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

830 LA SALLE PAINTED BY HIMSELF. [1680-83.thousand livres' worth of goods.In the autumn of'79, I lost a vessel worth more than ten thousandcrowns; in the next spring, five or six rascals stolethe value of five or six thousand livres in goods andbeaver-skins, at the Illinois, when I was absent.Two other men of mine, carrying furs worth four orfive thousand livres, were killed or drowned in theSt. Lawrence, and the furs were lost. Anotherrobbed me of three thousand livres in beaver- skinsstored at Michilimackinac. This last spring, I lostabout seventeen hundred livres' worth of goods bythe upsetting of a canoe. Last winter, the fort andbuildings at Niagara were burned by the fault of thecommander; and in the spring the deserters, whopassed that way, seized a part of the property thatremained, and escaped to New York. All this doesnot discourage me in the least, and will only deferfor a year or two the returns ofprofit which you askfor this year. These losses are no more my faultthan the loss of the ship 4 St. Joseph ' was yours. Icannot be everywhere, and cannot help making useof the people of the country."He begs his correspondent to send out an agent ofhis own." He need not be very savant, but he mustbe faithful, patient of labor, and fond neither ofgambling, women, nor good cheer; for he will findnone of these with me. Trusting in what he willwrite you, you may close your ears to what priestsand Jesuits tell you."After having put matters in good trim for trade I