Charlevoix walked across those unchanged fields of St. Joseph a half
century (1674-1720) after La Salle, and Parkman made the same journey
nearly a century after Charlevoix, finding there what he called "a dirty
little town." To-day a clean, industrious, eager city of over fifty-three
thousand, with a world horizon, as well as a provincial pride, throws its
shadow in the early morning across the path. Through its outskirts I tried
years ago to trace this portage path and there with my companion (who was
always the "Tonty" of my voyages on those western streams), put my boat in
the river and paddled and poled the seventy-five miles down the St. Joseph
River to the lake, where, as I wanted to believe, Marquette had made his
last journey. Hearing, some time after, of the blaze marks on the cedar-
tree, I went again to the portage, and from this old red cedar-tree again
traced the probable course of the French to the fields of corn, or maize,
yellow in the autumn sun that hid the fountains of the Kankakee.
Pages:
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378