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

;78 THE DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI. [1674.than a month in coasting its western border, when atlength they reached the river Chicago, entered it, andascended about two leagues. Marquette's diseasehad lately returned, and hemorrhage now ensued.He told his two companions that this journey wouldbe his last.In the condition in which he was, it wasimpossible to go farther. The two men built a loghut by the river,and here they prepared to spend thewinter; while Marquette, feeble as he was, beganthe spiritual exercises of Saint Ignatius, and confessedhistwo companions twice a week.Meadow, marsh, and forest were sheeted withsnow, but game was abundant.Pierre and Jacqueskilled buffalo and deer, and shot wild turkeys closeto their hut. There was an encampment of Illinoiswithin two days' journey;and other Indians, passingby this well-known thoroughfare, occasionally visitedthem, treating the exiles kindly, and sometimesbringing them game and Indian corn. Eighteenleagues distant was the camp of two adventurousFrench traders, — one of them, a noted coureur debois,nicknamed La Taupine2and the other&& selfstyledsurgeon. They also visited Marquette, andbefriended him to the best ofUrged by a burning desiretheir power.to lay, before he died,the foundation of his new mission of the ImmaculateConception, Marquette begged his two followers to1 Pierre Moreau, alias La Taupine, was afterwards bitterly complainedof by the Intendant Duchesneau, for acting as the governor'sagent in illicit trade with the Indians.