Finally sailing westward into Lake Michigan he found near Green Bay[12] several faithful men of the advance party whom he had sent out, who had collected there and on the way thither, a considerable store of furs; which he determined to send back to Niagara, on the _Griffin_, to satisfy his exacting creditors, with orders to return to the head of Lake Michigan as soon as possible.[13] She set sail on this return voyage on the 18th of September, in the face of a storm, which prevailed for several days. In the same storm, also, La Salle and the fourteen men left to him, by numerous desertions _en route_, resumed their journey, in four canoes, heavily laden with a forge, tools, merchandise, and arms. It was no pleasure trip; twice they were swamped, and nearly lost the contents of their canoes, as well as their lives: drenched, cold, and without provisions, they suffered much, and distrust of the Indians with whom they met on shore increased their sufferings. But steadily he pushed on along the western coast of Lake Michigan, and circled around its southern end until he reached the mouth of the St. Joseph, called by him the Miami. Here he had expected to meet Tonti with twenty men, coming along the eastern shore of the lake from Michilimackinac. But no Tonti was there. It was the 1st of November, the streams were freezing over, and their provisions were failing. Unless they could reach the villages of the Illinois before the Indians left for their winter hunt, starvation might be their fate. The dissatisfaction of his men presaged mutiny and desertion, but La Salle firmly refused to remove from the place where they were, and affirmed his intention, if they should desert, to remain with his Mohegan hunter and the three friars of his party until the arrival of Tonti. Then, the better to occupy their thoughts, he set them to work on the building of a timber fort. Twenty days later, and when this work was well under way, Tonti appeared, but with only half of his men. Provisions having failed, he had left the remainder thirty leagues behind, to get their living as best they might, by hunting. But La Salle sent him back, with two men, to find and bring them forward. On this return trip, their canoe was swamped in a violent gale, and guns, baggage, and provisions were lost and they returned to the fort on the Miami, subsisting on acorns by the way. The balance of Tonti’s party, except a couple of deserters, came into camp a few days after.