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

128 THE GRAND ENTERPRISE. [1678.officer, a protSgS of the Prince de Conti, who senthim to La Salle as a person suited to his purposes.Tonty had but one hand, the other having beenblown off by a grenade in the Sicilian wars. 1 Hisfather, who had been governor of Gaeta, but whohad come to France in consequence of political disturbances inNaples, had earned no small reputationas a financier, and had invented the form of lifeinsurance still called the Tontine. La Salle learnedto know his new lieutenant on the voyage across theAtlantic ;and, soon after reaching Canada, he wroteof him to his patron in the following terms: "Hishonorable character and his amiable disposition werewe 'I known to you; but perhaps you would not havethe aght him capable of doing things for which astrong constitution, an acquaintance with the country,and the use ofboth hands seemed absolutely necessary.Nevertheless, his energy and address makehim equal to anything; and now, at a season wheneverybody is in fear of the ice, he is setting out tobegin a new fort, two hundred leagues from thisplace, and to which I have taken the liberty to givethe name of Fort Conti. It is situated near thatgreat cataract,more than a hundred and twenty toisesin height, by which the lakes of higher elevationprecipitate themselves into Lake Frontenac [Ontario].From there one goes by water, five hundred leagues,to the place where Fort Dauphin is to be begun;from which it only remains to descend the great1Tonty, MSmoire, in Margry, Relations et Mimoires inedits, 6.