y, and the malignity of
disappointed avarice so maddened them that they murdered their
unfortunate commander.

I will borrow a page of Bancroft, who is more explicit than the Comanche
chroniclers.

"Leaving sixty men at Fort St. Louis, in January, 1687, La Salle, with
the other portion of his men, departed for Canada. Lading their baggage
on the wild horses from the Cenis, which found their pasture everywhere
in the prairies, in shoes made of green buffalo-hides; for want of other
paths, following the track of the buffalo, and using skins as the only
shelter against rain, winning favour with the savages by the confiding
courage of their leader--they ascended the streams towards the first
ridges of highlands, walking through beautiful plains and groves, among
deer and buffaloes, now fording the clear rivulets, now building a
bridge by felling a giant tree across a stream, till they had passed the
basin of the Colorado, and in the upland country had reached a branch of
the Trinity River.

"In the little company of wanderers there were two men, Duhaut and
L'Archeveque, who had embarked their capital in the enterprise. Of
these, Duhaut had long shown a spirit of mutiny; the base malignity of
disappointed avarice, maddened by sufferings and impatient of control,
awakened the fiercest passions of ungovernable hatred. Inviting Moranget
to take charge of the fruits of a buffalo-hunt, they quarrelled with him
and murdered him.

"Wondering at the delay of his nephew's return, La Salle, on the 20th of
March, went to seek him. At the brink of the river he observed eagles
hovering, as if over carrion, and he fired an alarm-gun. Warned by the
sound, Duhaut and L'Archeveque crossed the river; the former skulked in
the prairie grass; of the latter, La Salle asked, 'Where is my nephew?'
At the moment of the answer, Duhaut fired; and, without uttering a word,
La Salle fell dead. 'You are down now, grand bashaw! You are down now!'
shouted one of the conspirators, as they despoiled his remains, which
were left on the prairie, naked and without burial, to be devoured by
wild beasts.

"Such was the end of this daring adventurer. For force of will and vast
conceptions; for various knowledge, and quick adaptation of his genius
to untried circumstances; for a sublime magnanimity, that resigned
itself to the will of Heaven, and yet triumphed over affliction by
energy of purpose and unfaltering hope,--he had no superior among his
countryme