possession of La Salle's mind. Content, however, with what he could get in the way of kingly favor—on the principle, perhaps, that "half a loaf is better than no loaf," the adventurer turned his attention to securing the needed funds, and soon, by loans from friends and family, and by mortgages upon his Fort Frontenac property, had raised sufficient to carry out his purpose.
On the 14th July, 1678, Le Sieur La Salle, as he must thenceforth be called, with Tonti, La Motte, and 30 men, mostly ship carpenters, with a cargo of iron, cordage, anchors, etc., sufficient for the equipment of two vessels, set sail for Quebec, where they arrived after a two months' voyage. Here they met with Father Hennepin, a Récollet friar, who had come to Canada three years before, and whose name from this point is prominently connected with American Western exploration.[1]
The Second Voyage of Exploration (1678-1679) was virtually commenced, under the orders of La Salle (who was with Tonti) detained at Quebec by his own affairs, and the difficulties arising from the machinations of his enemies,[2] by La Motte and Hennepin. They set sail, from Fort Frontenac, November 18th, 1678, in a small vessel of ten tons; but it was not until the 6th of December that they reached the mouth of the Niagara river and saw the grand cataract of which Hennepin's pencil has preserved the first known picture and description. Two leagues above the mouth of the Niagara river La Motte began the erection of a fort, where he was joined later by La Salle and Tonti. Here, under almost unsurmountable
- ↑ Hennepin was a Jesuit priest, a courageous and rather able man, to whose memoirs we are indebted for much information concerning La Salle's and other early explorations; though the value of his writings is much impaired by his tendency to tell large stories, and to claim for himself the credit which belonged to others; a tendency which seemed to increase more and more with each successive edition of his book.
- ↑ The animus of this enmity, which persistently followed La Salle for the rest of his life, is fully explained on pp. 101-104 of Parkman's La Salle, Champlain edition, vol. i.
