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

462 THE INNOCENT AND THE GUILTY. [1687.the twenty-first of March, reached Chicago on thetwenty-ninth, and thence proceeded to Michilimackinac.Here Cavelier sold some of Tonty's fursto a merchant, who gave him in payment a draftMontreal, thus putting him inonfunds for his voyagehome. The party continued their journey in canoesby way of French River and the Ottawa, and safelyreached Montreal on the seventeenth of July. Herethey procured the clothing of which they werewofully in need, and then descended the river toQuebec,where they took lodging, — some with theRe*collet friars, and some with the priests of theSeminary, — in order to escape the questions ofthe curious. At the end of August they embarkedfor France, and early in October arrived safely atRochelle. None of the party were men of especialenergy or force of character; and yet, under thespur of a dire necessity,most adventurous journeys on record.they had achieved one of theNow, at length, they disburdened themselves oftheir gloomy secret; but the sole result seems tohave been an order from the King for the arrest ofthe murderers, should they appear in Canada. 11 Lettre du Roy a Denonville, 1 Mai, 1689. Joutel must havebeen a young man at the time of the Mississippi expedition ; forCharlevoix saw him at Rouen, thirty-five years after. He speaks ofhim with emphatic praise ; but it must be admitted that his connivancein the deception practised by Cavelier on Tonty leaves a shadeon his character, as well as on that of Douay. In other respects,everything that appears concerning him is highly favorable, whichis not the case with Douay, who, on one or two occasions, makeswilful misstatements.Douay says that the elder Cavelier made a report of the expedi-