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 The indomitable La Salle built a vessel of sixty tons on Lake Erie in 1679—the "Griffin," first craft of her kind "that ever sailed our inland seas above Lake Ontario." In her La Salle was to sail to near the Mississippi; part of this ship's cargo comprised anchors and tackling for a boat in which the explorer would descend the Mississippi and reach the West Indies. The "Griffin" was lost, but her builder pushed on undismayed to the valley of the Illinois River. Late in 1679 he built Fort Miamis at the mouth of the St. Joseph, and in December he passed up that river and over the portage to the Kankakee which Joliet and Marquette had traversed six years before. "Passing places soon to become memorable in western annals he finally stopped at a point just below the [Peoria] lake and began a fortification. He gave to this fort a name that, better than anything else, marks the desperate condition of his affairs. Hitherto he had refused to believe that the "Griffin" was lost—the vessel that he had strained his resources to build, and freighted with his fortunes  But as hope of her safety