e put to death.

The Indians, who seemed to have set a high value upon life, were
appalled. They could not restore the goods. Many of them had been
destroyed. The chiefs returned this reply. As the Indians greatly
outnumbered the Frenchmen, they resolved to attempt to rescue the
captive by force. In strong military array they advanced to the attack.
La Salle marshalled his little force upon a mound, surrounded by a
sandy plain, where there was neither tree, rock, nor shrub, to protect
the assailants. The bullet could be thrown much farther than the arrow.
The hostile forces stood gazing at each other for some time. The chiefs
saw that an attack was hopeless, and that advance was certain death. La
Salle had no wish to redden his hands with their blood.

In this emergence Father Hennepin in the peaceful garb of a priest went
forward with the Indian interpreter and solicited a conference. Two old
men advanced to meet him. With unexpected intelligence they proposed
that the goods which could be restored, should be sent back, and that
the rest should be amply paid for. This brought peace. Rich presents
were interchanged, the Indians giving several beaver-skin robes. There
were feasting and dancing and speech-making. All hearts were happy.

Again the canoes were put afloat. Coasting up the eastern shore of the
lake fifty or sixty miles they reached the mouth of St. Joseph's River,
then called the River of the Miamis. This is the second river in
importance in the State of Michigan. It has a good harbor at its mouth,
flows through an expanse of two hundred and fifty miles, and affords
boat navigation for a distance of one hundred and thirty miles. Here
the weary travellers found a port, after a voyage of forty days from
Green Bay.

Gloomy clouds of trouble now darkened around. His men, weary of their
hardships, became mutinous. They remonstrated against continuing their
journey into the depths of the unexplored wilderness, peopled by they
knew not what hostile tribes. La Salle had ordered Lieutenant Tonti,
with twenty men, to cross the head of the lake and meet him at that
point by a much shorter route. The lieutenant had not arrived. It was
feared that he was lost. At length he came. But he brought no tidings
of the Griffin. Two months had elapsed since that vessel sailed from
Green Bay. Her orders were, after discharging her freight at Niagara,
to return immediately to St. Joseph's, for another cargo of furs. La
Salle had