Here was the great chance for which this adventurous man had longed and for which he had toiled, and so in November of that year he began to gather men and material for the great project. He threw himself into this work with energy and was backed up by Frontenac, whose policy had ever been the extension of the boundaries of New France. Indeed, Frontenac had advised the Home Government as early as 1673 that a fort at the mouth of the Niagara River and a vessel on Lake Erie would enable the French to command the Great Lakes. Like many other Home Governments when urged to progressive measures, Colbert, the Colonial Minister, advised caution.[11] When La Salle arrived from Rochelle with these wonderfully indefinite powers these two men saw great possibilities and went to work at once. Ship carpenters, blacksmiths, and other artisans were gathered at the Niagara River, and while a fort was being built at the mouth of the river to cut off the trade of the English, a store house was erected below the Falls near where Lewiston now stands, and a shipyard was planned above the Falls, where a large boat was to be built for the great western expedition. This was the work of La Salle’s lieutenant, Henry Tonty. With La Salle was a Récollet priest, Father Hennepin, and to him we owe our first written account of Niagara Falls. After many disappointments, the Griffon, named after Frontenac’s armorial bearing, was launched, equipped, and set sail. Tonty rejoined La Salle on board the Griffon at Detroit. He has an interest for us to-day in that his name is preserved to us in the Tontine plan of insurance, which was the invention of his father, a Neapolitan nobleman. And in a greater sense this Henry Tonty was a nobleman, for through all his wandering and discouragements La Salle found in him a sincere and trustworthy friend. At Mackinac they were to meet with advance guards of traders sent on by La Salle, but most of them had deserted. Gathering up a few whom he thought would be loyal, La Salle made his way to the Illinois River, where a fort was built and a boat begun by Tonty for exploration of the great river. The Griffon was sent home from Green Bay, loaded with furs, and there our knowledge of her ends. In the meantime La Salle determined to return to Fort Frontenac to get more material and more men to undertake the great journey. By canoe and on foot they crossed Southern Michigan and passed over the Detroit on a raft, thence on foot along the shores of Lake Erie (in the month of March), and utterly worn out he, his faithful hunter, and two white companions reached the Falls, only to hear heart-breaking news. He had travelled more than a thousand miles in 65 days in the very worst season of the year. There was no news of his ship—his fortune and his hope.