The day closed with a “fine bonfire,” lighted toward evening, around which the Frenchmen sang the “Te Deum,” thanking God on behalf of “those poor peoples,” who did not know enough to do it for themselves,--that they were the subjects of so great and powerful a monarch. The Indians departed to their homes, traders and coureurs de bois disappeared into the forests, the Jesuits returned to their self-sacrificing life of ministry, and adventurous French pioneers set out across lake and wood to explore and claim the vast wilderness thus appropriated by France. The pageant of Saint Lusson was over, and Sault Ste. Marie relapsed into its usual life; but thus early in the history of the Great Lakes this place had been singled out as a strategic spot. CHAPTER V THE BUILDING OF THE _GRIFFON_ The next noteworthy event in the story of the Great Lakes is the building and the launching of the _Griffon_, and the voyage of La Salle from the Niagara River to the southern end of Lake Michigan. Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle, or La Salle as he is usually called, came to Canada in 1666, when he was three or four and thirty years of age. Outwardly cold and reserved, he was inwardly consumed with a burning desire for adventure. After his arrival, he set to work to study the Indian languages, in which he soon became proficient; and it was his delight to invite Indians to his cabin, and to draw from them tales of the far-off regions in which they dwelt, and especially of those wonderful rivers, the Ohio and the Mississippi, by the exploration of which he hoped to provide a new passage to China and Japan. An exploring trip which he took in 1669 gave him the practical experience which was later to be of value. La Salle was a man of strong prejudices and personal dislikes, who took little pains to overcome the jealousy of those who were envious of him; but he gained one strong friend and patron, Count Frontenac, the governor of New France, who recognized a kindred spirit in this bold, enterprising young man.