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

456 THE INNOCENT AND THE GUILTY. [1687failed him again; and pretending, as before, to beill, he called on his nephew to take his place. Therewere solemn dances, too, in which the warriors —some bedaubed with white clay, some with red, andsome with both; some wearing feathers, and somethe horns of buffalo; some naked, and some inpainted shirts ofinsomuch, saysdeer-skin, fringed with scalp-locks,Joutel, that they looked like a troopof devils — leaped, stamped, and howled from sunsettill dawn. All this was partly to do the travellershonor, and partly to extort presents. They madeobjections, however, when asked to furnish guides;and it was only by dint of great offers that fourwere at length procured.With these, the travellers resumed their journeyin a wooden canoe, about the first of August, 1descended theArkansas, and soon reached the darkand inexorable river, so long the object of theirsearch, rolling, like a destiny, through its realms ofsolitude and shade. They launched their canoe onits turbid bosom, plied their oars against the current,and slowly won their way upward, following thewrithings of this watery monster through cane-brake,swamp, and fen. It was a hard and toilsome jour-1 Joutel says that the Parisian boy, Barthelemy, was left behind.It was this youth who afterwards uttered the ridiculous defamationof La Salle mentioned in a preceding note. The account of thedeath of La Salle, taken from the lips of Couture, was receivedby him from Cavelier and his companions, during their stay at theArkansaa Couture was by trade a carpenter, and was a native ofBouen.