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

194 HARDIHOOD OF LA SALLE. [1680.seen her nor heard tidings of her. Assured of herfate, he ordered them to rejoin Tonty at FortCrSvecoeur; while he pushed onward with his partythrough the unknown wild of Southern Michigan.'The rain," says La Salle, "which lasted all day,and the raft we were obliged to make to cross theriver, stopped us till noon of the twenty-fifth, whenwe continued our march through thewoods, whichwas so interlaced with thorns and brambles that intwo days and a half our clothes were all torn, andour faces so covered with blood that we hardly kneweach other. On the twenty-eighth we found thewoods more open, and began to fare better, meetinga good deal of game, which after this rarely failedus ; so that we no longer carried provisions with us,but made a meal of roast meat wherever we happenedto kill a deer, bear, or turkey.These are the choicestfeasts on a journey like this; and till now we hadgenerally gone without them, sothat we had oftenwalked allday without breakfast." The Indians do not hunt in this region, which isdebatable ground between five or six nations who areat war, and, being afraid of each other, do notventure into these parts except to surprise each other,and always with the greatest precaution and allpossible secrecy. The reports of our guns and thecarcasses of the animals we killed soon led some ofthem to find our trail. In fact, on the evening of thetwenty-eighth, having made our fire by the edge of aprairie, we were surrounded by them; but as the