perhaps Lake Superior. Following in his footsteps, the
Jesuits gradually established missions as far west as the Wisconsin
River, and, finally, in 1670, at Sault Ste. Marie, the French formally
took possession of the whole Northwest.

It was at about this time there appeared upon the scene another of those
picturesque and formidable figures, in which this period of American
history so abounds--Robert Cavalier La Salle. La Salle was at that time
only twenty years of age. He had reached Canada four years earlier and
had devoted himself for three years to the study of the Indian
languages, in order to fit himself for the career of western exploration
which he contemplated. One day he was visited by a party of Senecas, who
told him of a river, which they called the Ohio, so great that many
months were required to traverse it. From their description, La Salle
concluded that it must fall into the Gulf of California, and so form the
long-sought passage to China. He determined to explore it, and after
surmounting innumerable obstacles, actually did reach it, and descend it
as far as the spot where the city of Louisville now stands, afterwards
exploring the Illinois and the country south of the Great lakes, as well
as the lakes themselves.

Fired by La Salle's report of his discoveries, two other Frenchmen,
Louis Joliet, a native of Quebec, who had already led an expedition in
search of the copper mines of Lake Superior, and Jacques Marquette, a
Jesuit priest and accomplished linguist, started on a still greater
journey. With five companions and two birchbark canoes, they headed down
the Wisconsin river, and on June 17, 1673, glided out upon the blue
waters of the Mississippi. A fortnight later, they reached a little
village called Peoria, where the Indians received them well, and
continuing down the river, passed the Missouri, the Ohio, and finally,
having gone far enough to convince themselves that the river emptied
into the Gulf of Mexico and not into the Gulf of California, they turned
about and reached Green Bay again in September, having paddled more than
2,500 miles. Marquette, shattered in health, remained at Green Bay,
while Joliet pushed on to Montreal to tell of his discoveries. Marquette
rallied sufficiently at the end of a year to attempt a mission among the
Illinois Indians, where death found him in the spring of 1675. Joliet
spent his last years in a vain endeavor to persuade the government of
France to undertak