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

1684.] ILLNESS OF LA SALLE. 369attended by his brother, and one or two others whostood faithful to him. A goldsmith of the neighborhood,moved at his deplorable condition, offered theuse of his house ;and Abbe* Cavelier had him removedthither. But there was a tavern hard by, and thepatient was tormented with daily and nightly riot.At the height of the fever, a party of Beaujeu'ssailors spent a night in singing and dancing beforethe house ; and, says Cavelier, " The more we beggedthem to be quiet, the more noise they made." LaSalle lost reason and well-nigh life ;but at length hismind resumed its balance, and the violence of thedisease abated. A friendly Capucin friar offeredhim the shelter of his roof; and two of his men supportedhim thither on foot, giddy with exhaustionand hot with fever.Here he found repose, and wasslowly recovering, when some of his attendants rashlytold him the loss of the ketch "St. Francois ;" andthe consequence was a critical return of thedisease. 1There was no one to fill his place. Beaujeu wouldnot; Cavelier could not. Joutel, the gardener's son,was apparently the most trusty man of the company;but the expedition was virtually without a head.The men roamed on shore,and plunged into everyexcess of debauchery, contracting diseases whicheventually killedthem.Beaujeu, in the extremity of ill-humor, resumed1The above particulars are from the memoir of La ^olle'fbrother, Abbe' Cavelier, already cited24