There stood the Indian canoes of the kind that made possible the early exploration of the New World. The savages, commanded by Sieur Joliet, blessed by Père Marquette, cajoled by Anthony, had made all new ones of birch bark—that Birch papyracea, paper birch—which is so easy to build, so fast to paddle, so light to carry.
In them this voyage was to be made.
Anthony was packing the stores. "Here is maize in plenty; there is jerked venison."
Two articles! Indian corn and dried meat! This was the whole stock of food for men who were to go on a precarious journey of unknown length. There were some treasures of beads and trinkets and gay cloth; much ammunition for the guns was in the load.
Besides these articles each canoe was built to carry three full-grown men. There were two canoes.
Into the first one stepped the Sieur Joliet and a couple of coureurs de bois. The second canoe received one coureur de bois, one undersized half-breed interpreter, the slender Père Marquette and his choir boy, Anthony. Seven men in all.
Seven men in all! For one of the biggest ventures of any age!
Seven men in all! For one of the greatest achievements in the world!
Strange that they should try it! Stranger still if they should win!