thing to eat butlndian corm Fortunately, the
whitefish, of which I have heretofore spoken, were
jast. then in season. This delightful fish served
to onf corn.:" ■: We used I thé-' water in
which the fish were boiled in place of Soup.-
When if grows cold in the pot, it congeals like
vëal sonpr,
On the 20th, I heard from the banks-where we.
tv’ere, the ivbïce of the IBieur Be La Salle, who
had arrived from Fort Frontenae* in M large
-Vessel. He brought provi^dns and rigging necessary
for the vessel we intended building above
the gréat fall of Niagara,^ near the entrance into
Lake Brie. - But by a strange misfortune, that
vessel was lost through fault of the two pilots,
whö disagreed as té the course.
The Vessel was wrecked on the southem* shore
of Lake Ontario,, ten leagues from Niagara. The
Sailors havé named the place La Cap Enragé,
(Mad Gaper) The anchors and cables were
Saved, but the goods and bark canoes were lost.,
Such adversities would have caused the enten
prise to be abandoned by any but those who
had formed the nbble design of a new discovery.
' The Sieur Be La Salie informed us that he had
been among the Iroquois Senecas, before the loss
of his vessel, that he had succeeded so well in
conciliating them, that they mentioned with
pleasure our embassy, which I shall describe in
another place, and even consented to the prosecution
of our undertaking. This agreement was
* Now Kingston.
of short duration, for certain persons opposed our
designs, in every possible way, and instilled
jealousies into the minds of the Iroquois. The
f o r t , w h i c h we were building' at
Niagara, continued to advance. But finally, the
secret influences against us were so great, that
the fort became an object of suspicion to the
SavUges, and we were compelled to abandon its
construction for -a time, and content ourselves
with building a habitation surrounded with palisades.
On the 22d we went two leagues above the,great
tails of Niagara, and huilt some, stocks, on which
to,erect tfie -'vessel we' needed for our voyage.
We could not have built it in a more convenient
place/ being near a river which empties into the
strait, which* is between Lake Erie and the great
falls.- r. In all my travels back and forth, I always
carried nay-portable chapel upon my shoulders.
On the 26th, the keel of the vessel and other
pieces being ready, the Sieur Be La Salle sent
the master carpenter named Moyse, to request
me to drive th e first holt. But .the modesty appropriate
to my religious profession, induced me
to decline the-vhonor. He then promised ten
louis d’or for that first bolt, to stimulate the
master carpenter to advance the work.
During the whole winter, which is not half as
severe in this country as in Canada, we employed
mbuidinghark huts one of the two savages of
the Wolf tribe, whom he^had engaged for,hunting
deer. I had one hut especially designed for