least
vestiges of civilization, and surrounded by numerous and powerful bands
of savages, these hardy men passed an inclement winter. Amidst rocks
and gloomy pines they reared their hut. Game was abundant, fuel was at
their door, the Indians were hospitable, and they wanted for nothing.
One event only darkened these wintry months. The leader of the band
became lost in the woods and perished.

In the spring the men returned rejoicingly to Canada, with their canoes
laden with the richest furs. They also brought such reports of the
docility and amiability of the Indians, as to inspire the Christians in
Canada with the intense desire to establish missionary stations among
them. Five years passed away, when Father Claude Allouez, with a small
band of Christian heroes, penetrated these wilds to proclaim the glad
tidings of the Gospel. Two years after, he was followed by Father James
Marquette, a noble man, whose name will never die.

As the explorations of Marquette opened the way for the still more
wonderful excursions of La Salle, I must here introduce a brief account
of his adventures. There is something in blood. The Marquette family
had been illustrious in France from time immemorial. Generation after
generation, many of its members had obtained renown, not only for
chivalric courage, but for every virtue which can adorn humanity. Their
ancestral home was a massive feudal castle on an eminence near the
stately city of Leon. The armorial bearing of the family commemorates
deeds of heroic enterprise five hundred years ago. They were generally
earnest Christians.

James Marquette was born at the ancient seat of the family in the year
1637. His mother was a woman of fervent piety and of unusual strength
and culture of mind. Her brother, John Baptiste de la Salle, was the
founder of a system of Christian schools for the gratuitous education
of the poor. Thousands were thus instructed long before the present
system of public schools was introduced. It was to the instructions of
his noble mother that James Marquette was indebted for his elevated
Christian character, and for his self-sacrificing devotion to the
interests of humanity, which have given his name celebrity through a
large portion of the Christian world.

At the age of seventeen this noble young man, resisting all the
brilliant allurements the world opened to one of his wealth and rank,
consecrated himself to the service of religion by entering the ministry
in