The name is absent

150         Marcel Moraud

eighty-nine passengers besides the one hundred and forty-one
members of the crews—all told 340 people.

The arrangements made for the conduct of the expedition
were the following: Captain Beaujeu of the “Joly” was in
command of the small fleet, while at sea. He was to take de
La Salle where the latter wished to go and to assist him in
every way, upon reaching their goal. De La Salle was to
have full control of the troops, the settlers and the whole
expedition on land. This system of divided responsibility,
although perfectly plausible, was the source of friction and
conflicts.

Beaujeu had been in the service of the King for thirty
years. As a man of the world and an experienced sailor he
resented the position in which he was placed and above all,
what he called “the reserve” and “the impenetrability” of
the explorer. While admitting that de La Salle was “a
learned man,” “well read,” and well informed on many sub-
jects, Beaujeu, who to tell the truth talked and wrote too
much, gave too free expression to his doubts about the suc-
cess of the expedition. “I do not approve of his plans,” he
wrote once, and later at Santo Domingo, he explained that
M. de La Salle “ought to have been satisfied with discover-
ing his river without undertaking to conduct three vessels
with troops two thousand leagues away, through so many
different climates and across seas entirely unknown to him.”

On the other hand, de La Salle, whose temperament was
the opposite of Beaujeu’s, had seen some of his letters. Be-
sides, he suspected Madame Beaujeu of being entirely under
the domination of the Jesuits and in order to be sure that
she would not reveal his secret to them, up to the very
moment of their departure he refused to let Beaujeu know
the object of his expedition and even their destination. The
Jesuits, as is well known, considered that the two domains

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