the great comet of 1680 nightly illumined the starry expanse above them, projecting its vast tail, with a terrible brilliancy, a distance of 60 degrees. LaSalle speaks of it as an object of scientific inquiry, while Increase Mather, a celebrated New England divine, with the superstition common to his time, said that "it was fraught with terrific portent to the nations of the world."

At the Indian town they found the men who had been left behind, unharmed, and anxiously awaiting their return. After getting some corn from the ravaged granaries of the burnt village, the whole party embarked, and commenced the ascent of the river. On the 6th of January, 1681, they arrived at the junction of the Desplaines and Kankakee, and passing up the latter a short distance, they discovered, not far from the shore, a rude hut. LaSalle landed, and entering it, found a block of wood which had recently been cut with a saw, thus indicating that Tonti must have passed up the river, This discovery kindled anew the hopes of the dispairing voyagers that their friends were still alive, and with lighter hearts they started directly overland to Fort Miami. On the way the snow fell in blinding storms, and not being sufficiently compact for the use of snow shoes, LaSalle led the way to open a track and urge on his followers. Such was the depth of the snow, his tall figure was frequently buried in drifts up to his waist, while the remainder of his person was showered with the crystal burdens of boughs overhead, whenever he chanced to touch them. On reaching their goal, LaSalle's first inquiry was for Tonti. tidings, however, had been heard from him, and the hope he had entertained of meeting him here, was changed to disappointment. LaForest and the men whom he had left behind, with commendable industry had rebuilt the fort, prepared ground for raising a crop the ensuing year, and sawn material for building a new ship on the lake.

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We must now endeavor to relate the adventures of Tonti. Meanwhile, we will leave LaSalle in the sheltering walls of the fort, pondering over the wasted energies of the past, and the gloomy prospects of the future. Yet his mind, so full of expedients, soon found means to evolve, from the fragments of his ruined fortunes, new resources for the furtherance of his daring schemes. It will be remembered that Tonti had been left in command of Fort Crevecœur with 15 men. Most of these disliking LaSalle, and having no interest in his enterprise, were ripe for revolt the first opportunity that promised success. LaSalle, stern, incomprehensible and cold, was much better qualified to command the respect of his men when present, than secure their good will and fidelity when absent. His departure eastward was, therefore, the commencement of unlawful acts among his men. A short time afterward, another event occurred which greatly increased the spirit of insubordination. The two men who had been sent to look for the Griffin, had, in pursuance of LaSalle's orders, arrived at the fort with disheartening intelligence. They informed the already disaffected garrison that the Griffin was lost; that Fort Frontenac was in the hands of LaSalle's creditors, and that he was now wholly without means to pay those in his employ. To prevent the desertion of his men, it was usual for LaSalle to withhold their wages till the term for which they were employed should expire. Now the belief that he would never pay them, gave rise to a spirit of

mutiny, which soon found an opportunity for further developement. The two men alluded to were the bearers of a letter from LaSalle, directing Tonti to examine and fortify the Rock on the Illinois; and no sooner had he, with a few men, departed for this purpose, than the garrison of the fort refused longer to submit to authority. Their first act of lawlessness was the destruction of the fort; after which, they seized the ammunition, provisions, and other portables of value and fled. Only two of their number remained true, one of whom was the servant of LaSalle, who immediately hastened to apprise Tonti of what had occurred. He, thereupon, dispatched 4 of the men with him to carry the news to LaSalle; two of whom, as we have seen, successfully discharged their duty, while the others perhaps deserted.

Tonti, now in the midst of treacherous savages, had with him only 5 men, 2 of whom were the friars Ribourde and Membre. With these he immediately returned to the fort, collected the forge and tools which had not been destroyed by the mutineers, and conveyed them to the great town of the Illinois. By this voluntary display of confidence, he hoped to remove the jealousy with which the enemies of LaSalle had previously poisoned their minds. Here, awaiting the return of his leader, he was unmolested by the villagers, who, when the spring opened, amounted, according to the statement of Membre, to some 8,000 souls. Neither they nor their wild associates little suspected that hordes of Iroquois were then gathering in the fastnesses of the Alleghanies, to burst upon their country and reduce it to an uninhabitable waste. Already these hell-hounds of the wilderness had destroyed the Hurons, Eries, and other nations on the lakes, and were now directing their attention to the Illinois for new victims with which to flesh their rabid fangs. Not only homicidal fury, but commercial advantages now actuated the Iroquois, who expected, after reducing these vast regions of the west, to draw thence rich supplies of furs to barter with the English for merchandise. LaSalle had also enemies among the French, who, to defeat his enterprise, did not scruple to encourage the Iroquois in their rapacious designs. Under these circumstances a council was held by the latter. The ceremonies of inaugarating a campaign were duly celebrated, and 500 warriors, with a dispatch only equalled by their terrible earnestness, commenced traversing the wide waste of forest and prairie that lay between them and their intended prey. In the line of their march lay the Miamis, who by their crafty intrigues were induced to join in the movement against their neighbors and kindred. There had long existed a rankling jealousy between these tribes, and the Miamis were ready to enter into any alliance that promised revenge. It was the policy of the Iroquois to divide and conquer, and their new allies were marked as the next object of their vengeance, should the assault on the Illinois prove successful.

