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

184 FORT CR&VECCEUR. [1680.engage him to say nothing of what had passed, and,leaving him in excellent humor, repaired, with someof his followers, to the Illinois camp.Here he foundthe chiefs seated at a feast of bear's meat, and hetook his place among them on a mat of rushes.Aftera pause, he charged them with having deceived himin regard to the Mississippi; adding that he knewthe river perfectly, having been instructedconcerningit by the Master of Life. He then described itto them with so much accuracy that his astonishedhearers, conceiving that he owed his knowledge to"medicine," or sorcery, clapped theirhands to theirmouths in sign of wonder, and confessed that allthey had said was but an artifice, inspired by theirearnest desire that he should remain among them. 1On this, La Salle's men took heart again; and theircourage rose still more when, soon after, a band ofChickasa, Arkansas, and Osage warriors, from theMississippi, came to the camp on a friendly visit,and assured theFrench not only that the river wasnavigable to the sea, but that the tribes along itsbanks would give them a warm welcome.La Salle had now good reason to hope that hisfollowers would neither mutiny nor desert in hisabsence. One chief purpose of his intended journeywas to procure the anchors, cables, and rigging of1 Relation des Decouvertes et des Voyages du S r -de la Salle, Seigneuret Gouverneur du Fort de Frontenac, au dela des granas Lacs dela Nouvelle France, faits par ordre de Monseigneur Colbert, 1679, 80et 81. Hennepin gives a story which is not essentially different,except that he makes himself a conspicuous actor in it.