, by higher wages, to join
rival trading parties. One of the canoes of deserters had pushed on to
the Falls of St. Mary. These falls, quite renowned in the early
explorations of these remote regions, were situated on the strait which
connects Lake Superior with Huron.

After a short tarry at Mackinac, the sails of the Griffin were again
spread, and passing through the strait between Mackinac and the main
land, they entered the head of Lake Michigan. They coasted along its
northern border in beautiful summer weather, and within pleasant view
of the shore, until they came to an island where there was a pleasant,
sheltered cove, at the mouth of Green Bay, a sheet of water which,
through a broad entrance studded with islands, spread out on the west
of Michigan, a hundred miles in length, by about twenty in breadth.

A tribe of Indians, called Pottawatomies, inhabited this island. Here
it was La Salle's good fortune to find one of his large canoes, well
freighted with furs. He had also laid in a large store at Mackinac. As
he was soon to leave the Griffin, to cross the land by portages, and
paddle in birch canoes down distant and unknown rivers, he decided to
send back the Griffin to Erie, with her rich freight of furs. At Erie
they would be carried on men's shoulders around the falls to Niagara,
thence reshipped to Frontenac, and thence sent to Europe. He remained
at the island a fortnight, freighting his ship. She commenced her
return voyage with a pilot and five mariners. The value of the cargo
was such as to make La Salle a rich man. Notwithstanding all his
discouragements, his voyage had thus far been a success. Cheered with
hope, he now prepared to resume his adventurous explorations in birch
canoes.

La Salle, having despatched the richly freighted Griffin from the mouth
of Green Bay to his abandoned ship-yard at Erie, resumed his voyage in
four heavily laden birch canoes. The company remaining with him
consisted of seventeen men. His freight consisted of a blacksmith's
forge, mechanic tools, household utensils, merchandise, arms, and
ammunitio