Page:Joutel's journal of La Salle's last voyage, 1684-7 (IA joutelsjournalof00jout).pdf/218

 We stay'd in that Monastery till the 21st of August, when we imbark'd on a large Boat, eighteen Persons of us, to go down the River of St. Lawrence, a Board a Ship, that was taking in and fishing of Cod, in order to reach France. We went a Board it the 30th of the same Month, and after hearing Mass, made ready and sail'd for our dear Country, arriv'd safe at Rochelle on Saturday the 9th of October 1688, whence, setting out by Land, Friday the 15th, the same Providence, which had protected and conducted us, brought us without any Misfortune to Roan, the 17th of October, the same Year.

The End of the JOURNAL. The concealment of the fact of La Salle's death, which was maintained by this party of survivors, until, and for some time after, their return to France, gave rise to an heroic manifestation of courage and friendship, by the Chevalier Tonti, who had been left in charge of Fort Louis on the Illinois.

Although they had been, on their journey northward, to Canada, the guests of that officer at Fort St. Louis, from September, 1687, till the end of February, 1688, they had made no disclosure of that fact. And, it was not until some months later, that Tonti heard of it, from the lips of one of his own men, Conture by name, who had been left at the Arkansas, and who had been told of it by the Abbe Cavelier himself. Meanwhile Tonti had received from and paid over to his reverend guest an order from La Salle for over 2,500 livres in beaver and supplies, on which money the party had made their further journey homeward.

Learning now, for the first time, with what grief and indignation we may well imagine, of the death of his beloved friend and chief; and also that the Arkansas Indians were anxious to join with the French in an invasion of Mexico—which information was also followed by an official notification from the Governor of Canada, that war had again been declared against Spain, Tonti decided to rescue, if possible, the remaining members of La Salle's party on the Gulf coast; and, by making them the nucleus of a small army, to cross the Rio Grande, and thus win a new province for France.

Leaving the fort early in December, in a canoe, with five Frenchmen, an Indian warrior and two other Indians, he reached the home of the Caddoes in Red River, by the last of March, 1688, and was preparing to push on to a village eighty miles distant in search of Hiens and his companions, when he was left almost helpless by the refusal of all his men, except one Frenchman and the Indian warrior, to longer pursue the tiresome journey they had thus far made. But, with the two faithful ones, he pushed on, losing nearly all their ammunition in crossing a river, and finding, upon reaching the village where he had expected to find them, that they had been killed. As his ammunition was lost, and the Indians refused to furnish him guides, he could *