ercourse with the
French in Canada, and were in cordial alliance with them. Father
Hennepin attended a council of the chiefs, accusing them of having
enslaved, as he had learned by the way, several Indians of the Ottawa
tribe, who were also allies of the French. The chiefs made many
apologies; said that the deed had been perpetrated by some mad young
warriors, and that the captives should be restored to their tribe.

One of the chiefs, named Teganeot, speaking in the name of all
assembled in the council, presented Father Hennepin with several rich
furs, which were valued at about twenty-five dollars. The father
accepted the gift, but immediately passed it over to the son of the
chief, saying:

"I give it to you, that you may purchase such things as you need of the
French traders. I cannot accept any presents. But I will report your
kind feelings to the French Governor."

Reembarking, they continued their voyage forty leagues, when they
reached Fort Frontenac. Father Hennepin was received with great
rejoicing, as one risen from the dead. After a short tarry, they again
entered their canoes, and descending the rapids of the St. Lawrence, in
two days reached Montreal, sixty miles distant from the fort. Here
Count Frontenac resided. He was Governor of all the French possessions
in the New World.

"This governor," Father Hennepin writes, "received me as well as a man
of his probity can receive a missionary. As he believed me killed by
the Indians, he was for a time thunderstruck. He beheld me wasted,
without a cloak, with a garment patched with pieces of buffalo skin. He
took me with him, twelve days, to recover, and himself gave me the meat
I was to eat, for fear I should eat too much, after so long a diet. I
rendered to him an exact account of my voyage, and represented to him
the advantages of our discovery."

CHAPTER IX.

_The Abandonment of Fort Crevecoeur._

Departure of La Salle. Fathers Membre and Gabriel. Their Missionary
Labors. Character of the Savages. The Iroquois on the War Path. Peril
of the Garrison. Heroism of Tonti and Membre. Infamous Conduct of the
Young Savages. Flight of the Illinois. Fort Abandoned. Death of Father
Gabriel. Sufferings of the Journey to Mackinac.

It will be remembered that on the last of February, 1680, M. La Salle
left the fort at Crevecoeur, with four Frenchmen and an Indian guide,
for his perilous journey of four hundred leagues, through the pathless
wilderness, t