of the Des Moines, the Illinois, the Missouri, and the Ohio, keeping on as far as the Arkansas, they landed and visited the astonished Indians who received them hospitably and invited them to establish themselves there permanently.

For several days they continued to float down this great stream until Marquette became satisfied that it must empty into the Gulf of Mexico, and fearing that they might fall into the hands of the Spaniards, they turned their steps back again toward Canada. Marquette decided to remain at Green Bay to take up missionary work there, but Joliet continued on in order to carry the news to Quebec. Marquette's health soon gave way and while he was engaged in missionary labors among the Illinois Indians, he died, May 19, 1675, being then only thirty-eight years of age.t

*

*For the details of which see Shea, American Catholic Missions, p. 403 et seq.

† See J. G. Shea, Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley, p. lxxi. See also Parkman, La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West, pp. 15-72 (12th ed., 1886); Fiske, New France and New England, pp. 113-120; Winsor, Cartier to Frontenae, pp. 231-250; Johnson, French Pathfinders, pp. 171-184; Morris, Discoverers and Explorers of America, pp. 209-216; Ferland, Notes sur les Registres de Notre-Dame de Quebec; Faillon, Colonie Française en Canada; Thwaites, Father Marquette (1902); Monette, History of the Valley of the Mississippi; French, Historical Collections of Louisiana and Florida, part ii., p. 281 et seq.; Samuel Hedges, Father Marquette; LeJ. P. Brucker, Jacques Marquette et la Découverte de la Vall e due Mississippi; Margray, Découcvertets et Établissements des Français dans l'Ouest et dans Sud de l'Amérique Septentrionale; Alfred Hamy,

About this time there was a young French adventurer in Canada named René Robert Cavelier, Sieur De La Salle, an energetic explorer who had met with great success in his expeditions and business undertakings in the vicinity of Lakes Ontario and Erie.* The discovery of the Mississippi greatly interested him, and being possessed of great business sagacity, he foresaw that the opening of the Mississippi would have a favorable effect on the economic conditions of New France. He therefore gave up his fur trade in the north and his many advantages in connection with Fort Frontenac, and hurried to France, where, on May 12, 1678, he received a commission from Colbert to make further discoveries on the

Au Mississippi: La Première Exploration (1673); Le Clercq, Premier Établissement de la Foi dans la Nouvelle France; Ogg, Opening of the Mississippi, p. 65 et seq.; Thwaites, Jesuit Relations, vol. lix; Shea, Address on the Discovery of the Mississippi, read on the Bi-centennial of said Discovery, June 17, 1873, in Wisconsin Historical Collections, vol. viii., pp. 111-122; A. P. C. Griffin, The Discovery of the Mississippi; Moore, The Northwest Under Three Flags, pp. 23-27; Bancroft, vol. ii., pp. 154–159.

For details of which see Fiske, New France and New England, p. 109 et seq.; Winsor, Cartier to Frontenac, pp. 210-228, 253-256; Orsamus H. Marshall, The First Visit of De La Salle to the Senecas, made in 1669 in Historical Writings, pp. 187-235; C. W. Butterfield, History of Ohio,. in Magazine of Western History, vol. iii., pp. 695708; Charles Whittlesey, Discovery of the Ohio River by Robert Cavelier de La Salle, 1668-1670, in Western Reserve and Northern Ohio Historical Society Tracts, no. 37. The petition for and the terms of the grant of Fort Frontenac to La Salle in 1674 are in N. Y. Col. Docs., vol. ix., pp. 122126.