All was fancied security and idle repose in the great town of the Illinois, as the formidable war party stealthily approached. Suddenly, as a clap of thunder from a cloudless sky, the listless inhabitants were awakened from their lethargy. A Shawnee Indian, on his return home after a visit to the Illinois, first discovered the invaders. To save his friends from the impending danger, he hurriedly returned and apprised them of the coming enemy. This intelligence spread with lightning rapidity over the town, and

each wigwam disgorged its boisterous and astounded inmates. Women snatched their children, and in a delirium of fright wandered aimlessly about, rending the air with their screams. The men, more self-possessed, seized their arms, and in a wild pantomime of battle, commenced nerving themselves for the coming fray. Tonti, long an object of suspicion, was soon surrounded by an angry crowd of warriors, who accused him of being an emissary of the enemy. His inability properly to defend himself, in housequence of not fully understanding their language, left them still inclined to believe him guilty, and they seized the forge and other effects brought from the fort, and threw them into the river. Doubting their ability to defend themselves without the assistance of their young men, who were absent on a war expedition, they embarked their women and children in canoes and sent them down to the island where LaSalle had seen their deserted huts. Sixty warriors remained with them for protection, and the remainder, not exceeding 400, returned late in the day to the village. Along the adjacent shore they kindled huge bonfires, which cast their glare for miles around, gilding the village, river and distant margins of the forest with the light of day. The entire night was spent in greasing their bodies, painting their faces and performing the war dance, to prepare themselves for the approaching conflict. At early dawn the scouts who had been sent out returned, closely followed by the Iroquois, most of whom were armed with guns, pistols and swords, obtained from the English. The scouts had seen a chief arrayed in French costume, and reported their suspicions that LaSalle was in the camp of the enemy, and Tonti again became an object of jealousy. A concourse of wildly gesticulating savages immediately gathered about him, demanding his life, and nothing saved him from their uplifted weapons but a promise that he and his men would go with them to meet the enemy. With their suspicions partially lulled, they hurriedly crossed the river and appeared on the plain beyond just as the enemy emerged in swarms from the woods skirting the banks of the Vermilion. The two foes were now face to face, and both commenced discharging their guns and simultaneously leaping from side to side, for the purpose of dodging each other's shots. Tonti, seeing the Illinois outnumbered and likely to sustain a defeat, determined, at the imminent risk of his life, to stay the fight by an attempt at mediation. Presuming on the treaty of peace then existing between the French and Iroquois, he exchanged his gun for a belt of wampum and advanced to meet the savage multitude, attended by three companions, who, being unnecessarily exposed to danger, he dismissed them and proceeded alone. A short walk brought him into the midst of a pack of yelping devils, writhing and distorted with fiendish rage, and impatient to shed his blood. As the result of his swarthy Italian complexion and half savage costume, he was at first taken for an Indian, and before the mistake was discovered a young warrior approached and stabbed at his heart. Fortunately the blade was turned aside by coming in contact with a rib, yet a large flesh wound was inflicted, which bled profusely. At this juncture a chief discovered his true character, and he was led to the rear and efforts made to staunch his wound. When sufficiently recovered, he declared the Illinois were under the protection of the French, and demanded, in consideration of the treaty

between the latter and the Iroquois, that they should be suffered to remain without further molestation. During this conference, a young warrior snatched Tonti's hat, and, fleeing with it to the front, held it aloft on the end of his gun in view of the Illinois. The latter, judging from this circumstance that their envoy had been killed, caused the battle to "breeze up" with increased intensity. Simultaneously, intelligence was brought to the Iroquois that Frenchmen were assisting their enemies in the fight, when the contest over Tonti was renewed with redoubled fury. Some declared that he should be immediately put to death; while others, friendly to LaSalle, with equal earnestness demanded that he should be set at liberty. During their clamorous debate his hair was several times lifted by a huge savage who stood at his back with a scalping knife, ready for execution.

