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

1681.] INDIAN FRIENDS. 285from their homes, and strangers in this westernworld. Several of the English colonies, from Virginiato Maine, had of late years been harassed byIndian wars; and the Puritans of New England,above all, had been scourged by the deadly outbreakof King Philip's war.Those engaged in it had paida bitter price for their brief triumphs. A band ofrefugees, chiefly Abenakis and Mohegans, drivenfrom their native seats,had roamed into these distantwilds, and were wintering in the friendly neighborhoodof the French. La Salle soon won them overto his interests. One of their number was theMohegan hunter, who for two years had faithfullyfollowed his fortunes, and who had been four years inthe West. He is described as a prudent and discreetyoung man, in whom La Salle had great confidence,and who could make himself understood inseveralwestern languages, belonging, like his own, to thegreat Algonquin tongue. This devoted henchmanproved an efficient mediator with his countrymen.The New-England Indians, with one voice, promisedto follow La Salle,asking no recompense but to callhim their chief, and yield to him the love andadmiration which he rarely failed to command fromthis hero-worshipping race.New allies soon appeared.A Shawanoe chief fromthe valley of the Ohio, whose following embraced ahundred and fifty warriors, came to ask the protectionof the French against the all-destroying Iroquois.*The Shawanoes are too distant," was La Salle's