Now back to LaSalle and his movements again comparable only to those of his earlier years in the great valley of the Illinois. Uppermost in his mind was the formation of some confederation among the scattered tribes of the midwest, which, allied with the remaining Illinois would fend off any further raids by the ferocious Iroquois. That was done at Fort Miami, where he spent the winter of 1681-82. Allied now with the Illini were the remnants of the Abenakis and Mohegans fleeing westward from the bloody horrors of King Phillip's war in distant Massachusetts and remnants also of the Shawnees and the Miamis, victims of the Iroquois.

In March, 1681, he set out again for the ruined town of the Illinois at Starved Rock. A band of Foxes told him Tonti still lived and that Hennepin and Ako had come back from the land of the Sioux. The I~l'.ni were urged to smoke the pipe of peace, with the Miami for the protection of both. But another trip back to Montreal was necessary to pacify his creditors and get more supplies and credit.

That done LaSalle, Father Membre, 30 Frenchmen and 100 of his allied Indians set out for the Illinois country reaching Fort Miami in November 1681. A rest of a month followed and the party resumed its trip December 21, 1681 with LaSalle, Tonti, Father Membre, D'Autray, lieutenants of LaSalle, 23 Freclimen and Indian braves, squaws and chil-dren-54 people in all. They struggled through icy waste until, open water was reached at Peoria Lake. April 6, 1682 the goal of the long standing ambitions of LaSalle was reached. His relentless work through one hardship and disaster after another could not but help he recalled as the triumph of a man determined to do what he started to perform. That was to plant the lillies of France on the Gulf coast of the Mississippi and take possession of a mighty empire in the heart of a continent for Louis XIV.

A column was erected with words "Louis le Grand, Roy de France et de Navarre, regne le neuviemie April 1682." LaSalle took possession of the river and all that it drained, a huge territory from the Rockies to the Alleghanies, from sunny Louisiana to the great northern forests of distant Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan 1500 miles north and south and another 1500 miles east and west.

But even a man with the strength and the courage of LaSalle was bound to feel the effects of so many long and exhausting journeys through the wilderness. He fell ill on the ardous trip back up the Mississippi and did not reach Fort Miami until August and Mackinac in September. Father Membre was sent to Europe to tell the King that LaSalle has claimed the Mississippi valley for the empire. Aboard the same sailing ship was Count Frontenac, the loyal backer of LaSalle and his ambitions, who had been relieved of his command by LeFebvre de la Barre, an enemy of LaSalle. Intrigue once more had been made against him.

It was December 1682, when LaSalle again reached LeRocher. There he and Tonti and the other Frenchmen felled trees to make a palisaded Fort out of the top of the Rock as a bastion of empire for the French colony, he proposed to foond in the Mississippi valley a bastion of defense for the allied Indians against more incursions of the Iroquois. What this palisade looked like on top of what is now Starved Rock is told by LaSalle of which this part is taken from Magry Decouvertes establishments 11, 175, 76. It follows: '~elow it was the ancient village of the Kaskaskias, who abandoned it since the raid caused three years ago by the Iroquois. The news of the Fort, which I have built there, has called them back together with other nations. It is situated on the left in descending the river on the height of a rock preciptious on almost all sides, whose base the river laves in such a manner, that one can draw up water from it to the summit of the Rock, which is about six hundred feet in circumference. It is accessible only on one side, on which the ascent is still quite difficult. This side is barred by a palisade of stakes of white oak from eight to ten inches in diameter and 22 feet high, flanked by three redoubts of square beams, placed upon the other equidistantly, so that the two sustain each other. The rest of the enclosure of the rock is surrounded by a like palisade but only 15 feet high, because it is inacces-sible. There is also a parapet of thick trees lying lengthwise the one upon the other to a height of two men, the other covered with earth and at the top of the palisade a kind of chevaux-de-frise, the points of which are ironed tipped to prevent scaling. The neighborhood rocks are all lower than this line and the nearest is two hundred feet distant, the others more, between which and the Fort of St. Louis ends on two sides a large dale which a brook traverses and inundates when it rains."

