French traders to supply them with the goods which they had once received
from the English. Let them but help him to make peace between the Miamis
and the Illinois, and he would insure for them a future of prosperity and
safety. They listened with open ears, and promised their aid in the work
of peace.

On the next morning, the Miamis were called to a grand council. It was
held in the lodge of their chief, from which the mats were removed, that
the crowd without might hear what was said. La Salle rose, and harangued
the concourse. Few men were so skilled in the arts of forest rhetoric and
diplomacy. After the Indian mode, he was, to follow his chroniclers, "the
greatest orator in North America." [Footnote: "En ce genre, il etoit le
plus grand orateur de l'Amerique Septentrionale."--_Relation des
Decouvertes_, MS.] He began with a gift of tobacco, to clear the brains of
his auditory; next, for he had brought a canoe-load of presents to support
his eloquence, he gave them cloth to cover their dead, coats to dress
them, hatchets to build a grand scaffold in their honor, and beads, bells,
and trinkets of all sorts, to decorate their relatives at a grand funeral
feast. All this was mere metaphor. The living, while appropriating the
gifts to their own use, were pleased at the compliment offered to their
dead; and their delight redoubled as the orator proceeded. One of their
great chiefs had lately been killed; and La Salle, after a eulogy of the
departed, declared that he would now raise him to life again; that is,
that he would assume his name, and give support to his squaws and
children. This flattering announcement drew forth an outburst of applause;
and when, to confirm his words, his attendants placed before them a huge
pile of coats, shirts, and hunting-knives, the whole assembly exploded in
yelps of admiration.

Now came the climax of the harangue, introduced by a farther present of