Summing  up  the  question,  it  is  presumed  by  the  writer  that
La  Salle's  route  to  the  Ohio  River  was  along  the  south  shore  of
Lake  Erie,  thence  up  the  Maumee  to  its  source,  thence  to  and
down  the  Little  River  to  the  Wabash.  After  being  forsaken  by
his  company,  he  turned  his  attention  more  to  the  Aborigines,
first  for  the  supply  of  his  immediate  wants  and,  secondly,  for
the  investigation  of  trade  possibilities.  While  returning  up  the
Wabash  and  down  the  Maumee  in  the  winter  and  spring  of
1669-70,  he  undoubtedly  met  many  Miami  Aborigines  from  whom
he  may  have  learned  not  only  of  the  River  St.  Joseph  of  Lake
Michigan,  which  he  afterwards  called  the  Riviere  des  Miamis,
but  of  the  Kankakee,  Desplaines,  and  Illinois  Rivers,  which  he
explored  ten  years  later  after,  and  wifh,  great  difficulties,  but
intent  upon  determining  the  outlet  of  the  Great  River  —  the  Mis-
sissippi—  and  the  best  route  to  it.  He  visited  and  associated
with  many  tribes  of  Aborigines,  and  formulated  broad  plans  of
trade  with  them  from  his  observations  and  experiences.  Accord-
ing to  the  writing  of  Nicolas  Perrot,  the  author  voyager,  La
Salle  explored  the  Ottawa  River  of  Canada  in  the  summer  of
1670  with  a  party  of  Iroquois.
Could  La  Salle  have  accomplished  his  ambitions  and  his
plans,  he  would  have  led  not  only  the  van  of  discoverers  at  all
times,  but  he  would  have  controlled  the  fur  trade  of  the  Great
Lakes,  and  of  the  rivers  of  the  Mississippi  Basin.  But  those
high  in  authority,  as  well  as  the  petty  dealers,  were  jealous,
watchful  and  hampering  —  while  the  quiet  plottings  of  assassins
ended  his  career  in  the  year  1687  at  the  age  of  forty-four  years.
KOSSUTH  BEFORE  OHIO  LEGISLATURE.
