es and lawns and parks smiling so peacefully in the bright
sunshine.

The morning of the 1st of January, 1680, came. All gathered around the
missionaries to commemorate the opening of the new year by religious
services. Prayers were offered, hymns were chanted, sins were
confessed, and the blessing of God was invoked upon their enterprise.
At the conclusion of these devotions the canoes were again pushed out
into the stream. On the fourth of the month they entered an expansion
of the river where the breadth of water assumed the dimension of a
lake. This sheet of water, now called Peoria Lake, was twenty miles
long and three broad.

At its foot they came upon a very large Indian encampment. La Salle
presented the calumet of peace, and fraternal relations were immediately
established. At this point he decided to build a large boat to sail
down the river. The loss of the Griffin, thus depriving him of his
supplies, had frustrated all his plans. He built a strong fort, which
he called, from his own grief, "Crevecoeur," or the Broken Hearted.
Here this extraordinary man left most of his company, and with five
men, in mid-winter, set out to cross the pathless wilderness on foot,
a distance of twelve hundred miles, along the southern shores of Erie
and Ontario to Fort Frontenac. The wonderful journey, through storms
of snow and rain, across bleak plains and morasses and unbridged rivers,
was safely accomplished in about seventy days. He obtained the needful
supplies, freighted several canoes, engaged new voyagers, and after
innumerable perils again reached the head waters of the Illinois. Here
he learned that his garrison at Crevecoeur was dispersed and the
fort destroyed. This ended his hopes. He went back to Frontenac a
disappointed but indomitable man, and the enterprise was for the time
relinquished.

Here we must leave La Salle for a time, while we give an account of the
expedition from Crevecoeur, up the Mississippi, and of the destruction
of the colony.

CHAPTER VI.

_The Expedition of Father Hennepin._

Seeking a Northwest Passage. The Voyage Commenced. The Alarm.
Delightful Scenery. The Indian Village. Entrance to the Mississippi.
Appearance of the Country. The Midnight Storm. Silence and Solitude. A
Fleet of Canoes. Captured by the Savages. Merciful Captivity. Alarming
Debate. Condition of the Captives.

Two days before La Salle set out from Crevecoeur, on his adventurous
journey, through the wilder