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

X96 HARDIHOOD OF LA SALLE. [1680.last, on the night of the second of April, there camea hard frost, and our clothes, which were drenchedwhen we took them off, froze stiff as sticks, so thatwe could not put them on in the morning withoutmaking a fire to thaw them. The fire betrayed us tothe Indians, who were encamped across the marsh;and they ran towards us with loud cries, till theywere stopped halfway by a stream sodeep that theycould not get over, the ice which had formed in thenight not being strong enough to bear them. Wewent to meet them, within gun-shot; and whetherour fire-arms frightened them, or whether they thoughtus more numerous than we were, or whether theyreally meant us no harm, they called out, in theIllinois language, that they had taken us for Iroquois,but now saw that we were friends and brothers;whereupon, they went off as they came, and we kepton our way till the fourth, when two of my men fellill and could not walk."In this emergency, La Salle went in search of somewatercourse by which they might reach Lake Erie,and soon came upon a small river,which was probablythe Huron. Here, while the sick men rested,their companions made a canoe. There were nobirch-trees ; and they were forced to use elm-bark,which at that early season would not slipfreely fromthe wood until they loosened it with hot water.Their canoe being made, they embarked in it, andfor a time floated prosperously down the stream,when at length the way was barred by a matted