แ I will call when the end draws near,

you

said in his sweet, cheerful spirit.

" he

They went and were engaged in their work when they heard his feeble voice calling to them:

They hastened to his side and one stood at his head and the other at his feet.

"Bring some holy water which I prepared, whispered the dying man. This was done, and

he dipped his fingers in it and anointed his own brow. Then he took from lis neck a crucifix which he had worn for years, placed it in the hands of one of his companions and whispered:

66

Hold it constantly before my eyes, so long as life remains in my body."

The companion, kneeling at his feet held aloft the crucifix while he bowed his head in prayer. Surely, since the crucifixion, the eye of man has never beheld a more solemn sight, than this old saint dying in the forest where he had given his life to God. With clasped hands, Father Marquette then pronounced aloud the profession of his faith, and soon afterward he died, as he had desired to do, in the bosom of the wilderness in the service of his Master, without human aid. A grave was dug by his weeping companions, who carried him to it, ringing his little chapel bell, which he had brought with him. Near his grave

they erected a large wooden cross, which for a long time marked the spot where slept all that was mortal of the second discoverer of the Mississippi, and the founder of Michigan.

About this time, Robert De La Salle, a young Frenchman, who had been educated for the priesthood in a Jesuit seminary, but who preferred a secular life, was seated at the foot of Lake Ontario, and enjoying a monopoly of the fur trade with the Five Nations south of the lake. He had built a fort on the site of modern Kingston and named it Frontenac in honor of his patron. The mild Franciscans, now tolerated in Canada, were carrying on their religious work among the Indians under the favor of La Salle.

Stirred by old accounts of Spanish voyagers to America, and especially by the published adventures of De Soto giving the incidents attending the discovery of the Mississippi, he had spent most of his early manhood in building air castles of that wonderful but unexplored country. The stories of Father Marquette's voyage on that stream, so mighty in higher latitudes, influenced his heightened ambition with a desire to become a pioneer in those far off regions and to perfect the explorations of the "Great Water." He had also heard of the Ohio River and the beauty and wealth of the country through which it flowed, and he resolved to

attempt the establishment of a widely extended commerce with the natives there and, if possible, plant colonies in the vast wilderness. With these aspirations he went to France and found favor with Colbert, the famous minister of Louis XIV.

It required a sagacity like Colbert's to comprehend the possibilities of the scheme, and he induced the king to extend La Salle's monopoly of the fur trade among the Indians, and to give him a commission to perfect the explorations of the Mississippi River. With some merchants and others and an Italian named Tonti as his lieutenant, late in 1678, La Salle returned to Frontenac to equip for the expedition. With his forces and a Franciscan priest, in a great canoe, they crossed Lake Ontario and went up the Niagara River to the site of Lewiston. They established a trading-post in that region, and near the present city of Buffalo, above. the cataract, they built a sailing vessel in which they crossed the lakes to Mackinnack and, pushing forward, anchored in Green Bay, west of Lake Michigan. From Mackinnack, or Mackinaw, La Salle sent back the brig laden with a rich cargo of furs and awaited her return. He tarried impatiently among the Miamies at Chicago, for some time, when, with Tonti, Father Hennepin and two other Franciscans and about thirty followers, he boldly penetrated the wilderness westward on foot

and in canoes, until he reached Lake Peoria, in Illinois. Building a fort here, he sent Father Hennepin forward to explore the upper Mississippi, while he returned to Frontenac to look after his property.

With two oarsmen, Father Hennepin went down. the Illinois River until the Mississippi was reached, which was in the month of March. They were detained here some time by the floating ice; but when it had passed Father Hennepin, invoking the aid of St. Anthony of Padua, ascended the stream to the great falls which bear the name of his patron saint.

Hennepin is not an accurate chronicler, for, though he never went further up the river than the falls of St. Anthony, he claims to have discovered its source. The falls he describes with tolerable accuracy, considering his disposition to exaggerate, and near them he carved a cross and the arms of France upon the forest trees, and in the Autumn of 1680 he returned to Green Bay by the way of the Wisconsin and Fox Rivers. Meanwhile, Tonti, who had been driven out of Illinois by the Indians, took refuge among the barbarians on the western shore of Lake Michigan.

La Salle had not given up the exploration of the Mississippi. He brooded over it by day, dreamed of it at night, until with him the idea became a

ruling passion. In 1682, he returned to the Illinois country with men and supplies for the enterprise.

In

Early in the year, with twenty-three Frenchmen and eighteen New England warriors, ten women and three children, that enterprise was undertaken. They reached the Mississippi in February and embarked upon its bosom in a strong and spacious barge, which had been constructed for the purpose, and many of the natives followed in canoes. this manner they descended the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico, everywhere observing the evidences of unbounded wealth in the bosom of the soil along its course. They stopped at many places and held intercourse with the natives, who came to the river banks in large numbers to meet them. At one place below the mouth of the Arkansas River, they found a powerful king over many tribes, to whom La Salle sent presents. His ambassadors were received with great respect, and the monarch sent word by them that he should visit their chief in person. He came in great state, preceded by two horses, and a master of ceremonies with six men, who cleared the ground over which his majesty was to pass, and erected a pavilion of mats to shield the king from the sun. The dusky monarch was dressed in a white robe falling to his knees, that had been beautifully woven of the inner bark of trees. He was on foot, and was preceded by two