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

-310 ST. LOUIS OF THE ILLINOIS. [1682.La Salle had written his name in historytbut hishard-earned success was but the prelude of a hardertask. Herculean labors lay before him, if he wouldrealize the schemes with which his brain was pregnant.Bent on accomplishing them, he retraced hiscourse, and urged his canoes upward against themuddy current. The party were famished. Theyhad little to subsist on but the flesh of alligators.When they reached the Quinipissas, who had provedhostile on their way down, they resolved to risk aninterview with them, in the hope of obtaining food.The treacherous savages dissembled, brought themcorn, and on the following night made an attack uponthem, but met with a bloody repulse.The party nextrevisited the Coroas, and found an unfavorable changein their disposition towards them. They feastedthem, indeed, but during the repast surrounded themwith an overwhelming force of warriors. TheFrench, however, kept so well on their guard, thattheir entertainers dared not make an attack, andsuffered them to depart unmolested. 1And now, in a career of unwonted success andanticipated triumph, La Salle was arrested by a foeagainst which the boldest heart avails nothing. Ashe ascended the Mississippi, he was seized by adangerous illness. Unable to proceed, he sent fortheshore of the Gulf to a little south of the Rio Grande ; then runswest, northwest, and finally north, along the range of the RockyMountains.1 Tonty, 1684, 1693.