cataract; and, five days after, reached Ganastogue. The inhabitants proved
friendly, and La Salle received the welcome present of a Shawnee prisoner,
who told them that the Ohio could he reached in six weeks, and that he
would guide them to it. Delighted at this good fortune, they were about to
set out; when they heard, to their astonishment, of the arrival of two
other Frenchmen at a neighboring village. One of the strangers proved to
be a man destined to hold a conspicuous place in the history of western
discovery. This was Louis Joliet, a young man of about the age of La
Salle. Like him, he had studied for the priesthood; but the world and the
wilderness had conquered his early inclinations, and changed him to an
active and adventurous fur-trader.

Talon had sent him to discover and explore the copper-mines of Lake
Superior. He had failed in the attempt, and was now returning. His Indian
guide, afraid of passing the Niagara portage lest he should meet enemies,
had led him from Lake Erie, by way of Grand River, towards the head of
Lake Ontario; and thus it was that he met La Salle and the Sulpitians.

This meeting caused a change of plan. Joliet showed the priests a map
which he had made, of such parts of the Upper Lakes as he had visited, and
gave them a copy of it; telling them, at the same time, of the
Pottawattamies, and other tribes of that region, in grievous need of
spiritual succor. The result was a determination on their part to follow
the route which he suggested, notwithstanding the remonstrances of La
Salle, who in vain reminded them that the Jesuits had pre-occupied the
field, and would regard them as intruders. They resolved that the
Pottawattamies should no longer sit in darkness; while, as for the
Mississippi, it could be reached, as they conceived, with less risk by
this northern route than by that of the south.