tained a grant of land and founded La-
chine. Tales of the wonders and riches
of the wilderness inspired him with a de-
sire to explore. With two Sulpicians, he
went into the wilds of western New York,
and afterwards went down the Ohio River
as far as the site of Louisville. Governor
Frontenac became his friend, and in the
autumn of 1674 he went to France bear-
ing a letter from the governor-
general, strongly recommending
him to Colbert, the French pre-
mier. Honors and privileges were
bestowed upon him at the French
Court, and he was made govern-
or of Fort Frontenac, erected on
the site of Kingston, at the foot
of Lake Ontario, which he great-
ly strengthened, and gathered
Indian settlers around it. He
had very soon a squadron of four
vessels on the lake, engaged in
the fur-trade, and Fort Fronte-
nac was made the centre of that
traffic, in which he now largely
engaged and sought the monop-
oly. Conceiving a grand scheme
of explorations and trade west-
ward, perhaps to China, he went
to France in 1678 and obtained
permission to execute it. He
was allowed to engage in explo-
rations, build forts, and have the
monopoly of the trade in buffalo-
skins, during five years, but was
forbidden to trade with tribes
accustomed to take furs to Mon-
treal. Henri de Tonti, a veteran
Italian, joined him, and, with
thirty mechanics and mariners,

mouth of the St. Joseph River, in southwestern Michigan, where he established a trading-house and called it Fort Miami. Ascending the St. Joseph, he crossed to the Kankakee, and paddled down it until he reached an Illinois village, and, in January, 1680, he began the establishment of a trading-post on the site of the present Peoria, Ill., which he called Fort

they sailed from Rochelle in the summer Crèvecœur. Disappointed in the failure of 1678, and reached Fort Frontenac early in the autumn. De Tonti was sent farther west to establish a trading-post at the mouth of the Niagara River. He proceeded, also, to build a vessel above the great falls for traffic on Lake Erie, and named it the Griffin.

In August, 1679, La Salle sailed with De Tonti through the chain of lakes to Green Bay, in the northwestern portion of Lake Michigan. Creditors were pressing him with claims, and he unlawfully gathered furs and sent them back in the Griffin to meet those claims. Then he proceeded, with his party, in canoes, to the

of the Griffin to make a return voyage with supplies, he put De Tonti in com. mand of the fort and despatched Hennepin and Acau to explore the Illinois to its mouth and the Mississippi northward. With five companions, La Salle started back for Canada, and from the mouth of the St. Joseph he crossed Michigan to a river flowing into the Detroit, and thence overland to Lake Erie. From its western end he navigated it in a canoe to Niagara, where he was satisfied that the Griffin had perished somewhere on the lakes. He also heard of the loss of a ship arriving from France with supplies. Settling as

well as he could with his creditors, La in Louisiana and the conquest of the rich Salle, with a fresh party of twenty-three mining country in northern Mexico. A Frenchmen and eighteen New England Ind- patent was granted him, and he was made dians, with ten women and children, be- commandant of the vast territory from gan a return journey to Fort Crèvecœur, the present State of Illinois to Mexico, with supplies. De Tonti had been driven and westward indefinitely. With 280 inaway by an attack on the Illinois settle different persons he sailed from France ment of the Iroquois. The desertion of Aug. 1, 1684, with four ships; but dishis men had compelled him to abandon putes between Beaujeu, the navigator of the fort and return to Green Bay. the squadron, and La Salle proved disastrous to the expedition. Touching at Santo Domingo, they entered the Gulf of Mexico, and, by miscalculations, passed the mouth of the Mississippi without knowing it. La Salle became satisfied of this fact, but Beaujeu sailed obstinately on, and finally anchored off the entrance to Matagorda Bay. The colonists debarked, but the store-ship containing most of the supplies, was wrecked. Beaujeu. pleading a lack of provisions, deserted La Salle, leaving him only a small vessel. He cast up a fort, which he called St. Louis, and attempted to till the soil; but the Indians were hostile. Some of the settlers were killed, others perished from disease and hardships, and, after making some explorations of the country. the party, at the end of the year, was reduced to less than forty souls.

La Salle and his party went down the Illinois to its mouth, when he returned to gather his followers and procure means for continuing his explorations. Late in December, 1681, he started from Fort Miami with his expedition, coasted along the southern shore of Lake Michigan, ascended the Chicago River, crossed to the Illinois, descended to the Mississippi, and went down that stream until it separated into three channels, which he explored to the Gulf of Mexico. La Salle named the great stream River Colbert, in compliment to his patron at the Court of France. De Tonti explored the great middle channel. Then the whole company assembled at a dry spot near the Gulf, and there prepared a cross and a column, affixing to the latter the arms of France and this inscription, Louis the Great, King of France and Navarre, April 9, 1682." He also buried there a leaden plate, with a Latin inscription. The whole company then signed a proces verbal, in the foliowing order: La Métarie (notary), De la Salle, P. Zenobe (Récollet missionary), Henri de Tonti, François de Bousvoudet, volt. Penetrating the present domain of Jean Bourdon, Sieur d'Autray, Jacques Cauclois, Pierre You, Giles Mencret, Jean Michel (surgeon), Jean Mas, Jean Duglignon, Nicholas de la Salle. La Salle formally proclaimed the whole valley of the Mississippi and the region of its tributaries a part of the French dominions, and named the country Louisiana, in compliment to the King. So was first planted the germ of the empire of the French in that region, which flourished in the eighteenth century.

