ad the robe over his shoulders, saying:

"He whose body thou didst cover, now covers thine. He has carried
tidings of thee to the land of spirits. Brave was thy act in his
regard. All the nation praises thee for it."

He then reproached M. Luth for not having paid any tribute of respect
to the remains of the dead. M. Luth replied that he covered the bodies
only of those who were chiefs, of the same rank with himself. The chief
replied:

"Pere Louis is a greater captain than thou art; for his robe is more
beautiful than thine. We have sent his robe to our allies who are
distant more than three moons' journey from our country."

By his _robe_ the chief meant the rich dress, embroidered with silver
lace, which the ecclesiastic wore at mass, and which he called his
"brocade chasuble." This garment had so dazzled the eyes of the
Indians, that they had appropriated it to themselves as of supernatural
splendor.

Toward the end of September, Father Hennepin informed the Indians that
it was his wish and that of his two companions, to return with the five
other Frenchmen to their own country; and that then they would fit out
expeditions laden with goods to trade with these distant tribes. The
Indians gave their consent. The length of the journey to Montreal by
the route they must take, they estimated at twenty-four hundred miles.

The eight Frenchmen set out in two canoes. They paddled down the St.
Francis, and the Mississippi to the mouth of the Wisconsin. On their
way they met a fleet of one hundred and forty canoes, filled with about
two hundred and fifty warriors. The chiefs visited the Frenchmen, and
treated them with greatest kindness.

Entering the Wisconsin, they paddled up its lone and silent banks one
hundred and twenty miles, as they supposed. They followed the same
route which Father Marquette had previously pursued going in an
opposite direction. They carried their canoes and their effects on
their shoulders, across a portage of a mile and a half to Fox River.
Here they reembarked, following a river of wonderful windings, and
through a series of magnificent and beautiful lakes, and through a
country which they described as charming in the extreme, until they
entered the magnificent expanse of Green Bay, at its southern
extremity. They had accomplished, as they judged, about twelve hundred
miles of their journey. Father Hennepin writes:

"I had not celebrated mass for over nine months, for want of wine.