was eager to go down this stream to preach to new tribes of Marquette and Joliet go Indians, and Joliet, a fur-trader, was ready to go with him. The down the friendly Indians begged them not to go. They said that the Mississippi distant tribes were fierce and cruel, and that the river was full of "monsters that devour both men and canoes." Nevertheless, the priest and the explorer and five of their friends floated down the Wisconsin and into the Mississippi. The Indians met them kindly, and one tribe, the Illinois, begged that the white men would come back and live among them. They went below the mouth of the Arkansas, far enough to be almost sure that the great river did not flow into the Gulf of California, as had been thought, and then they paddled their way back up the Mississippi.

Marquette was exhausted by the hard journey, but as soon as he was strong enough he went to visit the Illinois. He preached to them and founded a mission. On his way back to the Great Lakes, he died on the bank of the river that is named for him.

reaches the mouth of the

To find where the Mississippi emptied was the work of La Salle, another brave French explorer. Nothing could make this resolute man falter. He built a sailing vessel; it was wrecked. A French ship bringing him money was lost. He built a fort; the garrison revolted. He made friends of the Illinois; but when La Salle he came to their village a second time, it had been burned, and the heads of his Indian allies were put up on poles. Three times Mississippi he started on his expedition; twice he failed. The third time, in the bitterly cold winter of 1682, he came to the Mississippi. It was full of floating ice, but the dauntless man never thought of giving up the voyage. Down the stream he made his way. At the mouth of the river he set up a great wooden cross, on which

Louisiana he nailed the arms of France, and took possession in the name of King Louis XIV. of all the land drained by the Mississippi and

Death of
La Salle

its branches. In honor of the king, he named the territory Louisiana.

He knew that it was of little use to claim the land unless he planted colonies and built forts. The king gave him four ships that he might found a colony at the mouth of the Mississippi, but

the pilot made a mistake and sailed to the coast of Texas. There they built a fort, but many of the men died and the rest quarreled. Finally, La Salle set out for Canada to find help. On the way he was shot by one of his own men. So died one of the bravest and most resolute of all the explorers of the New World

SUMMARY.

Champlain explored the Saint Lawrence and founded Quebec; therefore
France claimed Canada.

He sided with the Canadian Indians against the Iroquois; and, because of
their enmity, although the French planted colonies to the west, they
founded none in New York.

Marquette, Joliet, and La Salle explored the Mississippi; therefore France claimed the land drained by that river. She named it Louisiana.

SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITTEN WORK.

A Jesuit tells his friends about his life in America.
An Indian tells Marquette about the Mississippi.
La Salle describes his journey down the Mississippi.

XIV

THE STRUGGLE WITH THE FRENCH

A FEW years after all the colonies except Georgia had been founded, war broke out between England and France. Both na- Who should tions were beginning to see that it was worth while to hold land rule in in America, and that to destroy one of the enemy's settlements counted for more than to capture one of the enemy's warships.

America

This is why there was fighting between the French and English colonies.

In this struggle the colonies that could be most easily reached from Canada suffered most. One of the first to be attacked was Schenectady Schenectady in New York. The settlers had so little thought of danger that in jest they had put up two snow men at the gates for

attacked

Hannah Dustan's adventures

Burning of
Deerfield

sentinels. In the night, through the storm and the darkness, the French and Indians went silently past the watchmen of snow. Not a sound was heard. Suddenly came the terrible warwhoop, and in two hours men, women, and children were slain or carried away as prisoners.

Another raid was made upon a few farmhouses near Haver

hill, Massachusetts. A sick woman named Hannah Duston was dragged away with her nurse. With the Indians was a boy captured at Worcester long before who had learned to speak their language. "They said that by and by we should have to run the gantlet," whispered the boy to Mrs. Duston. "Running the gantlet" meant running between two rows of men, each man striking at the captive as he passed. "Find out where to strike if one would kill at a blow," whispered Mrs. Duston. That night they camped on an island in the Merrimack just above Concord, New Hampshire. The two women and the boy each took a tomahawk, and, gliding silently from one sleeping Indian to another, struck the fatal blow. With ten Indian scalps to prove the deed, they made their way back to their friends.1

A few years later an attack was made upon Deerfield, Massachusetts. It was burned and a large number of captives taken on the long march to Canada. Many of them died on the way, or were killed by the savages because they could not travel over the snow and ice as fast as the others. One little Deerfield girl finally 1 Acts and Resolves of the Province of Mass. Bay. vol. VII, p. 153.

married an Indian. Years afterwards, she and her brave and their children made several visits to her old home. One Sunday her relatives persuaded her to put on a gown and bonnet and go to church; but as soon as she came back, she tossed them off and went back to her Indian blanket and her Indian wigwam.

After a time of peace, word came across the ocean that France and England were at war again. The governor of Louisburg, a New England expedi fortress on Cape Breton Island, heard the news first, and before tion against Boston knew that war had been declared, he burned a little Eng- Louisburg lish fishing village. The New Englanders were indignant, and in their wrath they determined to capture Louisburg.

A skilled commander would have hesitated, for Louisburg was

LOUISBURG FROM THE NORTHEAST

(On the right is the Royal Battery, the first French outpost to be captured)

the strongest fortress in North America; but this scheme had "a lawyer for contriver, a merchant for general, and farmers, fishermen, and mechanics for soldiers." No one in New England knew anything about besieging such a fort, and in all good faith the wildest methods were proposed. Almost as an afterthought, some English vessels were asked to accompany the expedition to prevent French ships from coming to the aid of the fortress. The