Tonti at length turned the current of the angry controversy in his favor, by stating that the Illinois were 1,200 strong, and that there were 60 Frenchmen at the village ready to assist them. This statement obtained at least a partial credence, and his tormenters now determined to use him as an instrument to delude the Illinois with a pretended truce. The old warriors therefore advanced to the front and ordered the firing to cease, while Tonti, dizzy from the loss of blood, was furnished with an emblem of peace and sent staggering across the plain to rejoin the Illinois. The two friars, who had just returned from a distant hut, whither they had retired for prayer and meditation, were the first to meet him and bless God for what they regarded as a miraculous deliverance. With the assurance brought by Tonti, the Illinois recrossed the river to their lodges, followed by the enemy as far as the opposite bank. Not long after, large numbers of the latter, under the pretext of hunting, also crossed the river and hung in threatening groups about the town. These hostile indications, and the well known disregard which the Iroquois had always evinced for their pledges, soon convinced the Illinois that their only safety was in flight. With this conviction they set fire to their ancestral homes, and while the vast volume of flame and smoke diverted the attention of the enemy, they quietly dropped down the river to rejoin their women and children. Shortly after, the remainder of the Iroquois crossed the river, and as soon as the conflagration would permit, entrenched themselves on the site of the village. Tonti and his men, remaining at the village, were ordered by the suspicious savages to leave their hut and take up their abode in the fort.

At first their associates seemed much elated at the discomfiture of the Illinois, but two days after, when they discovered them reconnoitering on the low hills behind their intrenchments, their courage greatly subsided. With fear, they recalled the exaggera tions of Tonti, respecting their numbers, and immediately concluded to send him with a hostage to make overtures of peace. He started on his mission, and he and the hostage were received with delight by the Illinois, who readily assented to this proposal which he brought, and in turn sent back with him a hostage to the Iroquois. On his return to the fort, his life was again placed in jeopardy, and

Membre, perhaps prompted by vanity, claims that he accompanied Tonti in this interview. This is the only instance in which he is charged with a want of veracity, and doubtless in many respects was a good man.

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the treaty was with great difficulty ratified. The young and inexperienced Illinois hostage betrayed to his crafty interviewers the numerical weakness of his tribe, and the savages immediately rushed upon Tonti, and charged him with having deprived them of the spoils and honors of a victory. Where," said they, "are all your Illinois warriors, and where are the Frenchmen you said were among them?" It now required all the tact of which he was master to escape the present diffculty, which he had brought on himself by the artifice employed to escape the one previous. After much opposition, the treaty was concluded, but the savages, to show their contempt for it, immediately commenced the construction of canoes in which to descend the river and attack the Illinois. Tonti managed to apprise the latter of their designs, and he and Membre were soon after summoned to attend a council of the Iroquois. They still labored under a wholesome fear of Count Frontenac, and disliking to attack the Illinois in the presence of the French, their object was to induce the latter to leave the country. At the assembling of the council, 6 packages of beaver skins were introduced, and the savage orator, presenting them separately to Tonti, explained the nature of each. "The first two," said he, "were to declare that the children of Count Frontenac, that is, the Illinois, should not be eaten; the next was a plaster to heal the wounds of Tonti; the next was oil wherewith to annoint him and Membre, that they might not be fatigued in traveling; the next proclaimed that the sun was bright; and the sixth, and last, required them to decamp and go home. "*

At the mention of going home, Tonti demanded of them when they intended to set the example by leaving the Illinois in the peaceable possession of their country, which they had so unjustly invaded. The council grew boisterous and angry at the idea that they should be demanded to do that which they required of the French, and some of its members, forgetting their previous pledge, declared that they would "eat Illinois flesh before they departed. " Tonti, in imitation of the Indian manner of expressing scorn, indignantly kicked away the presents of fur, saying, since they meant to devour the children of Count Frontenac with cannibal ferocity, he would not accept their gifts. This stern rebuke of perfidy resulted in the expulsion of Tonti and his companions from the council, and the next day the enraged chiefs ordered them to leave the country.

Tonti had now, at the great risk of his life, tried every expedient to avert from the unoffending Illinois the slaughter which the unscrupulous invaders of their soil were seeking an opportunity to effect. There was little to be accomplished by remaining in the country, and as a longer delay might imperil the lives of his men, he determined to depart, not knowing when or where he would be able to rejoin LaSalle. With this object in view, the party, consisting of 6 persons, embarked in canoes, which soon proved leaky, and they were compelled to land for the purpose of making repairs. While thus employed, Father Ribourde, attracted by the beauty of the surrounding landscape, wandered forth among the groves for meditation and prayer. Not returning in due time, Tonti became alarmed, and started with a companion to ascertain

*Discoveries of the Great West.-Parkman.