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

1683.] LA SALLE AND LA BARRE. 319nances regulating the fur-trade, which it was hisduty to enforce.Like Frontenac, he took advantageof his position to carry on an illicit traffic with theIndians; but it was with different associates. Thelate governor's friends were the new governor's enemies; and La Salle, armed with his monopolies, wasthe object of his especial jealousy. 1Meanwhile, La Salle,buried in the western wilderness,remained for the time ignorant of La Barre'sdisposition towards him, and made an effort to securehis good-will and countenance. He wrote to himfrom his rock of St. Louis, early in the spring of1683, expressing the hope that he should have fromhim the same support as from Count Frontenac;" although, " he says, "my enemies will try to influenceyou against me."His attachment to Frontenac,he pursues, has been the cause of all the late governor'senemies turning against him. He thenrecounts his voyage down the Mississippi ;with twenty-two Frenchmen, he caused allsays that,the tribesalong the river to ask for peace ; and speaks of hisright under the royal patent to build forts anywherealong his route, and grant out lands around them,as at Fort Frontenac.1The royal instructions to La Barre, on his assuming the government,dated at Versailles, 10 May, 1682, require him to give nofurther permission to make journeys of discovery towards the Siouxand the Mississippi, as his Majesty thinks his subjects better employedin cultivating the land. The letter adds, however, that LaSalle is to be allowed to continue his discoveries, if they appear tobe useful. The same instructions are repeated in a letter of theMinister of the Marine to the new intendant of Canada, De Meules.