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

14 CAVELIER DE LA SALLE. [1668.ment by each of five sous a year. He reserved fourhundred and twenty arpents for his own personaldomain, and on this he began to clear the groundand erect buildings. Similar to this were the beginningsof all the Canadian seigniories formed at thistroubled period. 1That La Salle came to Canada with objects distinctlyin view, is probable from the fact that he atonce began to study the Indian languages, — andwith such success that he is said, within two or threeyears, to have mastered the Iroquois and seven oreight other languages and dialects. 2 From the shoreof his seigniory, he could gaze westward over thebroad breast of the Lake of St. Louis, bounded bythe dim forests of Chateauguay and Beauharnois;but his thoughts flew far beyond, across the wild andlonely world that stretched towards the sunset. LikeChamplain, and all the early explorers, he dreamedof a passage to the South Sea, and a new road forcommerce to the riches of China and Japan. Indiansoften came to his secluded settlement; and, on oneoccasion, he was visited by a band of the SenecaIroquois, not long before the scourge of the colony,but now, in virtue of the treaty, wearing the sem-1The above particulars have been unearthed by the indefatigableAbbe" Faillon. Some of La Sailed grants are still preserved in theancient records of Montreal.3 Papier t de Famille. He is said to have made several journeysinto the forests, towards the North, in the years 1667 and 1668, andto have satisfied himself that little could be hoped from explorationsin that direction.