financial aid from his wealthy
relatives at Rouen.

What followed was the most brilliant, the most exciting, and the most
tragic chapter in the French exploration of America. La Salle
fulfilled all the conditions upon which he had received the seigneury
at Fort Frontenac, and found financial profit in maintaining the post.
{76} The original wooden structure was replaced by stone, good barracks
were built for the troops, there were bastions upon which nine cannon
announced a warning to the Iroquois, a settlement with well-tilled land
sprang up around the fort, schooners were built with a draught of forty
tons. But for La Salle this was not enough. He was a pathfinder, not
a trader. Returning to France after two years of labour and success at
Fort Frontenac, he secured a royal patent authorizing him to explore
the whole continent from the Great Lakes to Mexico, with the right to
build forts therein and to enjoy a monopoly of the trade in buffalo
skins. The expenses of the undertaking were, of course, to be borne by
La Salle and his associates, for the king never invested money in these
enterprises. However, the persuasiveness which enabled La Salle to
secure his patent enabled him to borrow the necessary funds. At the
close of 1678 he was once more at Fort Frontenac and ready for the
great adventure.

How La Salle explored the country of the Illinois in company with his
valiant friend, Henri de Tonty 'of the iron hand,' and how these two
heroic leaders traversed the continent to the very mouth of the
Mississippi, {77} is not to be told here. But with its risks, its
hardships, its tragedies, and its triumphs, this episode, which belongs
to the period of Frontenac's administration, will always remain a
classic in the records of discovery. The Jesuits, who did not love La
Salle, were no less brave than he, and the lustre of his achievements
must not be made to dim theirs. Yet they had all the force of a mighty
organization at their back, while La Salle, standing alone, braved
ruin, obloquy, and death in order to win an empire for France.
Sometimes he may have thought of fame, but he possessed that driving
power which goes straight for the object, even if it means sacrifice of
self. His haughtiness, his daring, his self-centred determination,
well fitted him to be the friend and trusted agent of Frontenac.

Another leading figure of the period in western discovery was Daniel
Greysolon du Lhut. Duchesneau calls