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

1673.] FRONTENAC'S JOURNEY. 89sometimes in water to the knees, sometimes to thearmpits, theirfeet cut by the sharp stones, and theythemselves well-nigh swept down by the furiouscurrent, — they fought their way upward against thechain of mighty rapids that break the navigation ofthe St. Lawrence. The Indians were of the greatestservice. Frontenac, like La Salle, showed from thefirst a special faculty of managing them; for hiskeen, incisive spirit was exactly to their liking, andthey worked for him as they would have worked forno man else. As they approached the Long Saut,rain fell in torrents; and the governor, without hiscloak, and drenched to the skin, directed in personthe amphibious toil of his followers. Once, it issaid, he lay awake all night, in his anxiety lest thebiscuit should be wet, which would have ruined theexpedition. No such mischance took place, and atlength the last rapid was passed, and smooth waterawaited them to their journey's end. Soon theyreached the Thousand Islands, and their light flotillaglided in long file among those watery labyrinths, byrocky islets, where some lonely pine towered like amast against the sky; by sun-scorched crags, wherethe brown lichens crisped in the parching glare; bydeep dells, shady and cool, rich in rank ferns, andspongy, dark-green mosses ; by still coves, where thewater-lilies lay like snow-flakes on their broad, fiatleaves, — till at length they neared their goal, andthe glistening bosom of Lake Ontario opened on theirsight.