Page:Joutel's journal of La Salle's last voyage, 1684-7 (IA joutelsjournalof00jout).pdf/66

 Latitude that Mouth lay in, and found it was between 28 and 29 Degrees North, as Monsieur Joutel ''affirms he heard him say. He left Marks there, return'd the same Way to Canada and thence into France, well pleased with his Discovery, which would have been very glorious, had he succeeded in his second Voyage''. But whether he did not take his Measures right, when he made his Observations ashore, or whether that River disgorges it self at a flat Coast, and only leaves some inconsiderable Mark of its Channel for such as come by Sea; it is most certain, that when he came into the Bay of Mexico, he sought for the same Mouth in Vain, during the Space of three Weeks, and was oblig'd to go ashore to the S. W. of the Place, where it really was. Monsieur Tonty, ''in his Book, Fol. 192, tells us, that he was present when Monsieur de la Sale took the Latitude of the Mouth of the Missisipi, at his first Voyage, and says it was between twenty two and twenty three Degrees North; but that is a Mistake, which must be assigned either to the Printer, or Transcriber, for in the Map the said Monsieur Tonty has added to his Book, he places the said Mouth in about twenty six Degrees and a Half of North Latitude, and there is Reason to believe he errs in that too''. Monsieur Joutel and some others are of Opinion, that the Mouth of that Branch Monsieur de la Sale went down, is in the Bay of the Holy Ghost, and actually between the twenty eighth and twenty ninth Degrees of North Latitude, as Monsieur de la Sale ''found it. As for the other Channel, the same Sieur Joutel believes it is farther towards the S. W. and about the Shoals they met with about the 6th of January, 1685, between the twenty seventh and twenty eighth Degrees of North Latitude, when they were sailing along the Coast of the Bay of Mexico, and that those Shoals were the Marks of a River discharging it self there, which they neglected to inquire into. If that be so, Monsieur de la Sale was very near it, and even pass'd along before both''