Page:Joutel's journal of La Salle's last voyage, 1684-7 (IA joutelsjournalof00jout).pdf/32

 time seen. The calumet of peace was exchanged and La Salle explained to his hosts his object and his wish for peace, so that they all retired to sleep in amity. In the morning, however, La Salle found that he was regarded with distrust, and soon learned that Indian emissaries from another tribe had been tampering, over-night, with his hosts—who now appeared quite indisposed to friendship. He saw, in this sudden change of front, the hand of the Jesuits, and when, at a second feast, tendered by one of the chiefs, he was urged to desist from his plan of descending the Mississippi, by arguments of the number, valor, and ferocity of the tribes inhabiting its valley, the terrors of alligators, serpents, and unnatural monsters, and the fearful nature of the river itself, he was fully confirmed in his opinion. In a strong, but temperate address, La Salle declared his disbelief in those marvelous tales, and affirmed that they were lies, inspired by French jealousy of his project, and sent them through Iroquois sources. A few days later, a band of Mississippi Indians visited the camp, from whom he learned the utter falsity of these stories and also had the assurance that the tribes along that river would receive the white men with favor. On this he took the first opportunity, at another feast, of confronting the Illinois chiefs with so full a description of the river (which he said had been communicated to him by "the Great Spirit") its course and its final meeting with the sea, that his savage hearers "clapped their hands to their mouths," in astonishment, and conceiving him to be a sorcerer, confessed that what they had said was false and inspired only by their desire to retain him amongst them.

Meanwhile, he had determined to fortify himself for the winter (it was now the middle of January) in a position where he could face an Illinois outbreak, or an Iroquois invasion, better than he could do in the Indian camp where he was then a guest. Taking advantage of a thaw, which temporarily reopened the frozen river, he with Hennepin, in a canoe, sought and soon found the site he had chosen.