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

;136 LA SALLE AT NIAGARA. [1678.Jary of the Mohawk language * which he had compiledand here he presently met three Dutchmen, whourged him to visit the neighboring settlement ofOrange, or Albany, — an invitation which he seemsto have declined. 2They were pleased with him, he says, becausespoke Dutch.heBidding them farewell, he tied on hissnow-shoes again, and returned with his companionto Fort Frontenac. Thus he inured himself to thehardships of the woods, and prepared for the executionof the grand plan of discovery which he calls hisown, — "an enterprise," to borrow his own words," capable of terrifying anybody but me. " 3 When thelater editions of his book appeared, doubts had beenexpressed of his veracity. "I here protest to you,before God, " he writes, addressing the reader," thatmy narrative is faithful and sincere, and that youmay believe everything related in it." 4 And yet, aswe shall see, this reverend father was the mostimpudent of liars; and the narrative of which hespeaks is a rare monument of brazen mendacity.Hennepin, however, had seen and dared much; for1This was the Ratines Agnihres of Bruyas. It was published by-Mr. Shea in 1862. Hennepin seems to have studied it carefully ;for on several occasions he makes use of words evidently borrowedfrom it, putting them into the mouths of Indians speaking a dialectdifferent from that of the Agniers, or Mohawks.3Compare Brodhead in Hist. Mag., x. 268." Une enterprise capable d'e*pouvanter tout autre que moi." —Hennepin, Voyage Curieux, Avant Propos (1704).4 " Je vous proteste ici devant Dieu, que ma Relation est fldele etsincere," etc. — Ibid., Avis au Lecteur.