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

160 LA SALLE ON THE UPPER LAKES. [1679.congregation of crows or turkey buzzards. Theypaddled in all haste to the spot. The feasters tookflight; and the starved travellers found the mangledbody of a deer, lately killed by the wolves. Thisgood luck proved the inauguration of plenty. Asthey approached the head of the lake, game grewabundant; and, with the aid of the Mohegan, therewas no lack of bear's meat and venison. They foundwild grapes, too,in the woods, and gathered them bycutting down the trees to which the vines clung.JWhile thus employed, they were startled by asight often so fearful in the waste and the wilderness,— the print of a human foot.It was clear thatIndians were not far off. A strict watch was kept,not, as it proved, without cause; for that night,while the sentry thought oflittle but screening himselfand his gun from the floods of rain, a party ofOdtagamies crept under the bank, where they lurkedfor some time before he discovered them. Beingchallenged, they came forward, professing greatfriendship, and pretending to have mistaken theFrench for Iroquois. In the morning, however,there was an outcry from La Salle's servant, whodeclared that the visitors had stolen his coat fromunder the inverted canoe where he had placed it;while some of the carpenters also complained of beingrobbed. La Salle well knew that if the theft wereleft unpunished, worse would come of it. First, heposted his men at the woody point of a peninsula,whose sandy neck was interposed between them and