their nominal conversion. The dying, upon professions of
penitence, he was ever ready to baptize, and to administer to them the
sacrament of the Lord's Supper. With the rest he labored to root out
all the remnants of their degrading superstitions, and to give them
correct ideas of salvation through repentance, amendment, and trust in
an atoning Saviour.

Gradually Marquette gathered around him a little band of loving
disciples. For three years he labored with them cheerfully, joyously.
His gentle and devoted spirit won, not merely the friendship of the
Indians, but their ardent affections. He was just as safe among them as
the most beloved father surrounded by his children. Three years this
good man remained in these lonely wilds, peacefully and successfully
teaching these benighted children of the forest. During all this time
his mind had been much exercised with the thought of exploring the
limitless and unknown regions south and west.

He had heard rumors of the Mississippi, the Father of Waters; and his
devout mind peopled the vast realms through which it flowed with the
lost children of God, whom he perhaps might reclaim, through the Gospel
of Jesus, who had come from heaven for their redemption. The Governor
of Canada was desirous, for more worldly reasons, of exploring these
regions, where future empires might be reared.

Even the Indians knew but little respecting this great and distant
river. There was much uncertainty whether it ran south, into the Gulf
of Mexico, or west, emptying into the Gulf of California, which Spanish
explorers had called the Red Sea, in consequence of its resemblance to
that Asiatic sheet of water, or whether it turned easterly, entering
the Atlantic Ocean somewhere near the Virginia coast.

In the spring of the year 1673, Governor Frontenac sent a French
gentleman, M. Joliet, from Quebec, with five boatmen, to Point St.
Ignatius, to take Father Marquette on board and set out to find and
explore the downward course of this much talked of river. M. Joliet was
admirably qualified for this responsible enterprise. He was a man of
deep religious convictions, had spent several years among the Indians,
was a very courteous man in all his intercourse with them, was
thoroughly acquainted with their customs, and spoke several of their
languages. As to courage, it was said that he absolutely feared
nothing. The good father writes, in reference to his own appointment to
this expedition: