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

1678] LA MOTTE AND THE SENEGAS. 141ducted to the lodge of the great chief, where theywere beset by a staring crowd of women and children.Two Jesuits, Raffeix and Julien Gamier, were inthe village; and their presence boded no good forthe embassy. La Motte, who seems to have had littlelove for priests of any kind, was greatly annoyed atseeing them ; and when the chiefs assembled to hearwhat he had to say, he insisted that the two fathersshould leave the council-house. At this, Hennepin,out of respect for his cloth, thought it befitting thathe should retire also. The chiefs, forty-two innumber, squatted on the ground, arrayed in ceremonialrobes of beaver, wolf, or black-squirrelskin."The senators of Venice," writes Hennepin, "donot look more grave or speak more deliberately thanthe counsellors of the Iroquois." La Motte's interpreterharangued the attentive conclave, placed giftafter gift at their feet, — coats, scarlet cloth, hatchets,knives, and beads, — and used all his eloquence topersuade them that the building of a fort on thebanks of the Niagara, and a vessel on Lake Erie,were measures vital to their interest. They gladlytook the gifts, but answered the interpreter's speechwith evasive generalities; and having been entertainedwith the burning of an Indian prisoner, thediscomfited embassy returned, half-famished, toNiagara.Meanwhile, La Salle and Tonty were on their wayfrom Fort Frontenac, with men and supplies, tojoin La Motte and his advance party. They were