ility, the first habitation of white men on the
shores of Lake Superior. It seems to have stood on Chequamegon Bay.

{225}

Chapter XIII

ROBERT CAVELIER, SIEUR DE LA SALLE,

THE FIRST EXPLORER OF THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI

La Salle's Early Association with the Jesuits.--His Domain in
Canada.--He starts on an Exploring Expedition.--Disappears from
View.--The Favor of Frontenac.--La Salle's Extraordinary
Commission.--Niagara Falls.--The First Vessel ever launched on the
Upper Lakes.--Great Hardships of the Journey.--Arrival in the Country
of the Illinois.--Fort Crevecoeur built.--Perilous Journey back to
Canada.--La Salle starts again for the Illinois Country.--Iroquois
Atrocities and Cannibalism.--La Salle goes as far as the Mississippi
and returns.--Tonty's Perilous Experiences.--Boisrondet's Ingenuity
saves his Life.--La Salle journeys down the Great River.--Interesting
Tribes of Indians.--The Ocean!--Louisiana named.--Hardships of the
Return Journey.--Fort St. Louis built.

Robert Cavelier, more generally known as La Salle, at the first was
connected with the Jesuits, but left the Society of Jesus and, at the
youthful age of twenty-three, came to Canada to seek his fortune. He
had an elder brother among the priests of St. Sulpice. These, being
anxious to have a fringe of settlements outside of their own {226} as a
sort of screen against Indian attacks, granted to La Salle a quite
considerable tract a few miles from Montreal. Here he laid out a
village surrounded by a palisade and let out his land to settlers for a
trifling rent.

With a view to exploration, he at once began to study the Indian
languages. Like Champlain and all the early explorers, he dreamed of a
passage to the Pacific and a new route for the commerce of China and
Japan. The name which to this day clings to the place which he
settled, La Chine (China), is said to have been bestowed by his
neighbors, in derision of what they considered his visionary schemes.

After two or three years La Salle, beginning his real life-work, sold
his domain and its improvements, equipped a party, and started out into
the wilderness. We trace his route as far as the Seneca country, in
western New York. Then for two years we lose sight of him altogether.
This time he passed among the Indians; and there is the best reason for
believing that he discovered the Ohio River and, quite probably, the
Illinois.

When Joliet and Marquette ascertained that th