With regard to his alleged voyage down the Illinois, the case is
different. Here, he is reported to have made a statement which admits but
one interpretation,--that of the discovery by him of the Mississippi prior
to its discovery by Joliet and Marquette. This statement is attributed to
a man not prone to vaunt his own exploits, who never proclaimed them in
print, and whose testimony, even in his own case, must therefore have
weight. But it comes to us through the medium of a person, strongly biased
in favor of La Salle and against Marquette and the Jesuits.

Seven years had passed since the alleged discovery, and La Salle had not
before laid claim to it; although it was matter of notoriety that during
five years it had been claimed by Joliet, and that his claim was generally
admitted. The correspondence of the Governor and the Intendant is silent
as to La Salle's having penetrated to the Mississippi; though the attempt
was made under the auspices of the latter, as his own letters declare;
while both had the discovery of the great river earnestly at heart. The
governor, Frontenac, La Salle's ardent supporter and ally, believed in
1672, as his letters show, that the Mississippi flowed into the Gulf of
California, and, two years later, he announces to the minister Colbert its
discovery by Joliet. [Footnote: _Lettre de Frontenac au Ministre_, 14
_Nov_. 1674. He here speaks of "la grande riviere qu'il (Joliet) a
trouvee, qui va du nord au sud, et qui est aussi large que celle du Saint-
Laurent vis-a-vis de Quebec." Four years later, Frontenac speaks
slightingly of Joliet, but neither denies his discovery of the Mississippi
nor claims it for La Salle, in whose interest he writes.] After La Salle's
death, his brother, his nephew, and his niece addressed a memorial to the
King, petitioning for certain grants in consideration of the discoveries
of their relative, which they specify at some length; but they do not
pretend that he reached the Mississippi before his expeditions of 1679 to
1682. [Footnote: _Papiers de Famille_, MSS.; _Memoire presente au Roi_.