Note 14 — Historical Introduction.

He clearly foresaw what this journey involved, for as he wrote to one of his associates in his enterprise, “though the thaws of approaching Spring greatly increased the difficulty of the way, interrupted as it was everywhere by marshes and rivers, to say nothing of the length of the journey, which is about 500 leagues in a direct line, and the danger of meeting Indians of four or five different nations through whose country we were to pass, as well as an Iroquois army which we knew was coming that way; though we must suffer all the time from hunger, sleep on the open ground, and often without food; watch by night and march by day, loaded with baggage such as blankets, clothing, kettle, hatchet, gun, powder, lead, and skins to make moccasins; sometimes pushing through thickets, sometimes climbing rocks covered with ice and snow, sometimes wading whole days through marshes where the water was waist-deep, or even more, at a season when the snow was not entirely melted—though I knew of this, it did not prevent me from resolving to go on foot to Fort Frontenac, to learn for myself what had become of my vessel, and bring back the things we needed.”—Parkman’s La Salle (Champlain edit.), i, 189–90.