LA SALLE AND HENNEPIN SURPRISING THE INDIANS ON THE SHORES OF PEORIA LAKE
The Indians told La Salle of fierce warriors farther on who would kill them, and of great monsters ready to eat them. These stories frightened some of La Salle's men and they ran away.
LA SALLE AT THE MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI
The fort of the broken heart
La Salle decided to build a fort on the bluff overlooking the river and remain there through the winter (1680). They named it Fort Crèvecœur, meaning that the builders had grieved until their hearts were broken.
La Salle returned to Fort Frontenac. In the meantime he ordered Tonti to fortify Starved Rock, and Hennepin to explore the Illinois and the upper Mississippi rivers.
Iroquois destroy villages of the Illinois
While La Salle was gone, a great army of fierce Iroquois destroyed the villages of the Illinois Indians, "the children of Count Frontenac."
A union of Indian tribes proposed