diminishes, and he regretfully resumes the road to
Michilimackinac. He did not have time to reach it, but died near the
mouth of a river which long bore his name. His two comrades dug a grave
for the remains of the missionary and raised a cross near the tomb. Two
years later these sacred bones were transferred with the greatest
respect to St. Ignace de Michilimackinac by the savage tribe of the
Kiskakons, whom Father Marquette had christianized.

With such an adventurous character as he possessed, Cavelier de la Salle
could not learn of the exploration of the course of the Upper
Mississippi without burning with the desire to complete the discovery
and to descend the river to its mouth. Robert Rene Cavelier de la Salle
was born at Rouen about the year 1644. He belonged to an excellent
family, and was well educated. From his earliest years he was
passionately fond of stories of travel, and the older he grew the more
cramped he felt in the civilization of Europe; like the mettled mustang
of the vast prairies of America, he longed for the immensity of unknown
plains, for the imposing majesty of forests which the foot of man had
not yet trod. Maturity and reason gave a more definite aim to these
aspirations; at the age of twenty-four he came to New France to try his
fortune. He entered into relations with different Indian tribes, and the
extent of his commerce led him to establish a trading-post opposite the
Sault St. Louis. This site, as we shall see, received soon after the
name of Lachine. Though settled at this spot, La Salle did not cease to
meditate on the plan fixed in his brain of discovering a passage to
China and the Indies, and upon learning the news that MM. Dollier de
Casson and Gallinee were going to christianize the wild tribes of
south-western Canada, he hastened to rejoin the two devoted
missionaries. They set out in the summer of 1669, with twenty-two
Frenchmen. Arriving at Niagara, La Salle suddenly changed his mind, and
abandoned his travelling companions, under the pretext of illness. No
more was needed for the Frenchman, _ne malin_,[7] to fix upon the
seigniory of the future discoverer of the mouth of the Mississippi the
name of Lachine; M. Dollier de Casson is suspected of being the author
of this gentle irony.

Eight years later the explorations of Joliet and Father Marquette
revived his instincts as a discoverer; he betook himself to France in
1677 and easily obtained authority to pursue, at his own