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

284 LA SALLE BEGINS ANEW. [1681,his enterprise would come to nought ; and he thoughthe saw the means by which this new danger could beconverted into a source of strength. The tribes ofthe West, threatened by the common enemy, mightbe taught to forget their mutual animosities and joinin a defensive league, with La Salle at its head.They might be colonized around his fort in the valleyof the Illinois, where in the shadow of the Frenchflag, and with the aid of French allies, they couldhold the Iroquois in check, and acquire in somemeasure the arts of a settled life. The Franciscanfriars could teach them the Faith ; and La Salle andhis associates could supply them with goods, inexchange for the vast harvest of 'furs which theirhunters could gather in these boundless wilds.Meanwhile, he would seek out the mouth of theMississippi; and the furs gathered at his colony inthe Illinois would then find a ready passage to themarkets of the world. Thus might this ancientslaughter-field of warring savages be redeemed tocivilization and Christianity ; and a stable settlement,half-feudal, half-commercial, grow up in the heart ofthe western wilderness. This plan was but a part ofthe original scheme of his enterprise, adapted to newand unexpected circumstances ; and he now set himselfto its execution with his usual vigor, joined toan address which, when dealing with Indians, neverfailed him.There were allies close at hand. Near Fort Miamiwere the huts of twenty-five or thirty savages, exiles