Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/37

 cleaning them, a funeral processsion of thirty canoes bore them to the Mackinaw Mission, singing the songs he had taught them. At the shores of the mission the bones were received by the priests, and, with great ceremony, buried under the floor of the rude chapel.

While Maqruette and Joliet were exploring the head-waters of the "Great River," another man, fearless in purpose, pious in heart, and loyal to his country, was living in Canada and watching the operations of his fellow countrymen with keen eyes. When the French first saw the inhospitable shores of the St. Lawrence, in 1535, under the lead of Jacques Cartier, and had opened a new country to their crown, men were not lacking to further extend the discovery. In 1608, Champlain came, and at the foot of a cliff on that river founded Quebec. Seven years after, he brought four Recollet monks; and through them and the Jesuits the discoveries already narrated occurred. Champlain died in 1635, one hundred years after Cartier's first visit, but not until he had explored the northern lakes as far as Lake Huron, on whose rocky shores he, as the progenitor of a mighty race to follow, set his feet. He, with others, held to the idea that somewhere across the country, a river highway extended to the Western ocean. The reports from the missions whose history has been given aided this belief; and not until Marquette and Joliet returned was the delusion in any way dispelled. Before this was done, however, the man to whom reference has been made, Robert Cavalier, better known as La Salle, had endeavored to solve the mystery, and, while living on his grant of land eight miles above Montreal, had indeed effected important discoveries.

La Salle, the next actor in the field of exploration after Champlain, was born in 1643. His father's family was among the old and wealthy burghers of Rouen, France, and its members were frequently entrusted with important governmental positions. He early exhibited such traits of character as to mark him among his associates. Coming from a wealthy family, he enjoyed all the advantages of his day, and received, for the times, an excellent education. He was a Catholic, though his subsequent life does not prove him to have been a religious enthusiast. From some cause, he joined the Order of Loyola, but the circumscribed sphere of action set for him in the order illy concurred with his independent disposition, and led to his separation from it. This was effected, however, in a good spirit, as they considered him fit for a different field of action than any presented by the order. Having a brother in Canada, a member of the order of St. Sulpice, he determined to join him. By his connection with the Jesuits he had lost his share of his father's estate, but, by some means, on his death, which occurred about this time, he was given a small share; and with this, in 1666, he arrived in Montreal. All Canada was alive with the news of the explorations; and La Salle's mind, actively grasping the ideas he afterward carried out, began to mature plans for their perfection. At Montreal he found a seminary of priests of the St. Sulpice Order who were encouraging settlers by grants of land on easy terms, 'hoping to establish a barrier of settlements between themselves and the Indians, made enemies to the French by Champlain's actions when founding Quebec. The Superior of the seminary, learning of La Salle's arrival, gratuitously offered him a grant of land on the St. Lawrence, eight miles above Montreal. The grant, though dangerously near the hostile Indians, was accepted, and La Salle soon enjoyed an excellent trade in furs. While employed in developing his claim, he learned of the great unknown route, and burned with a desire to solve its existence. He applied himself closely to the study of Indian dialects, and in three years is said to have made great progress in their language. While on his farm his thoughts often turned to the unknown land away to the west, and, like all men of his day, he desired to explore the route to the Western sea, and thence obtain an easy trade with China and Japan. The "Great River, which flowed to the sea," must, thought they, find an outlet in the Gulf of California. While musing on these things, Marquette and Joliet were preparing to descend the Wisconsin; and La Salle himself learned from a wandering band of Senecas that a river, called the Ohio, arose in their country and flowed to the sea, but at such a distance that it would require eight months to reach its mouth. This must be the Great River, or a part of it: for all geographers of the day considered the Mississippi and its tributary as one stream. Placing great confidence on this hypothesis. La Salle repaired to Quebec to obtain the sanction of Gov. Courcelles. His plausible statements soon won him the Governor and M. Talon, and letters patent were issued granting the exploration. No pecuniary aid was offered, and La Salle, having expended all his means in improving his