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CHAPTER XX.
EXPLORATION OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY.
CHICAGO--CRYING INDIANS--CHICKASAWS--DE SOTO--FEAST OF THE GREAT SUN--
CANE KNIVES--LOVE-STRICKEN INDIAN MAIDEN--RAPE OF THE NATCHEZ--MAN'S
WILL--SUBJUGATION OF THE WATERS--THE BLACK MAN'S MISSION--ITS DECADE.

La Salle, who first discovered the mouth of the Mississippi River, was
a man of most remarkable energy and enterprise. He had been engaged in
commercial pursuits for some time in Canada; but, seized with the
spirit of adventure--very probably inspired by the reports of the
Jesuit missionaries, who were going and returning from the vast
wilderness--and inspired with the belief (then common) that the rivers
west, and particularly the great river found by De Soto, debouched into
the Pacific Ocean, he determined to learn the truth, and projected and
commenced the ascent of the St. Lawrence and the navigation of the
lakes as a means of reaching the Mississippi. It required almost
superhuman daring to undertake such an enterprise; but there was enough
in La Salle to accomplish anything possible to human capacity.


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