La Salle and the discovery of the great West - North Central ...

70 THE DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI. [1674.hiscanoe was overset, two of his men and an Indianboy were drowned, all his papers were lost, and hehimself narrowly escaped. lhe speaks of the accident as follows:every peril from the Indians ;In a letter to Frontenac,"I had escapedI had passed forty-tworapids; and was on the point of disembarking, fullof joy at the success of so long and difficult an enterprise,when my canoe capsized, after all the dangerseemed over.I lost two men and my box of papers,within sight of the first French settlements, which Ihad left almost two years before. Nothing remainsto me but my life,and the ardent desire to employ iton any service which you may please to direct." 21 Lettre de Frontenac au Minislre, Quebec, 14 Nov., 1674.* This letter is appended to Joliet's smaller map of his discoveries.See Appendix. Compare Details sur le Voyage de Louis Jolietand Relation de la Descouverte de plusieurs Pays situez au midi de laNouvelle France, faite en 1673 (Margry, i. 259). These are oralaccounts given by Joliet after the loss of his papers. Also, Lettrede Joliet, Oct. 10, 1674 (Harrisse). On the seventh of October, 1675,Joliet married Claire Bissot, daughter of a wealthy Canadian merchant,engaged in trade with the northern Indians. This drewJoliet's attention to Hudson's Bay ; and he made a journey thitherin 1679, by way of the Saguenay. He found three English forts onthe bay, occupied by about sixty men, who had also an armed vesselof twelve guns and several small trading-craft. The English heldout great inducements to Joliet to join them ; but he declined, andreturned to Quebec, where he reported that unless these formidablerivals were dispossessed, the trade of Canada would be ruined.consequence of this report, some of the principal merchants of thecolony formed a company to compete with the English in the tradeof Hudson's Bay. In the year of this journey, Joliet received agrant of the islands of Mignan ; and in the following year, 1680, hereceived another grant, of the great island of Anticosti in the lowerSt. Lawrence. In 1681 he was established here, with his wife andsix servants. He was engaged in fisheries; and, being a skilfulIn