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

1670.] AT STE. MARIE DU SAUT. 27through the Strait of Detroit; though Joliet had, nodoubt, passed this way on his return from theUpperLakes. 1 The two missionaries took this course, withthe intention of proceeding to the Saut Ste. Marie,and there joining the Ottawas, and other tribes ofthat region, in their yearly descent to Montreal.They issued upon Lake Huron ; followed its easternshores till they reached the Georgian Bay, near thehead of which the Jesuitshad established their greatmission of the Hurons, destroyed, twenty yearsbefore, by the Iroquois; 2 and, ignoring or slightingthe labors of the rival missionaries, held their waynorthward along the rocky archipelago that edgedthose lonely coasts. They passed the Manitoulins,and, ascending the strait by which Lake Superiordischarges its waters, arrived on the twenty-fifth ofMay at Ste. Marie du Saut. Here they found thetwo Jesuits, Dablon and Marquette, in a square fortof cedar pickets, built by their men within the pastyear, and enclosing a chapel and a house.Near by,they had cleared a large tract of land, and sown itwith wheat, Indian corn, peas, and other crops.new-comers were graciously received, and invitedThevespers in the chapel ; but they very soon found LaSalle's prediction made good, and saw that the Jesuitfathers wanted no help from St. Sulpice. Galinde,1The Jesuits and fur-traders, on their way to the Upper Lakes,had followed the route of the Ottawa, or, more recently, that ofToronto and the Georgian Bay. Iroquois hostility had long closedthe Niagara portage and Lake Erie against them.aThe Jesuits in North America.to