ad now been two years on that forlorn spot, and still they had not
even found their way out. From one hundred and eighty their number had
dwindled to forty-five. Clearly, there was but one thing to be done.
If anybody was to remain alive, the journey to Canada must be
accomplished, at all costs. This time La Salle determined to take
Joutel with him, leaving Barbier in command of the little party in the
fort.

The New Year, 1687, came, and a few days later, with sighs and tears,
the parting took place which many felt was for all time, and the
travelers went away in mournful silence, with their meagre outfit
packed on the horses, leaving Barbier to hold the fort with his little
band of twenty persons, including all the women and children and a few
disabled men.

We shall not attempt to trace closely the movements of the travelers.
For more than two months they journeyed in a northeasterly direction.
At the best, they were in wretched plight, with nothing for shoes but
raw buffalo-hide, which hardened about the foot and held it in the grip
of a vise. After a while they bought dressed {273} deerskin from the
Indians and made themselves moccasins. Rivers and streams they
crossed, two or three at a time, in a boat made of buffalo-hide, while
the horses swam after them. They met Indians almost daily and held
friendly intercourse with them.[2]

Once they saw a band of a hundred and fifty warriors attacking a herd
of buffalo with lances, and a stirring sight it was. These warriors
entertained the Europeans most handsomely. Says La Salle's brother,
the priest Cavelier, "They took us straight to the cabin of their great
chief or captain, where they first washed our hands, our heads, and our
feet with warm water; after which they presented us boiled and roast
meat to eat, and an unknown fish, cooked whole, that was six feet long,
laid in a dish of its length. It was of a wonderful taste, and we
preferred it to meat." Here the way-worn travelers were glad to buy
thirty horses--enough to give every one of them a mount, and to carry
their baggage besides--all for thirty knives, ten hatchets, and six
dozen needles!

{274}

In one of the villages they witnessed the catching of an alligator
twelve feet long on a large hook made of bone and baited with meat.
The Indians amused themselves an entire day with torturing it. They
would have been keenly disappointed, had they known how little this
animal, so low in the scale o