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

204 INDIAN CONQUERORS. [1680.rest. On the fourth of November 1 he reached theruined fort at the mouth of the St. Joseph, and leftfive of his party, with the heavy stores, to wait tillLa Forest should come up, while he himself hastenedforward with six Frenchmen and an Indian. A deepanxiety possessed him. The rumor, current formonths past, that the Iroquois, bent on destroyingthe Illinois, were on the point of invading theircountry had constantly gained strength.Here wasa new disaster, which, if realized, might involve himand his enterprise in irretrievable wreck.He ascended the St. Joseph, crossed the portageto the Kankakee, and followed its course downwardtill it joined the northern branch of the Illinois. Hehad heard nothing ofTonty on the way, and neitherhere nor elsewhere could he discover the smallestsign of the passage of white men. His friend, therefore,if alive, was probably still at his post ; and hepursued his course with a mind lightened, in somesmall measure, of its load of anxiety.When last he had passed here, all was solitude;but now the scene was changed. The boundlesswaste was thronged with life. He beheld thatwondrous spectacle, still to be seen at times on theplains of the remotest West, and the memory ofwhich can quicken the pulse and stir the blood after1This date is from the Relation. Memore* says the twentyeighth; but he is wrong, by his own showing, as he says that theparty reached the Illinois village on the first of December, whichwould be an impossibility.