[Illustration: Niagara Falls as sketched by Hennepin. The Falls are seen from the Canadian side of the river, the viewer facing roughly southeast. The American Falls are to the left, the Canadian Falls to the right.] While Hennepin and his party were exploring the Niagara, La Motte, the leader of the expedition, had selected a site for a fortified house about two leagues above the mouth of the river and not far from the present town of Lewiston. He set his laborers to work, but their task was hard, because the frozen ground had to be thawed with boiling water before it was possible to drive down stakes for a palisade. As the carpenters labored at their tasks, distrustful and jealous Indians from a neighboring Seneca village of the Iroquois loitered about, watching them with sullen looks, and intimated in a way that could not be disregarded their unwillingness to allow the work to go on. And well they might! Niagara was the key to the four upper lakes from which the Iroquois fur trade could be controlled, and this fort was being built expressly to hold in check those vigorous tribes, and put an end to their trade with the English and the Dutch in the furs which they obtained from the Indians of the western territory. La Salle had realized that difficulty would probably arise, and had instructed La Motte to go to the great village of the Senecas and endeavor to gain their consent to the French plans for building the fort and the ship. This La Motte now decided to do. After five days’ journey through the snowy forests, he and his companions reached the town which was beyond the Genesee and southeast of Rochester, not far from the present town of Victor, New York. The weary travellers were conducted to the wigwam of the principal chief, where women and children flocked to gaze upon the whites. An old man, according to custom, went through the village announcing their arrival, and younger savages washed their feet and then rubbed them with bear’s grease.