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

298 SUCCESS OF LA SALLE. [1682.ranged the woods in pursuit of the missing hunter.After six days of ceaseless and fruitlessmet two Chickasaw Indians in the forest ;search, theyand throughthem La Salle sent presents and peace-messages tothat warlike people, whose villages were a few days'journey distant. Several days later Prudhomme wasfound, and brought into the camp, half-dead. Hehad lost his way while hunting ; and to console himfor his woes La Salle christened the newly built fortwith his name, and left him, with a few others, incharge of it.Again they embarked; and with every stage oftheir adventurous progress the mystery of this vastNew World was more and more unveiled. More andmore they entered the realms of spring. The hazysunlight, the warm and drowsy air,the tender foliage,the opening flowers, betokened the reviving life ofNature. For several days more they followed thewrithings of the great river on its tortuous coursethrough wastes of swamp and canebrake, till on thethirteenth of March 2 they found themselves wrappedin a thick fog. Neither shore was visible ; but theyheard on the right the booming of an Indian drumand the shrill outcries of the war-dance. La Salle atonce crossed to the oppositeside, where, in less thanan hour, his men threw up a rude fort of felled trees.la Salle, going on his discovery, intrenched himself here with hisparty, fearing that Prudhomme, who had lost himself in the woods,had been killed by the Indians, and that he himself would beattacked."1La Salle, Relation ; Thomasay, 11.