At Green Bay he collected a large quantity of furs, which had been obtained in trade by the men he had sent on in advance.

He loaded up his sailing boat, the _Griffon_, and sent her on a voyage back to the east to transport this splendid load of furs to the merchants with whom he had become deeply indebted.

Unhappily the _Griffon_ foundered in a storm on Lake Michigan, and was never heard of again.

Meantime La Salle, with de Tonty and Father HENNEPIN, the discoverer of Niagara, had travelled in canoes to the south-east end of Lake Michigan, had passed up the Joseph River, and thence by portage into the Kankaki, which flows into the Illinois.

This river he descended till he stopped near the site of the modern Peoria.