tely Father
Marquette had also kept a journal and had made maps, and these
reaching the superior of his mission arrived in time to confirm
Jolliet's statements.
Jolliet married at Quebec, and proceeded to explore and develop the
regions along the north coast of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, travelling
in this work as far as Hudson's Bay. He was given by the French
Government the Island of Anticosti as a reward for his achievements,
but the work and capital which he put into the development of this
long-neglected island came to nothing; for it was captured by the
English, and Jolliet died a poor man whilst attempting to explore the
coast of Labrador.
As to ROBERT CAVALIER DE LA SALLE, he had, after all, discovered the
Ohio, and had descended that river as far as the site of the present
town of Louisville. Then he interested the Governor (Frontenac) of
Canada in his enterprises. A fort, called Fort Frontenac, was built at
what is now Kingston, at the point where the St. Lawrence leaves Lake
Ontario. La Salle returned to France, and obtained the grant of the
lordship of this fort and the surrounding country on conditions of
maintaining the whole cost of the establishment, and making a
settlement of colonists. Another visit to France in 1677-8 secured him
further support and capital, and he returned from France with a
companion, Henry de Tonty.
La Salle, with de Tonty, started from Fort Frontenac in September,
1678, so intensely anxious to commence his discoveries that he
disregarded the difficulties of the winter season. On his way to
Niagara he paid a visit to the Iroquois to conciliate them, and
cleverly got from them permission to build a vessel on Lake Erie and
also to erect a blacksmith's forge, near where Niagara now stands. The
blacksmith's forge grew rapidly into a fort before the Indians were
aware of what was being done. By August, 1679, he had built and
launched (in spite of extraordinary calamities and misfortunes) on the
Upper Niagara River the first sailing boat which ever appeared on the
four great upper lakes of the St. Lawrence basin.
In this ship he sailed through Lake Erie and past Detroit into Lake
Huron, and thence to Green Bay (Lake Michigan), stopping at intervals
amongst the canoes of the amazed natives, who for the first time heard
the sound of cannon, for he had armed his vessel with guns. At Green
Bay he collected a large quantity of furs, which had been obtained in
trade by the men he had
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