These prairies are capable of sustaining an immense
population. Beans grow wild, and the stalks last several years,
bearing fruit. The bean vines are thicker than a man's arm, and run
to the top of the highest trees. Peach trees are abundant, and bear
fruit equal to the best which can be found in France. They are
often so loaded, in the gardens of the Indians, that they have to
prop up the branches. There are whole forests of mulberries, whose
ripened fruit we began to eat in the month of May. Plums are found
in great variety, many of which are not known in Europe. Grapevines
and pomegranates are common. Three or four crops of corn can be
raised in a year.

"The Indian tribes, though savage, seem generally amiable, affable,
and obliging. They have no true idea of religion by a regular
worship. Tribes separated by not more than thirty miles, speak a
different language. And yet they manage to understand each other.
There is always some interpreter of one nation residing in another,
when they are allies, and who acts as a kind of consul. They are
very different from our Canada Indians, in their houses, dress,
manners, inclinations, and customs. They have large public squares,
games, assemblies. They seem mirthful and full of vivacity. Their
chiefs have absolute authority. No one would dare to pass between
the chief and the cane torch which burns in his cabin, and is
carried before him when he goes out. All make a circuit around it
with some ceremony.

"The chiefs have servants and officers, who follow them and wait
upon them everywhere. The chiefs distribute their favors at will.
In a word, we generally found them to be men. We saw none who knew
the use of fire-arms. They had no iron or steel articles, using
only stone knives and hatchets."

This wonderful expedition was accomplished without the loss of a single
life, on the part of the voyagers. Not one was even wounded. Father
Membre attributes this, next to God's goodness, to the tact and wisdom
manifested by La Salle. As to the missionary fruits of this enterprise,
the devoted ecclesiastic writes:

"I will say nothing here of conversions. Formerly the apostles had
but to enter a country, when on the first publication of the
Gospel, conversions were seen. I am but a miserable sinner,
infinitely destitute of the merits of the apostles. We m