soldiers, voyageurs and laborers, 25 men in all, with full outfits of all needed tools for the building of the vessel and a new fort. By a shorter route than that of the previous year, they arrived at Michilimackinac, pushed on with 12 men to the ruined fort at St. Joseph, where he left the heavy stores, under a small guard, to await the arrival of La Forest. His anxiety to reach Tonti, of whom, thus far, he had heard nothing, was greatly increased by a rumor of an impending invasion of the Illinois country, by the Iroquois, which foreboded a new disaster to his enterprise. And as the party passed down the Illinois, it met with evidences everywhere that the two savage tribes had indeed met in combat, to the utter rout of the Illinois; but their anxiety in regard to Tonti was not relieved by any word or sign. The vessel, however, which he had left unfinished at Fort Crèvecœur was still entire, and but slightly damaged. Once more taking to their canoes, they descended the river (250 miles) to its junction with the Mississippi, which they first saw about the 7th of December, 1781.[1] There was now nothing left for him, except to retrace his way up the Illinois to relieve the men whom he had left at the fort on the St. Joseph.[2] And, though to his surprise he learned no tidings of Tonti, he found that his men under La Forest's orders had restored the fort, cleared a place for planting, and prepared the timber and plank for a new vessel.
Tonti, meanwhile, finding himself caught in the very midst of the terrible war between the Iroquois and the
- ↑ The white man's name, "The Father of Waters," applied to this river, is a rather grandiloquent paraphrase of the Indian's "All Water," but seems to apply only to one feature of its greatness—viz., its size. The Indian name, however, compounded of Missi, whole, and sipi, river, more nearly describes its collective character, as the great irrigating system of this vast region, receiving many tributaries, both great and small.
- ↑ Fortunately, his fort and colony were not attacked at that time; but later it withstood a six-days' siege, under the combined command of Tonti (as La Salle's representative) and De Baugis, a French officer, representing the Governor-General. The attack, however, was unsuccessful.
