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

112 PARTY STRIFE. [1678.Here follow a series of statements which it is needlessto repeat, as they do not concern La Salle.They relate to abuse of the confessional, hostility toother priests, hostility to civil authorities, and overhastybaptisms, in regard to which La Salle isreported to have made a comparison, unfavorable tothe Jesuits, between them and the Re'collets andSulpitians.We now come to the second part of the memoir,entitled "History of Monsieur de la Salle." Afterstating that he left France at the age of twenty-oneor twenty-two, with the purpose ofnew discovery, it makes the statementsattempting somerepeated in aformer chapter, concerning his discovery of the Ohio,the Illinois, and possibly the Mississippi. It thenmentions the building of Fort Frontenac, and saysthatone object of it was to prevent the Jesuits frombecoming undisputed masters of the fur-trade. 1Three years ago, it pursues, La Salle came to France,md obtained a grant of the fort ; and it proceeds togive examples of the means used by the party opposedto him to injure his good name and bring him withinreach of the law. Once, when he was at Quebec,the farmer of the King's revenue, one of the richestde Chaumonot, 83. For its establishment at Montreal, see Faillon,1Vie de M *- Mance, i. 233." Us [les Jesuites] ont tous une si grande envie de savoir tout cequi se fait dans les families qu'ils ont des Inspecteurs a gages dansla Ville, qui leur rapportent tout ce qui se fait dans les maisons,"etc., etc.—Lettre de Frontenac au Ministre, 13 Nov., 1673.1Mention has been made (p. 88, note) of the report set on footby the Jesuit Dablon, to prevent the building of the fort.