Meanwhile, his creditors, from whom he had purchased his supplies, and with whom he was heavily involved, were selling his effects at Montreal. He himself, with his company in scattered groups, repaired in bark canoes to the head of Lake Michigan; and at the mouth of the St. Joseph he constructed a trading-house with palisades, known as the Fort of the Miamis. Of his vessel, on which his fortunes so much depended, no tidings came. Weary of delay, he resolved to penetrate Illinois; and leaving ten men to guard the Fort of the Miamis, La Salle himself, with Hennepin, Tonty, and about thirty followers, ascended the St. Joseph, and by a short portage over bogs and swamps made dangerous by a snow storm, entered the Kankakee. Descending this narrow stream, before the end of December, 1679, the little company had reached the site of an Indian village on the Illinois, probably not far from Ottoway, in La Salle county. The tribe was absent, passing the winter in the chase. On the banks of Lake Peoria Indians appeared, who, desirous to obtain axes and firearms, offered the calumet of peace, and agreed to an alliance. They described the course of the Mississippi, and they were willing to guide the strangers to its mouth. The spirit and prudence of La Salle, who was the life of the enterprise, won the friendship of the natives. But clouds lowered over his path. The _Griffin_, it seemed certain, was wrecked, thus delaying his discoveries as well as impairing his fortunes. His men began to despond. He toiled to revive their courage, and assured them that there could be no safety but in union. "None," he added, "shall stay after the spring, unless from choice." But fear and discontent pervaded the company; and when La Salle, thwarted by destiny, and almost despairing, planned and began to build a fort on the banks of the Illinois, four days' journey below Lake Peoria, he named it Crèvecoeur (Heart-break). Yet even here the immense power of his will appeared. Dependent on himself, fifteen hundred miles from the nearest French settlement, impoverished, harassed by enemies at Quebec and in the wilderness, he inspired his men with resolution to saw trees into plank and prepare a barque. He despatched Hennepin to explore the Upper Mississippi; he questioned the Illinois and the captives on the course of that river; he formed conjectures respecting the course of the Tennessee. Then, as new recruits and sails and cordage for the barque were needed, in the month of March, with a musket and pouch of powder and shot, with a blanket for his protection and skins of which to make moccasins, he, with three companions, set off on foot for Fort Frontenac, to trudge through thickets and forests, to wade through marshes and melting snows; without drink, except water from the running brooks; without food, except such precarious supplies as could be provided by his gun. After enduring dangers and hardships which would