the overarching skies; the bright, serene autumnal day; the foliage,
the verdure, the picturesque wigwams; the peaceful employments of the
women, and the sports and shouts of the merry children, showed that our
ruined Eden still retained some of those glories which embellished it
before man rebelled against his Maker.

La Salle, on his return from Europe, in the autumn of 1678, had brought
with him a select company of sailors, carpenters, and other mechanics.
At Quebec a number of Canadian boatmen joined him. These men he sent
forward to Fort Frontenac, which was now virtually his castle, with the
surrounding territory his estate. The boats were heavily laden with all
articles for trading with the Indians, and with all the essentials for
building and rigging vessels. He soon followed them, in an open birch
canoe, with one or two companions. It was a long and perilous river
voyage, paddling up the swift current of the St. Lawrence between its
thousand islands, struggling against its rapids, and seeking for the
eddies along its lonely forest-fringed shores. Several times they came
near being wrecked, with inevitable death.

At the close of the day it was always necessary to run the canoe
ashore, to land and encamp. But with hardy men, fond of adventure,
these were pleasures rather than pains. With their axes, in half an
hour they could construct a sheltering camp. A brilliant fire would
dispel all gloom, with its wide-spreading illumination. The fragrant
twigs of the hemlock furnished a soft couch. Here they cooked their
suppers, sang their songs, told their stories, and, free from all care,
probably experienced at least as much pleasure as is usually found in
parlors the most sumptuous.

Indian villages were quite profusely scattered along the banks of this
majestic river. The scene was often quite exciting as the canoe of the
voyagers approached one of these clusters of picturesque wigwams in the
evening twilight. The Indians were fond of the song, and the dance, and
the blaze of the bonfire. The whole expanse of river, cliff, and
forest, would be lighted up. Shouts of barbaric revelry echoed through
the sublime solitudes. And the warrior, the squaw, and the pappoose,
flitted about in all the varied employments of savage life.

In these Indian wigwams, at night, the voyagers almost invariably found
hospitable refuge. The Indians were generally friendly. The traffic
which the French traders introduced was of inestimab