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

1685.] WRECK OF THE "AIMABLE." 383All La Salle's company were now encamped on thesands at the left side of the inlet where the " Aimable "was wrecked. 1 "They were all," says the engineerMinet, "sick with nausea and dysentery. Five orsix died every day, in consequence of brackish waterand bad food. There was no grass, but plenty ofrushes and plenty of oysters. There was nothing tomake ovens, so that they had to eat flour savedfrom the wreck, boiled into messes of porridge withthis brackish water. Along the shore were quantitiesof uprooted trees and rotten logs, thrown up bythe sea and the lagoon." Of these, and fragmentsof the wreck, they made a sort of rampart to protecttheir camp; and here, among tents and hovels, bales,boxes, casks, spars, dismounted cannon, and pens forfowls and swine, were gathered the dejected men andhomesick women who were to seize New Biscay, andhold for France a region large as half Europe. TheSpaniards, whom they were to conquer, were theycargo. The loss included nearly all the provisions, 60 barrels ofwine, 4 cannon, 1,620 balls, 400 grenades, 4,000 pounds of iron, 6,000pounds of lead, most of the tools, a forge, a mill, cordage, boxes ofarms, nearly all the medicines, and most of the baggage of thesoldiers and colonists. Aigron returned to France in the " Joly,"and was thrown into prison, " comme il paroist clairement que cetaccident est arrive' par sa faute." — Seignelay uu Sieur Arnoul, 22Juillet, 1685 (Margry, ii. 604).1 A map, entitled Entree du Lac oil on a laisse le S r - de la Salle,made by the engineer Minet, and preserved in the Archives de laMarine, represents the entrance of Matagorda Bay, the camp of L»Salle on the left, Indian camps on the borders of the bay, the* Belle " at anchor within, the " Aimable " stranded at the entrance,and the " Joly " anchored in the open sea.