Page:Joutel's journal of La Salle's last voyage, 1684-7 (IA joutelsjournalof00jout).pdf/153

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

said Nothing, I committed my self to God's Protection, and went to them, without taking any Notice of what had been done.

Duhaut, the Murderer, usurps the Command. Duhaut, puff'd up with his new gotten Authority, procur'd him by his Villany, as soon as he saw me, cry'd out, Every Man ought to command in his Turn; to which I made no Answer; and we were all of us oblig'd to stifle our Resentment, that it might not appear, for our Lives depended on it. However, it was easy to judge with what Eyes Father Anastasius, Messieurs Cavelier and I beheld these Murderers, to whom we expected every Moment to fall Sacrifices. It is true, we dissembled so well, that they were not very suspicious of us, and that the Temptation we were under of making them away in Revenge for those they had murder'd, would have easily prevail'd and been put in Execution, had not Monsieur Cavelier, the Priest, always positively oppos'd it, alledging, that we ought to leave Vengeance to God.

March continued.


Cenis River. However the Murderers seiz'd upon all the Effects, without any Opposition, and then we began to talk of proceeding on our Journey. We decamp'd the 21st, with our Indians, and march'd with such a heavy Rain, that we were oblig'd to halt on the Bank of a great Stream, where one of the Natives that had left us, arriv'd with his Wife. We went on the 22d and 23d, and pass'd the River, where Father Anastasius, Monsieur Cavelier and I, who could not swim, had been drown'd, but that the Natives assisted and sav'd us. The 24th, we went on thro' a marshy Country, never quitting a small Path which led to the Village of the Cenis, till the 28th, when we rested on the Bank of a River of the same Name, tho' about ten Leagues distant from the Village.

We had hop'd to ford that River, as Monsieur de la Sale had done, when he return'd from that Country; but it was so swollen, that there was no doing it, and we were forced to make a Canoe of Bullocks Hides. Whilst we were