the king of England in his pay; and, had the proposal been urged, the
result could not have been foretold. The scheme failed, and Talon prepared
to use his present advantages to the utmost. While laboring strenuously to
develop the industrial resources of the colony, he addressed himself to
discovering and occupying the interior of the continent; controlling the
rivers, which were its only highways; and securing it for France against
every other nation. On the east, England was to be hemmed within a narrow
strip of seaboard; while, on the south, Talon aimed at securing a port on
the Gulf of Mexico, to hold the Spaniards in check, and dispute with them
the possession of the vast regions which they claimed as their own. But
the interior of the continent was still an unknown world. It behooved him
to explore it; and to that end he availed himself of Jesuits, officers,
fur-traders, and enterprising schemers like La Salle. His efforts at
discovery seem to have been conducted with a singular economy of the
king's purse. La Salle paid all the expenses of his first expedition made
under Talon's auspices; and apparently of the second also, though the
Intendant announces it in his despatches as an expedition sent out by
himself. [Footnote: At all events, La Salle was in great need of money
about the time of his second journey. On the sixth of August, 1671, he had
received on credit, "dans son grand besoin et necessite," from Branssat,
fiscal attorney of the Seminary, merchandise to the amount of four hundred
and fifty livres; and, on the eighteenth of December of the following
year, he gave his promise to pay the same sum, in money or furs, in the
August following. Faillon found the papers in the ancient records of
Montreal.] When, in 1670, he ordered Daumont de St. Lusson to search for
copper-mines on Lake Superior, and, at the same time, to take formal
possession of the whole interior for the king; it was arranged that he
should pay the costs of the journey by trading with the Indians.
[Footnote: In his despatch of 2d Nov. 1671, Talon writes to the king that
"St. Lusson's expedition will cost nothing, as he has received beaver