ust
acknowledge that these miraculous ways of grace are not attached to
the exercise of our ministry. God employs an ordinary and common
way, following which, I contented myself with announcing, as well
as I could, the principal truths of Christianity to the nations I
met. The Illinois language served me for about three hundred miles
down the river. I made the rest understand by gestures, and some
term in their dialect which I insensibly picked up. But I cannot
say that my feeble efforts produced certain fruits. With regard to
these people, perhaps some one, by a secret effect of grace, has
profited, God only knows. All we have done has been to see the
state of these tribes, and to open the way to the Gospel, and to
missionaries."

CHAPTER XIII.

_Sea Voyage to the Gulf of Mexico._

La Salle returns to Quebec. Sails for France. Assailed by Calumny. The
Naval Expedition. Its Object. Its Equipment. Disagreement between La
Salle and Beaujeu. The Voyage to the West Indies. Adventures in the
Caribbean Sea. They Enter the Gulf. Storms and Calms. The Voyagers
Lost.

Father Membre's journal abruptly terminates with the arrival of the
party at Fort Miami. We have no detailed account of the adventures of
La Salle during the next eight or ten months. We learn incidentally,
that Father Membre was sent to Quebec, and thence to France, to convey
to the court the tidings of the great discovery, and of the annexation
of truly imperial realms to the kingdom of Louis XIV. On the 8th of
October, Father Membre left Fort Miami for Quebec. Thence he sailed
with Governor Frontenac for France, where he arrived before the close
of the year. La Salle remained with the Miami and the Illinois Indians,
probably retrieving his fallen fortunes by extensive traffic in furs,
of which he had, at the time, a monopoly conferred upon him by the
king.

At length, in the autumn of 1683, he also returned to Quebec, and
sailed for France, landing at Rochelle on the 13th of December. No man
can, in this world, accomplish great results without exposing himself
to malignant attacks. Bitter enemies assailed La Salle with venomous
hostility. Their hostility was excited by the monopoly of the fur
trade, which he enjoyed over all the vast regions he had explored. They
despatched atrocious charges against him to the government, denouncing
him as a robber, and denying the discoveries which he professed to h