h as the _mere animal man_ is capable
of enjoying.

This is indeed the sunny side of such a life. But it is a real side.
For such men it has a real charm; charms so great that they reluctantly
relinquish them for all that civilization can offer. But it must be
evident to every reader of these pages, that this wandering, homeless
life, has also its shady side. They, like all other men, had often
occasion to say in the beautiful verse of Longfellow:

"The day is cold, and dark, and dreary,
It rains, and the wind is never weary,
The vine still clings to the mouldering wall,
At every gust the dead leaves fall,
And the day is dark and dreary."

La Salle left Fort Frontenac on the 23d of July, 1680, about two months
before the abandonment of Crevecoeur by Tonti. In consequence of the
series of storms, he was nearly three weeks in reaching the western
extremity of Lake Ontario. The canoes and the goods were then carried
around the falls, to the station called Fort Conti, which had been
established at the head of Niagara River. He did not reach this station
until about the middle of August.

Fort Conti had become quite a resort of the neighboring Indian tribes
for trade. Here La Salle intended to lay in fresh supplies of corn. The
season had been an unfavorable one. The small crop annually raised by
the thoughtless, indolent savages, was still smaller than usual,
affording but a scant supply for the winter. The Indians were not
disposed to sell. Many days passed away, and but little had been
brought in. La Salle had quite a store of French brandy. He offered to
exchange brandy for corn. The poor Indians, who would sell the clothes
from their backs for intoxicating liquors, brought the corn in so
abundantly, that the canoes were immediately filled. In one day sixty
sacks were urged upon him.

On the 28th of August, 1680, the voyagers reembarked in their canoes,
and beneath sunny skies and with a smooth expanse of water before them,
paddled joyously along the northern shores of Lake Erie, ascended the
Detroit River, crossed Lake St. Clair, passed through the Straits of
St. Clair, and coasted along the eastern and northern shores of Lake
Huron, a distance of two or three hundred miles, until they reached the
station at Mackinac, the latter part of September.

The voyage from the head of Niagara River had occupied nearly a month.
When the little fleet of birch canoes entered the harbor at Mackinac,
Lieu