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

430 ASSASSINATION OF LA SALLE. [1687.to advance or to fly; when Duhaut, rising from theambuscade, ealled out to him to take courage, for hehad nothing to fear. The murderers now came forward,and with wild looks gathered about theirvictim. "There thou liest, great Bashaw! Therethouliest!" 1 exclaimed the surgeon Liotot, in baseexultation over the unconscious corpse. Withmockery and insult, they stripped it naked, draggedit into the bushes, and left it there, a prey to thebuzzards and thewolves.Thus in the vigor of his manhood, at the age offorty-three, died Robert Cavelier de la Salle," one ofthe greatest men," writes Tonty, "of this age;"without question one of the most remarkableexplorers whose names live in history.His faithfulofficer Joutel thus sketches his portrait :" His firmness,his courage, his great knowledge of the artsand sciences, which made him equal to every undertaking,and his untiring energy, which enabled himto surmount every obstacle, would have won at last aglorious successhis fine qualitiesfor his grand enterprise, had not allbeen counterbalanced by a haughtinessof manner which often made him insupportable,and by a harshness towards those under his commandwhich drew upon him an implacable hatred, and wasat last the cause of his death." 2The enthusiasm of the disinterested and chivalrous203.1 " Te voila, grand Bacha, te voila ! " — - Joutel, Journal Historique.* Ibid.