And here we bid farewell to Father Hennepin. "Providence," he writes, "preserved my life that I might make known my great discoveries to the world." He soon after went to Europe, where the story of his travels found a host of readers, but where he died at last in a deserved obscurity. [Footnote: More than twenty editions of Hennepin's travels appeared, in French, English, Dutch, German, Italian, and Spanish. Most of them include the mendacious narrative of the pretended descent of the Mississippi. For a list of them, see _Hist. Mag._, i. 346; ii. 24. The following is from a letter of La Salle, dated at Fort Frontenac, 22 Aug. 1681. This, with one or two other passages of his letters, shows that he understood the friar's character, though he could scarcely have foreseen his scandalous attempts to defame him and rob him of his just honors. "J'ai cru qu'il etoit a propos de vous faire le narre des aventures de ce canot (du Picard et d'Accau) parce que je ne doute pas qu'on n'en parle; et si vous souhaitez en conferer avec le P. Louis Hempin (sic) Recollect qui est repasse en France, il faut un peu le connaitre, car il ne manquera pas d'exagerer toutes choses, c'est son caractere, et a moy mesme il m'a ecrit comme s'il eust este tout pres d'estre brule, quoiqu'il n'en ait pas este seulement en danger; mais il croit qu'il lui est honorable de le faire de la sorte, et _il parle plus conformement a ce qu'il veut qu'a ce qu'il fait_." I am indebted for the above to M. Margry. In 1699, Hennepin wished to return to Canada; but, in a letter of that year, Louis XIV. orders the Governor to seize him, should he appear, and send him prisoner to Rochefort. This seems to have been in consequence of his renouncing the service of the French crown and dedicating his edition of 1697 to William III. of England.] CHAPTER XX. 1681. LA SALLE BEGINS ANEW. HIS CONSTANCY.--HIS PLANS.--HIS SAVAGE ALLIES.--HE BECOMES SNOW-BLIND. --NEGOTIATIONS.--GRAND COUNCIL.--LA SALLE'S ORATORY.--MEETING WITH TONTY.--PREPARATION.--DEPARTURE. In tracing the adventures of Tonty and the rovings of Hennepin, we have lost sight of La Salle, the pivot of the enterprise. Returning from the desolation and horror in the valley of the Illinois, he had spent the winter at Fort Miami, on the St. Joseph, by the borders of Lake Michigan. Here he might have brooded on the redoubled ruin that had befallen him: the desponding friends, the exulting foes; the wasted energies, the crushing load of debt, the stormy past, the black and lowering future. But his mind was of a different temper. He had no thought but to grapple with adversity, and out of the fragments of his ruin to rear the fabric of a triumphant success.