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

;1684.] COMPLAINTS OF BEAUJEU. 371of his affairs; but that he did not wish to meddlewith them, especially as nobody knows anythingabout them, and as La Salle has sold some of theammunition and provisions; that Cavelier tells himthat he thinks hisbrother keeps no accounts, wishingto hide his affairs from everybody; that he learnsfrom buccaneers that the entrance ofthe Mississippiis very shallow and difficult, and that this is theworst season for navigating the Gulf; that theSpaniards have in these seas six vessels of fromthirty to sixty guns each, besides row-galleys; butthat he is not afraid, and will perish, or bring backan account of the Mississippi. "Nevertheless," headds, " if the Sieur de la Salle dies, I shall pursue acoursedifferent from that which he has marked outfor I do not approve his plans.""If," he continues, "you permit me to speak mymind, M. de la Salle ought to have been satisfiedwith discovering his river, without undertaking toconduct three vessels with troops two thousandleagues through so many different climates, andacross seas entirely unknown to him. I grant thathe is a man ofknowledge, that he has reading, andeven some tincture of navigation; but there is somuch difference between theory and practice, that aman who has only the former will always be at fault.There is also a great difference between conductingcanoes on lakes and along a river, and navigatingships with troops on distant oceans." 11 Lettre de Beaujeu au Ministre, 20 Oct., 1684.