CHAPTER XII.

1679, 1680. LA SALLE ON THE ILLINOIS. The St. Joseph.--Adventure of La Salle.--The Prairies.--Famine.--The Great Town of the Illinois.--Indians.--Intrigues.--Difficulties.--Policy of la Salle.--Desertion.--Another Attempt to poison La Salle. [Sidenote: LA SALLE'S ADVENTURE.] On the third of December the party re-embarked, thirty-three in all, in eight canoes,[140] and ascended the chill current of the St. Joseph, bordered with dreary meadows and bare gray forests. When they approached the site o…