La Salle ascended the Mississippi the next year, and returned to Quebec in November, leaving Tonti in command in the west, with directions to meet him at the mouth of the Mississippi the following year. Then he proceeded to France and proposed to the government a settlement

Leaving half of them, including women and children, La Salle set out, at the be ginning of 1688, to make his way to the Illinois. His party consisted of his brother, two nephews, and thirteen others, some of whom were sullen and ripe for re

Texas to Trinity River, revolt broke out, and the two ringleaders killed La Salle's nephew in a stealthy manner; and when the great explorer turned back to look for him, they shot him dead, March 20, 1687. Nearly all of those who were left at Fort St. Louis were massacred by the Indians, and the remainder fell into the hands of the Spaniards, sent to drive out the French. La Salle, lured by tales of an abundance of precious metals in New Mexico, had penetrated that country, with a few followers, before leaving Fort St. Louis, but he was disappointed.

Las Casas, BARTOLOMÉ DE, missionary; born in Seville, Spain, in 1474. His father was a companion of Columbus in his two earlier voyages, and in the seeond one he took this son, then a student

Bartolomé ac- works, in Latin and Spanish. He died in Madrid, in July, 1566.

66

at Salamanca, with him. companied Columbus on his third and fourth voyages, and, on his return, en- Las Guasimas, a town in Cuba, east tered the order of the Dominicans, that of Santiago, and between that city and he might become a missionary among the Siboney. It was here that the American natives of the new-found islands of the troops met their first serious opposition West. He went to Santo Domingo, and in the Santiago campaign of 1898. On was there ordained a priest, in 1510, and the night of June 23, after all the Amerigave the name to the island in compli- can forces had been landed at DAIQUIRI ment to his order. Las Casas was chap- (q. v.), General Wheeler, accompanied by lain to Velasquez when the latter con- the brigade of Gen. Samuel M. B. Young, quered Cuba, and did much to alleviate marched from Siboney, and in the mornthe sufferings of the conquered natives. ing he was considerably in advance of the In 1515 he went to Spain to seek redress main army. Having ascertained from for them, and found a sympathizer in Cuban scouts that a Spanish force was Cardinal Ximenes, who became regent of intrenched at Las Guasimas, where two Spain the following year, and sent out roads running from Santiago met, he three monks to correct abuses. Their determined to drive them out. General services were not satisfactory, and, re- Young's regular cavalry had hardly come turning to Spain, Las Casas was appoint- in contact with the Spaniards when the ed "Universal Protector of the Indies." Rough Riders," who were marching Seeing the few negroes who were in Santo along another route, were suddenly Domingo and Cuba growing robust while brought to a halt and a little confused laboring under the hot sun, he proposed by an unexpected volley with smokeless the introduction of negro slaves to relieve powder. the more effeminate natives. This benevolent proposition gave rise to a lucrative traffic, and a perversion of the purpose of Las Casas, and he obtained from Charles V. a grant of a large domain on the coast of Venezuela, for the purpose of collecting a colony under his own guidance. This project failed, and in 1527 he proceeded to labor as a missionary among the Indians in Nicaragua, Guatemala, Mexico, and Peru. To reward him for his benevolent labors, his King appointed him bishop of Cuzco, a rich see; he declined it, but accepted that of Chiapa, in Mexico. The Spaniards were offended by his zeal in behalf of the Indians, and an officer of the Spanish Court undertook to Lathrop, GEORGE PARSONS, author; justify the conduct of the Spaniards born near Honolulu, Hawaii, Aug. 25, towards the natives. Las Casas, in self- 1851; son of Dr. George A. Lathrop, then defence, wrote a work upon the natives, United States consul in that city. He which contained many particulars of the was educated in private schools in New cruelties of the Spanish colonists. It was York City, and in Dresden, Germany; translated into several European lan- began his literary career when twenty guages, and increased the hostilities of years of age; and continued at it with the colonists and offended the Church. indefatigable energy till the close of his He returned to Spain in 1551, after about fifty years of benevolent missionary labor, and passed the remainder of his days in a convent at Valladolid. There he completed his General History of the Indies, published in 1875, and several other

They fell back, but rallied quickly. On the other side, the colored cavalry, which had come up, forced a ridge with unflinching courage, and the enemy were compelled to retire a mile or more from their intrenchments. In the mean time, reinforcements were called for, but before General Chaffee arrived with the 2d Infantry, the troops mentioned had put the Spaniards to utter rout. In the engagement there were 964 American soldiers, and about 500 Spanish. The Americans lost, in killed, Capt. Allyn K. Capron and fourteen men, and had six officers and forty-six men wounded. The Spanish casualties were nine killed and twenty-seven wounded.

life. He excelled both in poetry and prose, and was a critic of high merit in art and literature. He was also prominent as an editorial writer. He married Rose, a daughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne, in 1871. His publications include A