Its area was about an acre. This rock, in December, 1662, they cleared of the forest which crowned it, dragged timber up the ragged pathway, built storehouses and dwellings, and surrounded the summit with palisades. In this eyrie, which he christened Fort St. Louis of the Illinois, the winter was passed by La Salle’s company, and by tactful management he secured the friendship of the neighboring tribes.[21] Around and under the protection of this fortification was soon gathered a motley gathering of the Illinois, and fragments of other tribes, all looking to him as their feudal lord; and to these followers, by virtue of his seigniorial rights, he began to grant parcels of land, and soon had the _nucleus_ of a colony of some 20,000 souls, numbering about 4,000 warriors. But, while thus engaged in the wilderness, matters in Canada were looming up adversely to his interests. His friend and patron, Count Frontenac, had been recalled to France, and the man who succeeded him as Governor-General, one de La Barre, was prejudiced against the explorer and constantly misrepresenting him to the home government in France. Furthermore, emboldened by the tone of the King’s letter, who had been led to condemn La Salle’s doings and plans, La Barre, with other associates, seized Fort Frontenac (which was La Salle’s property), despite the remonstrances of the creditors and mortgagees; sold his stores for their own benefit, and turned his cattle to pasture on the growing crops. The position of La Salle became intolerable, cut off from his supplies, for which he entreated Governor La Barre in vain, threatened with an onslaught of the Iroquois, and unable to afford his own Indian allies the help which he had promised them, he had no other resource than to leave his wilderness colony in faithful Tonti’s care, and cross the ocean again to face his enemies before the Court and King. _La Salle’s third return visit to France._ So, early in the autumn of 1683, he again turned his face homeward. Quite to his surprise, as we may well imagine, La Salle found that the time of his return was fortuitous. His old friends rallied around him; his enemies seemed, for the moment, to have lost their influence against him. Best of all, both the King and his Ministers were in better humor with him than, from the tone of recent home correspondence, he had reason to expect. The country was now at war with Spain, and the trend of official opinion chimed in very happily with the proposals which he had to offer for the consideration of King and Ministry.