, of these Indians,
ten were women, and three were children. But Father Zenobe, who
accompanied the expedition, mentions that the Indians insisted upon
taking the women, as servants, to cook their food, and to perform the
drudgery at their several encampments. Some of these women had children
whom they could not leave behind.

It was indeed an imposing spectacle, when, at an early hour of a still,
sultry summer morning, this gayly decorated fleet of canoes pushed out
from the little harbor at the fort, upon the mirrored surface of Lake
Ontario. It was, to a considerable degree, a national expedition. The
banners of France fluttered in the gentle breeze over all the
battlements of the fort. The forests and the hills resounded with the
roar of the salute from her heavy guns. Hundreds of Indians crowded the
shore to witness the departure. The Frenchmen returned the salute by a
discharge of their muskets and by three cheers. The canoes speedily
disappeared behind a headland, as the voyagers, with their paddles,
pressed forward upon one of the most extraordinary expeditions ever
undertaken by man.

The voyage along the southern shore of the lake proved to be very
stormy. Again and again the gale and the surging billows drove them
ashore. To the Indians, and to the Canadian boatmen generally, there
was no hardship in this. It was the customary life of these men; and to
the Indians, the life to which they had been inured from infancy, and
the only life they had ever known. Indeed the crew generally had no
more thought of yesterday or tomorrow than the few dogs who accompanied
them. The weight of responsibility rested only upon the minds of La
Salle and his gentlemanly, highly educated ecclesiastical companions.

When landing, for an encampment at night, or forced to take shelter
from the storm, they easily drew their canoes up upon the greensward;
turned them over to protect the freight from the rain, entered a little
distance, the dense, primeval forest, which from time immemorial had
fringed the shores of the lake, and there speedily reared a shelter
which, to them, presented all the comforts which the palatial mansion
offers to its lord. They spread their mats upon the floor. They built
their camp fires, whose brilliant blaze enlivened the scene. They
cooked their suppers, of corn-bread and venison steaks, which health
and hunger rendered luxurious. They sang songs, told stories, cracked
jokes, and enjoyed perhaps as muc