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

24 LA SALLE AND THE SULPITIANS. [1669This meeting caused a change of plan. Jolietshowed the priests a map which he had made of suchparts of the Upper Lakes as he had visited,them a copy of it;and gavetelling them, at the same time, ofthe Pottawattamies and other tribes ofthat region ingrievous need of spiritual succor. The result was adetermination on their part to follow the route whichhe suggested, notwithstanding the remonstrances ofLa Salle, who in vain reminded them that the Jesuitshad preoccupied the field,and would regard them asintruders. They resolved that the Pottawattamiesshould no longer sit in darkness; while, as for theMississippi, it could be reached, as they conceived,with less risk by thisnorthern route than by that ofthe south.La Salle was of a different mind. His goal wasthe Ohio, and not the northern lakes. A few daysbefore, while hunting, he had been attacked by afever, sarcastically ascribed by Galinde to hisseen three large rattlesnakes crawling up a rock.havingHenow told his two colleagues that he was in no conditionto go forward, and should be forced to part withjthem. The staple of La Salle's character, as his lifewill attest, was an invincible determination of purpose,which set at naught all risks and all sufferings.He had cast himself with all his resources into thisenterprise ; and, while his faculties remained, he wasnot a man to recoil from it. On the other hand, themasculine fibre of which he was made did not alwayswithhold him from the practice of the arts of address,