he discovery of the western parts of New France, through
which, to all appearance, _a way may be found to Mexico_." The last
words show its true purpose. Louis aimed a blow at his enemy, Spain,
the mistress of Mexico, and La Salle was the arm through which he meant
to strike. The document gave him authority to build forts wherever he
saw fit, and to own and govern them under the same conditions as Fort
Frontenac. In short, he had a roving commission to go wherever he
pleased between the eastern end of Lake Ontario and the borders of
Mexico, and to exercise the authority of a royal governor anywhere in
all that vast region. But he must do all at his own expense, and he
must do it all within five years.

His most serious need was that of money. But, with his usual success
in drawing other men's means into his schemes, he obtained a large sum,
on which he was to pay interest at the rate of forty per cent. We can
see that he was piling up debts fast enough to meet the wishes of his
heartiest haters.

Now La Salle was in a position to enter on his grand undertaking, the
dream to which he {232} devoted his life. His first step was to send a
party of men ahead in canoes to Lake Michigan, to trade with the
Indians and collect provisions against his coming, while another party,
one of whom was the famous Father Hennepin, started in a small vessel
up Lake Ontario, to await La Salle's coming at Niagara. In due time
they reached the Niagara River, and the earliest published account of
the great cataract is Father Hennepin's.[1]

This advance party had orders to begin a fort on the Niagara River, but
the distrust of the Senecas proved to be an obstinate barrier. This
famous tribe, occupying the Genesee Valley northward to the shore of
Lake Ontario, while on the west its territory extended to Lake Erie,
was fiercely jealous of white men's coming to plant themselves in their
country.

When La Salle arrived, however, with his usual tact in managing
Indians, he succeeded in securing their consent to his putting up, not
a fort, but a fortified warehouse at the mouth of the Niagara River and
building a vessel above the Falls.

{233}

Now the first of a series of misfortunes befell him in the loss of the
little vessel that had brought him to Niagara. She was freighted with
the outfit for his great exploration and with goods for barter. But
everything was lost, except only the anchors and cables intended for
the vessel t