Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. II.djvu/284

Rh quivers into the canoes as a token of peace, they prepared a hospitable welcome. ’

“Thus had the travellers descended below the entrance of the Arkansas to the genial climes which have scarcely any winter, but rains, to the vicinity of the Gulf of Mexico, and to tribes of Indians who had obtained arms by traffic with the Spaniards or with Virginia.

“So, having spoken of God, and the mysteries of the Catholic faith—having become certain that the Father of Rivers went not to the ocean, east of Florida, nor yet to the Gulf of California, Marquette and Joliet left Arkansea and ascended the Mississippi.

“At the thirty-eighth degree of latitude they entered the river Illinois, and discovered a country without its equal for the fertility of its beautiful prairies, covered with buffaloes and stags,—for the loveliness of its rivulets, and the prodigal abundance of wild ducks and swans, and of a species of parrot and wild turkeys. The tribe of Indians that tenanted its banks entreated Marquette to come and reside among them. One of their chiefs, with their young men, conducted the party by way of Chicago to Lake Michigan; and before the end of September, all were safe in Green Bay.

“Joliet returned to Quebec to announce the discovery, the fame of which, through Talon, quickened the ambition of Colbert. The unaspiring Marquette remained to preach the gospel to the Miamis who dwelt in the north of Illinois, round Chicago. Two years afterwards, sailing from Chicago to Mackinaw, he entered a little river in Michigan. Erecting an altar, he said mass according to the ritual of the Catholic Church; and then desired the men who had conducted his canoe to leave him alone for half-an-hour.

“At the end of the time they went to seek him; but he was no more. The good missionary-discoverer of a world had fallen asleep on the margin of the stream that