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

1680.] BUILDING OF THE FORT. 181were sloped steeply down to the bottom of the ravinesand the ditch, and further guarded by chevaux-dcfrise;while a palisade, twenty-five feet high, wasplanted around the whole. The lodgings of themen, built of musket-proof timber, were at two ofthe angles ; the house of the friars at the third ; theforge and magazine at the fourth; and the tents ofLa Salle and Tonty in the area within.Hennepin laments the failure of wine, whichprevented him from saying mass ; but every morningand evening he summoned the men to his cabin tolisten to prayers and preaching, and on Sundays andfgte-days they chanted vespers. Father Zenobeusually spent the day in the Indian camp, striving,with very indifferent success, to win them to theFaith, and to overcome the disgust with which theirmanners and habits inspired him.Such was the first civilized occupation of the regionwhich now forms the State of Illinois. La Sallechristened his new fort Fort CrSvecoeur. The nametells of disaster and suffering, but does no justice tothe iron-hearted constancy of the sufferer. Up tothis time he had clung to the hope that his vessel,the " Griffin, " might still be safe. Her safety wasvital to his enterprise. She had on board articles ofthe last necessity to him, including the rigging andanchors of another vessel which he was to 'build atFort Crevecoeur, in order to descend the Mississippiand sail thence to the West Indies. But now hislast hope had well-nigh vanished. Past all reasonable