pushed on to the Illinois River, to an Indian camp not far from the
site of Peoria, Ill. Just below this camp La Salle built Fort Crèvecoeur
(cra'v-ker, a word meaning heart-break, vexation).

[Illustration: %FRENCH CLAIMS% MISSIONS AND TRADING POSTS IN
MISSISSIPPI VALLEY %in 1700%]

Leaving the party there in charge of Henri de Tonty to construct another
ship, he with five companions went back to Canada. On his return he
found that Fort Crèvecoeur was in ruins, and that Tonty and the few men
who had been faithful were gone, he knew not where. In the hope of
meeting them he pushed on down the Illinois to the Mississippi. To go on
would have been easy, but he turned back to find Tonty, and passed the
winter on the St. Joseph River.

From there in November, 1681, he once more set forth, crossed the lake
to the place where Chicago now is, went up the Chicago River and over
the portage to the Illinois, and early in February floated out on the
Mississippi. It was, on that day, a surging torrent full of trees and
floating ice; but the explorers kept on their way and came at last to
the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. There La Salle took formal possession
of all the regions drained by the Mississippi, the Ohio, and their
tributaries, claiming them in the name of France, and naming the country
thus claimed "Louisiana." The iron will, the splendid courage, of La
Salle had triumphed over every obstacle and made him one of the grandest
characters in history.

But his work was far from ended. The valley he had explored, the
territory he had added to France, must be occupied, and to occupy it two
things were necessary: 1. A colony must be planted at the mouth of the