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

;56 FRANCE TAKES POSSESSION, ETC. [1672.proceeded to Lake Superior, where, however, lieaccomplished nothing, except, perhaps, a traffic withthe Indians on his own account; and he soon afterreturned to Quebec.Talon was resolved to find theMississippi, the most interesting object of search,and seemingly the most attainable, in the wild andvague domain which he had just claimed for theKing. The Indians had described it; the Jesuitswere eager to discover it; and La Salle, if he hadnot reached it,had explored two several avenues bywhich it might be approached. Talon looked abouthim for a fit agent of the enterprise, and madechoice of Louis Joliet, who had returned from LakeSuperior. 1 But the intendant was not to see thefulfilment of his design.His busy and useful careerin Canada was drawing to an end. A misunderstandinghad arisen between him and the governor,Courcelle.Both were faithful servants of the Kingbut the relations between the two chiefs of the colonywere of a nature necessarily so critical, that a conflictof authority was scarcely to be avoided. Eachthought his functions encroached upon, and bothasked for recall. Another governor succeeded ; onewho was to stamp his mark, broad, bold, and ineffaceable,on the most memorable page of French-AmericanHistory, — Louis de Buade, Count of Palluau andFrontenac.1 Lettre de Frontenac au Ministre, 2 Nov., 1672. In the BrodheadCollection, by a copyist's error, the name of the Cheralier de Grandfontaineis substituted for that of Talon.