[ [308] Joutel, Relation (Margry, iii. 206). Compare Le Clerc, ii. 296. Cavelier, always disposed to exaggerate, says that ten men were killed. La Salle had previously had encounters with the Indians, and punished them severely for the trouble they had given his men. Le Clerc says of the principal fight: "Several Indians were wounded, a few were killed, and others made prisoners,—one of whom, a girl of three or four years, was baptized, and died a few days after, as the first-fruit of this mission, and a sure conquest sent to heaven."
[ [309] Joutel, Relation (Margry, iii. 219).
[ [310] Cavelier says that he actually reached the Mississippi; but, on the one hand, the abbé did not know whether the river in question was the Mississippi or not; and, on the other, he is somewhat inclined to mendacity. Le Clerc says that La Salle thought he had found the river. According to the Procès Verbal of 18 April, 1686, "il y arriva le 13 Février." Joutel says that La Salle told him "qu'il n'avoit point trouvé sa rivière."
[ [311] Procès Verbal fait au poste de St. Louis, le 18 Avril, 1686.
[ [312] Cavelier, Relation du Voyage pour découvrir l'Embouchure du Fleuve de Missisipy.
[ [313] Joutel, Journal Historique, 140; Anastase Douay in Le Clerc, ii. 303; Cavelier, Relation. The date is from Douay. It does not appear, from his narrative, that they meant to go farther than the Illinois. Cavelier says that after resting here they were to go to Canada. Joutel supposed that they would go only to the Illinois. La Salle seems to have been even more reticent than usual.
[ [314] Joutel, Relation (Margry, iii. 226).
[ [315] Joutel, Relation (Margry, iii. 244, 246.
[ [316] "Ce fût une desolation extrême pour nous tous qui desesperions de revoir jamais nostre Ange tutélaire, le Sieur de la Salle.... Tout le jour se passa en pleurs et en larmes."—Douay in Le Clerc, ii. 315.
[ [317] Douay in Le Clerc, ii. 321; Cavelier, Relation.