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

322 ST. LOUIS OF THE ILLINOIS. [168a" I trust that, as it lies with you alone to preventor to permit the return ofthe men whom I have sentdown, you will not so act as to thwart my plans.A part of the goods which I have sent by thembelong not to me, but to the Sieur de Tonty, andare a part of his pay. Others are to buy munitionsindispensable for our defence. Do not let my creditorsseize them. It is for their advantage that myfort,full as it is of goods, should be held against theenemy. I have only twenty men, with scarcely ahundred pounds of powder; and I cannot long holdthe country without more. The Illinois are verycapricious and uncertain.... If I had men enoughto send out to reconnoitre the enemy, I would havedone so before this ; but I have not enough. I trustyou will put it in my power to obtain more, thatthis important colony may be saved." 1While La Salle was thus writing to La Barre, LaBarre was writing to Seignelay, the Marine andColonial Minister, decrying his correspondent's discoveries,and pretending to doubt their reality."The Iroquois," he adds, "have sworn his [LaSalle's] death. The imprudence of this man is aboutto involve the colony in war." 2 And again he1 Lettre de La Salle a La Barre, Portage de Chicagou, 4 Juin, 1683.The substance of the letter is given above, in a condensed form.passage is omitted, in which La Salle expresses his belief that hisvessel, the " Griffin," had been destroyed, not by Indians, but bythe pilot, who, as he thinks, had been induced to sink her, and then,with some of the crew, attempted to join Du Lhut with theirplunder, but were captured by Indians on the Mississippi.2 Lettre de La Barre au Ministre, 14 Nov., 1682.A