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

338 LA SALLE PAINTED BY HIMSELF. [1680-83.exhort me to make merry with them. They areincapable of that ; for they are never pleased, unlessone gives free rein to their drunkenness and othervices. If that is what you call having popularmanners, neither honor nor inclination would let mestoop to gain their favor in a way so disreputable ?and, besides,the consequences would be dangerous,and they would have the same contempt for me thatthey have for all who treat them in this fashion." You write me that even my friends say that I amnot a man of popular manners.I do not know whatfriends they are. I know of none in this country.To all appearance they are enemies, more subtle andsecret than the rest. I make no exceptions; for Iknow that those who seem to give me support donot do it out of love for me, but because they are insome sort bound in honor, and that in their heartsthey think I have dealt ill with them. M. Plet willtell you what he has heard about it himself, and thereasons they have to give. 1I have seen it for a longtime; and these secret stabs they give me show itvery plainly. After that, it is not surprising that Iopen my mind to nobody, and distrust everybody.have reasons that I cannot write." For the rest, Monsieur, pray be well assured thatthe information you are so good as to give me isI1His cousin, Francois Plet, was in Canada in 1680, where, withLa Salle's approval, he carried on the trade of Fort Frontenac, inorder to indemnify himself for money advanced. La Salle alwaysspeaks of him with esteem and gratitude.