| of it by the Abbe Cavelier himself. Meanwhile Tonti had received | | from and paid over to his reverend guest an order from La Salle | | for over 2,500 livres in beaver and supplies, on which money the | | party had made their further journey homeward. | | | | Learning now, for the first time, with what grief and indignation | | we may well imagine, of the death of his beloved friend and | | chief; and also that the Arkansas Indians were anxious to join | | with the French in an invasion of Mexico—which information was | | also followed by an official notification from the Governor of | | Canada, that war had again been declared against Spain, Tonti | | decided to rescue, if possible, the remaining members of La | | Salle’s party on the Gulf coast; and, by making them the nucleus | | of a small army, to cross the Rio Grande, and thus win a new | | province for France. | | | | Leaving the fort early in December, in a canoe, with five | | Frenchmen, an Indian warrior and two other Indians, he reached | | the home of the Caddoes in Red River, by the last of March, 1688, | | and was preparing to push on to a village eighty miles distant | | in search of Hiens and his companions, when he was left almost | | helpless by the refusal of all his men, except one Frenchman and | | the Indian warrior, to longer pursue the tiresome journey they | | had thus far made. But, with the two faithful ones, he pushed | | on, losing nearly all their ammunition in crossing a river, | | and finding, upon reaching the village where he had expected | | to find them, that they had been killed. As his ammunition was | | lost, and the Indians refused to furnish him guides, he could | | only return to the Arkansas country which he only reached by the | | end of July, after traversing a flooded country, in a ceaseless | | rain, sometimes by wading, sometimes by rafts, breaking their | | way with hatchets through the inundated cane brakes, and finally | | having to kill and eat their dogs. Even Tonti, the hero of many | | such emergencies of travel, confessed, “I never in my life | | suffered so much.” Then followed an attack of fever, after the | | abatement of which he arrived at his fort, in September, 1689. | | This heroic attempt marks, more distinctly than any other, the | | character of Tonti, who, in the language of the missionary, St. | | Cosmo, who traveled under his escort in 1699, was “beloved by | | all voyageurs—the man who best knows the country—he is loved and | | feared everywhere.” Tonti was a robust man in appearance, and had | | (as has been already said) but one hand, but he truly had a great |