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

;150 THE LAUNCH OF THE « GRIFFIN." [1679.of them, Melithon Watteau, was to remain at Niagara ;the others, Zenobe Membre" and Gabriel Ribourde,were to preach the Faith among the tribes of theWest. Ribourde was a hale and cheerful old manof sixty-four. He went four times up and downthe Lewiston heights, while the men were climbingthe steep pathway with their loads.It required fourof them, well stimulated with brandy, to carry upthe principal anchor destined for the "Griffin."La Salle brought a tale of disaster. His enemies,bent on ruining the enterprise, had given out that hewas embarked on a harebrained venture, from whichhe would never return. His creditors, excited byrumors set afloat to that end, had seized on all hisproperty in the settled parts of Canada, though hisseigniory of Fort Frontenac alone would have morethan sufficed to pay all his debts. There was noremedy. To defer the enterprise would have beento give his adversaries the triumph that they soughtand he hardened himself against theusual stoicism. 1blow with his1 La Salle's embarrassment at this time was so great that he purposedto send Tonty up the lakes in the " Griffin," while he wentback to the colony to look after his affairs ; but suspecting that thepilot, who had already wrecked one of his vessels, was in the payof his enemies, he resolved at last to take charge of the expeditionhimself, to prevent a second disaster. (Lettre de La Salle, 22 Aout,1682 ;Margry, ii. 214.) Among the creditors who bore hard uponhim were Migeon, Charon, Giton, and Peloquin, of Montreal, inwhose name his furs at Fort Frontenac had been seized. The intendantalso placed under seal all his furs at Quebec, among which isset down the not very precious item of two hundred and eighty-fourskins of en/ants du diable, or skunks.