The things we do!

Druilletes, remembering
New England that day, must have wondered as to the future of this
unpeopled, uncultivated empire of New France, without ploughs, without
tame animals, without people, even, which St. Lusson was proclaiming.
[Footnote: See Justin Winsor "Pageant of St. Lusson," 1892.] Was its name
indeed to be written only in the water which their canoes traversed?
There were fifteen Frenchmen with St. Lusson, among them the quiet,
practical, unboastful Joliet, trained for the priesthood, but turned
trader and explorer, who had already been two years previous out on the
shores of Superior looking for copper. Marquette was not with the priests
but was urging on the reluctant Hurons and Ottawas who did not arrive
until after the ceremony.
The French were grouped about a cross on the top of a knoll near the
rapids, and the great throng of savages, "many-tinted" and adorned in the
mode of the forest, sat or stood in wider circle. Father Dablon sanctified
a great wooden cross. It was raised to its place while the inner circle
sang _Vexilla Regis_.


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