The Tenth, he took an Observation and found 29 Degrees 23 Minutes North Latitude. The eleventh, we were becalm'd, and Monsieur de la Sale resolv'd to go ashore, to endeavour to discover what he was looking for; but as we were making ready, the Pilot began to mutter because five or six of us were going with Monsieur de la Sale, who too lightly alter'd his Design, to avoid giving Offence to brutish People. In that Particular he committed an irretrieveable Error; for it is the Opinion of Judicious Men, who, as well as I, saw the rest of that Voyage, that the Mouth of one of the Branches of the Missisipi River, and the same whose Latitude Monsieur de la Sale had taken, when he travell'd to it from Canada, was not far from that Place, and that we must of Necessity be near the Bay of the Holy Ghost.[1]
Monsieur de la Sale's Mistake. It was Monsieur de la Sale's Design to find that Bay, and having found it, he had resolv'd to have set ashore about thirty Men, who were to have follow'd the Coast on the Right and Left, which would infallibly have discover'd to him that fatal River, and have prevented many Misfortunes; but Heaven refus'd him that Success, and even made him regardless of an Affair of such Consequence, since he was satisfy'd with sending thither the Pilot, with one of the Masters of the Bark la Belle, who return'd without having seen any Thing, because a fog happen'd to rise; only the Master of the Bark said he believ'd there was a River opposite to those Shoals, which was very likely, and yet Monsieur de la Sale took no Notice of it, nor made any Account of that Report.
The Twelfth, the Wind being come about we weigh'd and directed our Course S. W. to get further from the Land. By an Observation found 25[2] Degrees 50 Minutes
- ↑ They must have already passed the mouth of the Mississippi (owing to La Salle's having failed to determine its longitude, in 1682, when he had taken its latitude), and were then sailing along the Texas coast, probably near Galveston Bay, more than 400 miles westward of their desired objective. See note to p. 120, vol. ii, Parkman's La Salle (Champlain edition).
- ↑ In the Fr. 28th.
