Louis--with fifty men, on the 31st of October, 1685, to find the mouth of "the fatal river"--by which name it had come to be known among the band of adventurers. Five months were spent in wanderings through the wilds of that region, during which the hardships and sufferings were such as to baffle description, but the object of their quest still seemed as remote as ever. At last, weary and dispirited, the survivors returned to Fort St. Louis, where La Salle fell dangerously ill, and for some time his life was despaired of. No sooner had he recovered than he determined to make his way by the Mississippi and the Illinois to Canada, whence he might bring succour to the colonists, and send a report of their condition to France. The attempt was beset with uncertainties and dangers. The Mississippi was first to be found, then followed through all the perilous monotony of its interminable windings to a goal which was to be but the starting point of a new and not less arduous journey. Twenty men, including La Salle's brother, the Abbé Cavelier, and Moranget, his nephew, were detailed to accompany him. On the 22nd of April, 1686, after mass and prayers in the chapel, they issued from the gate, each bearing his pack and his weapons, some with kettles slung at their backs, some with axes, some with gifts for Indians. In this guise they held their way in silence across the prairie. They travelled north-easterly, and encountered a due share of adventures with wild beasts and Indian savages. They traversed a large extent of country, but the attempt to discover the mouth of the Mississippi proved wholly ineffectual. After several months La Salle and eight of his twenty men returned to Fort St. Louis. Of the rest, four had deserted, one had been lost, one had been devoured by an alligator; and the rest, giving out on the march, had probably perished in attempting to regain the fort.