The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1923-12-07
| CAPTAINS OF
| ADVENTURE
BY ROGER POCOCK
by sMerin
By ROGER POCOCK

| dream was the opening Of trade with
China by way of the western rivers,
so the colonists, chatting him, gave the
name La Chine to his settlement and
the rapids. Today the railway trains
come swirling by, with loads of tea
from China to ship from Montreal, but
not to France.
During La Sales first five years In
the wilderness he discovered the Ohio
and the Illinois, branch waters of the
Mississippi The Indians told him of
that big river, supposed to be the way
to the Pacific. A year later the trader
Joliet, and the Jesuit, Father Mar
Quette, descended the Mississippi as
far as the Arkansas. So La Sale
dreamed of French empire in the
West, shutting the English between
the AppalachianS and the Atlantic,
with base at the mouth of the Mis-
sissippi for raiding the Spanish In
dies, and trade route across the west
ern sea to China. All this he told to
Count Frontenac, the new governor
general, man of business who saw
the worth of the adventure. Fronte-
nae sent La Sale to talk peace with
the Iroquois, while he himself founded
Fort Frontenac at the outlet of Lake
Ontario. From here he cut the trade
routes of the West, so that no furs
would ever reach the French traders
of Montreal or the English of New
York. The governor had not come to
Canada for his health.
La Sale was penniless, out his mind
went far beyond this petty trading ;
he charmed away the dangers from
hostile tribes; his heroic record won
him help from France. Within year
he began his adventure of the Missis-
sippi by buying out Fort Frontenac
as his base camp. Here he built a
ship, and though she was wrecked he
saved stores enough to cross the Nj
agara heights, and build second YES
sci on Lake Erie. With the Griffin he
upper seas-Machilli- Mackinac-the
Jesuit headquarters. Being good
natured man bearing no malice, 1t was
with a certain pOmp of drums, flags
and guns that he saluted the fort,
quite forgetting that he came as a
trespasser into the Jesuit mission.
Leaving the Jesuit mission an enemy
in his rear, La Sale built a fort at
the southern end of Lake Michigan,
sent off his ship for supplies, and en-
tered the unknown wilderness. AS
winter closed down he came with 33
men in eight birchbark canoes to the
Illinois nation on the River Illinois.
Meanwhile messengers followed to
raise the Illinois tribes for war against
La Sale, to kill him by poison, and
Sale put a rising of the Illinois to
shame, ate three dishes of poisons
without impairing his very sound di-
gestion, and made his men too busy
for revolt; building Fort Brokenheart,
and a third ship for the voyage down
the Mississippi to the Spanish Indies.
Then came the second storm of trou-
BILE, news that his relief ship from
France was cast away, his fort at
Frontenac was seized for debt, and
his supply vessel on the upper lakes
| was lost. He must go to Canada.
The third storm was still to come
the revenge of the English for the cut.
| ting of their fur trade at Fort Fronte-
nae They armed five hundred Iro-
quois to massacre the Illinois who
had befriended him in the wilderness
At Fort Brokenheart La Sale had q
priest named Hennepin. With two
voyageurs Pere Hennepin was sent to
explore the river down to the Missis-
sippi, and there the three Frenchmen
were captured by the Sioux. Their
captors took them by canoe up the
Mississippi to the Falls of Saint An
| thony, so named by Hennepin. Thence
they were driven afoot to the winter
villages of the tribe. Hennepin being
slow afoot, they mended his pace by
setting the prairie afire behind him.
Likewise they anointed him with wild.
cat fat to give him the agility of that
animal. Still he was never popular
and in the end the three wanderers
were turned loose. Many we're their
vagabond adventures before they met
| the explorer Greysolon Du Luth, who
| took them back with him to Canada
Meanwhile La Sale set out from
| Fort Brokenheart in March, attended
| by Mohegan hunter who loved him,
and by four gallant Frenchmen. Their
Journey was a miracle Of courage
across the UNEMPLOYED woods to Lake
Erie, and on to Frontenac. There La
| Sale heard that the moment his back
was turned his garrison had looted
and burned Fort Brokenheart; but he
| caught these deserters as they attempt.
ed to pass Fort Frontenac, AID left
| them there in irons.
Every man has power to make of his
mind an empire or desert. At this
| time Louis the Great was master OF
| Europe, La Sale broken adventurer
but it was the kings mind which was
a desert, compared with the imperial
brain Of this naughty, silent, manful
pioneer. The creditors forgot that he
owed them money, the governor caught
| fire from his enthusiasm, and La Sale
went back equipped for his gigantic
| venture in the West.
The officer he had left In charge al
| Fort Brokenheart was an Italian gen.
tleman by the name of Tonty, son OF
the man who invented the tonrine life