Part 21 (1/2)

”The shot which had killed Monsieur de la Sale was a signal ... for the a.s.sa.s.sins to draw near. They all repaired to the place where the wretched corpse lay, which they barbarously stripped to the s.h.i.+rt, and vented their malice in opprobrious language. The surgeon Liotot said several times in scorn and derision, There thou liest, Great Ba.s.sa, there thou liest. In conclusion they dragged it naked among the bushes and left it exposed to the ravenous wild Beasts.

”When they came to our camp ... Monsieur Cavelier the priest could not forbear telling them that if they would do the same by him he would forgive them his” (La Salle's) ”murder.... They answered they had Nothing to say to him.

... ”We were all obliged to stifle our Resentment that it might not appear, for our Lives depended upon it....

We dissembled so well that they were not suspicious of us, and that Temptation we were under of making them away in revenge for those they had murdered, would have easily prevailed and been put in execution, had not Monsieur

Cavelier, the Priest, always positively opposed it, alleging that we ought to leave vengeance to G.o.d.”

The Recollet priest, who had seen La Salle's death, answered no questions at Fort St. Louis. Teissier, one of the conspirators, had obtained the Abbe's pardon. The others could truly say La Salle was well when they last saw him.

VI.

TO-DAY.

It is recorded that the Abbe Cavelier and his party arrived safely in France, and that he then concealed the death of La Salle for awhile that he might get possession of property which would have been seized by La Salle's creditors. He died ”rich and very old” says the historian,[26]

though he was unsuccessful in a pet.i.tion which he made with his nephew to the king, to have all the explorer's seigniorial propriety in America put in his possession. Like Father Hennepin--who returned to France and wrote his entertaining book to prove himself a greater man than La Salle--the Abbe Cavelier was skilful in turning loss to profit.

It is also recorded that Henri de Tonty, at his own expense, made a long search with men, canoes, and provisions, for La Salle's Texan colony--left by the king to perish at the hands of Indians; that he was deserted by every follower except his Indian and one Frenchman, and nearly died in swamps and canebrakes before he again reached the fort on the Illinois.