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

1669-71.] THE RIVER ILLINOIS. 31problem. By this it appears that the indefatigableexplorer embarked on Lake Erie, ascended theDetroit to Lake Huron, coasted the unknown shoresof Michigan, passed the Straits of Michilimackinac,and, leavingGreen Bay behind him, entered what isdescribed as an incomparably larger bay, but whichwas evidently the southern portion of Lake Michigan.Thence he crossed to a river flowing westward, —evidently the Illinois, — and followed it untilit .wasjoined by another river flowing from the northwestto the southeast. By this, the Mississippi only canbe meant; and he is reported to have said that hedescended it to the thirty-sixth degree of latitude;where he stopped, assured that it discharged itselfnot into the Gulf of California, but into the Gulf ofMexico, and resolved to follow it thither at a futureday, when better provided with men and supplies. 1The first of these statements, — that relating to the1The memoir— after stating, as above, that he entered LakeHuron, doubled the peninsula of Michigan, and passed La Baye deaPuants {Green Bay) — says: "II reconnut une baye incomparablementplus large ; au fond de laquelle vers l'ouest il trouva un tresbeauhavre et au fond de ce havre un fleuve qui va de Test a l'ouest.II suivit ce fleuve, et estant parvenu jusqu'environ le 280 me degrede longitude et le 39 me de latitude, il trouva un autre fleuve qui sejoignant au premier coulait du nordouest au sudest, et il suivit cefleuve jusqu'au 36 me degre de latitude."The " tres-beau havre " may have been the entrance of the riverChicago, whence, by an easy portage, he might have reached theDes Plaines branch of the Illinois. We shall see that he took thiscourse in his famous exploration of 1682.The intendant Talon announces, in his despatches of this yearthat he had sent La Salle southward and westward to explore.