Ottr Catliolic Heritage in Texas
firm guidance of my brother, whose death each of us would have regarded as his own." 21 vVhile he lay in bed, La Salle conceived a desperate plan. He evidently realized after his first trip, that in order to carry out his plans, he would have to secure aid either from Santo Domingo, Canada, or France itself. It was because of this fact that the loss of the Belle was such a blow to him. Now there was but one way. This determination was to go to the Mississippi, ascend its course to Canada, and there secure the necessary reinforcements. and this is the plan he decided upon during his illness. Second expedition in searcli of tlte ,vlississippi. As soon as he was able to be about again, he picked twenty of his best men, including his brother, his nephew Moranget, and the friar Anastasius Douay; and started to find the Mississippi. On April 22, 1686, after hearing Mass in the chapel, the brave little band, equipped with such arms and supplies as they had been able to save from their misfortunes, set out resolutely in quest of their goal. They made their way to the northeast over gently rolling country, until they came to the open prairies of Central Texas, where they found large herds of buffalo. On the way they crossed the Colorado on a raft, and another river, which they failed to identify. In this second stream Hiens, the German buccaneer, who was later to be among the murderers of La Salle, was bogged but succeeded in extricating himself. If La Salle and his men continued in a general northeastern direction from the time they left the headwaters of that portion of Matagorda Bay, known today as La Vaca Bay, they must have crossed the Colorado in the vicinity of present day Eagle Lake; and the second unidentified stream, was in all probability, the San Bernard, which they might have crossed in the vicinity of present Orange Hill. From here, La Salle altered his course and following a more easterly direction, soon reached a thickly populated country, where the natives welcomed him with evident pleasure. This was probably in the vicinity of the Brazos River. Here they were delayed for a few days, awaiting the recovery of Nika, the faithful Shawanoe Indian hunter of La Salle, who had followed him from Canada to Texas, and had been bitten by a rattlesnake. Continuing the journey eastward, they found their path intercepted by a river which Father Douay called "La Riviere des Malheurs," the River of Misfortunes. This was a very swift stream in
2BP:irkman, op. cit., 403-405; Castaneda, Morft's History of Texas , I 29 .
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