He will certainly go down in history as the man who
discovered and described Niagara Falls (in 1678), and he also assisted
greatly to clear up the geography of the time by the information he
collected from the Amerindians as to the vast extent of the
North-American continent; but he was a boastful, unscrupulous man.
Du L'Hut, who came to the rescue of Accault and Hennepin, was of noble
family, and a member of the king's bodyguard. He decided, however, to
seek his fortune in Canada, and obtained a commission as captain. It
was his cousin, Henri de Tonty, who had accompanied La Salle. After
returning to France to fight in the wars then going on, he came back
to Canada with a younger brother, Claude. He had in him the spirit of
great adventurers, and longed to visit the unknown countries of the
upper Mississippi. In the early part of these journeys he rescued his
fellow countrymen from the keeping of the Sious in the manner
described. After that he spent _thirty_ years travelling and trading
about North America, from the northern Mississippi into what we
should now call Manitoba, and from the vicinity of Lake Winnipeg to
Hudson Bay. He brought the great Amerindian nation of the Dakotas into
direct relations with the French. He was absolutely fearless, and in
no period of Canadian history has France been more splendidly
represented in the personality of any of her officers than she was by
Daniel de Greysolon du L'Hut.
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