ir associates, as we have mentioned in the last chapter. The good
Father Membre writes:

"I leave you to conceive our mutual joy, damped though it was by
the narrative he made us of all his misfortunes, and of that we
made him of our tragical adventures. Though La Salle related to us
all his calamities, yet never did I remark in him the least
alteration. He always maintained his ordinary coolness and
self-possession. Any other person would have abandoned the
enterprise. But La Salle, by a firmness of mind and constancy
almost unequalled, was more resolute than ever to carry out his
discovery. We therefore left, to return to Fort Frontenac with his
whole party, to adopt new measures, to resume and complete our
course, with the help of heaven, in which we put all our trust."

We have no detailed account of the long voyage back to Frontenac, or of
the return voyage to the mouth of the Chicago River. In the meagre
narratives which have descended to us, there are slight discrepancies
which it is impossible to reconcile. Entering Lake Michigan at its
northern extremity through the Straits of Mackinac, they paddled down
the eastern coast, passed the mouth of St. Joseph's River, rounded the
southern curvature of the lake, and reached the mouth of the Chicago
River on the 4th of January, 1682. The winter in that region was short,
but very severe. The Chicago River presented a solid surface of ice.

Sledges were constructed, upon which the canoes were placed, and
dragged by the men over the ice of the river. This journey in
mid-winter, over a bleak and often treeless expanse, was slow and
toilsome. Having reached the point where the portage commenced, they
dragged their sledges, laden with the canoes, baggage, and provisions,
across the portage to the Illinois River. They reached this point on
the 29th of the month, having spent twenty-three days in the exhausting
journey. They were, at that point, according to Father Membre's
estimate, two hundred and forty miles from the mouth of the Illinois
where it enters into the Mississippi.

Drawing their sledges upon the ice, they day after day followed down
the lonely and silent stream, whose banks war had desolated. They
passed the smouldering sites of many former villages, where only
melancholy scenes of devastation met the eye. They reached Crevecoeur
about the 1st of February. It would seem that La Salle, on his previous
visit, had rep