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

I679.J POTTAWATTAMIES. 157shouting to each other through the darkness.Hennepin, who was in the smallest canoe with aheavy load, and a carpenter for a companion whowas awkward at the paddle, found himself in jeopardywhich demanded all his nerve. The voyagersthought themselves happy when they gained at lastthe shelter of a little sandy cove, where they draggedup their canoes, and made their cheerless bivouac inthe drenched and dripping forest. Here they spentfive days, living on pumpkins and Indian corn, thegift oftheir Pottawattamie friends, and on a Canadaporcupine brought in by La Salle's Mohegan hunter.The gale raged meanwhile with relentless fury.They trembled when they thought of the "Griffin."When at length the tempest lulled, they re-embarked,and steered southward along the shore ofWisconsin;but again the storm fell upon them, and drove themfor safety to a bare, rocky islet.Here they made afire of drift-wood, crouched around it, drew theirblankets over their heads, and in this miserableplight, pelted with sleet and rain, remained for twodays.At length they were afloatagain; but their prosperitywas brief. On the twenty-eighth, a fiercesquall drove them to a point of rocks covered withbushes, where they consumed the little that remainedof their provisions. On the first of October theypaddled about thirty miles, without food, when theycame to a village of P Ottawattamies, who ran downto the shore to help them to land ; but La Salle, fear-