Cavelier de La Salle, 1684-1687 153
lost confidence in de La Salle and was obviously making
efforts to obtain information from Cadiz in Spain, from the
West Indies, and also from Canada, as we may infer from
a letter written in March, 1686, and in which Seignelay, the
Minister of the Navy, declares that “His Majesty is sur-
prised that Denonville (the governor general of Canada) and
Champigny (the general superintendent) should have no
news from the Sieur de La Salle, since he reached the shores
of Florida.” “And yet (adds Seignelay, in an almost re-
proachful tone), news does come concerning this expedition,
lately it was reported in Cadiz that the French allied with
the natives of the Bay of Spiritu Santo had defeated eleven
hundred Spaniards.” The sad truth presented, as we shall
see, an altogether different tale, but it was not going to
come out yet.
Finally a letter of August 8, 1688 reached Versailles, com-
ing from Canada, and announcing that de La Salle’s brother,
Abbé Cavelier, had arrived from the South, and that he was
about to return to France to give a full report on the dis-
coveries of M. de La Salle. The same letter voiced the
anxiety of many people lest the discoveries of de La Salle
should cause colonists to leave Canada to go and live on his
new settlement.
The answer was an undated letter from Seignelay, very
likely written in October, 1688, in which he notifies the
Governor of Canada of the death of the explorer, just learned
from his brother, Abbe Cavelier, and asks that steps should
be taken to bring to Canada the survivors of the expe-
dition who no doubt would be attempting to reach the
Mississippi.
A report still kept in the archives in Paris indicates that
Abbe Cavelier pleaded with the King the necessity of main-
taining the establishment founded by his brother. But