Seven years had passed since the alleged discovery, and La Salle had not before laid claim to it; although it was matter of notoriety that during five years it had been claimed by Joliet, and that his claim was generally admitted. The correspondence of the Governor and the Intendant is silent as to La Salle's having penetrated to the Mississippi; though the attempt was made under the auspices of the latter, as his own letters declare; while both had the discovery of the great river earnestly at heart. The governor, Frontenac, La Salle's ardent supporter and ally, believed in 1672, as his letters show, that the Mississippi flowed into the Gulf of California, and, two years later, he announces to the minister Colbert its discovery by Joliet. [Footnote: _Lettre de Frontenac au Ministre_, 14 _Nov_. 1674. He here speaks of "la grande riviere qu'il (Joliet) a trouvee, qui va du nord au sud, et qui est aussi large que celle du Saint- Laurent vis-a-vis de Quebec." Four years later, Frontenac speaks slightingly of Joliet, but neither denies his discovery of the Mississippi nor claims it for La Salle, in whose interest he writes.] After La Salle's death, his brother, his nephew, and his niece addressed a memorial to the King, petitioning for certain grants in consideration of the discoveries of their relative, which they specify at some length; but they do not pretend that he reached the Mississippi before his expeditions of 1679 to 1682. [Footnote: _Papiers de Famille_, MSS.; _Memoire presente au Roi_. The following is an extract: "Il parvient ... jusqu'a la riviere des Illinois. Il y construisit un fort situe a 350 lieues au-dela du fort de Frontenac, et suivant ensuite le cours de cette riviere, il trouve qu'elle se jettoit dans un grand fleuve appelle par ceux du pays Missisippi, c'est a dire _grande eau_, environ cent lieues audessous du fort qu'il venoit de construire." This fort was Fort Crevecoeur, built in 1680, near the site of Peoria. The memoir goes on to relate the descent of La Salle to the Gulf, which concluded this expedition of 1679-82.] This silence is the more significant, as it is this very niece who had possession of the papers in which La Salle recounts the journeys of which the issues are in question. [Footnote: The following is an extract, given by Margry, from a letter of the aged Madeleine Cavelier, dated 21 Fevrier, 1756, and addressed to her nephew M. Le Baillif, who had applied for the papers in behalf of the minister, Silhouette: "J'ay cherche une occasion sure pour vous anvoye les papiers de M. de la Salle. Il y a des cartes que j'ay jointe a ces papiers, qui doivent prouver que, en 1675, M. de Lasalle avet deja fet deux voyages en ces decouverte, puisqu'il y avet une carte, que je vous envoye, par laquelle il est fait mention de l'androit auquel M. de Lasalle aborda pres le fleuve de Mississipi." This, though brought forward to support the claim of discovery prior to Joliet, seems to indicate that La