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

178 LA SALLE ON THE ILLINOIS. [1680.reply, and, grunting assent in the depths of histhroat, made a sign that the feast should proceed.The French were lodged in huts, near the Indiancamp; and, fearing treachery, La Salle placed aguard at night. On the morning after the feast, hecame out into the frosty air and looked about him forthe sentinels. Not one of them was to be seen.Vexed and alarmed, he entered hut after hut androused his drowsy followers. Six of the number,including two of the best carpenters, were nowhereto be found. Discontented and mutinous from thefirst, and now terrified by the fictions of Nicanope*,they had deserted, preferring the hardships of themidwinter forest to the mysterious terrors of theMississippi. La Salle mustered the rest before him,and inveighed sternly against the cowardice andbaseness of those who had thus abandoned him,regardless of his many favors. If any here, he added,are afraid, let them but wait till the spring, and theyshall have free leave to return to Canada, safely andwithout dishonor. 1This desertion cut him to the heart. It showedhim that he was leaning on a broken reed; and hefelt that, on an enterprise full of doubt and peril,there were scarcely four men in hiscould trust.party whom heNor was desertion the worst he had tofear; for here, as at Fort Frontenac, an attempt wasmade to kill him. Tonty tells us that poison was1Hennepin (1083), 162. Declaration faite par Moyse Hillaret,charpentier de barque, cy devant au service du S r -de la Salle.