disheartened him by its backslidings: and the best that he could report of
the Hurons, after all the toils and all the blood lavished in their
conversion, was, that they "still retain a little Christianity;" while the
Ottawas are "far removed from the kingdom of God, and addicted beyond all
other tribes to foulness, incantations, and sacrifices to evil spirits."
[Footnote: _Lettre du Pere Jacques Marquette au R. P. Superieur des
Missions_; in _Relation_, 1670, 87.]

Marquette heard from the Illinois,--yearly visitors at La Pointe,--of the
great river which they had crossed on their way, [Footnote: The Illinois
lived at this time beyond the Mississippi, thirty days' journey from La
Pointe; whither they had been driven by the Iroquois, from their former
abode near Lake Michigan. Dablon, (_Relation_, 1671; 24, 25,) says that
they lived seven days' journey beyond the Mississippi, in eight villages.
A few years later, most of them returned to the east side and made their
abode on the River Illinois.] and which, as he conjectured, flowed into
the Gulf of California. He heard marvels of it also from the Sioux, who
lived on its banks; and a strong desire possessed him, to explore the
mystery of its course. A sudden calamity dashed his hopes. The Sioux,--the
Iroquois of the West, as the Jesuits call them,--had hitherto kept the
peace with the expatriated tribes of La Pointe; but now, from some cause
not worth inquiry, they broke into open war, and so terrified the Hurons
and Ottawas that they abandoned their settlements and fled. Marquette
followed his panic-stricken flock; who, passing the Saut Ste. Marie, and
descending to Lake Huron, stopped, at length,--the Hurons at
Michillimackinac, and the Ottawas at the Great Manatoulin Island. Two
missions were now necessary to minister to the divided bands. That of
Michillimackinac was assigned to Marquette, and that of the Manatoulin
Island to Louis Andre. The former took post at Point St. Ignace, on the
north shore of the straits of Michillimackinac, while the latter began the