while Joutel, Teissier, and young Cavelier were lodged in the storehouse.

The Jesuit Allouez was lying ill at the fort; and Joutel, Cavelier, and
Douay went to visit him. He showed great anxiety when told that La Salle
was alive, and on his way to the Illinois; asked many questions, and could
not hide his agitation. When, some time after, he had partially recovered,
he left St. Louis, as if to shun a meeting with the object of his alarm.
[Footnote: Joutel adds that this was occasioned by "une espece de
conspiration qu'on a voulu faire contre les interests de Monsieur de la
Salle."

La Salle always saw the influence of the Jesuits in the disasters that
befell him. His repeated assertion, that they wished to establish
themselves in the Valley of the Mississippi, receives confirmation from, a
document entitled, _Memoire sur la proposition a faire parles R. Peres
Jesuites pour la decouverte des environs de la riviere du Mississipi et
pour voir si elle est navigable jusqu'a la mer_. It is a memorandum of
propositions to be made to the minister Seignelay, and was apparently put
forward as a feeler, before making the propositions in form. It was
written after the return of Beaujeu to France, and before La Salle's death
became known. It intimates that the Jesuits were entitled to precedence in
the Valley of the Mississippi, as having first explored it. It affirms
that _La Salle had made a blunder and landed his colony, not at the mouth
of the river, but at another place,_ and it asks permission to continue
the work in which he has failed. To this end it petitions for means to
build a vessel at St. Louis of the Illinois, together with canoes, arms,
tents, tools, provisions, and merchandise for the Indians; and it also
asks for La Salle's maps and papers, and for those of Beaujeu. On their
part, it pursues, the Jesuits will engage to make a complete survey of the
river, and return an exact account of its inhabitants, its plants, and its