th reached his lieutenant. It was not
known that La Salle received burial. The wretches who assassinated him
threw him into some brush. It was a satisfaction to Tonty that they all
perished miserably afterwards; those who survived quarrels among
themselves being killed by the Indians.

The undespairing Norman died instantly, without feeling or admitting
defeat. And he was not defeated. Though his colony--including Father
Membre, who had been so long with him--perished by the hands of the
Indians in Texas, in spite of Tonty's second journey to relieve them,
his plan of settlements from the great lakes to the mouth of the
Mississippi became a reality.

Down from Canada came two of the eleven Le Moyne brothers, D'Iberville
and Bienville, fine fighting sons of a powerful colonial family, with
royal permission to found near the great river's mouth that city which
had been La Salle's dream. Fourteen years after La Salle's death, while
D'Iberville was exploring for a site, the old chief, to whom Tonty had
given a letter for La Salle, brought it carefully wrapped and delivered
it into the hands of La Salle's more fortunate successor.

Tonty was associated with Le Moyne D'Iberville in these labors around
the Gulf.

[Illustration: Autograph of Le Moyne D'Iberville.]

A long peninsula betwixt the Mississippi and Kaskaskia Rivers, known
since as the American Bottom, lured away Indians from the great town on
the Illinois. The new settlement founded on this peninsula was called
Kaskaskia, for one of the tribes. As other posts sprung into existence,
Fort St. Louis was less needed. "As early as 1712," we are told, "land
titles were issued for a common field in Kaskaskia. Traders had already
opened a commerce in skins and furs with the remote post of Isle
Dauphine in Mobile Bay." Settlements were firmly established. By 1720
the luxuries of Europe came into the great tract taken by La Salle in
the name of King Louis and called Louisiana.

Twelve years after La Salle's death a missionary named St. Cosme (Sant'
Come) journeyed from Canada in a party guided by Tonty. St. Cosme has
left this record of the man with the copper hand:--

"He guided us as far as the Arkansas and gave us much pleasure on the
way, winning friendship of some savages and intimidating others who from
jealousy or desire to plunder opposed the voyage; not only doing the
duty of a brave man but that of a missionary. He quieted the voyageurs,
by whom he was genera