Now Fort St. Louis was finished. It was to look down on 20,000 or more Indians in their bark lodges strung along the river. By some his-torians it is claimed to be the first white habitation of permanence in the whole Mississippi valley. Here D' Autry was granted land by LaSalle, but was not fortunate enough to enjoy his patrimony more than a few years, when he met death at the hands of Indians, the year after LaSalle met the same fate at the hands of his own treacherous workmen.

Once again the squaws labored in the corn and bean fields, the warriors loafed or boasted of their exploits in battle to visiting delegations. Naked children ran through the streets and the usually large population of cur dogs multiplied without distinction as to blood lines, contrary to the dog fanciers creed of to-day. LaSalle was content for the time being. The seat of his seigniory would be here. He was surrounded with Frenchmen, he could deal out land to his favorites. Even the usually taciturn Tonti com-mented that it was a charming country, as one might anywhere see, "A great plain adorned with trees and abounding in strange fruits, buffalo and deer were plentiful; game fish and birds abounded.

Far away Governor LaBarre on his "high-horse" now was doing all he could to undermine LaSalle and his plans. Supplies for LaSalle were held up or not sent, his fur traders were way laid by agents of LaBarre. That worthy sent word to the French court and the tongues wagged and clacked against LaSalle among the bewigged dandies, their women and their fancy women, both always masters of intrigue.

Matters became so bad that LaSalle in the early fall of 1683, when the first wild geese were asking for the best routes south, accompanied by vast flocks of wild ducks, bound the same trackless way, determined to go back to Canada and to France to "settle the hash" of LaBarre. Also in his mind was the old ambition to found his larger colony in the Mississippi valley; then he could again defy his enemies to do their worst against him. That was after LaBarre had sent him an official order to sur-render Fort St. Louis to one de Bauges in league, of course, with LaBarre.

LaSalle now was to look for the last time on Fort St. Louis and its great Indian camp. He left them a farewell note telling them to obey all orders given them no matter how bard or unreasonable they seemed to be, and that he would be back in the spring of 1684 to greet them again. Then they would broach the barrel of whiskey, which was to be saved for his return. Tonti was to remain at the Fort and they were to follow his counsel as the agent of LaSalle and to gather buffalo skins and beaver skins for trade.

Once more tongues clacked in the gay court of Louis the Great in Paris but this time LaSalle, no mean figure in such a place, set them whispering first, then speaking openly against LaBarre and his intrigues. The King of France rebuked LaBarre by sending LaForest, then in France to reoccupy both Fort St. Louis and Fort Miami. LaSalle travelled through out France rounding up peasants and artisians willing to leave their hearth and go to the distant French colony of the Mississippi.

The expedition got under way from the harbor of LaRochelle in 1684 under the command, while at sea, of Captain Beaujeau. Friction devel-oped among the volatile French. A Storm drove them far out of their course so they were forced to land on the coast of what is now Texas.

Misery, treachery, hardship, murder and the breaking up of the col-ony marked this last ill fated venture of LaSalle.

LaSalle started to search for the mouth of the Mississippi, up which he could lead the colonists to the distant Fort St. Louis more than 1,000 miles away.

The malcontents of the colony fell on him took his life on March 19, 1687 and left him without even a grave. His nephew, his faithful Shawnee scout, and his servant fell to the same villainous crew.

Thus, said Osman in his "Last of a Great Indian Tribe" in the vigor of his manhood at the age of 43, "died Robert Cavalier Siuer de LaSalle and the heroic age of Canada came to an end". Tonti is quoted by the same author saying, "Behold the fate of one of the greatest men in the age of wonderful ability and capable of accomplishing any enterprise."

More murders followed, father Membre among them, La Forest and Boiron, another friend of LaSalle. A few escaped to France with the fleet of colony vessels. The Spanish captured others. The Abbe Cavalier, brother of LaSalle, Douay and Joutel, commander of the soldiers attached to the planned colony finally reached Fort St. Louis on their way back to France.

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