One morning as the men were paddling along near the site of Milwaukee, they saw upon the shore a cloud of ravens and eagles hovering over something. They hastened on land and found the body of a deer which had been killed by a wolf. This was the beginning of better things. As the little fleet advanced toward the south, they found the country ever fairer and the weather more temperate. There was an abundance of game, of which there had hitherto been an exceptional lack. They passed the Chicago River and circled the end of the lake, landing at the mouth of the St. Joseph. Here La Salle waited for Tonty to join them, employing the time in building a fort. On the third of December the party sailed up the river, bound for the villages of the Illinois. On a later trip in 1682 La Salle reached the Illinois settlements by a shorter route, crossing from his fort to the river Chicago, and journeying from its waters into a northern branch of the Illinois River. In four months La Salle had traversed the length of Lake Erie, had passed through the strait of Detroit, up Lake Huron, through the Straits of Mackinac, and down Lake Michigan; from the sites of Buffalo and Cleveland he had sailed past Detroit and Milwaukee even to Chicago, and had then journeyed inland to the Illinois River. He had lost his vessel and her crew, as well as all his furs; he had met with hostility from French and Indian alike; he had been deserted by most of his advance party, and had held his own crew only by his presence and the dominating force of his personality; he had suffered endless hardships and privations: but nothing had shaken his purpose. In later years he followed the Illinois and the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico and led a colony to the limits of the present state of Texas, where he was murdered by one of his men. In history, La Salle stands out as a man whose courage and persevering fortitude in the face of almost insuperable obstacles mark him as one of the greatest explorers the world has ever known. We do well to join with Hennepin in saying, “Those who shall be so happy as to inhabit that noble country cannot but remember with gratitude those who discovered the way by venturing to sail upon unknown lakes.” CHAPTER VII A HAPLESS FRENCH GOVERNOR