The things we do!

" [Footnote: Various
translations. Original in Margry, 1:337.] La Salle, accordingly, was
permitted to build forts at his own expense, to carry on certain trade in
buffalo-hides, and explore to his heart's content.
This lodger in Rue de la Truanderie now sets about raising funds for his
enterprise and, having succeeded chiefly among his brothers and relations,
he gathers materials for two vessels, hires shipwrights, and starts from
Rochelle for his empire, his commission doubtless bound to his body,
taking with him as his lieutenant Henri de Tonty--son of the inventor of
the Tontine form of life insurance who had come to France from Naples--a
most valuable and faithful associate and possessed of an intrepid soul to
match his own.
From Fort Frontenac, an outpost, La Salle's company pushes out to build a
fort below Niagara Falls near the mouth of the Niagara River, the key to
the four great lakes above, and to construct a vessel of fifty tons above
the Falls for the navigation of these upper lakes.


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