[62] Though evidently not altogether satisfied in his own mind that he had reached the mouth of the Mississippi, La Salle, desirous to relieve himself of the many complications and annoyances arising from the strained relations between himself and Beaujeu, decided to land his soldiers at a place which he named St. Louis Bay (now known as Matagardu Bay), thinking to send them northward along the coast until they should come to the principal outlet of the “fatal river” as Joutel frequently calls the Mississippi. While here the loss of the Amiable and its valuable stores, the sickness of many of the company, and finally the departure of the Joly with Beaujeu, left La Salle in a sad plight. (See note concerning the relations between La Salle and Beaujeu, in Parkman’s La Salle, ii, 133 Champlain edition).
[63] Fr. “trois ou quatre”—three or four.
[64] Fr. “vouloit faire un Fort plus avant dans le pays”—designed to establish a fortified post farther inland. C. C. edit.
[65] Fr. “vaisseau, qui”—i. e. ship, which.
[66] This was on the river Lavaca (La Vache) at the head of Matagorda Bay, and called by Joutel Rivière aux Bœufs.
[67] St. Louis Bay, St. Bernard’s Bay, Matagorda Bay, Espíritu Bay—are all names by which this Bay has been known. La Salle had a peculiar penchant for naming his forts, and after his royal master, Louis XIV; New Fort, St. Louis of the Illinois, Fort St. Louis of Texas, etc.
[68] In the Fr. this sentence is a marginal note.
[69] The construction of this sentence, leaves us somewhat in doubt, as to whether the girl and the woman were not one and the same person. In the Fr. it reads “une fille, une femme blessée à la cuisse d’un coup de fusil, dont elle mourut”—a girl, a woman wounded in the thigh by a gun-shot, who died of the wound.” C. C. edit.
[70] Fr. “paquet,” or knapsack.
[71] Fr. “On voyoit du Côté du midy, & vers l’Orient, la Baye, & les campagnes qui la bordent, de l’Orient au Septentrion, la Rivière se presentoit le long d’un petit costan,”—To the southward and eastward stretched the Bay and the fields which border it, from the east to the north, the river appeared along a gentle slope,—[The phrase, “From the east to the north” squints both ways; the reader must determine the meaning. Perhaps, in the editor’s translation, the comma after the words “border it” should be removed, so as to make the phrase “from the east to the north” qualify the verb “border.” Although the editor’s studies have not qualified him to express an authoritative opinion upon this point of historical geography, he hazards the guess that this river is one of those flowing into Galveston Bay.] C. C. edit.