alone and unarmed to the camp of the
Illinois, and vindicating his conduct. He declared his innocence of the
charges, and demanded the author. He urged that the war should be
terminated, and that the hostile nations should live in peace.

The coolness, bravery, and eloquence of La Salle filled the Indians with
astonishment, and entirely changed their purposes. The calumet was
smoked, presents mutually exchanged, and a treaty of amity concluded.

The original project of discovery was now pursued. Father Hennepin
started on the 28th of February, 1680, and having passed down the
Illinois, ascended the Mississippi to the falls of St. Anthony. Here he
was taken prisoner, robbed, and carried to the Indian villages, from
which he made his escape, returned to Canada by the way of the
Wisconsin, and from thence to France, where he published an account of
his travels.

La Salle visited Canada to obtain supplies, returned to Creve-coeur,
and shortly after descended the Illinois, and then the Mississippi,
where he built one or two forts on its banks, and took possession of the
country in the name of the king of France, and in honor of him called it
_Louisiana_.

One of these forts is thought to have been built on the west side of the
river, between St. Louis and Carondalet.

After descending the Mississippi to its mouth, he returned to the
Illinois, and on his way back left some of his companions to occupy the
country. This is supposed to have been the commencement of the villages
of Kaskaskia and Cahokia, in 1683. La Salle went to France, fitted out
an expedition to form a colony at the mouth of the Mississippi, sailed
to the gulf of Mexico, but not being able to find the mouths of that
river, he commenced an overland journey to his fort on the Illinois. On
this journey he was basely assassinated by two of his own men.[3]

After the death of La Salle, no attempts to discover the mouth of the
Mississippi were made till about 1699, but the settlements in the
Illinois country were gradually increased by emigrants from Canada.

In 1712, the king of France, by letters patent, gave the whole country
of Louisiana to M. Crosat, with the commerce of the country, with the
profits of all the mines, reserving for his own use one fifth of the
gold and silver. After expending large sums in digging and exploring for
the precious metals without success, Crosat gave up his privilege to the
king, in 1717. Soon after, the colony was granted