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

1684.] LA SALLE'S INDISCRETION. 861conjectureson what I read about it in the Gazette deHollande. Let Abbe* Renaudot glorify M. de laSalle as much as he likes, and make him a Cortez, aPizarro, or an Almagro, — that is nothing to me ;butdo not let him speak of me as an obstacle in hishero's way. Let him understand that I know howto execute the orders of the court as well as he. . . ."You ask how I get on with M. de la Salle.Don't you know that this man is impenetrable, andthat there is no knowing what he thinks of one?He told a person of note whom I will not name thathe had suspicionsabout our correspondence, as wellas about Madame de Beaujeu's devotion to theJesuits. His distrust is incredible. If he sees oneof his people speak to the rest, he suspects something,and is gruff with them. He told me himselfthat he wanted toget rid of M. de Tonty, who is inAmerica."La Salle's claim to exclusive command of thesoldiers on board the " Joly " was a source of endlesstrouble.Beaujeu declared that he would not set sailtill officers, soldiers, and volunteers had all sworn toobey him when at sea; at which La Salle had theindiscretion to say, " If I am not master of my soldiers,how can I make him [Beaujeu] do his duty incase he does not want to do it?"Beaujeu says that this affair made a great noiseamong the officers at Rochefort, and adds :" Thereare very few people who do not think that his brain istouched. I have spoken to some who have known