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

"1687.] JOURNEY TO THE CENIS. 489them without horror. When I thought of the crueldeeds they had committed, and thedanger we werein from them, I longed to revenge the evil they haddone us. This would have been easy while theywere asleep; but M. Cavelier dissuaded us, sayingthat we ought to leave vengeance to God, and thathe himself had more to revenge than we, having losthis brother and his nephew.The comic alternated with the tragic. On thetwenty-third, they reached the bank of a river toodeep to ford.Those who knew how to swim crossedwithout difficulty, but Joutel, Cavelier, and Douaywere not of the number.a log of light,Accordingly, they launcheddry wood, embraced it with one arm,and struck out for the other bank with their legsand the arm that was left free.But the friar becamefrightened. "He only clung fast to the aforesaidlog," says Joutel, "and did nothing to help us forward.White I was trying to swim, my body beingstretched at full length, I hit him in the belly withmy feet; on which he thought it was all over withhim, and, I can answer for it, he invoked Saint Franciswith might and main. I could not help laughing,though I was myself in danger of drowning." SomeIndians who had joined the party swam to therescue, and pushed the log across.The path to the Cenis villages was exceedinglyfaint, and but for the Indians they would have lostthe way. They crossed the main stream of theTrinity in a boat of raw hides, and then, being short