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

1678.] MONEY AND MEANS. 127four thousand ; and one Duinont, six thousand. Hiscousin Frangois Plet, a merchant of Rue St. Martin,lent him about eleven thousand, at the interest offorty per cent; and when he returned to Canada,Frontenac found means to procure him another loanof about fourteen thousand, secured by the mortgageof Fort Frontenac. But his chief helpers were hisfamily, who became sharers in his undertaking."His brothers and relations," says a memorial afterwardsaddressed by them to the King, "spared nothingto enable him to respond worthily to the royalgoodness;" and the document adds, that, before hisallotted five years were ended, his discoveries hadcost them more than five hundred thousand livres(francs). 1 La Salle himself believed, and madeothers believe, that there was more profit than riskin his schemes.Lodged rather obscurely in Rue de la Truanderie,and of a nature reserved and shy, he neverthelessfound countenance and support from personages noless exalted than Colbert, Seignelay, and the Princede Conti. Others, too, in stations less conspicuous,warmly espoused his cause, and none more so thanthe learned Abbe* Renaudot, who helped him withtongue and pen, and seems to have been instrumentalin introducing to him a man who afterwards provedinvaluable. This was Henri de Tonty, an Italian \Y1Memoire au Roy, prisente sous la Regence ; Obligation du Sieur dela Salle envers le Sieur Plet ; Autres Emprunts de Cavelier de la Salle(Margiy, i. 423-482).