d supply of furs which was to have paid off his debts,
with all his reserve supplies and his men. This was not the limit of
his troubles; for, after the overland journey of appalling hardships
through a country of melting ice, flood, swamp, and hostile
Iroquois--the Iroquois being furious with La Salle for having
outwitted them in the building of this fort, and seeking him
everywhere to destroy him--when he got to Montreal it was only to
learn that a ship, coming from France with further supplies for his
great journey had been wrecked at the mouth of the St. Lawrence!]

But de Tonty was not dead. After incredible adventures he had escaped
the raids of the Iroquois and had reached the Straits of
Michili-makinak, between Lakes Michigan and Huron, and there met La
Salle, who was once more on his way to Montreal.

Again de La Salle and de Tonty, in the winter of 1681, returned to the
south end of Lake Michigan, and made their way over the snow to the
Illinois River. On the 6th February, 1682, they left the junction of
the Illinois and the Mississippi to trace that great river to its
outlet in the sea. La Salle reached the delta on the 6th April, 1682,
having on the way taken possession of the country in the name of the
King of France. Accault and Father Hennepin had meantime paddled up
the Northern Mississippi as far as its junction with the Wisconsin. At
this place their party was surrounded and captured by a large band of
Siou warriors.

The Frenchmen were at first in danger of being killed, as the Sious
refused to smoke with them the pipe of peace. But being much less
bloodthirsty than the Iroquois, they soon calmed down and treated
their captives with a certain rough friendliness. All their goods were
taken from them, even the vestments worn by Father Hennepin. But they
were well supplied with food such as the country produced--bison,
beef, fish, wild turkeys, and the grain of the wild rice, which made
such excellent flour. They were gradually conveyed by the Siou[12] to
a large settlement of that tribe on the shore of Mille Lacs, a sheet
of water not far distant from the westernmost extremity of Lake
Superior. Whilst staying at this Siou town Hennepin conversed with
Indians from the far north and north-west, and from what they told him
came to the conclusion that there was no continuous waterway or
"Strait of Anian" across the North-American continent, but that
the land extended to the north-west till it finally joi