given is taken, describes
him as "an uneasy soul, uncontent to remain cloistered and
fretting to engage in travel and wild adventure." After the
pioneer voyage down the Mississippi, made by Joliet and Marquette,
had become known in Europe, it intensified an already active
spirit of discovery. In the summer of 1678 Hennepin joined La
Salle and Laval Montmorency in the famous expedition of La Salle
undertaken from Quebec to explore the interior, with a view to
uniting Canada with the Gulf of Mexico by a chain of forts. On
arrival in Quebec Father Hennepin was sent forward by La Salle to
Fort Frontenac, on Lake Ontario. Thence, with La Monte and sixteen
men, he went on to Niagara in order to smooth the way with the
Indians for La Salle's later coming. It was at this time that
Hennepin first saw Niagara Falls. White men had probably seen the
cataract before, but he is the first who wrote a description of it
that has come down to us. Hennepin's character has been severely
criticized. He was much given to exaggeration, and he magnified
his own importance. Mr. Thwaites describes him as "hardy, brave
and enterprising," but "lacking in spiritual qualities."

Hennepin's estimate of the height of the falls (about 600 feet)
may be cited as an example of his faculty in exaggeration. The
actual height is 167 feet. The descent from Lake Erie to Ontario,
including that of the rapids above and below the falls, is only
330 feet.

LA SALLE'S VOYAGE TO THE MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI

(1682)

BY FRANCIS PARKMAN[1]

La Salle chose eighteen of his Indian allies, whom he added to the
twenty-three Frenchmen who remained with him, some of the rest having
deserted, and others lagged behind. The Indians insisted on taking
their squaws with them. These were ten in number, besides three
children; and thus the expedition included fifty-four persons, of whom
some were useless, and others a burden.

On the 21st of December, Tonty and Membre set out from Fort Miami with
some of the party in six canoes, and crossed to the little river
Chicago. La Salle, with the rest of the men, joined them a few days
later. It was the dead of winter, and the streams were frozen. They
made sledges, placed on them the canoes, the baggage, and a disabled
Frenchman; crossed from the Chicago to the northern branch of the
Illinois, and filed in a long procession down its